The Saga(s) of Jerimy Finch & (?) Chris Little

[irishunclebill]

Jerimy Finch, the Indianapolis safety, has de-committed once again, this time from Indiana to Florida. So Urban now has enemies all over the state of Indiana. Finch has been an interesting story, and although he is obviously a great athlete, I am glad that Urban is getting him because his track record spells nothing but trouble. Here is the Finch recruiting road, or maybe a better word is saga.

1) Verbally commits to Michigan.
2) De-commits Michigan, verbally commits to Indiana.
3) 1/26- Finch while still an Indiana commit takes an official visit to Gainesville.
4) 1/29- After weekend in Gainesville, Finch said he is wavering on his commit, and may switch to Florida.
5) 1/30- Florida gets commitment from a consensus higher rated Safety, Major Wright. Wright is 6’1’, 200 lbs. Finch is 6’1”, 203 lbs.
6) 1/31- Concerned that he will be competing with Major Wright for the same Safety position, Finch now states that he is 50/50 between Indiana, and are you ready for this Michigan.
7) 2/6- A week goes by, and after apparently getting no love from Lloyd Carr (good for you Lloyd), getting constant whispers in his ear from Gator land, and determining that IU was probably just not good enough for him, Finch overcomes his fear of the Major and commits to Florida.

This is not a bashing of Jerimy Finch, it is simply a listing of the facts of his recruiting cycle. Good Luck to you on this one Urban, Jerimy Finch shows all the signs of being a major headache. Of course, there is still time left so Finch may yet again change his mind, I hear that North Dakota State has an open schollie.

With the rumors now swirling that Chris Little is about to follow an almost identical path as Finch, I believe that if it does happen, maybe we should count our blessings.

 

[dudexcore]

he'll change his mind and end up at indiana.....i think so at least.

 

[GoshenGipper]

No one tops Barksdale this year though.

 

[irishunclebill]

No one tops Barksdale this year though.

You are right about that, plus the "University of LSU" comment will go down in recruiting history.

 

[GoshenGipper]

Finch just recently faxed his LOI to Florida.

 

[VictorsValiant]

Nice to see you guys pick this up. Frankly, a guy who changes his mind this much probably is better off somewhere else anyways. It was the same deal with Ronald Johnson, who was raw anyways (we got Donovon Warren, though). The Barksdale thing was pretty funny. Even though he's from Detroit, I guess he couldn't even cut our academic standards for football players, which are pretty low to begin with.

I hope you guys are in the "I hate Urban Meyer" bus now. Sorry about Trattou and Little. If Corwin Brown does to the 4-3, you're going to need a lot more guys at the power LB and DE/DL positions.

 

[BigIrish]

been a while, eh victors?

maybe you can offer some insight - outside of UM, who seems to have pulled in a fairly talented class, why has the rest of the big ten whiffed this year? OSU gets only...15? and Penn State is next in line in the rankings, barely breaking the top 25? what gives?

 

[VictorsValiant]

Well, regarding the Big Ten, perennial doormat Illinois made the biggest splash. They're top 10 to some scouts, and they lured guys like Martez Wilson who were seriously considering Michigan. The New York Times and everyone here is suspicious as to how Zook is getting these guys to play at Illinois. Wilson reportedly said that Zook wasn't an "uptight white guy," which might have been a reference to Carr, though it would be different if English was recruiting him.

OSU's year is really befuddling. They lost a lot of in-state recruits that normally commit to OSU in a heartbeat. More suprising, they failed to land a big time QB, in spite of the fact that they have virtually no one to replace Troy Smith. They also failed to land any impact players that will help them on either side of the ball. Again, very surprising, given that recruits could be told they'll start right away. Tressel needs to get his act together, because without a featured QB and with even more losses on defense that doesn't have a lot of guys waiting in the wings, they can easily lose 4 games next year. And that's not biased or anything. OSU fans are concerned as well.

PSU and JoePa have traditioanlly been an up and down recruiting school where on field performance is directly linked to the classes they bring in. For example, after their successful 05 run, they pulled on the best classes in the country, including Derrick Williams, who was #1 overall by most recruiting experts. This can be contrasted to Michigan, who pulled a top 10 recruiting class last year with featured players (Graham, Shilling, Mouton, etc...) in spite having horrible on field performance. So expect more from PSU when they start winning more.

Regarding our class, it's a little mixed. Since we have a lot of guys coming back, I think a lot of big time recruits backed off because they wanted playing time (next year, if Manningham leaves, expect a big time WR to commit here). But we did get a future QB, Ryan Mallet and we did fill holes, which right now is essentially our secondary and parts of the OL (the OL will improve next year when Shilling and Boren play after they were redshirted). The biggest recruit was Donovan Warren (from CA and wanted by USC), who might be able to start next year at CB after last year's Rose Bowl debacle. Warren, coupled with Michael Williams (also from CA and lured away from USC), will significantly improve the secondary next year alongside last year's impact recruits Jonas Mouton, Stevie Brown and Cobarni Mixon. With a new secondaries coach, expect major improvement in that area. I really have a good feeling about the guys we're bringing up on defense. You will be surprised next year by their production. Overall, I feel our class was efficient, though there needs to be more firepower ('08 is already looking good for us).

Regarding Nd's class, it was pretty solid. You brought a QB for the future and made some nice additions. There was improvment on defense, but you still need 2 more classes to fill ALL the starting spots and add depth. Essentially, Nd is behind all the other elite teams in the sense that they need good recruits to fill in right away. There's no revolving door yet. If Corwin Brown brings a Michigan style defense, he's going to need at least 10 guys at the DE, DL and LB positions. Kerry Neal and Brian Smith must pan out for you guys. So does Gray (Walls probably shouldn't have played last year; you wonder about his confidence level). Losing Little and Trattou really hurts because they would have filled need positions. You elite OL guys (although I think you did the best you could given this year's very disappointing OL crop), and they too must pan out. One position that you guys need to improve on is WR. Kamara is fine (tall, lengthy), but he runs a paltry 4.6 40. Without a deep threat, teams are just going to line up on you to stop the run and get to the QB (this was true in all of your losses last year). There needs to more speed in your offense. Otherwise, teams with superior LBs are going to blank you. Tate looks like a long term project, and he's a little undersized. You need a Percy Harvin in your offense, and that objective was not achieved this year.

 

[BigIrish]

you make some interesting points. probably a fair assessment of the irish class, although i think that you might be understating tate and kamara's potential. dj hord may be that 'percy harvin' you're talking about, but he's a question mark after sitting out last season with an injury. although not wide receivers, armando allen, and munir prince from last year's class may be part of the answer in terms of speed on offense. however, both are question marks until one proves that he can recover from an injury and the other proves that he's prepared to be a featured player.

i agree on walls - had our secondary not been so thin this year, he may well have sat out. hopefully CB, with his experience in the secondary as a player and a coach, will make an impact on his development, among others.

i think you've hit the nail on the head, though, regarding the revolving door. people fail to realize that the talent we've taken in the past two years has to be replicated over four classes to truly compete in terms of depth, etc. i mentioned in another post that i fully expect half our class next year to consist of d-line and o-line prospects. linebackers will be next on the list, and the rest of the class will consist of a mix of skill positions.