Pledge Week: Defensive Backs

Defensive back isn't a position of weakness for 2012, but particularly at corner MSU is a bit thin. This is probably as highly touted a class as we've had since 2010 at the position.

Demetrious Cox

Cox committed to MSU on 1/31/2012. He had a Single Redeemable Offer From Any School In The Country. For examples sake that includes Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, and Wisconsin. For an extremely detailed write-up on Cox click here. For a more concise version of the write-up stay right here. Cox was ranked a four-star recruit by all three recruiting services and was ranked as the 8th - 18th best safety prospect in the country depending on your recruiting service of choice.

On Spartanmag they have an article about Cox 'hitting too hard' something I didn't know could be done with clean hits. I thought about dropping a Jeremy Ware/Colin Sandeman joke, but NSD is a happy day for all CFB fans.



YouTubin'!

What's to love about this kid? Well he's fast. With all due respect to Leo's breakdown, he's the fastest kid I've watched yet while doing all these write-ups.Tremendous athletes can do tremendous things in the safety position once there learn where and when to be, Cox has that athleticism. On a more jokey note, you would think for all the money Terrelle Pryor made and the fact they went to the same high school that they would have been able to put some arrows in here so people could have some idea what they're watching. 

2012 Prognostication and Beyond: Redshirt in 2012 unless he doesn't want to be. With Jairus Jones, Kurtis Drummond and RJ Williamson all competing for Trenton Robinson's vacated safety spot I don't see him getting significant minutes over Drummond in particular who played a lot in 2011. Good candidate to replace Lewis when he leaves in 2013 as a starter in 2014.

Jermaine Edmondson

Jermaine Edmondson committed to MSU on 10/21/2011 over offers from Nebraska, Purdue and the MAC. He took a full five months longer than his teammate Se'Von Pittman to decide to come to MSU. That's totally ok, because when Urban Meyer called him the day he was hired he told Urbz he was busy washing his hair. Pittman went on to take an arrow to the knee and go scarlet and grey. Ranked a three-star prospect by all three recruiting services he'll either be a corner according to Scout and 247 or a Safety according to rivals. I think he ends up at corner, he fits the Chris L Rucker mold of a big corner who's good in run support.


Junior Highlights and YOUtube

Did I just get lucky that the first half dozen of these videos were straightforward? This video looks like it was directed by Michael Bay when he replaced his ritalin with speed. Edmondson looks plenty athletic enough to play the part and a pretty hard hitter. That's all I can get out of this. I'm going to go sit in a quiet dark room now.


2012 Prognostication and Beyond:Will play corner in college. Will redshirt in 2012 barring Angry Hating God type injuries at the CB position. Will see the field in 2013 after the departure of Johnny Adams.

Mark Meyers

Meyers committed to Michigan State over offers from the MAC and heavy interest from Nebraska and Illinois. Previously a Toledo Rockets commit, Meyers was able to get his grades in order and earn an offer to a Big Ten school. Ranked a three-star prospect by Rivals and Scout and two stars by 247, Meyers looks to contribute at the Safety position for MSU.






A Future Predictor of Success is YOUtube(Jr Highlights)

In this video it looks like Meyers got left to play centerfield and did exactly that. Which means he should pick up the Safety thing pretty quick because he was playing "read and react". "Read and react, that's what we play, Walter." "Shut the Fuck Up Donny." He has a good read on where the ball is going and good closing speed to get there and make a play. He doesn't appear to have elite speed but you don't need that if you know where the ball is going. Ask Eric Smith. Solid pickup.

2012 Prognostication and Beyond: There's kind of a safety logjam in progress for the next couple years. Certainly redshirts in 2012. Could see the field in 14 or 15.

Ezra Robinson

Robinson committed to MSU back in October over offers from Clemson, GT, Illinois, Duke and a host of Sun Belt offers. Ranked a three star prospect by all three major recruiting services Robinson will bring the patented SEC speed to the CB position for MSU. At 6'1 and 188 Robinson is another one of the big, physical corners that Dantonio likes to bring in and can lower the boomstick in run support. For an extremely detailed write-up check out Leo's stuff over at What Is Your Profession.


YOUtube

He has a 31 inch vertical. So that's nice.

2012 Prognostication and Beyond: Redshirts in 2012. Plays in 2014 or 2015. Will be excited to see some actual video of him someday.

Sorry guys, the available video on this guys was nowhere near as good as some of the other Position Groups, but all in all it should be a pretty good class.

Weekly Wednesday Wrecruiting Wrap

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.