Big Ten Football: Weekly 2013 Recruiting Roundup

Every Wednesday here at The Big Ten Blog, we will update you on the latest commits, decommits and rumors in the recruiting world. And boy, are there a lot of commits this week.

Commits

Big week for the big boys this week, as Ohio State racked up two more commitments. Defensive end Tracy Sprinkle committed shortly after receiving an offer on Tuesday, and today, big-time QB J.T. Barrett joined the gang with a verbal. Sprinkle is a beast on the outside, but it also looks like he has the frame to potentially put on 20-30 more pounds to get in the 280s, switch to a 3-technique and terrorize on the interior.

Barrett is the big get here, as he's basically a 6'2" Vince Young. Now, a 6'2" Young isn't nearly as good as a 6'6" Young, so they're not the same caliber of player at this point, but Barrett is strong and purposeful (and, y'know, fast) as a rusher, has a bit of a funky throwing motion but one that's better than a lot of dual-threat QBs (Taylor Martinez, we're looking at you) and has the ability to make a lot of tough passes from Day 1. Watch and enjoy.

Penn State landed another recruit in Andrew Nelson, a 6'5", 260 road grader from Hershey who could find himself on either side of the line in Happy Valley. Nelson had offers from schools like Missouri and Northwestern, but like most football players in Central Pennsylvania, he grew up wanting to be a Nittany Lion. And now, here we go.

Things are heating up at Michigan State, as the Spartans welcomed QB Damion Terry and OLB Shane Jones to the fold on Monday. Jones has a stellar offer sheet, including the likes of Michigan, Penn State, Oklahoma and Texas A&M, and he's about 15 pounds away from being a force in the Big Ten. Highlights to the right.

Local product Josh Banderas made it official last week and verballed to Nebraska. The Lincoln, Neb. LB had an offer on the table from Vandy and some other cursory SEC interest, but one does not simply walk into Lincoln and take a prospect from Nebraska. Yes, this makes Bo Pelini Sauron. Sauron with a baseball cap.

Nebraska also got a verbal from big-time DE A.J. Natter, who's 6'6" and runs a hilariously fake 4.56, according to Scout. He plays fast to be sure, but come on. All that aside, he's got the frame and motor to grow into an All-Big Ten defensive end in two or three years.

Illinois picked up a commit from big tight end Christian DiLauro, who's listed at 6'5" and 245 pounds. With his size, he's got the ability to move to any number of positions, and he's got a contact-heavy mentality. He's expecting to move to offensive tackle, but he was a fairly productive defensive end in high school too.

Northwestern is finally on the board, and in style to boot. Pat Fitzgerald's first commit of the year is 4-star QB Matt Alviti, who selected the 'Cats over Michigan State and Nebraska. Notre Dame also offered Alviti. He's not big by any stretch, but QB size hasn't been a priority for Fitzgerald at Northwestern, and even though the Wildcats haven't been elite, it's almost never been the quarterback's fault. Check out his game film to the right.

Delano Hill, a safety from Cass Technical HS in Detroit, committed to Iowa earlier this week. Cass Tech should be familiar to Iowa fans, as incoming freshmen Ruben Lile and Laron Taylor both came from there as well. Hill is rangy and can hit, and those would be welcome qualities in a thin Iowa secondary.

Decommits

Michigan didn't get a verbal from anyone this week. Feels like a decommit by itself, you guys.

News and Rumors

We've got some more spring games on Saturday, which means there's more recruiting to be done. Here's a list of Ohio State's prospects coming in as of earlier this week, and here's Penn State's list. The uncommitted PSU prospects are on the second page of that list, so keep that in mind. 

Michigan's spring game came and went without an additional commit, but with just a few spots left to fill in the class, Brady Hoke can afford to be judicious with where those commitments come from. One guy he'd like to get in the fold is 4-star DE (and Washington decommit) Joe Mathis, who declared Michigan his favorite last week. Well, Mathis went to Nebraska, and now, Nebraska's in the lead, according to Mathis. It's going to be one of those recruitments.

MSU QB commit Damion Terry, mentioned above, has a talented teammate in safety Delton Williams. Michigan State's pushing for him, but Nebraska and Penn State are now in the mix, according to Williams. He says he's not hurrying his decision.