Michigan football recruit Royce Jenkins-Stone is No. 87 on Rivals.com's top 100 prospect ranking
Royce Jenkins-Stone is the lone member of the Michigan football team’s 2012 recruiting class on the initial Rivals top 100 prospect ranking released today.
Jenkins-Stone, one of four linebackers among the 10 players to verbally commit to play for the Wolverines, is ranked No. 87 and was given a four-star rating by the recruiting site.
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Jenkins-Stone is a senior-to-be at Detroit Cass Tech.
Josh Helmholdt, who covers Michigan recruiting for The Wolverine, part of the Rivals network, said in an audio interview on that site today that the rankings played out as he expected.
He anticipates fellow Michigan incoming linebackers James Ross (Orchard Lake St. Mary’s) and Joe Bolden (Cincinnati Colerain) will also be rated as four-star prospects when Rivals releases its ratings for players beyond the top 100 later this week.
The rest of the 10-member class, Helmholdt projects, will have high three-star with the opportunity to move into the 4-star territory after summer camps and their senior seasons. (Hear the entire Helmholdt interview with The Wolverines' Chris Balas here.)
With nine months to go before anything becomes official on national signing day, 31 of the top 100 have made verbal commitments to their schools of choice.
Texas leads the pack with commitments from seven of those players. Florida State (5), USC (3), Stanford (2), LSU (2) and Notre Dame (2) are the other schools with multiple commitments.
Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin are the other Big Ten programs with a commitment from a top 100 prospect. Offensive lineman Kyle Kalis (No. 18) will play for the Buckeyes, tight end Kent Taylor (No. 67) has committed to Penn State and linebacker Vince Biegel (No. 95) is Wisconsin-bound.
Comments
kidmich
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 5:44 p.m.
Thank you Mr. Rezler, for clarifying that, for me. And yes, the QB I was referring to, is Gunner Keil.
kidmich
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 5:03 p.m.
Recently, I saw an article addressing Michigan recruit commitments. In particular, this article listed a QB, who the article said was the top rated QB, in the country. I may have mis-read this portion, of the article. I don't know the name of the QB, but I believe his first name was "Gunar"(sp). The gist of the article was not only to list recruits, who have verbally commited to Michigan, but list, by position, "potential" verbal commitments. This QB, was listed as a "potential" verbal commitment. At the end of the article, a list of all recruits, who have verbally commited, to Michigan, was given. The list, of verbal commitments, included the aforementioned QB. So my question is, did this QB verbally commit to Michigan, or did the article make a mistake, in listing the QB, as a verbal commitment?
Rich Rezler
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 5:16 p.m.
Hi kidmich ... I think you're referring to Gunner Kiel, the No. 19 (and top QB) rated player on the Rivals list. Various recruiting websites have said he visited Michigan, but he has not committed anywhere. <a href="http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Gunner-Kiel-102803" rel='nofollow'>http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Gunner-Kiel-102803</a>
Tru2Blu76
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 11:10 a.m.
Wow - I'm more impressed with the comments here than I am with the article. ;-) I too think it's important to keep focused on what Coach Hoke & Co. are doing. I've said before: every week or so, we see more signs that Hoke is both effective and on the precise track which will bring our Wolverines to a level undreamed of for the past 5 years or so. I especially agree that Hoke seems capable of turning "good recruits" into top notch players. I don't think the rating services take into account what a good (maybe great) coach like B.H. can do with players that aren't even on their ratings board now. The increasing confidence I see other commenters showing toward Hoke mirrors my own. The difference compared to the last three pre-seasons is making me giddy. I'm trying to hold back because I don't want to raise my expectations as high as they want to go. It's just that I haven't felt this positive about Michigan's prospects since around October of 1997.
1st Down
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 3:48 a.m.
+1 on you guys above. One thing that I love about this class, is that Hoke is building it from the ground up...in the trenches and at LB...and not just with big guys either... most of these guys are athletic, big and can play in space as well... After Brady Hoke left in 03 to go to Ball St. our D Line play dropped significantly, and even with talent such as Branch, Watson, Lamaar etc in the later Carr era... we still didnt play with the consistency and tenacity up front that we did from 96-03 when Brady coached our D Line and we had many very good to great teams.... I see this coming back with the return of Hoke, G Mattison's NFL style schemes (big up front, athletic DE's and LBs who can tackle and also play in space).... These are exciting times to be a Michigan fan...we are witnessing the building of a defense that will dominate college football within 3 seasons....mark it down.
Mick
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 2:35 a.m.
-DVB, I disagree with you on being able to see if someone is talented after Junior years, however it doesn't mean a Senior to be can't improve their standing and get high accolades as well. -Blu n Tpa, I'm very confident that you will be able to add U-M to that list of teams having heart, I'm sensing you do too -TS21, I concur with you completely on attracting the players U-M should be attracting, with our history, academics, winning tradition, wealthy alumni, etc. And as far as these rankings are concerned, Rivals, you need to get your act together! They don't have sufficient coverage of scouting in the Midwest. It's a joke that more Midwest players didn't get rated yet with possibly a maybe of getting more lofty consideration(s). I've been following recruiting closely for over 35 years now, trust me, this is gonna be a special class, I've watched film of all these guys and they are big time impressive. Funchess, for example is an absolute stud on film, athletic as anyone. Get ready folks, I'm sensing a dominating era of M Football on it's way! TiM Go Blue!!!
David Vande Bunte
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 1:32 p.m.
Mick, I didn't say that you couldn't tell if someone was talented, just that ranking them when they still have a year of high school ball to go is premature. Do you know who the best players in the 2012 NFL draft will be already? Of course not...and nobody could have told you in May of 2010 that Cam Newton would go #1 to the Panthers. I am much more concerned about where this kid stands after he plays his senior year, that's all. Ranking them after their junior years is just premature.
Blu n Tpa
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 12:52 p.m.
You are correct that I have a great deal of confidence in our current coaching staff finding more football players to join the ones presently on the roster. I actually think this recruiting class will get much better before next February. TiM Go Blue!
Terry Star21
Tue, May 10, 2011 : 1:49 a.m.
I think some of us are losing the most important element here....the fact of number of stars, numerical top 100 listing is a bit irrelevant compared to the Big Picture. The Big Picture is; that Michigan is attracting top notch players...players whom have visited the campus, talked to coaches, academic leaders - and actually are saying something great about our coaches, and how it helped with their decision. It's great that so much interest has been shown to Michigan Football/Academics by high school coaches/players, and some Media - and extra special considering our new staff has yet to coach a game ! Great time to be a Michigan Football Faithful.......MgoBlueForTiM !
Blu n Tpa
Mon, May 9, 2011 : 10:38 p.m.
This is so premature that I wouldn't be surprise if somene rated who's going to be Prom Queen based on how they look in middle school. Jeez, is the player ranked based on where they are going or where they're from? Does the term 'tail wagging the dog' come to mind? People making a living by putting 17 year olds on a pedestal with a third of their high school football experience to go sounds self-serving. What I'd be interested in would be how Wisconsin and Iowa, to name two teams, rank their HS prospects. They seem to be able to measure 'HEART'. I hope I can add Michigan to that list soon. TiM Go Blue!
David Vande Bunte
Mon, May 9, 2011 : 9:17 p.m.
Is it really fair to be hading out stars when these guys haven't played their senior year in high school yet? Its like the ridiculously early 2012 mock drafts that are out there already. I don't care about what they are ranked by Rivals until after they have played their senior year, not before.