Shaun Crawford, Mini-Jabrill
A much-anticipated matchup between Cleveland.com's top-ranked Cleveland St. Edward squad and #9 Cincinnati Elder didn't live up to the hype, as St. Eds ran away with a 48-7 victory. Much of the credit for the blowout goes to 2015 commit Shaun Crawford, whose stat line looks like one posted by a certain other defensive back headed for Ann Arbor:
@TomVH Shaun Crawford: 9 carries, 124 yds, 2 TDs 3 receptions, 28 yds, 1 punt return 63 yds, TD, 1 kick return 25 yds. 240 all-purpose yds
— Brad Bournival (@bbournival) September 22, 2013
Yes, it appears Michigan may have the best player on the best team in Ohio, and he's only a junior. This is nice.
Jabrill Peppers, Still Jabrill
2014 commit Jabrill Peppers, meanwhile, did a little bit of everything to lead Paramus Catholic to a 35-21 victory over DePaul. Peppers rushed seven times for 41 yards, caught four passes for 49 yards and a TD, returned a kickoff for 47 yards, tallied four solo tackles, recorded three pass defenses, and returned an interception 32 yards for another TD.
Got all that? If you'd like to see Peppers in action, a full replay of the game is available at msgvarsity.com, which also has clips of a big hit by Peppers and the pick six.
[Hit THE JUMP for more outstanding performances by Michigan commits, plus an interesting development in JuJu Smith's recruitment.]
Wilton Speight, Mini-Roethlisberger?
So claims this video. Thankfully, it's referring to Speight's ability to escape pressure in the pocket and not a proclivity for motorcycling without a helmet or allegedly being a total creep.
Speight continues to put up monster numbers this season; over the weekend he led Collegiate to a 30-7 win, completing 17-of-33 passes for 260 yards and three TDs.
I Don't Know What This Means, But It Sounds Good
I can't find stats for Michael Ferns from St. Clairsville's 34-14 win over Martin's Ferry; according to his father, he's playing quite well. At least, I think that's what he means here:
Michael Ferns' dad says the #Michigan LB commit is playing "on another planet like a damn psycho case" right now. So there's that.
— Steve Lorenz (@TremendousUM) September 21, 2013
Good. I think.
Other Michigan commit standouts from the weekend:
- 2014 Southfield DE Lawrence Marshallhad four TFLs and a fumble recovery in a 20-12 win over Oak Park; he played a major role in limiting Oak Park's standout junior back John Kelly.
- 2014 De La Salle LB Jared Wangler recorded nine tackles and 0.5 TFLs, though it wasn't enough to stop Brother Rice—and 2015 QB target Alex Malzone—from winning 26-24 on a Hail Mary.
- 2014 Highland DT Bryan Mone recorded five solo tackles in a losing effort.
- While no individual stats are provided for 2014 Kenton LB Noah Furbush, he was part of a brilliant defensive effort that limited Van Wert to four(!) total yards—including negative-16 rushing yards—in a 32-0 shutout.
Etc.
2014 4.5-star ATH John "JuJu" Smith is still in the process of narrowing down his stop schools and plans to take all five of his officials, including one to Michigan for the Ohio State game. In-state schools USC and UCLA have been thought of as potential teams to beat; according to Rivals's Adam Gorney, Smith may be having second thoughts about the Trojans ($):
"Lane Kiffin, I don't know," Smith said. "Lane Kiffin is a great coach but his moves right now are (not) very high to a lot of recruits like me. It's not going well.
"The SC crowd was saying, 'Fire Kiffin.' That is crazy. Later I found out USC had a team meeting without Lane Kiffin. That's really crucial. Just to have that without him is really hard."
Smith grew up as a USC fan; it seems like that may be less and less of a factor as Kiffin continues to run that program into the ground. While UCLA is looking good, there's certainly an opening for an out-of-state school—whether that be Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame Ohio State, or Oregon, Smith's five official visit destinations—to make a major move in his recruitment.
Free 247 feature on 2015 five-star DT Tim Settle and his happy-go-lucky nature ... off the field, at least.
I can't even bring myself to tag '2016 recruiting' yet and here goes a 2017 commit to LSU.