Perhaps no conference is as star driven as the MAC, where getting a top-notch player or two — i.e. Chester Taylor, Garrett Wolfe, Ben Roethlisberger, Randy Moss, Nate Davis or Josh Harris — can catapult you to the top.

None of the state of Michigan's three MAC schools were anywhere near that lofty perch last year.

According to one scouting service, however, at least one of them — Central Michigan — at least reloaded enough to be considered a possibility to head upward again. Scout.com ranked the Chippewas' 26-commit class as the second-best in the conference behind Toledo's — and just outside the top 75 in the nation.

CMU's class is headlined by Ithaca quarterback Alex Niznak —a consensus top-20 player in the state, and an early enrollee — and includes a whopping 15 in-state players, including five from Oakland County alone. Southfield Christian defensive tackle Shafer Johnson, one of the final additions to the class, and Birmingham Brother Rice linebacker Tim Hamilton, one of its first members, are both three-star prospects. The class also includes University of Michigan transfer Austin White.

The recruiting classes for Western and Eastern are both ranked near the bottom of the league by most of the scouting services, and neither of them include nearly as many in-state recruits — just four for WMU and three for EMU. The Broncos continued to milk their pipeline to Florida, though — the same one that brought them players like the Lions' Louis Delmas — getting seven of their 17 commits from the Sunshine State. The Eagles picked up seven JUCO players among their 19 commitments.

CENTRAL MICHIGAN (26)
Ramadan Ahmeti, OL, Lansing Waverly, 6-5, 280
Stefon Armstead, DB, Southfield-Lathrup, 5-10, 170
Nick Beamish, OL, Riverview, 6-5, 260
Josh Carter, RB, South Haven, 5-11, 195
Jarret Chapman, DB, Port Huron, 5-11, 180
Titus Davis, WR, Wheaton (Ill.) Warrenville South, 6-2, 180
Dorian Dawson, DE, Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco, 6-1, 243
Andrew Flory, WR, Plantation (Fla.) Heritage, 5-11, 164
Anthony Garland, RB, Ferndale, 6-1, 215
Tim Hamilton, LB, Birmingham Brother Rice, 6-1, 247
Curtis Huge, PK, Bakersfield (Calif.), 6-0, 190
Shafer Johnson, DT, Southfield Christian, 6-1, 300
Jesse Kroll, WR, Algoma (Wis.), 6-3, 195
Cody Lopez, LB, Plainfield (Ill.) North, 6-1, 215
Matt Losiniecki, Ath, Waukesha (Wis.) West, 6-3, 261
Ben McCord, WR, 6-3, 196, Warren Cousino
Dennis Nalor, DB, Miami (Fla.) Central, 5-10, 175
Alex Niznak, QB, Ithaca, 6-3, 226
Ryan Petro, LB, Winter Springs (Fla.), 6-3, 205
Ben Randle, TE, Big Rapids, 6-4, 250
Kenny Rogers, OL, Holt, 6-6, 255
Blake Serpa, Ath, Maple Park (Ill.) Kaneland, 6-3, 230
Austin White, RB, Livonia Stevenson (Michigan transfer)
Courtney Williams, WR, Melvindale, 6-1, 205
Jason Wilson, WR, Farmington, 6-0, 178
Denzel Wimberly, Ath, Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons, 5-9, 198

EASTERN MICHIGAN (19)
Tyler Allen, RB, Lansing Eastern, 5-9, 175
Dylan Brooks, TE, Stevensville Lakeshore, 6-3, 233
Ryan Brumfield, RB, Pottstown (Pa.) Roberts, 5-10, 180
Sean Cotton, DB, Melrose Park (Ill.) Walther Lutheran, 6-2, 197
Justin Cudworth, LB, College of the Canyons, 6-1, 230
Chris Dunlap, DB, East Los Angeles College, 5-8, 183
Devin Henderson, DE, Palatine (Ill.) Junior College, 6-4, 275
Bronson Hill, RB, Grand Rapids CC, 5-10, 200
Mark Ianotti, QB, Schaumburg (Ill.), 6-4, 215
Kevin Johnson, DB, McKeesport (Pa.), 6-0, 185
Sean Kurtz, LB, Santa Ana Community College, 6-0, 235
Bryan Pall, DB, Orange Coast Comm. College, 6-1, 205
Blake Poole, LB, Santa Ana Comm. College, 6-3, 230
Demarius Reed, DB, Chicago Simeon, 5-10, 155
Tyreese Russell, TE, Melrose Park (Ill.) Walther Lutheran, 6-4, 220
Darius Scott, DB, Chicago Simeon, 5-9, 145
Kris Strange, DB, Pickerington (Ohio) Central, 5-11, 185
Tyrone Taylor, DB, Cerritos Comm. College, 5-11, 190

WESTERN MICHIGAN (17)
Rontavious Atkins, S, Pahokee (Fla.), 5-11, 169
Eric Boyden, TE, Lawrenceville (NJ) Notre Dame, 6-3, 236
Devon Brant, ILB, North Marion (Fla.), 5-11, 212
Donald Celiscar, S, Winter Haven (Fla.), 6-1, 185
Justin Currie, S, Big Rapids, 6-1, 190
Nicholas Dance, OLB, Nashville (Tenn.) Pearl-Cohn, 6-0, 210
Ben Davisson, OT, Rensselaer (Ind.) Central, 6-9, 290
Tyler Hrycak, QB, Valley Forge (Pa.) Military Academy, 6-2, 186
Trevor Ishmael, S, North Miami Beach (Fla.), 6-0, 185
John Jackson, OG, Detroit Cass Tech, 6-3, 290
Joe Keels, DE, 6-2, 219, Kenosha (Wis.) Bradford, 6-2, 219
Timmy Keith, WR, Manassas (Va.) Osbourn Senior, 6-0, 206
James Kristoff, OG, Barrington (Ill.), 6-3, 297
Jarell McKinney, OLB, Detroit Cooley, 6-5, 220
Dustin Pringle, OG, Beaver Falls (Pa.) Blackhawk, 6-5, 260
Kendrick Roberts, WR, Flint Southwestern, 6-3, 180
Cleveland Smith, MLB, North Miami Beach (Fla.), 6-2, 230
Damian Thomas, DT, Pace (Fla.), 6-2, 260
Travis Turner, OT, North Miami Beach, 6-4, 265

Join me on Saturday, Sept. 4, as the Michigan State Spartans open the season against one of the state's three Mid-American Conference teams, the Western Michigan Broncos. Kickoff is at noon, so we'll be up and running by 11:45 a.m.

DETROIT — As the dean of Mid-American Conference coaches, Western Michigan’s Bill Cubit knows as well as anyone what flies in the league, and what doesn’t.

And he’s not necessarily buying the assertion — put forward by the media-voted preseason poll unveiled at Friday’s MAC Media Day at Ford Field — that Central Michigan’s reign atop the league is done.

“It’s hard to beat the champion. I’m a Philly fan, and I’m watching what’s going on there (with the Phillies). Everyone leaves them for dead and all of a sudden — hey, the kids know how to win,” said the fifth-year Broncos coach of the archrival Chippewas, who have won three of the last four MAC titles, and won the in-state rivalry game four straight years. “I told somebody, until somebody beats them, they’ve got the right to say anything they want.”

Understandably, the members of the MAC media contingent were voting with an eye on how many of those “winning” kids returned for CMU, noting the league-low 41 returning lettermen. Most glaring in his absence is record-setting quarterback Dan LeFevour, and not just because his giant picture — which loomed over the entrance to Ford Field for two years, from across the street on the outfield wall of Comerica Park — is no longer up on a promotional billboard.

A sixth-round pick of his hometown Chicago Bears in the NFL draft, LeFevour is gone from the league he’d helped dominate throughout his four-year career, and so are his two favorite targets, Antonio Brown and Bryan Anderson. For that matter, so is his coach, Butch Jones, who bolted for Cincinnati.

For all that the MAC has been a quarterback-driven league — from Byron Leftwich, Chad Pennington and Ben Roethlisberger to Charlie Frye, Josh Cribbs and Bruce Gradkowski — you can’t just vote based on name-recognition at the QB position, Cubit insisted. Just look at his own team from a year ago.

“We had the least amount of starters back, but because you have a quarterback — that’s a media thing, to look at that. I knew it was going to be (a rough year). I was hoping it wasn’t going to be as bad,” said Cubit, who grimaced when his Broncos were picked for a close second behind CMU last year, only to finish a distant third, with a 5-7 record. “Still, we’re about three plays away from going 7-5, and making a bowl game with a bunch of young kids. ... I really think we’re going to be a lot better off, in that respect, but now everybody looks and says, ‘Well, you don’t have a quarterback.’ ”

True, the Broncos also graduated a decorated signalcaller in Tim Hiller — who made it to training camp with the Indianapolis Colts — but Cubit isn’t buying that the Broncos will fall off a cliff without Hiller, especially given the supporting cast inherited by his likely replacement, sophomore Alex Carder.

“We had a deficiency on the offensive line ... and the easiest thing was to put it on Tim’s shoulders. We don’t have to do that this year,” said Cubit, noting the maturity of his offensive line, which will enable the Broncos to be more smash-mouth again. “It’s the surrounding guys that make it (work). That’s probably what hurt Tim last year: Our surrounding guys weren’t as good as the year before. ... I think there’s a little hesitation (in voting), because there aren’t as many quarterbacks returning as there have been in the past. And quarterbacks (that) are going to play well, those teams are going to win, and if they don’t play well, you’re not going to win. But you’ve gotta have some guys around them.”

The Broncos were picked to finish third in the MAC West, behind Northern Illinois and CMU. The Huskies had dipped the last few years under longtime coach Joe Novak, but have come back under second-year coach Jerry Kill, after a very quick retooling of the program.

With CMU’s recent success — four straight bowl games, capped by the program’s first-ever Top 25 ranking last fall — new Chippewa coach Dan Enos knows he’s probably not even going to have the luxury of even that kind of time.

“Even if ... the perception is maybe you have a little time, or you don’t, whatver — coaches, we put it on ourselves, anyway. As a coach, you never say, ‘Oh, we have some time. If we win four games, five games this year, we’re OK,’ ” said Enos, who came to CMU from his alma mater, Michigan State.

“I think it’s a total positive that we’re at a place that has high expectations, because if you think about what the opposite end of it can be, if there were no expectations, that’d be tough. It’d be tough on the players and the coaches. One thing that our coaches have commented on since we’ve been there is that our football team expects to win. When you take over a football team that maybe hasn’t won ... part of your process is trying to get into the mindset of your players, that they have to learn how to expect to win, and learn what it takes to win. And I don’t think we’ve had to spend a whole lot of time talking with our players about expectations, and what it takes to win. ... The previous two staffs did an outstanding job of building a culture where guys expect to do that.”

Unfortunately, a coach who knows all too well what it’s like being on the opposite end of that spectrum is Eastern Michigan’s Ron English. After an 0-12 campaign in his first season a year ago, the Eagles lost 14 players to graduation, and another 25 to other forms of attrition.

English understands all too well the rebuilding project he’s been handed.

“I was talking to a friend of my family last night. He’s from Detroit, and I said, ‘Look Wayne, if you go to Detroit right now, and you buy one of these old houses, are you going to try to refurbish it, or are you going to knock the thing down and start over?’ You’re going to knock it down and start over,” English said. “That’s really what we did (at EMU), to be honest with you. We said we’re going to take a hit here, but we’re not going to tread water. We’re going to knock the thing down and start over.”

The MAC season kicks off with five non-conference games on Thursday, Sept. 2, and the league season commences with a doozy, when CMU visits Temple, the team tabbed to win the MAC East, on Sept. 9.

Western Michigan University announced the signing of three men's soccer players for its 2010-11 season, including a pair of players — Troy High senior Joe Beshara and Oakland University transfer Ryan Barrett — with local ties.

A first-team all-state forward, and the Colts' leading scorer the past two years, Beshara led Troy to a 21-3-3 record as a senior. He also played for the Michigan Wolves club team, which was ranked No. 1 in the nation for a large portion of its season.
"He is a natural goal-scorer who is not afraid to do the dirty work required to create openings for himself or others," second-year WMU head coach Stu Riddle said in a release.
Listed as a top-20 recruit out of high school at East Grand Rapids by TopDrawerSoccer.com, Barrett did not see any playing time for OU in the fall.
"I am excited that Ryan has chosen to join us here at WMU," Riddle said. "He is a player with excellent pedigree, and he certainly has the ability to come in right away and start for us."

The Broncos also added Luis Esquivel, a native of Mexico City, Mexico.

Western Michigan
WHAT: Brown & Gold game
WHEN: Noon, Saturday, April 17
WHERE: Waldo Stadium, Kalamazoo
ADMISSION: Donation of canned goods
HIGHLIGHTS: Bronco Insider at WMUBroncos.com
LAST YEAR: 5-7, 4-4 MAC West
THREE THINGS TO WATCH:
1) Finding replacements — The Broncos have to find a way to replace not only record-setting quarterback Tim Hiller, who broke or tied all of Western's passing records, but his backfield mate, Brandon West, a back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher. So far, it looks like sophomore Alex Carder has the leg up to replace Hiller, while Aaron Winchester is the favorite to replace West. The offense wasn't the problem for the Broncos last year, and those two — or whomever else steps in — need to keep it that way.
2) Shore up the defense — Just one year into his five-year contract extension, WMU coach Bill Cubit had to clean house on the defensive side of the ball after the Broncos ranked 101st in the country. Coordinator Steve Morrison and his staff were fired, replaced by Hofstra DC Dave Cohen, whose troops had performed admirably in a 24-10 loss to Western at Waldo last year. The all-new defensive staff also includes former Spartan DB Amp Campbell. The staff will have to craft a new defensive mentality for a group of players who were demoralized by last season's end. It should help that the Broncos welcome in their most heralded group of DB recruits since the E.J. Biggers/Louis Delmas class in 2005.
3) Find balance again — Just once in the Cubit era (2007), the Broncos failed to have a 1,000-yard rusher. West topped the plateau last year, but the coach admitted that the Broncos were a little too pass-happy last year, relying too much on the likely NFL-bound arm of Hiller. Look for the Broncos to go back to basics this year.

Central Michigan
WHAT: Spring game
WHEN: 5 p.m., Saturday, April 17
WHERE: Kelly/Shorts Stadium, Mount Pleasant
ADMISSION: Free
LAST YEAR: 12-2, 8-0 MAC West, GMAC Bowl champs, No. 23 in AP poll
LIVE BLOG: Morning Sun coverage here.
THREE THINGS TO WATCH:
1) Finding replacements — Dan LeFevour, Antonio Brown and Bryan Anderson were three of the most accomplished offensive players in Mid-American Conference history, and all three are now gone. Of the players in line to replace LeFevour, only sophomore Ryan Radcliff has attempted a pass for CMU. Considering the Chippewas' conversion to a more pro-style offense under new coach Dan Enos, replacing the two record-setting wideouts may be a bit simpler. Kito Poblah and Cody Wilson (Rochester Adams) are the top two returning pass-catchers.
2) Adjusting to a new system — Even with a subtle tweak, going from a more pass-happy to a more option-oriented attack, the Chippewas have been primarily a spread team through their last two coaches. Players insist that the plays under Enos are largely the same — just with different terminology — but there's still the matter of making the transition to a more power run game, with linemen in three-point stances, and the quarterback under center. Tight end David Blackburn was on the field about 20 percent of the time last year, but will be on close to 80 percent of the snaps under Enos.
3) Overcoming youth on defense — With the offense in transition, it'll be up to the defense to keep the Chippewas in games. Led by star linebackers Nick Bellore and Matt Berning, the defense still has a solid core of last year's championship unit. The challenge will be mixing in the younger players on the line and in the secondary without much of a drop off. The backfield lost four key contributors, while there is just one senior and one junior among the defensive linemen.

Eastern Michigan
WHAT: Spring game
WHEN: 2 p.m., Sunday, April 18
WHERE: Rynearson Stadium, Ypsilanti
ADMISSION: Free
LAST YEAR: 0-12, 0-8 MAC West
RADIO: WTKA-AM (1050).
THINGS TO WATCH:
1) Getting back to competitive — The Eagles won Jeff Genyk's last game as coach two seasons ago, but dropped all 12 of their games last year, under first-year coach Ron English. There were some near-misses — like a last-second loss to Northwestern on a late field goal — but the Eagles lost seven games by more than three touchdowns, and gave up 459 points. Even English admitted that the Eagles didn't play very hard last year.
2) Shoring up the defense — The Eagles did rank tops in the nation in one statistical category — pass defense — but that was only because they couldn't stop anybody's run game, giving up 277 yards per game on the ground. Just one season into his tenure, the defensive-minded English turned over seven bodies on his staff, including most of the defensive crew. Phil Snow is the new defensive coordinator.
3) Older and wiser — The Eagles were simply undermanned at times last year, when they had to use 25 first-time players, including nine true freshmen. One of the youngsters thrown into the fire was quarterback Alex Gillett, who started three times after senior Andy Schmitt went down with a knee injury. He comes into the spring in a battle with giant-sized redshirt freshman Devontae Payne.

Entering the final day of the regular season on Thursday (March 4), any team in the top half of the Mid-American Conference's West Division could still claim all or part of the division crown, depending on how the night's games shake out.

At least old rivals Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan — both 8-7 in the league — have their destinies in their own hands when they meet at 6:30 p.m. at EMU's Convocation Center. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Net Detroit.

Ball State (also 8-7) can earn a share of the title with the EMU/CMU winner by beating host Western Michigan Thursday night.
The loser of the EMU/CMU contest could fall as far as eighth, while the winner could be as high as the No. 2 seed in the upcoming MAC tournament at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

CMU, which beat the Eagles the last two meetings with EMU — in last year's MAC tournament, then again with a 62-49 win in Mount Pleasant earlier this season — owned a share of last year's regular-season division title as well, its third since 1998. A win Thursday would let the fourth-year coach Ernie Zeigler's Chippewas (14-14) finish over .500 both overall and in the conference for the first time since the Chris Kaman-led Chippewas won the MAC and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2003. That's a good sign for a program that's only had nine winning seasons since joining Division I in the 1972-73 school year.

For coach Charles Ramsey's Eagles (16-13), it's hardly the only big news on the Ypsilanti campus. The EMU women have already secured the No. 2 seed in the MAC tournament, while the EMU men's swimming and diving team — the perennial class of the conference with a MAC-record 28 titles, including the last three in a row — will help host the conference championships at Jones Natatorium, starting with prelims on Thursday.

Meanwhile in Mount Pleasant, the eight-time MAC champion CMU wrestling team — ranked in the top 10 in the nation — will host the MAC championships at Rose Center this weekend, March 6-7.

There's no mistaking the weird little love-hate triangle between the football programs at Michigan State, Cincinnati and Central Michigan.

It started with Mark Dantonio leaving Cincy to coach at MSU. Spurned by MSU in its coaching search, Brian Kelly went from CMU to replace Dantonio at Cincinnati. When Kelly left Cincy for Notre Dame before the Bearcats' bowl game this year, the Cincinnati hierarchy again robbed CMU, grabbing Butch Jones as Kelly's replacement. CMU, in turn, took Dan Enos — who'd been a Dantonio assistant at Cincy, then MSU — as its new head coach.

And it hasn't stopped with just coaches.

First there was the whole tiff about Trevor Anderson's transfer from Cincy to MSU, to follow Dantonio, when Kelly showed his stubborn side, to get even with MSU.

Now defensive end Jibreel Black, a Cincinnati native, has started the triangle spinning again. He initially committed to his hometown Bearcats, then re-opened his recruitment when Kelly left to coach in South Bend. Black took a recruiting visit to MSU two weekends ago, appeared to recommit to UC, then took a visit to Ann Arbor this past weekend, giving a verbal to the Wolverines after the weekend. Since Black had initially given a verbal to Indiana, then switched to Cincinnati, and now U-M, it's fair to say it's probably not a done deal until he actually inks a National Letter of Intent on Feb. 3.

While the numbers for U-M's class went up with the addition of the three-star recruit, CMU's went down over the weekend, when one of its key commits — Montague QB Cody Kater — decided to renege on his earlier statements that he'd stick with CMU. Instead, he chose to follow Jones to Cincinnati, giving the Bearcats a verbal commitment on Sunday.

He'll hardly be the lone Michigander on the Bearcats' roster next year. After leaving CMU, Kelly kept the pipelines open to Southeast Michigan (much to the chagrin of Cincinnati-area prep coaches), nabbing players like Marine City QB Brendon Kay by continuing to work the contacts he'd made over the years as he built Grand Valley and then Central.

Last year's roster had a dozen players from Michigan on it, including a slew from suburban Detroit. Safety Aaron Webster (Birmingham Groves) was the lone returning starter on defense to start the historic season, while Southfield-Lathrup grad Chris Jurek was the starting center. A year earlier, John Goebel (Milford/Birmingham Brother Rice) led the Bearcats in rushing TDs. It's almost a given that Jones will continue to pillage Michigan to supplement to the fertile recruiting ground he now finds himself in.

Outside the drama, Michigan State also added to its strong recruiting class, nabbing three-star DT Anthony White from Fort Scott, Kan., while Western Michigan continued to add Florida players, with West Palm Beach safety Johnnie Simon.

It's not uncommon for two teams to come out of a single game with a huge win at this point in January.

With big-time football recruits often sitting court-side, key basketball match-ups take on double importance as the Feb. 3 signing day gets closer.

Both U-M and MSU walked off the court with huge weekend hoops wins — MSU won a first-place showdown with Illinois Saturday, while U-M got a non-conference upset by knocking off No. 15 UConn on Sunday — but the two schools' football teams didn't leave the first recruiting weekend of the year empty, either.

• Mark Dantonio and the Spartans hosted a baker's dozen recruits for the weekend, and landed a verbal commitment from three-star linebacker Justin Wilson from Western High School in Davie, Fla.

Six more of the visitors were players who had already committed to MSU, which has the 34th-ranked class so far, according to Rivals.com. The Spartans lost out on two more of their weekend visitors — three-star Cinncinnati Wyoming DE Jibreel Black chose to stay in town, committing to the Bearcats, while Warren, Ohio, DB Mike Dorsey gave a verbal to West Virginia — MSU is still in the running for the final three players who came to East Lansing. Still uncommitted are a trio of three-star players: OL Alex Lewis, from Phoenix (offers from Air Force, Colorado, MSU and UNLV), OL Eric Franklin, of Youngstown, Ohio, Cardinal Mooney (Pitt, MSU, Purdue) and Chicago St. Rita DT Bruce Gaston Jr. (Purdue, MSU, Wisconsin).

Three more players are slated to come to East Lansing this weekend, including: Westland John Glenn ATH Jeremy Langford (already a verbal commit to MSU), Buford, Ga., DT Jerome Davis and DE Rashad Frazier of Middletown, Ohio.

• U-M had 10 players in for official visits this past weekend, and came away with a verbal commitment from Davion Rogers, a three-star linebacker from Warren (Ohio) Harding, who changed his choice Sunday from West Virginia to U-M. He joins high school teammate D.J. Williamson in the 2010 class for the Wolverines, which is ranked No. 19 by Rivals.com.

A day later, another weekend visitor — three-star linebacker Jake Ryan of Westlake (Ohio) St. Ignatius — gave his verbal to the Wolverines.

Bigger than those two grabs — which gives U-M four incoming linebackers and 13 of 26 commits (not counting those listed as athletes) on defense — was the news that the jewel of Rich Rodriguez's recruiting class, Inkster QB Devin Gardner was set to start classes on Tuesday as an early enrollee. Along with six other early enrollees, Gardner will have a leg up on the rest of the recruiting class, giving the nation's top dual-threat QB recruit a shot to truly compete for playing time, come the fall. While that's key at a position that's been in turmoil since Rodriguez hit Ann Arbor, it's just as important for another reason. It finally puts to rest all the rumors that Gardner, who committed last April, might be wavering on his choice, after another shaky U-M season on the field in the fall.

“I start on Tuesday,” Gardner told AnnArbor.com's David Birkett after the Michigan-UConn basketball game. “I don’t know what the holdup was, but it finally got done.”

• Western Michigan was the only one of the state's other three Division I schools to land a commitment after the weekend's visits. The Broncos added three-star RB Dareyon Chance of Ft. Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons to their class (No. 95-ranked class by Rivals) of 18. Coming off a disappointing, third-place finish in the Mid-American Conference's West Division, the Broncos have continued to depend on a haul of out-state recruits. Only four of WMU's 18 commits are from Michigan, headlined by Grand Rapids Junior College OT Marcus Cann.

• Eastern Michigan's winless season in its first year under former U-M defensive coordinator Ron English hasn't done anything to help recruiting, as the Eagles only had six known commits entering the weekend, according to Rivals. EMU did get some good news Monday, when Bellwood (Ill.) Proviso West WR Julius Shelby gave the Eagles a seventh commit on Rivals' list. Line coach Kurt Anderson has been the primary recruiter for more than half the Eagles' recruits so far, the former U-M lineman drawing on his ties in Illinois to bring in four players from his home state.

• On the job as CMU's head coach for just a little over a week, Dan Enos likely hasn't had time to do anything other than select his staff and try to hold onto CMU's current class. The most important of those committed players — QB Cody Kater, who led Montague to back-to-back MHSAA Division 6 titles — has initially said he's staying put. If the three-star QB — who will be in the running to replace record-setting Dan LeFevour — does sign with CMU, it'll be a testament to the continuing work of Enos and Max Glowacki, who was retained as the Chippewas' recruiting coordinator.

CMU's most recent additions were a pair of two-star teammates from Miami Southridge, ATH Jermaine Kelson and WR Lavaughn Whigham, giving No. 23-ranked CMU a class of 19, which is ranked No. 90 by Rivals. More important to CMU, however, is the fact that 12 of those players are in-state recruits. Like Butch Jones before him, it was expected that Enos' contract would have an incentive clause that pays a bonus every year that more than 60 percent of the CMU roster is from Michigan.