Michigan's Jim Harbaugh continues to dominate recruiting headlines

Welcome to The Crootletter (sign up to get this in your inbox every morning!). I'm Bud Elliott, SB Nation's National Recruiting Analyst, and in this space I'll be sharing news, rumors and musings on the world of college football recruiting.

Let's get caught up on all the recruiting news from the last few days.

Michigan's satellite camp orbit

Jim Harbaugh's Michigan satellite camp show rolled into Atlanta over the weekend. Coaches from Georgia, Pitt and elsewhere joined him. From what I read, there was little talent actually participating in the camp, but Harbaugh drew a lot of attention, including wearing the jersey of Hank Aaron, the famous Braves star. Everyone made a big deal of this, but few in the media made the connection that Harbaugh seems to be wearing a jersey of a town's famous star at several camps, like Allen Iverson's in a visit to Virginia (Iverson is from Hampton, Va.). And he wore Cal Ripken's jersey in Baltimore.

Michigan landed a commitment who watched the camp in Jalil Irvin, a 2018 guard prospect. Chatter in the recruiting industry is that the move was planned to bring more hype to the satellite camp tour. If so, that's a smart move. Of course, Michigan took several commitments on the 2016 satellite camp tour and ended up dropping them. Maybe things will work out better for Irvin come National Signing Day 2018.

In funny news due to the ongoing social media feud between Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban, some Alabama coaches will be at the same camp in Baltimore as ... *GASP* Michigan's coaches.

I've stated my stance on satellite camps before. In theory, they aren't a bad thing and can possibly lead to exposure for players, though that is limited. They do not create more scholarships because every team still has 85. They are first and foremost a recruiting tool. And they open up more opportunities for shady third parties to get paid because they increase the connections for these middle men.

Commitments!

After a relative lack of commitments, the last few days were full of them.

Michiganlanded four-star defensive end Corey Malone-Hatcher, from Michigan. He has solid size and a bunch of elite offers.

Auburn had a solid weekend, adding four-star athlete Malcolm Askew, of McAdory (Ala.). That's the home of Bo Jackson. Look for Auburn to use him as a DB. And the Tigers flipped JUCO running back Octavius Matthews from Louisville. Matthews is rated as the No. 1 JUCO running back nationally, but I do not pay much attention to JUCO recruiting rankings this early on because they are behind schedule compared to their high school ranking counterparts.

Florida State landed New Hampshire tight end Alexander Marshall, who had racked up offers from all over the country in the last few months. His high school film is hilarious, because he plays in New Hampshire.

Georgia landed Matt Landers, a 6'5 athlete with a lot of potential from Tampa. He's very unrefined, though, and is a long-term play. Speaking of Georgia, a five-star defensive back thinks Kirby Smart will win a championship.

Decommitments and leaders

Kellen Mond, a four-star QB decommitted from Baylor and has named a top three of Auburn, Ohio State and Texas A&M.

Former Texas A&M commitment Tate Martell announced his final five, consisting of Ohio State, USC, Cal, Colorado and UCLA. Martell is rated as the No. 1 dual-threat QB in the country and a top-40 player, but I think he's a notch below that. I believe size matters less in college football than it does pro, but 5'10.5 is short for college football, too. I would have him as a four-star.

Quickly

I'm sad to see Verne Lundquist calling his last SEC game. Though he had faded, I really enjoyed him calling games. He's a character. I particularly liked when he sarcastically read promos for awful CBS shows.

Butch Jones said that Tennessee does background checks on recruits. I think this is smart, but it's not a substitute for making relationships and talking with people who know the player because a background check may not pick up on troubling issues if they happened as a juvenile and are therefore sealed in some states.

Will Muschamp took a shot at Northern weather. I totally agree with him that it sucks. But an early signing period isn't going to happen unless the calendar for official visits (paid for by the school) is also moved up. Northern schools will never vote for kids to be able to sign before they've had a chance to take a visit to the school on the school's dime.

I fully support our colleagues who were kicked out of the UFC fight they were covering for scooping UFC on the Brock Lesnar fight news. That's called doing your job really well.