This is a recycled post from a former blog. Pat and I will be using this to get the blog started. With kick off only about 11 days away along with spring practice, fall practice and soon to be regular season practice. Now more than ever these posts are important.
Pat and I will look to review these predictions after the season. Originally from February 2011...
(Ed Note: When I originally wrote this I did not follow recruiting as much has I have since February. I think I have followed recruiting more in the last 7 months than the whole rest of my life)
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MSU had 21 total commits unless I counted wrong it looks like 7 offense and 14 defensive. no special teams.
Rivals #31 overall
Scout #29 overall
ESPN Unranked. Not in top 25.
***** Lawrence Thomas
**** Donavon Clark
**** Joel Heath
**** Onaje Miller
*** Jack Allen
*** Roger Williamson
*** Ed Davis
*** Brandon Clemons
*** Shilque Calhoun
*** Taiwan Jones
*** Arjen Colquhoun
*** Paul Lang
*** Darien Harris
*** Trae Waynes
*** Mark Scarpinato
*** Juwan Caesar
*** Matt Ramondo
*** Damon Knox
*** Andre Sims
*** Fou Fonoti
** Connor Cook
Instant Impact:
This is a toss up for me between numerous players but i will take the easy way out. Fou Fonoti (FF) offensive tackle out of junior college. 6-4 295 lbs. He will be a junior next year and has two years of going against bigger stronger players. This obviously is an advantage over high school talent, especially on the offensive and defensive line. The problem with me picking FF is that there is little written about him because he is a JUCO transfer. ESPN has literally nothing about him. What I have been able to find says that he can guard or tackle with great explosion and strength, and he was likely undervalued. (Whatever that's supposed to mean). Rivals ranks him as a 5.7 which is what they consider to have potential between future all american and currently one of the top prospects for their position in their region. I am excited about this pick up strictly because he can come in and start right away. For that reason alone he is my instant impact. On top of that, two of his cousins are Domata and Tupe Peko, two former spartan o-lineman that have played in the NFL.
Best Offensive Recruit:
Things get interesting here. One of our 4 stars on rivals is listed as an O-tackle but was recruited to play D. Personally I think our future top offensive player will be Juwan Caesar. ESPN has him ranked as a 79 overall and a 4 star and at 6-4 200 lbs he is fairly well built already. He is quite low on both scout and rivals however, both sites have said he is likely undervalued. Juwan plays in division 6A Miami which is one of the top divisions in HS football. Based on his video from ESPN, you can see that he is just plain bigger than everyone. Not only that, but he has the ability to out run people, has good burst/slant pattern and a great ability to catch the ball in traffic (of course, high light videos are exactly that, highlights). I am not sure how he ranked this low but I am glad he is at Michigan State we are Wide Receiver U.
Best Defensive Recruit:
Its easy to say Lawrence Thomas because he is generally considered a 5 star top 100 recruit. but he plays LB and will likely end up at DE because of his size. I feel that this is a position we have too much depth at. Which is why i think Roger Williamson ESPN 3 star 78 overall is our best defensive recruit. Here is a kid that is 6-1 180 pounds. He is listed as a WR/Ath/DB depending on the site, but this is directly from scout
"The thing about Roger is that he has already he is big enough to be a safety, but he has got the skills to be a corner. He has no problem saying, 'I'm going to take the #1 guy and shut you down.' I saw him at a seven-on-seven here in Dayton where about seven schools got together. A wide receiver started running his mouth to Roger and Roger said, 'hey, he is mine!' On the first play, the receiver comes off the line and Roger pressed him in the chest, lifted him in the air, and drove him into the ground. Then he got up and walked away. That set the tone."
That’s the kind of attitude that i want to see out of all players. Our defensive backfield has gone from a weakness to a position of some depth in recent years and roger will keep that up. i can see him being a shut down corner type as much as you can have one. Trieu, the B10 recruiting guru is very high on roger, and so am I.
Most All American Potential:
Easy Choice: Lawrence Thomas. 6-3 230, #1 recruit in state of MI a ESPN 4 star top 150 and 80 overall. He is also rated on scout as a 4 star and #55 recruit in national and #5 at his position. With his size it is likely he will end up as a defensive end especially with a little more bulk added on. The thing that has been written most about Lawrence is that he is a phenomenal athlete. Despite his size he moves with great quickness and fluidity, He even played some QB and TE for his HS team. I see Lawrence starting out as a LB and smashing people then putting his hand down opposite William Gholston in their junior and senior years. This is the kind of get MSU needs to win the so called "turf battle" against UM.
Best Positional Group:
Defensive line. Our defensive line has been exceptionally mediocre the last two years. We have a very bright spot in Colin Neely and he is a beast currently. We need him to continue to be a beast this year and other players develop to take double teams on Colin away. However, for recruiting, this is all I will need to say to back up my claim that defensive line was our best positional group, this is from scout: "Michigan State's D-line class ranks #2 in the Big Ten and #21 Nationally"
Best Recruit With No Recruiting Love:
I would say Juwan Caesar here but I used him already. So I am going with Connor Cook, a generally considered 2 star recruit everywhere you look. Connor is a 6-3 200 lb QB. ESPN actually ranks him as a 3 star and 76 overall. I have read snippets of him and everything says that he has a strong arm, makes great throws into tight spaces and has the ability to scramble when needed. This is in direct contrast to what ESPN says that he is basically mediocre at everything, however, he almost exclusively works from the shotgun and is well adapted to it. A separate espn article has compared him to last year recruit Tyler Bray. I hope that he is closer to Tyler than a 2 star.
Summary:
Dantonio did everything he needed to. He addressed needs. That seems to be Mark's MO. Address needs. That, likely more than everything else, has been the largest upswing for MSU over the last few years. Mark is very consistent and that has been great for us. His ties to southern Ohio have produced great recruits and he understands the rivalry. Thankfully for us, UM is our primary rivalry and I think Danotio expresses that well to his players. If Dantonio continues to get OK to GOOD recruiting I don’t see why MSU can’t consistently be an 8 win team and maybe play for a b10 title every few years. This of course would be unacceptable at UM, but from a Spartan perspective, that is A-OK with me. The more I look at this recruiting class the more potential I see. So many athletes, with three being clocked at 4.4-40 times or sub. Not that that means everything, but it shows that we understand where the college football game is headed. Now if only they were all the size of Trent Richardson as well. frick.
Most All American Potential:
Easy Choice: Lawrence Thomas. 6-3 230, #1 recruit in state of MI a ESPN 4 star top 150 and 80 overall. He is also rated on scout as a 4 star and #55 recruit in national and #5 at his position. With his size it is likely he will end up as a defensive end especially with a little more bulk added on. The thing that has been written most about Lawrence is that he is a phenomenal athlete. Despite his size he moves with great quickness and fluidity, He even played some QB and TE for his HS team. I see Lawrence starting out as a LB and smashing people then putting his hand down opposite William Gholston in their junior and senior years. This is the kind of get MSU needs to win the so called "turf battle" against UM.
Best Positional Group:
Defensive line. Our defensive line has been exceptionally mediocre the last two years. We have a very bright spot in Colin Neely and he is a beast currently. We need him to continue to be a beast this year and other players develop to take double teams on Colin away. However, for recruiting, this is all I will need to say to back up my claim that defensive line was our best positional group, this is from scout: "Michigan State's D-line class ranks #2 in the Big Ten and #21 Nationally"
Best Recruit With No Recruiting Love:
I would say Juwan Caesar here but I used him already. So I am going with Connor Cook, a generally considered 2 star recruit everywhere you look. Connor is a 6-3 200 lb QB. ESPN actually ranks him as a 3 star and 76 overall. I have read snippets of him and everything says that he has a strong arm, makes great throws into tight spaces and has the ability to scramble when needed. This is in direct contrast to what ESPN says that he is basically mediocre at everything, however, he almost exclusively works from the shotgun and is well adapted to it. A separate espn article has compared him to last year recruit Tyler Bray. I hope that he is closer to Tyler than a 2 star.
Summary:
Dantonio did everything he needed to. He addressed needs. That seems to be Mark's MO. Address needs. That, likely more than everything else, has been the largest upswing for MSU over the last few years. Mark is very consistent and that has been great for us. His ties to southern Ohio have produced great recruits and he understands the rivalry. Thankfully for us, UM is our primary rivalry and I think Danotio expresses that well to his players. If Dantonio continues to get OK to GOOD recruiting I don’t see why MSU can’t consistently be an 8 win team and maybe play for a b10 title every few years. This of course would be unacceptable at UM, but from a Spartan perspective, that is A-OK with me. The more I look at this recruiting class the more potential I see. So many athletes, with three being clocked at 4.4-40 times or sub. Not that that means everything, but it shows that we understand where the college football game is headed. Now if only they were all the size of Trent Richardson as well. frick.
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