A few weeks ago, MSU received commitments from four players in the last week of June. This is pretty typical of Dantonio recruiting to have a slew of commits right after summer camps. With some luck, we can pass the time of watching the grass grow slowly in the heat and maybe even learn a few things about how recruiting happens at MSU. I dove into Excel headlong with some commitment dates from 2010-2013 and set to work with the charts.
1.) When does MSU land it’s prospects for the year?
For as boring as summer is in terms of football, it’s crazy busy for recruiting. If you follow MSU recruiting at all, you probably know this already. What surprised me most though is that in June, July and August MSU receives over 50 percent of it’s commits for the year. (50.8 percent to be precise).
2.) Does MSU recruit during the football season?
No, they win football games. (Season is defined as Sept – Dec.)
3.) So what’s the plan then?
Well, it might make more sense like this. The peace sign looking object above points to the following. Roughly 1/3rd of all of MSU’s commits come in the January/February push(Signing Day Push), another 1/3rd come in the June/July (Camp Season), the final third come in the other 8 months of the year. While that might make recruiting tremendously boring mid-season, typically this is offset by the winning of football games.
Anyway, not a huge post, but I wanted to highlight how important camp season is to the recruiting cycle at Michigan State and how completely pedestrian in-season recruiting seems to be. Obviously, in-person evaluation in a camp setting is hugely important to Dantonio and staff.
Keshawn Martin inked a four year deal with the Houston Texans for 2.512 Million Dollars earlier this week, this completes the Horatio Alger-esque journey of Martin from John Glenn High School to NFL Wide Receiver. For those of you who don’t remember high school english, (if you’re an avid reader of SLS it’s apparent I don’t remember anything about English), Alger made famous the “rags-to-riches” story back in the late 1800s. I suppose a more modern version of the tale would be that stupid Adam Sandler movie where he becomes a billionaire and at the end of the movie he’s still Adam Sandler. This used to be a compliment until the Waterboy or so, but then, man, being Adam Sandler just got old.
After the 2007 season Martin’s Athletic Director created a game tape of Martin’s highlights and started sending it to various schools. Typically, kids with Martin’s talents have a dozen offers by this point in their recruitment. Kids of Martin’s talent have the money to attend high school football camps where they can be scouted by college coaches. This was not the case for Martin:
His unlikely journey begins in Inkster, MI, the second of two sons of very proud parents Charles and Tracy. During his formative years, Tracy suffered from chronic illness, Charles worked as a baggage handler and times were tough. As Swinehart says: “His parents have done a phenomenal job of raising him, he’s never been in any kind of trouble. He comes from a great family with not a lot of money but a lot of character.” Finding the glamour of the recruitment process astonishing, Martin commented he felt weird at being treated like a celebrity.
Martin came to Michigan State and spent his first two years just learning to play WR(he was a quarterback in high school). He became one of just a handful of kids to score a touchdown five different ways and became a steady, reliable and stunningly quick receiver by his senior year. In Houston, he should immediately compete for Punt Return and Kick Return duties. Martin should also compete for the third wide receiver position along with DeVier Posey and Lester Jean. Do those names sound familiar? They should. DeVier Posey missed most of his senior year due to suspension from accepting inappropriate gifts and Lester Jean was the entire FAU offense in 2010.
Martin offers a change of pace to those two coming in at 5’11’ and 189 compared to 6’2” and 210-ish for the other guys. I like Martin’s odds of being to slip in as the Texans go-to slot receiver in Houston.
Fan Reaction
“His speed and attitude, founded on his instinctive ability to drive downfield, is what makes Martin such an exciting prospect as a playmaker for the Texans.” says the Texans Bleacher Report. “Keshawn Martin, taken in the fourth round, might be the better option, another Big Ten prospect, this one from Michigan State. Martin is shorter than Posey but is really fast and might work well as a slot receiver for Houston. He is probably someone that will earn his job on special teams but has the skills to help Houston where they need it the most. “ writes Yahoo. “Texans make two more good picks with Martin, Crick in fourth round.” writes the Houston Chronicle.
NFL Future
Martin will more than likely open the 2012 season as the Texans starting kick and punt returner. He could see spot time in 3 WR sets with a combination of some good luck and a bit of continued DeVier Posey fail. As far as a long term future goes, if he excels at Punt Returner and Kick Returner he won’t likely be seeing a lot of playing time. Typically, the number of kick returners who play significant offensive snaps are pretty small.
Of course what about Martin’s journey has been typical so far?
I’m a bit late to the party on a write-up of MSU draftees. You might say a week late, I’d say fashionably late. With the 51st pick in the draft, Jerel Worthy went to the Green Bay Packers. The Green Bay Packers finished last in total yardage defense in 2011 and 19th in Scoring Defense. Nick Perry, Michigan native and USC product was taken as the packers first round pick.
In Green Bay, Worthy will change from a 3-technique Defensive Tackle in a 4-3 defense to a Defensive End in the 3-4 defense. This is going to be a significant transition for him. In a 4-3, the 3 Tech is responsible for controlling the B-Gap, where in the 3-4, the Defensive End is responsible for controlling the B and the C gap. In a 3-4 he’ll also have significantly less pass rushing responsibility. That falls to the outside linebackers, in this case Clay Matthews and Nick Perry.
Now, a lot of this will describe the typical play responsibilities of Worthy. What you have to love about him though if you’re a Green Bay fan is that despite being a full 30 lbs lighter than B.J. Raji, Worthy has the same ability to blow up a play from the interior of the line. You’ll probably see some packages from Green Bay involving Raji out on the Defensive End spot and Worthy in the middle in a 3-4. While pass rushing won’t be Worthy’s primary responsibility, his ability to do it well will give him a leg up on the competition.
Example:
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel likes this pick as a “calculated gamble”. The Packers B/R writer loves his upside and notes that he needs to sand some edges off. Acme Packing Company writes that Worthy and Perry strengthen the Packers front seven.
B.J. Raji is cemented as a starter on the Packers defensive line for years to come. Ryan Pickett is aging at 32, but still very stout against the run. The third D-Line spot was vacated by Cullen Jenkins in the 2010-2011 offseason and never really replaced. Sure the Packers tried by drafting a defensive end in the second round in 2011 as well, Mike Neal. Neal was injured for most of 2011 and had virtually no impact once he did see the field. So the available playing time is right there for Worthy, but the competition both in 2012 and a year or two following will be fierce.
As a Lions fan, I wish him a successful career and two Lions losses annually. Congrats to Jerel Worthy.
As most of you know, John L Smith was hired today as a human placeholder for Arkansas for the 2012 season. While this doesn’t amount to a whole hell of a lot for Michigan State except a Nelson Muntz “HA! HA!” towards the South it’s kind of an intriguing instance of how truth can be Stranger Than Fiction. As I’ve been saying to anyone who would listen for the past couple hours, I wrote an “Open Letter to Arkansas AD Jeff Long to hire John L Smith”. Obviously it worked, because he’s now been given a 10 month contract worth 850K to basically stand in for a season as the Arkansas Head Coach.
The Spartanfreude has been particularly strong with this hire because John L actually did a nice job holding things together off-the-field, if anything he was too hard on kids from a disciplinary perspective. He improved APR all three years of his tenure according to the NCAA. He just didn’t win on the field. Maybe he was overwhelmed at the non-spreadiness of the Big Ten, maybe it was his wife’s cancer, maybe he’s a shitty coach who just got lucky in his prior jobs. Whatever it is, it didn’t work out and we’re over it now. Mostly.
So John L has just been handed the keys to a program which has experience unprecedented success in the past five years and a James Dean like flameout in the past few weeks. He through only the strangest of coincidences has been handed a talented team with talented coordinators who was and is a legitimate national title contender even still. Much like I suspect the plot of Space Cowboys was if I were to have seen it, he got called out of retirement to come save Earth from crashing into the sun and maybe even learn a lesson about life again. If he can save Donald Sutherland’s colostemy bag from freezing in space, so much the better.
Unlike the plot of Space Cowboys, I’m sure he’s not expected to save anything. If he manages to not make things exponentially worse, he’s succeeded and set the table for his replacement to be hired next year. Best of luck to him and I hope all goes well.
Speaking of Stranger Than Fiction
I ran my second half-marathon yesterday. I was feeling my oats and signed up for the Detroit Full Marathon. At 6’4” and 265 I’m kind of small for a 3-Technique Defensive Tackle, but pretty stout for a runner. How does this involve you? I’ll be raising money for the Make-A-Wish foundation in my training. Will occasionally pimp this here on this blog. Feel free to contribute for the kiddos.
Michigan State picked up it’s sixth commitment of the 2013 class on Monday from Shane Jones, Inside Linebacker from Cincinnati Moeller high school. Jones makes the third defensive commitment and the second inside linebacker. Jones committed to MSU over offers from Michigan, Penn State and Oklahoma as well as a host of other schools who recruit the midwest. Noticeably absent from the list of suitors was Ohio State, Urbz is going to Urbz himself some “better talent”.
Jones is rated a four-star prospect by Rivals and three stars by 247 and Scout. Scout had this to say about Jones: “Uses solid technique along with agility and speed to shed blockers making plays sideline to sideline. Capable of playing all linebacker spots and shows good recoil in upper and lower body giving him above average power from a player who stands 6-foot tall. Above average hip turn and foot quickness allows him to get depth and width. Has the speed to blitz and post bigger sack totals. Needs to continue work on hands to finish plays on the ball.”
Above average power, versatility and the tools to be good in pass coverage? Yes please.
A Predictor of Future Success is YOUtube
I really wish this video was a couple minutes longer, he really showed some pass coverage skill and a bit of the Denicos Allen missil-ey-ness you’ve come to know and love. But this is a short video and that’s really my primary knock on it, not enough here to show how he plays against the run.
Predictions for 2013 and Beyond
Michigan State has signed three prospects from Cincinnati Moeller since Mark Dantonio came to MSU. Two, Greg Jones and Marcus Rush will finish as solid, heady players that gave opposing offenses fits. Monty Madaris comes in as one of MSU’s talented freshmen for the class of 2012 at the Wide Receiver position. Jones shows some of that same heads-up play that we’re coming to expect from Moeller kids. That said, figuring out when he sees the field is pretty difficult, there’s a logjam at LB right now which will be only more entropic if Allen or Bullough leave after 2013.
In short, he’ll play. When is impossible to tell right now.
Bonus Bits
Maxwell suffered a sprained knee in practice and may be done for the Spring according to Rexrode. This is the part where I fuss about how Mumphery has been hurt and Fowler has been day-to-day since 2010 and Sims was hurt but now isn’t, but could very well be again. I’m not worried about any one of these injuries specifically, but more that how is a team supposed to build chemistry when it can’t even keep the same QB and WR’s on the field? It’s the chemistry that I’m fussing about.
Bonus Academic Question: If Cook is the number 1 for the Spring game, who plays QB for the other team. I vote Connor Cook for all-time quarterback in that situation.
