Prospect Primer - A Grand Excursion

A slew of local prep football talent is slated to sign national letters of intent with their respective college selections on February 3 – which is this upcominh Wednesday. Oakland County will be sending its share of players to very well-respected, big time D1 programs, but a number of the area's best high school gridiron gladiators look to be ready to ink with the state's top D2 school, Grand Valley State, a national small school powerhouse built to prominence early last decade by current Notre Dame head coach, Brian Kelly.

West Bloomfield's Cameron Fields and Matt Judon, Clarkston's Dakota Bender, Troy's Bobby Wunderlich, and Farmington's Marco Iaderosa are all said to be sold on signing with the GVSU Lakers and new coach Matt Mitchell next Wednesday morning.

Fields is a super-burner with innate shiftiness who will play WR and help significantly in the Lakers' return game. Judon, Fields' teammate at WB, is a jet-fast linebacker/safety with a serious nose for the ball and penchant for monster hits that could jump in immediately and help out the GVSU 'D'. If all goes as planned, both Fields and Judon will have shunned mid-major D1 offers to sign with the young and energetic Mitchell's new regime. Bender will either be used back at his prep position as a running back/scat back or be asked to transition to defensive back. Wunderlich, Troy's QB as a senior, will return to the safety spot he earned a team-high 8 picks as a junior with head coach Gary Griffith's Colts. Iaderosa will use his heavy foot and try to eventually win the Lakers placekicking and/or kick-off duties.

Other OC'ers currently playing with the GVSU Black and Blue:

Dominique Darden (Groves), Demarco Donaldson (S-Lathrup), Derrell Heygood (S-Lathrup), Charles Hill (Hazel Park), Suave Lavallis (OL St. Mary's), Ricky Thomas (OL St. Mary's), Mark Morrison (Seaholm), Danny Richard (West Bloomfield), Bryan Thomas (South Lyon), Edwin Vushaj (WL Western), James Wojciechowski (Birmingham Brother Rice).

 According to the newly-revamped Scout.com Michigan prep rankings, Oakland County boasts four of the state's top 30 college recruiting prospects. OL St. Mary's Robert Bolden, a fire-armed and fleet-footed QB heading to Penn State this summer, is ranked the highest of the bunch, "signing" in at Number 4 overall. Southfield Christian's Taylor Calero, an under the radar raw talent projected as a defensive end in the college ranks and committed to Michigan State, comes in next at Number 19. Bolden's teammate, the Number 20th ranked recruit in the state, Ernest "The Furnace" Thomas, is a quick and instinctive safety, originally committed to going out west to UCLA, but who has since had a change of heart and re-opened up his recruiting process. Rumors are that Michigan and Michigan State (possibly Notre Dame too) are in the late-stages of jockeying for Thomas' services. Thomas, who split time quite proficiently at the running back position his senior year last fall, has a father who played in the NFL in the 1980's and seems to have a very high ceiling for future growth. Finally, Birmingham Brother Rice's Kevonte Martin-Manley, on his way to Iowa by way of an early-verbal commitment to Bowling Green, checks in as the state's Number 29^th ranked-recruit. The consummate two sport star, Martin-Manley (named all-state twice) is currently in the midst of having a spectacular senior campaign on the hardwood, leading the Rice hoops squad in the scoring department for the second straight year.

In other related recruiting news, 6-2 WR Montrell Robinson of Southfield-Lathrup has backed-out of his verbal commitment to Central Michigan to follow former Chippewa head coach, Butch Jones, who recruited him to Mt. Pleasant, to Cincinnati , where Jones' was recently tapped as the Bearcats new sideline general following Kelly's departure to Notre Dame.