'14 VA DE Da'Shawn Hand (Alabama Verbal ROLL TIDE YALL)

Irish Houstonian

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He does not look like the best player in the country, at least in highlights.

Was just thinking that -- like scouts are getting lazy with Nkemdiche and Clowney, and are just assuming the top DL is the top recruit. If we're picking teams, I'd probably take that Louisiana RB Fourtnette or whatever before this guy.
 

IrishLax

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Lorenz is literally one of the biggest homers out there so take anything he says with a huge grain of salt.

I take Wiltfong's Michigan prediction much more seriously than anything... even if the crystal ball still shows 80%+ Virginia Tech... I think a lot will come down to the season each school has and the fact that Wiltfong likes Michigan to land him is a bit dire.
 

NDPhilly

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I still don't understand how all these Mid Atlantic players like Michigan so damn much.
 

IrishLax

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I still don't understand how all these Mid Atlantic players like Michigan so damn much.

I've never understood it. At all. Obviously, there are a ton of transplants out here from the midwest in general (especially Michigan) because of the economy shifts of the past few decades. And I think Mattison's connection to the Ravens is big. In general, from Virginia up through NY there are basically no major football programs except Virginia Tech and Penn State pre-sanctions. There is no Alabama or Florida or LSU or Texas to keep you in state. So I understand why lots of those kids take a long hard look at Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame. The difference is the "SEC" mentality kids from that area tend to look at Michigan/Ohio State but not give ND the time of day. Blame the Big Ten network? I dunno. Just the way it is. You get an awful lot of OSU/Michigan grads in addition to the transplant subway fans in the Mid Atlantic too.
 

Sherm Sticky

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I've never understood it. At all. Obviously, there are a ton of transplants out here from the midwest in general (especially Michigan) because of the economy shifts of the past few decades. And I think Mattison's connection to the Ravens is big. In general, from Virginia up through NY there are basically no major football programs except Virginia Tech and Penn State pre-sanctions. There is no Alabama or Florida or LSU or Texas to keep you in state. So I understand why lots of those kids take a long hard look at Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame. The difference is the "SEC" mentality kids from that area tend to look at Michigan/Ohio State but not give ND the time of day. Blame the Big Ten network? I dunno. Just the way it is. You get an awful lot of OSU/Michigan grads in addition to the transplant subway fans in the Mid Atlantic too.

Been telling you this for years.
 

bibigon

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The difference is the "SEC" mentality kids from that area tend to look at Michigan/Ohio State but not give ND the time of day.
What does the "SEC" mentality mean?

I mean, I know we Michigan/OSU aren't serious about academic standards, but what does that have to do with Hand?
 

IrishLax

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What does the "SEC" mentality mean?

I mean, I know we Michigan/OSU aren't serious about academic standards, but what does that have to do with Hand?

I should rephrase "SEC mentality" to "football first"... if your primary criteria is football, coaching, exposure, facilities, stadium size, etc. Ohio State and Michigan are really attractive alternatives for kids who don't have hometown options that are comparable. And a lot of those kids simply aren't interested in ND because we don't have awesome athlete dorms, parietals, no giant video boards, not a huge state school with gigantic party scene, etc. etc.... there are a myriad of turnoffs for someone who is really football first compared to some other places.

With regards to Hand, it's been really obvious from the beginning that like most #1 style recruits he's looking for his best fit and is football first. That might be Tech, that might be Michigan, and it might be that some SEC/ACC schools make a late run. But I don't think he gives a crap about any of Whiskey's ROI/graduation tables so there is really no 'hook' for him to even consider a place like ND.
 

TomHaverford

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Lorenz is literally one of the biggest homers out there so take anything he says with a huge grain of salt.

I take Wiltfong's Michigan prediction much more seriously than anything... even if the crystal ball still shows 80%+ Virginia Tech... I think a lot will come down to the season each school has and the fact that Wiltfong likes Michigan to land him is a bit dire.

I'm going to stick up for Lorenz a little bit here. Lorenz isn't that bad. You're making it sound like he's Tom Beaver or something. He picked Lawrence Marshall to go to MSU and Ian Bunting to go to ND, it's not like he picks every kid to go to Michigan. He picked Drake Harris to Michigan way back when, Harris wound up committing to MSU but then flipping to Michigan so it looks like he got that one right in the long run. The Alex Bars pick to Michigan was a coin flip, every analyst picked Bars to Michigan by the way, not just Lorenz. Lorenz has picked Tommy Doles to Northwestern, Corey Holmes to ND, Jamarco Jones to OSU, Nic Weishar to ND, Derek Kief to OSU, Marshon Lattimore to OSU, Garrett Dickerson to Stanford, Bentley Spain to South Carolina, Christian McCaffrey to Stanford, Erick Smith to OSU, and Chase Winovich to OSU, so it's not like he picks every kid with a Michigan offer to Michigan.

Lorenz has long maintained that his source on Hand is one of his former HS coaches, and that according to the source Hand's father likes Michigan the best. Hand himself says that the Michigan coaching staff is his favorite staff as a whole, while Bud Foster is his favorite coach. Lorenz also said that Peppers has started recruiting Hand about going to Michigan, and that Hand has talked up Michigan to Andrew Brown telling him he should check it out- not really recruiting him there and saying "come with me", just telling him to give them a look. Brown has said this himself and it's one of the reasons he's taking a visit to Ann Arbor this summer. Lorenz also says that Hand's former HS coach is attending the Michigan camp and that Hand may drive up with him, and that the only official Hand has set up so far is the Michigan-ND game. Michigan has a great shot, that's all they can ask for. I do think people are buying into the Virginia Tech is the home team thing too much. Hand isn't from Virginia and he didn't grow up a Tech fan, he's from Philadelphia, he moved to Virginia recently.

Witflong is the best guy that 247 has in my opinion, and one of the best in the business. His info is really solid and I think that the recruits respect and trust him about as much as they can somebody like him. He seems to get the scoop quite often. He's not always right, no recruiting analyst is, but he's about as accurate as one can be in that business.
 

TomHaverford

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Believe he's visiting tOSU this weekend. With 2015 DT Tim Settle, who IMO is a Buckeye lean.

edit: I believe he's all scUM or VT still.

Hand is already going to be in Columbus on Sunday for the Nike NTFC camp, which a prospect has to attend one of those NTFC camps in order to get invited to that exclusive Opening event out at Nike headquarters in Oregon. The NCAA rules are such that he can't visit the Ohio State campus on the day of the event, so if he makes a visit it'll will have to be on Saturday or Monday.

The national analysts over at 247 and Rivals are saying it's pretty much Virginia Tech and Michigan, with Florida having a shot at changing things up, because they are the one school in his top 5 that he has yet to visit.
 

NDdomer2

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read an article on Yahoo today that a recruiter told Hand if he came to their school they would get him to meet Michael Jackson.

after Hand asked about him being dead....

recruiter said they would get him to meet Tito instead.
 

Kaneyoufeelit

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Interesting day. Last night or early today there were some switches on crystal ball from VT to Michigan. Today there has been more than a few switches to Bama. I hadn't really heard that Bama was in this race and now VT insiders think they are completely out of the race. Any info out there?
 

STLDomer

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Source told BOL that Bama and Va Tech on top.

I was actually going through doing IE Oracle predictions and picked Michigan and then a couple minutes later I saw that news and switched to Bama.

Either way I don't see him at Virginia Tech unless they pull off an amazing season and even then probably not
 

GoldenIsThyFame

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Yea Farrell changed his pick to Michigan and literally an hour or two later all these 247 guys start picking Bama. Lol. I think that sums up Mike in a nutshell.
 

STLDomer

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Disappointed, only 2 other guys have made predictions? Come on people! Expected to see a diverse mix of Michigan, Virginia Tech, and that one guy that always predicts ND
 

arrowryan

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Disappointed, only 2 other guys have made predictions? Come on people! Expected to see a diverse mix of Michigan, Virginia Tech, and that one guy that always predicts ND

I just voted Bama like 5 minutes ago
 

Kaneyoufeelit

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From Tech 247 (CZY is their major insider):
"CZY has said once the news breaks he will explain everything and I think this board will see things differently than they currently do. I have known CZY quite awhile and I have never heard him the way he was explaining things to me earlier."
"Again guys, this was not a situation of Hand souring on VT it liking other coaches better. When the reasoning comes out, you might be oddly okay with the whole situation."

What the hell could that possibly be? Tech is apparently out of it due to a development within the last 48 hours.
 
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