Friday, January 9, 2009

A Recruiting Scoop?

I just came home from dinner at South Quad, where I briefly saw Michigan's courtship with
LA outside linebacker Barkevious Mingo. Young Mr. Mingo, his mother (presumably) and his aunt/grandmother/family friend(?) were eating dinner with Brandon Graham, Fred Jackson, Calvin Magee, and some hyper-gregarious lackey far too white and chunky to actually be a communicative member of the proceedings. Let's call him Preston.

That was the scene as I entered South Quad. (There is another, smaller dining room in
South Quad only accessible by the entrance closest to Blimpy Burger; that room was where
their group was eating.) I didn't stop to watch them eat, because that would probably be
peculiar and off-putting to Barkevious and the Mingo Bunch, and I wanted to harm
Michigan's recruiting efforts as little as possible.

I was lucky enough to run into them again after dinner as I left, where I was able to
witness a more substantive interaction without gawking and jeopardizing Mingo's comfort
level.

Mom and Other Woman stayed behind with Coaches Jackson and Magee while Barkevious,
Graham, and Preston stepped outside. Preston zealously asked Mingo if he wanted him to
bring the car around to return to the hotel; Barkevious declined, as Graham had a mini
campus tour planned for him. Mingo basically told Preston to go away and leave him alone.
If Preston is a university employee, I would consider looking for some new talent.

Graham gestured toward West Quad and told Mingo he would be living there for his first
two years. Graham had no problem with the accommodations and according to him the RA
ensures that nobody harasses the athletes while living on-campus.

As I turned downhill away from the duo, someone in West Quad shouted to them out of his
open window about playing XBox. Graham obviously knew the person because he responded in
the affirmative and they headed towards the dorm.

Though I, as an unpursued individual, am unqualified to gauge the success or sincerity of
someone's recruitment, I must say in my capacity as a dude that I saw nothing but
friendliness and candor from Graham and that Mingo, as a dude, could not have been
anything but impressed. I think Graham genuinely wants Mingo to come to Ann Arbor and
that has to reflect well upon the football program. I couldn't tell what the coaches
talked about with Mingo's family, but it was visible that Fred Jackson is a suave and
silk-tongued Dapper Dan Man. The Mingo ladies simply ate him up. If this is recruiting
SOP for the new coaching regime, I don't care how many decommits we have during
Rodriguez's tenure--this is the right way to recruit kids to Michigan.

The only other observations I had were of Mingo himself. Rivals lists him at 6-5, 209.
This is false. I am 6-2 with shoes on and about 165 pounds and Mingo was barely taller than me. Also, it's possible that he has 70-pound legs, but I have a hard time believing this gentleman
actually cracks 200 pounds. His arms are shockingly thin. Nothing to worry about in our
new Republic of Barwis, but still worth a mention. And finally, Mingo put on a varsity
jacket to go outside, but instead of "West Monroe" or something akin, the back said
"Mingo" in old Redskins font and was encrusted with some type of stone. So we know a low
profile is of the utmost importance to him.

Previous reports indicate that Mingo favors hometown LSU, but...who knows?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If Martavious Odoms and Barkevious Mingo become teammates, who will Rich Rod recruit next year:

a. Mischievious Bingo
b. Salacious Curvio
d. Delicious Whackum?