MVN - Most Valuable Network

Michigan Lands 2009 QB Newsome

They may have missed out on landing prize recruit Terrelle Pryor this season, but head coach Rich Rodriguez stayed hard at work and landed four-star quarterback Kevin Newsome Jr. from Western Branch High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, the #39 rated player by Scout.com and number five quarterback.

Newsome, a 6-3, 210 pound dual-threat quarterback, felt the school, team, and coaching staff were a perfect fit for him and after speaking with Rodriguez and his staff this morning, his father broke the news to TheWolverine.com on the commitment to the Maize and Blue.

“We called the coaches this morning and Kevin talked to Coach [Rich] Rodriguez and committed,” Newsome Sr. told Rivals.com’s Mike Farrell at about 11 AM Thursday. “Coach Rodriguez was excited.”

Newsome took numerous visits to many schools such as North Carolina, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, Illinois, Virginia, VA. Tech, Boston College, Nebraska, and Penn State. Michigan was the only visit made by he and his family where they came away without any worries or concerns.

“It was the only visit that my family and I left without any real questions and felt happy about,” Kevin recalls. “The offense is certainly a question mark because I’d rather throw the ball more than run, but I think I fit into it well and they said they’d throw the ball more because I’m more of a complete passer than they’ve had in the past.

Newsome was drawn to the history and lore of Michigan football and knows the comparisons will be drawn between himself and Pryor, and that the Ohio State rivalry is one of epic proportions.

“I really loved the coaching staff with Coach [Rich] Rodriguez and Coach [Fred] Jackson,” he said. “I love the winning tradition of Michigan. I really believe Michigan is the Godfather of college football and that’s what makes the Michigan-Ohio State game so notorious. Campus-wise, everything was big. It’s the Big House. I can’t even describe the different buildings, the practice field, the weight room – all those things were top of the line.”

The Wolverines have a nice start on next year’s class. Newsome makes the count of commits for 2009 six and third in the nation’s top fifty, joining Detroit defensive tackle William Campbell and Ohio defensive back Justin Turner.

It may take a season or two to totally implement change and some of us will be impatient with the growing pains, but there is no questioning the work Rodriguez and his staff is doing preparing for the future.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Big House, Penn St., Ohio St., Rich Rodriguez, thewolverine.com, University of Michigan, Big Ten, Michigan, Michigan football, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.