'08 MI WR Fred Smith (Michigan State signee)

[wadc45]

Rivals is listing an offer from OSU, but I have my doubts...we will try and confirm it.

Rivals Profile
Scout Profile

Detroit (MI) Southeastern

Ht: 6-foot-3
Wt: 215 lbs
Forty: 4.4 secs
GPA: 2.9

Originally Posted by Rivals Bio

Earned all-league and all-Metro Detroit honorable mention honors as a junior.

Originally Posted by Scout

A possible top 5 in-state recruit next year, Smith turned some heads as a junior. An excellent athlete who excels on the basketball court as well.

Early interest in Michigan, Michigan State, Toledo (offer), Bowling Green (offer) and Ohio State.

[Buckeyedynasty]

Based on his measurables he sounds like a hell of a prospect. As long as he can catch the ball that is. I thought the state of Michigan wasn't very good at producing talent. If this kid does become a player hopefully LLLoyd and the wolverines can keep up their recent trend of striking out when it comes to keeping the instate talent.

[super_mario]

Originally Posted by Buckeyedynasty

Based on his measurables he sounds like a hell of a prospect. As long as he can catch the ball that is. I thought the state of Michigan wasn't very good at producing talent. If this kid does become a player hopefully LLLoyd and the wolverines can keep up their recent trend of striking out when it comes to keeping the instate talent.

This kid is a heck of an athlete. He could play quite a few different positions depending upon how he grows.

Michigan produces talent, they just don't produce it on a consistent basis and most of the talent is very raw. Overall there is just not great high school coaching or competition in the state. The Detroit PSL produces alot of great raw athletes. The problems with alot of the PSL kids though tend to be academics, off-field issues (gangs, crime, drugs, etc), and most of them think they are basketball players first and football is secondary. The inner-city schools are also terribly under-funded and as a result their facilities are a complete joke.

Lloyd has a recent trend of striking out on talent? Really? Seems to me like when there is a player in-state he wants, he usually gets. 2007 was the exception, not the rule, and look for 2008 to be normal again. Lloyd already locked up the #1 player in-state in Boubacar Cissoko, and he stands a pretty good chance of getting a verbal from the #2 and #3 players in-state in Jonas Gray and Dan O'Neill by the end of this weekend.

[Buckeyedynasty]

Super Mario- Thanks for the info. about Michigan talent and prospects. Didn't mean to offend you about my comments about Lloyd striking out on top talent. I just meant that as good as the instate talent was last year its got to be hard for the coaching staff to not land many of those great prospects. Thanks again and as always .

[super_mario]

Originally Posted by Buckeyedynasty

Super Mario- Thanks for the info. about Michigan talent and prospects. Didn't mean to offend you about my comments about Lloyd striking out on top talent. I just meant that as good as the instate talent was last year its got to be hard for the coaching staff to not land many of those great prospects. Thanks again and as always .

No problem, and no offense taken really.

2007 was definetly the exception to the rule. Usually when there are top-notch national level talents in-state Michigan locks them up. Once in awhile one or two that Michigan kind of slow played will get away, but usually when they press for an in-state kid they get that kid. 2007 really was an exception, just a wierd year. For one I've never seen that many quality kids in-state and two I've never seen Michigan lose so many of them. A few of them can be explained (Threet, Dell, Washington, Nichol, Colosanti, Sawtelle) while a few of them were just puzzling (Johnson, Barksdale, Allen).

I'll try to explain as quick as possible.

Threet, Dell, Nichol: never had offers.

Colosanti and Sawtelle: From Brother Rice, a school that has not been kind to Michigan over the years. Very Pro-MSU Head Coach. Colosanti just never seemed that interested. Sawtelle was very interested, we were very close in that race, kid just grew up a die-hard Vol fan. His grandfather was a legendary lineman at UT, decided to follow in grandpas footsteps and from what I understand he actually has more extended family in Tennessee than he does in Michigan.

Washington: didn't have a particularly great day at Michigan's camp, already had Webb, Rogers, and at the time Maze as potential WR's, when they got word that Toney Clemons and JR Hemingway were likely coming on-board as well they cooled off on Washington a little bit and put him on the back-burner IMO.


Barksdale, Allen, Johnson: each one of these kids silently committed to Michigan before. Barksdale committed to quite a few different schools though. In fact, one guy who is pretty well connected to the Michigan program and former players (including guys like Wilcher) who sends out small e-mails actually said to expect Barksdale to go as far away from home as possible and that Wilcher advised Michigan against recruiting Barksdale. The man who sends out these e-mails very rarely if ever talks about recruiting, but he was all over the Barksdale recruitment from the beginning. He was saying USC or Texas, and that Barksdale's father wanted him as far away from home as possible. I never expected Barksdale to wind up at Michigan solely because the guy who sends out the e-mails was pretty admant about it, and when he speaks on a topic as sternly as he did Barksdale he knows what's up.

Now, the other two kids were somewhat shocking surprises. Johnson, that was just a mess, don't feel like getting into that. Allen was probably the most shocking at the time. Allen reassured the coaching staff he was coming, was hamming it up in all the articles about his love for Michigan, and he was openly recruiting other players to come join him at Michigan, even Ronald Johnson, and even his buddies who play basketball, Alex Legion and Kalin Lucas.

[wadc45]

This is a kid I have mentioned a few times...his size and speed combination along with his athleticism, as reported at the AA combine, have me intrigued. I mentioned before that his Rivals profile shows an offer from OSU...no idea if that is legit yet or not.

[wadc45]

Missed this update...

Scout $

2/14

Fred says he is being heavily recruited by Michigan, Michigan State, UCLA, Bowling Green, Toledo and Ball State. He has been to basketball games at MSU and OSU recently. UCLA has also been in touch.

[MililaniBuckeye]

6'3" and 4.4. Those are the only number I need to hear.

[unionfutura]

but if he gets one, look for OSU to get another Michigan WR IMO. I think the biggest competition will be MSU.

[OSUBucks22]

Rivals $ (Michigan site)

2/19

Fred received an offer from Michigan this weekend. He says he likes tOSU and will attend a Junior Day here. Fred also says that MSU is close to offering.

[unionfutura]

Originally Posted by OSUBucks22

Rivals $ (Michigan site)

2/19

Fred received an offer from Michigan this weekend. He says he likes tOSU and will attend a Junior Day here. Fred also says that MSU is close to offering.

I think Michigan is hedging their bets with offers to Baldwin, Stronum, Smith, and Goodman. They probably only want two, and with Stronum looking like a commitment in the next few weeks, they'll push Baldwin to make a decision. I think Smith will look elsewhere as a result. Once again IMO.

[crazybuckfan40]

Originally Posted by unionfutura

I think Michigan is hedging their bets with offers to Baldwin, Stronum, Smith, and Goodman. They probably only want two, and with Stronum looking like a commitment in the next few weeks, they'll push Baldwin to make a decision. I think Smith will look elsewhere as a result. Once again IMO.

Stronum, is he the kid from Texas?

[unionfutura]

Originally Posted by crazybuckfan40

Stronum, is he the kid from Texas?

yep

[crazybuckfan40]

At this point I wonder if we send an offer to Smith...

If so we are really casting a wide net, especially with Scott seemingly a lock to get an offer if grades/test score are adequate...

That would give us offers to Posey, Scott, Tate, Flyod, and a couple other big time recievers that we really arent in good standing with...

On a side nite, Michigan seems to really be attacking the state of Texas...

[unionfutura]

Originally Posted by crazybuckfan40

At this point I wonder if we send an offer to Smith...

If so we are really casting a wide net, especially with Scott seemingly a lock to get an offer if grades/test score are adequate...

That would give us offers to Posey, Scott, Tate, Flyod, and a couple other big time recievers that we really arent in good standing with...

On a side nite, Michigan seems to really be attacking the state of Texas...

I think we're in good shape with Floyd and Tate, but by no means are they locks to OSU or anything so the net has to get wider. I think Smith is in the same category as Floyd and Tate just a little raw. Would be great to get him into camp to get a better look at him.