The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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2012 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE tight end Devin Funchess, Detroit Cass Tech linebacker Royce Jenkins- Stone, Ann Arbor Pioneer running back Drake Johnson, Farmington Hills (Mich.) Harrison defensive end Mario Ojemudia, Richardson, Nor- fleet and Godin — who hail from southeastern Michigan and have to travel just down the road. Two more recruits are less than an hour away: Wormley and Sylvania (Ohio) Southview safety Allen Gant. But only one of them can walk from home to get to school. Johnson played his high school games literally in the shadow of Michigan Stadium — Pio- neer High School is directly across the corner of Stadium and Main from The Big House. Michigan signed three of the top 100 players in the country, according to Rivals.com. It also signed 12 players with a five- or four-star rating. John- son was not one of those players. He may have been overlooked in Best Individual Senior-Season Game: to suit up for the Wolverines, a list which includes many recognizable names: end/halfback Field H. Yost Jr. (1929-31), son of the Michigan coach- ing legend; fullback Prescott Crisler (1953-55), son of Hall Of Fame coach Fritz Crisler; linebacker Andy Moeller (1982-85), son of former Michigan head coach Gary Moeller and assis- tant coach from 2000-07; and quar- terback Jason Carr (1992-95), son of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. est U-M Alumni: Every year, there are a few incoming freshmen who are the first-ever Michigan players from their small towns, and this year is no exception. The city of Clayton, in southwest Ohio, has a population of 13,000 and is home to early enrollee linebacker Kaleb Ringer. Madisonville, Ky., is a little bigger, at 19,000 citizens, but their first Wolverine is Clark. This year, there are a couple of relatively big cities sending a player to Michigan for the first time ever. Magnuson's hometown of Carlsbad, Calif., is home to 105,000. But the big surprise is Bars, not in that he came to Michigan, but that no Nashville native before him had. the recruiting world, but his oppo- nents certainly took notice. Johnson finished the year with 2,800 yards and 37 touchdowns. No individual performance was better than his in the Pioneers' 35-10 win over Temper- ance Bedford in the Division I district finals. Johnson rushed for 348 yards and four scores on 36 carries (9.66 yards per touch) in the victory. Early in the fourth quarter, locked in a heated 14-10 game, Johnson took a pitch, came up and launched a pass downfield, complete for a 42-yard gain. The play helped Pioneer regain the momentum and put the game on ice. nounce: There are some pretty difficult names in this class. Even Hoke had trouble pronouncing Sione Houma's name at his signing day press confer- ence. Sione Houma is pronounced SEE-OWN-A WHO-MAH. The two wide receivers may be difficult as well — Amara Darboh is pronounced AH-MAR-AH DAR-BOW, and Jehu Chesson is JAY-YOU CHESS-ON. Mario Ojemudia's last name is pro- nounced OH-JUH-MOOD-IA. Most Difficult Last Name To Pro- Most U-M Alumni: Johnson will be- come the 221st Ann Arbor native 32 THE WOLVERINE MARCH 2012 Hails From The Hometown With The Recruits Who Attended The Most 2011 Michigan Home Games: With the lux- ury of early verbal commitments and local prospects, Michigan was able to have several guys come in multiple times. Cincinnati Colerain linebacker Joe Bolden, Funchess, Godin, Ojemu- dia and Williams all came to three games. But Gant wins the title, hav- ing attended four. Running back Dennis Norfleet, the shortest (5-7) recruit in U-M's 2012 class, is the 11th player from Martin Luther King High School in Detroit to play football at U-M. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM to-Michigan pipeline. Detroit has been a fertile recruiting ground for the Wolverines since the late 1800s. The Wolverines signed three Detroit natives this year in Richardson, Jen- kins-Stone and Norfleet. Since the Wolverines started playing football, 516 of their players, including the three newest members, were from Detroit. That's an average of nearly four But nothing will touch the Detroit- players a year. The Wolverines have had roughly 3,300 players in their his- tory — and 15.6 percent of their all- time roster has been Detroit natives. Jenkins-Stone and Richardson are the 19th and 20th Cass Tech alumni to play at Michigan, respectively, while Norfleet is the 11th Wolverine from Martin Luther King High School. Hails From The Hometown With Few- ing into the recruiting cycle for the 2012 class, Brady Hoke was a rela- tively unknown commodity, having spent his head coaching career at Ball State and San Diego State. But that didn't stop him from whipping up some serious momentum amongst high school seniors. By the time he coached his first game in Ann Arbor, Hoke had nearly wrapped up the en- tire class with verbal commits. The first was Braden, who chose First Michigan Commitment: Head- Michigan more than five months before the Wolverines kicked off the 2011 season. He gave the Michigan coaches his verbal commitment on March 24. Michigan fans were expecting a fairly uneventful National Signing Day. The Michigan coaches had secured most of the class before the 2011 season even began, and everything looked to have taken shape. Then word spread late Tuesday night that Michigan had received a commitment from Nor- fleet. Michigan got in contact with Norfleet after his basketball game Tuesday night. The next morning, he faxed his papers to Ann Arbor. ❑ Most Recent Michigan Commitment: