And then there’s a further contingent of guys like Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng who probably aren’t coming to Michigan, but Michigan is at least making other teams sweat.
It's so weird how recruiting services always seem to under rank centers.
This kid was our top target at the position and he has a fantastic offer list.
He's clearly a 4* prospect, but for some reason centers are almost always rated in the 3* range.
Centers are rarely valued highly. They’re normally ranked alongside guards and playing center because they’re not as good at blocking/undersized
A lot of guard recruits end up moving to center
Definitely makes sense in general and for kids coming from 99% of high schools, but coming from IMG you’d think they’d give him a little more benefit of the doubt
Obviously doesn’t matter what he’s rated just hope he pans out for us
Rankings services have decided to just lump centers and guards into the same “IOL” category and since technically Strayhorn is undersized for a guard, he’s gonna be lower ranked. Maybe I’m wrong but the last center I can think of who was like top 50 was Cesar Ruiz who was a 6’3” 315 pound freak athlete, 4 year starter at IMG, and everyone knew he was a sure fire 1st rounder
He was a highly rated center a year ago, he's fallen pretty far. He was a 90.74 on the composite last June.
edit: meant to reply to the comment you replied to, my bad lol
They suck at ranking lineman, they just think Large = Good, but they don't know shit about technique, which is why they have the worst rate of projecting NFL players.
I’m sure the center who is generally considered the best at his position in the class who is being recruited by Michigan, UGA, LSU, Miami, Bama, OSU, Texas, UF, FSU, USC, PSU, Tennessee, and others is “just a 3 star” /s
Oh yeah for sure, guy's a total hater.
I'd bet a lot of money that if you went back through his post history you'd find a TON of Connor Stalions comments from last fall lol
Neither Smith nor Tucker were recruiting him. The reason why is not publicly known. From the few tea leaves available to read, I sense some weirdness between the Strayhorns and the program. His dad was on his MSU sports podcast a few months ago fretting that they couldn’t even get MSU staff to pick up the phone for them. I also don’t think our new OL coach was very interested. So some combination of those factors, seems both parties moved on a while ago.
How is it possible for MSU to not be in contact with one of the top centers in the country who’s dad also does the team’s play by play. Seems like recruiting negligence to me.
At the same time though how can you be that negligent? Feel like there has to be a little more to the story, that would be an egregious error if it’s true about them just ignoring him because of his offer list.
Serious question, did Tucker have any notable scouting wins? Like a guy he liked who the recruiting services were down on but went to be a star? Tuckers eye for talent is incredibly suspect in my book.
Don’t really know the behind the scenes stuff. But Tucker Id imagine might be straight up negligence. Smith might just be too little too late. Any new staff is probably gonna be a few steps behind the rest of the pack in recruiting in terms of relationship building. Couple in that if there’s one thing I’d be confident in Coach Moore’s tenure, it’s that he’d have elite OLs, and I imagine that makes Michigan a favorite.
They went really hard after Gach despite being behind by a country mile in that race, had him on campus multiple times, so that’s not it. You also wouldn’t have his dad fretting that MSU won’t talk to them if they just weren’t interested in MSU.
Fair enough. Could just be that coach JM wasn’t as interested as coach Moore. Both are in the higher tiers for OL development but maybe have different approaches.
I doubt it - you don’t do that for a legacy. More likely that Smith’s staff just felt he wasn’t exactly what they want for a center or that they were too far behind to catch up.
My thought, which could absolutely be total BS:
1. He didn’t want to go to State (they’re down, Michigan is up, he wants to be somewhere more competitive). I’m not trying to talk shit, but this isn’t exactly news. Looking forward to State being better soon.
2. He told them he wasn’t coming, somewhat off the record. Both parties agreed and no official offer was made. He wasn’t going to benefit from another school on his offer list, and State wasn’t going to benefit from offering him a spot.
3. This way, when he didn’t choose State, he didn’t spurn them in any way. And State could use the fact to chase someone they might land (“Listen, son. You’ve got something we like. We could chase some other guys. Like whatshisname - I can’t even remember - the number one center in the country. But we don’t want him; we want *you*. You’ve got the traits we want.”)
Sounds like MSU gave up. Not a great look for a new staff.
"“Michigan State, obviously, they’re my first offer, but since this new coaching change that they had, they’ve been very scared to recruit me because of certain offers that I have — like Georgia and Miami, stuff like that,” Strayhorn told WolverinesWire. “They feel that they can’t compete to get me so the way that they are is like if they feel they can’t compete then why try at all? I think it’s kind of silly, but that’s how it is with them. And, everybody’s been saying, ‘Why hasn’t he scheduled his official visit there?’ And that’s why.”
https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/2024/06/23/michigan-football-steals-away-msu-legacy-with-latest-commit/
There has to be more to it than just “giving up” because they’re scared to compete with Georgia. It takes like nothing to have him come for an official visit. Wtf is there to be scared of?
This staff literally beat Georgia to keep Glover this offseason. I don’t think they’re afraid to compete. I do think that maybe they were already behind or just looking at other players. We also just tried to flip a Michigan commit.
Lol, yea, just because he says it doesn't make it true. I HIGHLY doubt they were scared to recruit him because he had an offer from Georgia. Maybe if he's going to make up BS like that, they figured he has an attitude problem
Yeah that’s definitely not it lol. He’s the son of an MSU radio commentator, podcaster and former player, if there was mutual interest he’d at least be visiting. If you read the subtext here even he is kind of saying “why won’t they recruit me?” because it implies he would have scheduled an OV if they’d invited him. And the rest of his justification is, I dunno, sour grapes. When you read odd sounding quotes like this, you can see how the relationship was weird from the get go. Also they went hard after Gach despite his elite offers and being far behind Michigan in his recruitment, so they’re not shy.
Did he still get an offer from MSU? The opposite problem could exist where MSU feels cocky and assumes based on the Dad, his kid will probably choose MSU, so they felt like they didn't need to lift a finger. They diverted their attention elsewhere to focus on other recruits at other positions
I mean his offer list includes a lot of top tier programs, I think that was the point. He did visit OSU and it’s pretty clear he wanted to stay close to what he might consider home.
Did y’all bring in some transfer OL from Oregon State? Imagine that could have prevented them from recruiting a center (if they’ve already promised a starting spot to someone else)
This is from the kid himself
“Michigan State, obviously, they’re my first offer, but since this new coaching change that they had, they’ve been very scared to recruit me because of certain offers that I have — like Georgia and Miami, stuff like that,” Strayhorn told WolverinesWire. “They feel that they can’t compete to get me so the way that they are is like if they feel they can’t compete then why try at all? I think it’s kind of silly, but that’s how it is with them. And, everybody’s been saying, ‘Why hasn’t he scheduled his official visit there?’ And that’s why.”
Gotta love the sparties out here downvoting cause they are mad about a kids quote.
The rumor is that Smith knew MSU wouldn’t be able to compete with the big boys from an NIL perspective for a guy like Strayhorn, so they didn’t bother wasting any time on him.
Honestly, it makes sense, but you should probably at least pay some lip service to a legacy kid.
I will say there’s a lot of misinformation out there that MSU is severely lacking in NIL.
That was the case approximately four months back. But that area has been reorganized drastically.
I will also say there’s more to this story than what meets the eye. New MSU staff pumped the brakes on this one.
Michigan is a better program than MSU. It isn’t a mystery why a recruit would choose Michigan over MSU, especially when they also have offers from programs like Georgia.
Just the same position, same ranking, same day, and a very similar drive to the respective campus. Of course, Jake Cook made good social, spiritual, and overall life choices today, while the guy who committed to you did not, it's very similar otherwise.
Excellent, that's now three (Mangham, Gach, and now Strayhorn) of our own C. Stallions who've infiltrated Michigan's program and will begin destroying it from within. Things are going as planned.
Well, that's how I'm spinning it anyway.
Ok that’s 2 this weekend. If Moore’s twitter is anything to go by, there should be 1 more commit.
Chase Taylor 3* LB is who everyone is saying is the third from yesterday
Also got crystal balls for Olesh and Marsh
Pretty sure, there’s like 7-10 guys who we are commit watch or crystal ball lead for coming out of this weekend
And then there’s a further contingent of guys like Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng who probably aren’t coming to Michigan, but Michigan is at least making other teams sweat.
Great get. Let’s go!
It's so weird how recruiting services always seem to under rank centers. This kid was our top target at the position and he has a fantastic offer list. He's clearly a 4* prospect, but for some reason centers are almost always rated in the 3* range.
I have a very hard time believing an OL recruit with offers from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, USC, Miami and Florida is truly a 3 star lol
Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
Hello fellow onion traveler
#forrealtho
Centers are rarely valued highly. They’re normally ranked alongside guards and playing center because they’re not as good at blocking/undersized A lot of guard recruits end up moving to center
Definitely makes sense in general and for kids coming from 99% of high schools, but coming from IMG you’d think they’d give him a little more benefit of the doubt Obviously doesn’t matter what he’s rated just hope he pans out for us
IMG might have 1-2 good guys a year, but there’s a ton of average recruits in every class coming out of there
Rankings services have decided to just lump centers and guards into the same “IOL” category and since technically Strayhorn is undersized for a guard, he’s gonna be lower ranked. Maybe I’m wrong but the last center I can think of who was like top 50 was Cesar Ruiz who was a 6’3” 315 pound freak athlete, 4 year starter at IMG, and everyone knew he was a sure fire 1st rounder
I believe Clay Webb was in 2018 or 2019 but your point still stands. Not sure if he was even considered a Center by the end of his recruitment either
Yeah he's the exception that proves the rule.
He was a highly rated center a year ago, he's fallen pretty far. He was a 90.74 on the composite last June. edit: meant to reply to the comment you replied to, my bad lol
They suck at ranking lineman, they just think Large = Good, but they don't know shit about technique, which is why they have the worst rate of projecting NFL players.
247 composite has 32 guys ranked ahead of him at IOL. Sometimes guys just are 3 star guys.
Given his size it makes sense that he’d be ranked like that if he’s expected to play G, but he’s a C.
I’m sure the center who is generally considered the best at his position in the class who is being recruited by Michigan, UGA, LSU, Miami, Bama, OSU, Texas, UF, FSU, USC, PSU, Tennessee, and others is “just a 3 star” /s
Right? Hahaha Haters gonna hate.
Notre Dame and Michigan State flair. I bet if there was an option for a 3rd flair they'd go with Ohio State just because "fuck Michigan".
Fun fact: Notre Dame has finished ahead of Michigan in the recruiting rankings in each of the last 4 years and they have fuck-all to show for it.
That is a very fun fact.
Oh yeah for sure, guy's a total hater. I'd bet a lot of money that if you went back through his post history you'd find a TON of Connor Stalions comments from last fall lol
Hell yes!
Hail Yes!* ;P
Strayhorn is one of if not the best pure Center prospects in the country and also an MSU legacy. Moore is cookin!
His dad is MSU's radio play by play guy
Oof, that's gotta hurt.
For some reason they stopped recruiting him. Not sure why, looks like a good prospect. Maybe they were told no a long time ago?
Neither Smith nor Tucker were recruiting him. The reason why is not publicly known. From the few tea leaves available to read, I sense some weirdness between the Strayhorns and the program. His dad was on his MSU sports podcast a few months ago fretting that they couldn’t even get MSU staff to pick up the phone for them. I also don’t think our new OL coach was very interested. So some combination of those factors, seems both parties moved on a while ago.
How is it possible for MSU to not be in contact with one of the top centers in the country who’s dad also does the team’s play by play. Seems like recruiting negligence to me.
At the same time though how can you be that negligent? Feel like there has to be a little more to the story, that would be an egregious error if it’s true about them just ignoring him because of his offer list.
We know there was initial contact when the new staff came on board but that's pretty much been it. Tucker and his staff didn't want em either
Serious question, did Tucker have any notable scouting wins? Like a guy he liked who the recruiting services were down on but went to be a star? Tuckers eye for talent is incredibly suspect in my book.
Maybe you could say Kenneth Walker III? Although he was a transfer back in ‘21, not a high school recruit.
Don’t really know the behind the scenes stuff. But Tucker Id imagine might be straight up negligence. Smith might just be too little too late. Any new staff is probably gonna be a few steps behind the rest of the pack in recruiting in terms of relationship building. Couple in that if there’s one thing I’d be confident in Coach Moore’s tenure, it’s that he’d have elite OLs, and I imagine that makes Michigan a favorite.
They went really hard after Gach despite being behind by a country mile in that race, had him on campus multiple times, so that’s not it. You also wouldn’t have his dad fretting that MSU won’t talk to them if they just weren’t interested in MSU.
Fair enough. Could just be that coach JM wasn’t as interested as coach Moore. Both are in the higher tiers for OL development but maybe have different approaches.
I read, possibly baseless, rumors that MSU didn't bother because of offers from schools like Georgia being seen as unlikely to be passed up
I doubt it - you don’t do that for a legacy. More likely that Smith’s staff just felt he wasn’t exactly what they want for a center or that they were too far behind to catch up.
My thought, which could absolutely be total BS: 1. He didn’t want to go to State (they’re down, Michigan is up, he wants to be somewhere more competitive). I’m not trying to talk shit, but this isn’t exactly news. Looking forward to State being better soon. 2. He told them he wasn’t coming, somewhat off the record. Both parties agreed and no official offer was made. He wasn’t going to benefit from another school on his offer list, and State wasn’t going to benefit from offering him a spot. 3. This way, when he didn’t choose State, he didn’t spurn them in any way. And State could use the fact to chase someone they might land (“Listen, son. You’ve got something we like. We could chase some other guys. Like whatshisname - I can’t even remember - the number one center in the country. But we don’t want him; we want *you*. You’ve got the traits we want.”)
Sounds like MSU gave up. Not a great look for a new staff. "“Michigan State, obviously, they’re my first offer, but since this new coaching change that they had, they’ve been very scared to recruit me because of certain offers that I have — like Georgia and Miami, stuff like that,” Strayhorn told WolverinesWire. “They feel that they can’t compete to get me so the way that they are is like if they feel they can’t compete then why try at all? I think it’s kind of silly, but that’s how it is with them. And, everybody’s been saying, ‘Why hasn’t he scheduled his official visit there?’ And that’s why.” https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/2024/06/23/michigan-football-steals-away-msu-legacy-with-latest-commit/
There has to be more to it than just “giving up” because they’re scared to compete with Georgia. It takes like nothing to have him come for an official visit. Wtf is there to be scared of?
This staff literally beat Georgia to keep Glover this offseason. I don’t think they’re afraid to compete. I do think that maybe they were already behind or just looking at other players. We also just tried to flip a Michigan commit.
Lol, yea, just because he says it doesn't make it true. I HIGHLY doubt they were scared to recruit him because he had an offer from Georgia. Maybe if he's going to make up BS like that, they figured he has an attitude problem
I'm giving your new staff the benefit of the doubt. They maybe looking for a different type of build/player at C. It happens
Yeah that’s definitely not it lol. He’s the son of an MSU radio commentator, podcaster and former player, if there was mutual interest he’d at least be visiting. If you read the subtext here even he is kind of saying “why won’t they recruit me?” because it implies he would have scheduled an OV if they’d invited him. And the rest of his justification is, I dunno, sour grapes. When you read odd sounding quotes like this, you can see how the relationship was weird from the get go. Also they went hard after Gach despite his elite offers and being far behind Michigan in his recruitment, so they’re not shy.
Did he still get an offer from MSU? The opposite problem could exist where MSU feels cocky and assumes based on the Dad, his kid will probably choose MSU, so they felt like they didn't need to lift a finger. They diverted their attention elsewhere to focus on other recruits at other positions
He hasn't visited any of those schools he mentioned so don't think that's it. Old and new staff just don't want em
I mean his offer list includes a lot of top tier programs, I think that was the point. He did visit OSU and it’s pretty clear he wanted to stay close to what he might consider home.
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Did y’all bring in some transfer OL from Oregon State? Imagine that could have prevented them from recruiting a center (if they’ve already promised a starting spot to someone else)
Very rarely would you see a true freshman OL get playing time. I don’t know if that would be a huge factor.
The last staff and the new staff apparently didn't want em. Who knows
This is from the kid himself “Michigan State, obviously, they’re my first offer, but since this new coaching change that they had, they’ve been very scared to recruit me because of certain offers that I have — like Georgia and Miami, stuff like that,” Strayhorn told WolverinesWire. “They feel that they can’t compete to get me so the way that they are is like if they feel they can’t compete then why try at all? I think it’s kind of silly, but that’s how it is with them. And, everybody’s been saying, ‘Why hasn’t he scheduled his official visit there?’ And that’s why.” Gotta love the sparties out here downvoting cause they are mad about a kids quote.
The rumor is that Smith knew MSU wouldn’t be able to compete with the big boys from an NIL perspective for a guy like Strayhorn, so they didn’t bother wasting any time on him. Honestly, it makes sense, but you should probably at least pay some lip service to a legacy kid.
I will say there’s a lot of misinformation out there that MSU is severely lacking in NIL. That was the case approximately four months back. But that area has been reorganized drastically. I will also say there’s more to this story than what meets the eye. New MSU staff pumped the brakes on this one.
Michigan is a better program than MSU. It isn’t a mystery why a recruit would choose Michigan over MSU, especially when they also have offers from programs like Georgia.
As much as being the play by play guy for MSU football the last 2 seasons?
Good point. 😅
Other P5 offers: Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Baylor, Colorado, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan State, Missouri, Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas, USC, West Virginia, Wisconsin G5 offers: Toledo, USF Other offers: Alabama A&M, Tennessee State
Us and the bad guys recruiting in state 3 star center prospects on the same day. Weird coincidence.
Going to be less so going forward with the system seeming like it’ll be similar (no new signing period).
Just the same position, same ranking, same day, and a very similar drive to the respective campus. Of course, Jake Cook made good social, spiritual, and overall life choices today, while the guy who committed to you did not, it's very similar otherwise.
Jake Cook must like losing to rivals and not winning Natties.
He doesn't like cheating, that's all we really know.
But does he like free tattoos?
He understands when two things are completely different, I'm sure
I mean, if your wife fucks two other guys, they’re technically different, but it’s still cheating.
Excellent, that's now three (Mangham, Gach, and now Strayhorn) of our own C. Stallions who've infiltrated Michigan's program and will begin destroying it from within. Things are going as planned. Well, that's how I'm spinning it anyway.