Midwest Spotlight: Five prospects that could flip
Almost 75 percent of the 2019 class rated four-stars or higher has already made their college verbal commitments, but history has taught us not all will stay that way. The early signing period for FBS football starts on Dec. 19 and these five prospects from the Midwest are on flip watch until then.
MORE: Farrell's Three-Point Stance | Five weird things from Week 1
Mangham had methodically plotted out his game plan for recruiting in the spring, narrowing his list of 50-plus scholarship offers down to a top 16 in April and then a top nine on June 18. However, six days after that top nine was released, Mangham announced a commitment to Colorado.
The choice of Colorado was a surprising one for a Detroit prospect – the Buffaloes had not signed a state of Michigan prospect since the 2004 class – it was an abrupt departure from his original game plan of taking all five official visits and deciding as a senior. Tennessee and Texas A&M were two schools Mangham had mentioned as possible official visit destinations before he committed, while Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan State, Oregon, TCU and Texas were the other schools in his June top nine.
A four-star prospect committing to his hometown school in October of his junior year sounds like a stone cold lock, but almost immediately after Karlaftis pledged to Purdue he expressed an interest in continuing to visit other schools.
Michigan is viewed as the strongest threat to the Boilermakers, and Karlaftis made an unofficial visit to Ann Arbor back in March. Additionally, the Wolverines offered his brother, Yanni Karlaftis, a class of 2021 linebacker, as has Purdue. Karlaftis then took his first official visit to in June to USC.
Although Karlaftis was born in Greece and only lived in West Lafayette since his 8th grade year, he still has strong family connections to the city and the Purdue program. Karlaftis insists he is 100 percent committed to the Boilermakers and these visits are just back-up plans, but he is definitely a prospect to watch this fall.
Missouri head coach Barry Odom has started to build momentum with in-state prospects over the last three months, something he struggled to do in the previous two classes when just four Show-Me-State products signed on with the home-state team. Missouri has nabbed three prospects from within their own borders in that timeframe, including Buford who became the second overall commitment in the class back on June 6.
Buford made that commitment after taking official visits to both Missouri and Arkansas. He may not be done taking official visits, however, as he since has discussed plans to see additional schools, specifically Florida. Auburn and Michigan are two more schools Buford expressed strong interest in prior to his commitment, and they may also be in play for his final three official visits.
It should not surprise anyone who has followed Butler’s recruitment that his name appears on this list. The Toledo native, after all, committed to Kentucky in early August without ever having set foot on the Wildcats' campus. There were some early academic questions around Butler, but he did a good job of sufficiently clearing those up for several teams by the end of his junior year and earned several new offers then, including one from Alabama.
Kentucky also came through with their offer at the end of June, and Butler said it was the belief their staff had in him that prompted the commitment. He has been candid about taking additional official visits, though, with Big Ten programs Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State high on his list. Those schools have not offered yet, but further development on the field and in the classroom could bring more offers this fall.
This may not be as much of a “flip” alert as it is a prospect I could see re-opening his recruitment and starting it over again. What is interesting about Anderson is that he broke his leg and missed his entire junior season. However, new offers still continued to come in from Arkansas, Nebraska and Notre Dame, joining Iowa State, Purdue and South Carolina which had offered before Anderson’s injury.
The other aspect here is Anderson was outgrowing linebacker, where he played as a sophomore, and is projected to be a defensive end in college. Unless Anderson lays an egg as a senior, I think we see another offer wave for the St. Louis native this fall and a decent chance he uses official visits – of which he still has all five – when new options present themselves.
