Recapping 2012 Commit Kaleb Ringer

Another one of the great 2012 commits is Kaleb Ringer out of Northmont, HS in Clayton, OH.  Kaleb happens to be the cousin of former Michigan State RB Javon Ringer so he made a bit of noise when he picked Michigan.  The sad news is that we won't be seeing Kaleb in 2012 because of a season-ending injury during fall camp.  It was already likely that Kaleb was going to a redshirt anyways, but still a big loss to the team in terms of depth and experience as time goes on.  Kaleb doesn't have the recruiting profile of some players, but he is experienced to be a pretty reliable guy during his career.

Kaleb is a versatile kid playing linebacker and also running back in high school.  He's one of those guys that has great speed and can make plays moving sideline to sideline.  He's not the tallest guy at 6'0" or the biggest at 220 pounds, but he is very mobile.  He's one of those physical guys that isn't afraid of contact and is good at fighting off blocks and getting to runners.  He looked pretty decent in the Spring Game and you can definitely tell he's progressing, but he will take some time to develop.



Here's the basic stats on Ringer:

	ESPN	Rivals	Scout	247Sports
Height	6’0”	6’0”	6’1”	6’0”
Weight	225 lbs	219 lbs	225 lbs	225 lbs
Position	ILB	ILB	LB, RB	ILB, RB
Rating	3*	3*	3*	3*
Position Rank	#23	#17	#35	#20
National Rank	N/A	NR	N/A	NR

As you can see, Kaleb is rated as a 3* across the board and isn't nationally ranked on any of the sites.  He has pretty good weight, but is defintely not the tallest guy.  You can see the recruiting sites do respect his speed, since he's listed as a runningback on Scout and 247.  Everyone seemed to like his tackling ability and physicality when engaging in blockers.  Great athlete and showed ability to cover a lot of ground very quickly.  He wasn't used a whole lot in dropping back into coverage, but he is solid at stopping the run and rushing the passer.  He's got pretty good speed, being listed at 4.5 in the 40  He's not ranked nationally, but on all sites except Scout he's a top-25 guy at the linebacker position. 

Normally, I would go into what kind of impact I believe Kaleb will have as a true freshmen.  However, he had his season-ending injury in fall camp and won't be seeing any action anytime soon.  Hypothetically, if he was completely healthy, I don't see him starting or getting much time.  Michigan is very deep at linebacker and he will even have to compete with fellow 2012 commits like Joe Bolden for backup time.  I think the most likely result would have been a redshirt for him this year.  Of course, he will now be getting one because of the injury, but I think he would have gotten one regardless.

He's definitely a great athlete though and someone that I believe will definitely have an impact in the future.  The most important thing is that his rehab goes well and he can get back onto the field at the start of 2013.  In my opinion, I definitely think that Kaleb will have an impact on the Michigan defense as he is a talented guy.  He's not the highest rated guy in the country, but ratings don't always matter when it comes to how a kid will do in college.  It's a tough thing to see a kid like this with such high potential get this type of injury, but we can only hope for the best and wish him the best of luck in the future.