Early NSD News: Thomas Rawls is Blue

So a question for you?  If your a running back from Flint, Michigan and you break Heisman Trophy winner and former Alabama running back Mark Ingram's (who's from Flint) local rushing records, how many offers and stars would you be expecting?  4 or 5 stars and I would say 20+ offers. 

Not the case for Thomas Rawls, which is too bad for other schools but a big break for the Wolverines.  The reason other programs were not recruiting Thomas very hard was the lack of a qualifying test score on one of the standardized tests.   Thomas had offers from CMU, Cincinnati, and Toledo.  But today he is a Michigan Wolverine with a qualifying score.  (the rumor mill is saying that Thomas has some more work to do in the class room but there is line of site to qualifying)

Thomas is 5'10 and 214 pounds and ranked 3 stars by both Rivals and Scouts.  His head coach is Fred Jackson, Jr, the son of Michigan's running backs coach and brother of Michigan WR Jeremy Jackson.

Senior Stats are 150 carries for 1,585 yards and 19 touchdowns. (I also saw a report of 21 touchdowns)

Michigan Tuesday: More Recruiting Trail Information

In yesterday's post I talked about 2 players in Cincinnati that Michigan was visiting on Monday.  You might remember in 2010, Michigan picked up a late commitment from the Cincinnati area in Jibreel Black.  Mr. Black contributed to Michigan's defense this year and got a number of snaps at DE.  Now it seems Michigan is well positioned to pick up a couple of more Queen City prospects:

• Cincinnati 4 star LB Antonio Poole is set to announce his decision tonight.  He has offers from Cincinnati, Kentucky, Kansas, Purdue, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Michigan State and others.   He also visited Miami of FL last weekend as well.  Things are looking good for the Maize and Blue in this one. 

 

• Cincinnati FB Trayion Durham was offered last night and is expected to visit U of M this weekend.  Trayion is one of the top 5 FB's in the country to both services.

• I was wrong about Texas QB Russell Bellomy visiting Ann Arbor this weekend.  He is on his official visit right now.  I guess a guy with over a 4.0 grade point can afford to miss a few days of schools.

  

• Floyd Raven who is deciding between visiting Alabama and Michigan this weekend and seems to be very interested in Texas A&M.  It was reported yesterday that he committed to A&M but I guess that report was false.  Still no word if he will be visiting Ann Arbor.

• Stefan McClure visited Ann Arbor this past weekend and coach Brady Hoke was in home with his family in California last night.  Stefan is planning to announce later this week.  Michigan has a shot in this one but many expect him to stay closer to home.   It seems Michigan really likes this kid and wants him to come to Michigan.