Michigan Thursday: Time to Focus on 2011 Recruits?

There is one thing about college football that has to suck for assistant coaches: recruiting never ends. The 2010 class just signed a week ago and the coaches have been evaluating and offering 2011 talent since last summer. As we have all heard from the media this week, USC even took a verbal commitment from a 13 year old QB. Now that is going overboard but it's not too early to start to think about Michigan's 2011 class. First lets start out with the needs:

1. Offensive Lineman—Michigan only took 1 in the 2010 class.
2. Defensive Tackles—Michigan needs some big run stopper guys up front.
3. Inside Linebacker—Would like a true middle linebacker that plays LB in high school and projects to LB in college. Michigan took a number of rush linebackers or "Spinners" in the 2010 class.
4. A big time running back—Michigan got 2 solid RBs in 2010, they need a real playmaker in 2011.
   

I expect the 2011 class to be less then 20 players and maybe even as low as 15 with the big 2010 class. Michigan will also look for maybe one more QB, maybe one more WR and they already have "verbals" from two DBs so I believe they are done at the CB position for 2010. Expect Michigan not to flood the nation with offers like they did in 2010, they will need to be pretty picky in who they offer in a small class.

Here is Rival's (Michigan Players only) Top 250 2011 Watch List:

• Justice Hayes—RB Grand Blanc
• DeAnthony Arnett—WR Saginaw
• Anthony Zettel—OL West Branch
• Lawrence Thomas—Detroit (Renaissance)
• Delonte Hollowell—CB Detroit (Cass Tech) Already committed to Michigan

All the above players have a Michigan offer. We will list the players from the high school talent rich state of Ohio's tomorrow. Michigan will also host another junior day a week from this Saturday.

• Jordan Kovacs makes a list of the top walk-on players in 2009. With the number of safeties in the 2010 class, I think Jordan will have to fight for his role next season. I can see Greg Robinson using Kovacs in more tradition running downs and one of the freshman in the passing downs due to their speed.

• Sam Webb lists his top 5 impact players from Michigan's 2010 class: Demar Dorsey, Jibreel Black, Cullen Christian, Devin Gardner, and Marvin Robinson.
  
• Andre Rison is the leading candidate to take over the head coaching role at Flint Northwestern. If this happens, this would not equal good news for players from Northwestern heading to Ann Arbor.
  
• Former Michigan assistant coach and current DBs coach for the Arizona Cardinals, Teryl Austin is a candidate for Florida's open DC position. That poor Urban Meyer just can't get any rest with all this work to do.

• RIP sports lawyer Mark Rosenthal who just passed at the age of 61. He was a graduate of Michigan's Law School.