The day after Michigan crushed Ohio State in Columbus last fall, Luke Fickell was announced as the Badgers' new head coach, and two Badger commits, 6'3"/290 DT Roderick "Trey" Pierce III and 6'2"/320 NT Jamel Howard, reopened their recruitments. On Wednesday night Michigan completed the first half of an attempted double-flip of Wisconsin's DT class. Pierce, the higher-ranked one, has been rising over the cycle. When he committed to Wisconsin last May he was close the 1,000s, and had slipped into them by fall. Senior tape started to change opinions dramatically. He crossed the 4-star line at Rivals earlier this month and might be heading that way on a couple of the other sites. That senior tape, and the explanation for why it changed so many opinions, came with a major new body and new position; Pierce was a 245-pound defensive end this time last year. He's now listed at 290 to the two sites that update that the most frequently, and 285 to Rivals. GURU RATINGS NOTE: I made a change this week in how I calculate our composite star rating. I've decided ESPN ratings since 2014 should only have a half share, since they're more subject to regional bias, and have not putting in the same level of effort as the other sites. This only affects players for whom ESPN significantly disagreed with the other sites available at the time. RATINGS BY SITE 247: 6'3/290 On3: 6'3/290 Rivals: 6'3/285 ESPN: 6'3/270 3*, 89, NR Ovr #51 DL, #9 IL 3*, 86, NR Ovr #116 DL, #20 IL 4*, 5.8, NR Ovr #16 DT, #7 IL 3*, 77, #63 MW #49 DT, #12 IL 3.88 3.54 4.09 3.68 COMPOSITE RANKINGS 247 Composite On3 Consensus MGoBlog 3*, 0.8825, #549 Ovr #59 DL, #9 IL 3*, 87.83, #581 Ovr #61 DL, #11 IL 3.5*, #504/764 Ovr #42/64 DTs since 1990 3.83 3.78 3.81 Last row is my conversion to a five-star scale. Links are to profiles. As mentioned, Pierce has been moving up the composite; he was in the 1000s and the 110th-ranked DL on the 247 Composite as of October, the 81st DL and in the 700s six weeks ago. Rivals recently moved him up to 4-star, from a 5.6, #44 DT, #15 IL (3.63 on my scale) to what you see above. 247 wouldn't go quite that far, but had further to go, bumping him from an 85 to an 89 in early November. Late risers (e.g. Mason Graham) are usually a good sign, because the industry doesn't trust itself to move guys up too far, and doesn't the smoke from moving guys near the 4-star line under it. Slotting a guy in just under 4 stars when his senior film just started rolling in is saying they're seeing something awesome, but this is all new so give us a second to process. [AFTER THE JUMP: Light the menorah!]