The Dantonio offense relies upon a powerful running game. Running the ball is used to chew up clock, rest the defense and set up playaction. This year MSU took two running backs to help bolster it's ability in these areas.
Nick Tompkins
Nick Tompkins committed to Michigan State on 6/26/2011 during the U2 concert. Not that I attended or anything. While I'm on the hypothetical subject, the east side upper deck of Spartan Stadium is kind of like 1980's Poland. If you are going to charge seat fees, feel free to raise some moneys to bring the east side of the stadium into the roaring 90s. Anyway, Tompkins was rated a three star prospect by Rivals, Scout and 247 Sports. He was ranked nationally by Scout as the #70 running back and by 247 as the 54th best RB. He was ranked as Rivals' number 11 all-purpose back, rivals has a separate rank for running backs.
His offer sheet is pretty stellar. At the time of his commitment he had offers from Wisconsin, California, Boston College, Georgia Tech and a host of other schools. By conference is a little more impressive, he had offers from five Big Ten schools, six ACC schools, two Big East schools, a Pac-12 school and three SEC schools. So this is a very solid pickup. Very solid.
A Predictor Of Future Success Is YouTube
In this video, there are basically only things to love. Tompkins "one-cut" move is devastating. When he cuts upfield, that's it in both of these videos. He has the speed to outrun anyone on his high school field. He doesn't dance around a whole lot in the backfield, but it looks like he could if he needs to. The only thing I didn't see was a lot of him catching the ball, but that's not really a knock so much as an observation. This is a stellar pick-up and we will all be very excited about him when it's time for him to see the field.
Prognostication for 2012 and Beyond: If two of our three running backs go down in 2012 Tompkins might see the field. So again. Disaster only. He has a chance to crack the two-deep as early as 2013 when the battle to replace Larry Caper will take place between him and Nick Hill. Both are speed backs to compliment Bell's thunder. He will see the field in 2014 at the latest.
Marcus Horne
Marcus Horne committed to MSU on 1/29/2012. He was a two-star prospect according to rivals and had an offer Redeemable At Any MAC School. He has accepted his commitment as a greyshirt. A greyshirt means that they have been offered a scholarship in the future, but that you will pay some portion of your college on your own.
A good basketball analog recruiting-wise is Austin Thornton. He wants to be a part of a Big Ten team, but would not get a Big Ten offer for a full ride. Anyway, football-wise these are the kind of kids you need to lean on, one or two of these walk-on/greyshirt guys make valuable contributions to their team each year.
Horne looks like Tompkins minus the "one-cut devastation". I really like his vision and I think if he can put on 20 lbs without losing a lot of speed he could be a thunder back to Tompkins lightning. As one would expect of a greyshirt prospect, he's a bit of a project. The weight gain I think would be necessary for him to see significant playing time.
Prognostication for 2012 and Beyond: Will not play in 2012. Could see the field in the 2014-2015 area. Will depend on how he does in the weight room.
2013 Needs: 1 Thunder and maybe 1 Lightning back. The lightning back is a nice to have, the Thunder back is a necessity, after Bell, the next potential candidate at Thunder back is Horne, but as previously stated, he is a bit of a project.
Commitments, We Has Them. - Safety Mark Meyers decommitted from Toledo over the weekend and committed to MSU! Should you be excited about a kid who decommitted from Toledo to play at Michigan State? Eh, not as excited as you should be if Ed Reed or Troy Polamalu signed up to play ball at MSU, but his film is respectable.
The kid looks like he has a lot of experience playing centerfield in a zone defense. How convenient for a team like ours that tends to run exactly that kind of pass coverage.(Narduzzi used to say our base defense was quarters, but it's been less distinctly so since Wheel-Route-A-Palooza in 2009.)
His offer sheet is less than spectacular, his next best offer being Toledo. Since Toledo's HC left to go die at Illinois, Illinois showed interest but had not yet offered. Same for Nebraska. Based off of the video above he seems to have good ball-hawking skills(plus), good speed(plus) and plays in read and react defense(huge plus). Some areas he'll plainly need to work on before seeing the field at MSU are, his read and react doesn't seem to be THAT good. His 40 is plainly not the advertised 4.46. He's a solid late-season pickup at a position of need.
- Defensive Tackle David Fennell of Portland, Oregon will be joining MSU next fall as our first Oregonian recruit that I can recall. His father, Dave "Dr. Death" Fennell is in the CFL Hall of Fame. Should you be excited about a kid who literally has no other offers? In this case, yes. Usually, no. Here's why.
The kid pretty much lives in Beast Mode. Get up in the morning. Beast Mode. Have a glass of milk. Beast Mode. Knock over other High School kids. Beast Mode. Based off the video above, he seems to get good push, slips blocks well, can move his guy around as needed. What could he improve? He seems to overpursue a bit. That's really all I got on him. This will be another in the tradition of Keshawn Martin, Le'Veon Bell, Darqueze Dennard type players.
Scholarship Count
MSU has one, MAYBE, two scholarships left. More on this in a skosh.
Official Visits For This Upcoming Weekend
Marcus Horne - RB(Uncommitted) - Horne is a kid that MSU is probably looking to take with a greyshirt. A greyshirt is when a kid pays one or more years of their college while they wait for a scholarship. Think of it like walking-on, except you're really a preferred walk-on, except you're more preferred than a preferred walk-on.
Kid has very good speed although not elite. Size-wise he's about the same size as Tompkins, our 2012 RB. Honestly, I think he gets a full-ride offer if we didn't already have another back with this one-cut skill set.
Terrell Jackson - DT(Uncommitted, Formerly Committed to Duke) & Jaleel Johnson - DT(Committed to Iowa, loosely) - It's difficult to talk about Jackson without talking about Johnson. Expect the recruitment to play out roughly like this.
Johnson is the preferred candidate between Johnson and Jackson. Johnson took his official to Iowa this past weekend and had a great time, but will still take his official to MSU. Jackson as of right now does not have an MSU offer. Jackson received an offer from Iowa late yesterday.
So, in summary. MSU will get Jackson or Johnson. Iowa will get Johnson or Jackson. Jaleel Johnson is deciding where he and Terrell Jackson will be going to college. Johnson will go to either MSU or Iowa and Jackson will go to the other.
Jackson Footage
All I could find was a video of a different Terrell Jackson. This one was 5'11" and 170.
Jaleel Johnson Footage
Either will do. I'd prefer Johnson because he is already more built at almost 280 where Jackson is smaller. Also, Iowa fans hate MSU football. They hated us before we beat them at Iowa in 2011 despite Ferentz's 3-1 record against them at the time, they hated us for stealing David Barrent even though they stole Cedric Everson from us on Signing Day, they hated us having Keshawn Martin pass on them down three scores at home even though Marvin McNutt did the same thing to us last year.
So if they're going to hate us let's have it be because we flat out stole one of their commitments, eh?
JaMichael Winston, DE(Committed to Arkansas) - I don't know why the hell this kid is listed as committed, he's taking more official visits than many uncommitted kids. Frankly, he's smitten with Clemson and not coming here. Here's some video anyway so you can covet what you can't have.
The kid is lightning quick, but he looks pretty damn pedestrian at shedding blocks. When he actually gets blocked, which is rare.
Other Notes
- Monty Madaris will decide between MSU and Cincy. I'm thinking Cincy honestly. More on this after his decision.
- Kyle Dodson took his official this past weekend and was the subject of some Izzone chanting when they weren't picking on Robbie Hummel. A funny story on this after Signing Day.
- JP Holtz decides tonight between MSU and Pitt on Pittsburgh TV. As Mike from The Little Brother Blog said, you don't decide on local TV to pick the out of state school.
Best Guess to Round Out The Class
- Jaleel Johnson DT, Monty Madaris WR
Meta Note: Starting effective immediately, Leonidas from What Is Your Profession will be taking over as recruiting guru for A Beautiful Day For Football. Recruiting is one of his passions and strengths as an MSU blogger and we're damn glad to have him. More elaborate intro when his first post goes up.
