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Michigan football usually gets one or two five-stars, if any, in any given class. But with the mixture of the past regime and the Kyle Whittingham era, the Wolverines managed to bring in three -- running back Savion Hiter, edge rusher Carter Meadows, and athlete Salesi Moa.
Moa was the latest addition, having transferred over from Utah after initially enrolling there. Meadows was the first to pledge, as he did so earlier in the summer months. But the one everyone was particularly the most enthusiastic about was running back Savion Hiter, who has been hailed as potentially the most college-ready tailback coming out of high school in some time.
Michigan is, of course, excited about his potential. Running backs coach Tony Alford appeared on the In the Trenches podcast on Wednesday and shared some early thoughts that will certainly get Wolverines' fans' blood pumping.
"Yeah, I think you're getting an exceptionally explosive, like off-the-charts, explosive athlete," Alford said. "Powerful kid when he moves. You watch him just in some drill work, and we're doing conditioning. He'll make a cut and change direction. It's impressive.
"Now, with that being said, I don't want to get too far off the ledge here because I don't want to start putting the expectations on this young guy that all of a sudden if they're not met immediately. He's thinking a certain way about himself, right? So there's a fine line there, right? There's a fine line of letting him go and pushing him but not giving all of it to him, and say, OK, we're just going to piecemeal this thing through because he doesn't have to be ready to play today. We don't play for five months or whatever it i,s and six months. So he doesn't need to be game-ready today, but we're just going to keep moving him forward in a very methodical fashion.
"But I think he's got a chance to be a special player. Time will tell when we put the pads on. But up to this point, just watching him move and interact and do things, and the way he learns, he's got a good football IQ, and so he retains information very, very well, which is good because you know that learning curve you're talking about. He retains information."
Even with all of the hedging, the enthusiasm is palpable. But, Hiter isn't entering knowing he's a sure thing. In fact, his humility is what keeps him growing.
Alford is excited about how Hiter is coachable, malleable, and humble, which lends to the promise of his potential to be great.
"Here's what I love about him the most: he's not a typical wide-eyed freshman," Alford said. "I mean, he comes in, and he's kind of like an alpha right now, and he wants to compete at a high level. If something's not right, he'll go back and do it again without you having to say, oh, go do it. Like, no, that wasn't right. I'm going to do it again. So he's got some of that about him, which I really like because, like I said, he's an alpha male now."
When Sherrone Moore was ousted, the big question immediately was if the maize and blue would be able to retain their star commitment. Alford said while he was potentially worried (and he didn't know his own future, to boot), Hiter's camp never wavered from their pledge to come to Ann Arbor.
"He never blinked," Alford said. "Mom, Dad, Adam McCann, obviously Savion, his brother, sister, grandmother -- they never blinked. And believe me, I was waiting for him to blink. I was waiting for him to blink both eyes twice."
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan football coach on 5-star RB Savion Hiter: 'Special player'
Continue reading...
Moa was the latest addition, having transferred over from Utah after initially enrolling there. Meadows was the first to pledge, as he did so earlier in the summer months. But the one everyone was particularly the most enthusiastic about was running back Savion Hiter, who has been hailed as potentially the most college-ready tailback coming out of high school in some time.
Michigan is, of course, excited about his potential. Running backs coach Tony Alford appeared on the In the Trenches podcast on Wednesday and shared some early thoughts that will certainly get Wolverines' fans' blood pumping.
"Yeah, I think you're getting an exceptionally explosive, like off-the-charts, explosive athlete," Alford said. "Powerful kid when he moves. You watch him just in some drill work, and we're doing conditioning. He'll make a cut and change direction. It's impressive.
"Now, with that being said, I don't want to get too far off the ledge here because I don't want to start putting the expectations on this young guy that all of a sudden if they're not met immediately. He's thinking a certain way about himself, right? So there's a fine line there, right? There's a fine line of letting him go and pushing him but not giving all of it to him, and say, OK, we're just going to piecemeal this thing through because he doesn't have to be ready to play today. We don't play for five months or whatever it i,s and six months. So he doesn't need to be game-ready today, but we're just going to keep moving him forward in a very methodical fashion.
"But I think he's got a chance to be a special player. Time will tell when we put the pads on. But up to this point, just watching him move and interact and do things, and the way he learns, he's got a good football IQ, and so he retains information very, very well, which is good because you know that learning curve you're talking about. He retains information."
Even with all of the hedging, the enthusiasm is palpable. But, Hiter isn't entering knowing he's a sure thing. In fact, his humility is what keeps him growing.
Alford is excited about how Hiter is coachable, malleable, and humble, which lends to the promise of his potential to be great.
"Here's what I love about him the most: he's not a typical wide-eyed freshman," Alford said. "I mean, he comes in, and he's kind of like an alpha right now, and he wants to compete at a high level. If something's not right, he'll go back and do it again without you having to say, oh, go do it. Like, no, that wasn't right. I'm going to do it again. So he's got some of that about him, which I really like because, like I said, he's an alpha male now."
When Sherrone Moore was ousted, the big question immediately was if the maize and blue would be able to retain their star commitment. Alford said while he was potentially worried (and he didn't know his own future, to boot), Hiter's camp never wavered from their pledge to come to Ann Arbor.
"He never blinked," Alford said. "Mom, Dad, Adam McCann, obviously Savion, his brother, sister, grandmother -- they never blinked. And believe me, I was waiting for him to blink. I was waiting for him to blink both eyes twice."
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan football coach on 5-star RB Savion Hiter: 'Special player'
Continue reading...
