M-Borg vs. THE Flavortown U Thread, Orig. by Buckeye Paul, absconded w/by talent.

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

Thought I would mix it up a tad...you're welcome...

[iam416]

As crazy as it may sound, Ohio State has a credible shot to top last year's all-time high 247 average....even signing a few more kids. I did a class of 21 for 316.5 points. Last year's runaway record-setter was 21 for 311. Obviously, there's no way they'll land all 16 kids I projected. But, at the moment I think they are a clear leader for all of them except 3 (M. Parsons, Anthony Cook and Tyreke Smith). At this point, however, the game hasn't even really started. It's tip-off. Long way to go until the 4th quarter. So, a lot can change.

But, it's looking like another legitimately elite class.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Die

[iam416]

Der.

[iam416]

Ohio State will have 5 of the top 10 in the 247 Composite on campus for the spring game. I don't think they can land any more than 3 of those 5, though.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Just saw a post at mgoblog that said according to both Rivals and 247, M has had a higher ranked recruiting class than osu just once in the last decade. 2007.

He opines that's why M keeps losing to osu ......"There's that one player ..... that's a thorn in the side for M every game."

Not so sure about that.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Here's the link. The best part is in the comments section. A couple of good posts.

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/wtf-statfact-week-michigan-has-had-1-recruiting-class-ranked-higher-osu-past-10-years

[iam416]

IMO, the recruiting over the past 5 or 6 years has been roughly comparable. The class of 2015 was a disaster for M, but otherwise solid classes. Recruiting is a factor, obviously, but not dispositive.

UFM is a hellacious recruiter. He just is. I don't think HARBAUGH!!!! is really ever going to out-recruit him. So, approximate parity is what M needs.

Interesting point re key player. OSU has had some guys break M hearts. Troy Smith comes to mind, obviously, as a guy who tilted fairly even matchups. However, from 2012-15, I think OSU just had a better team. Last year was the first time M came in and matched OSU's talent on an elite level since 2003 (2011 wasn't an elite level for either team).

[Jeff Buchanan]

My view is you gotta have the talent and the talent has to fit what the program wants to do.

With regard to the second point you have to have reasonable stability on your staff. Good coaches are going to move in, move up and move out. That's a fact. But if your doing the right kind of grooming, bringing the next guy up, you'll succeed.

That's been a fundamental aspect of Saban at Alabama and meyer wherever he's been. Even though their systems have evolved, they have fundamental principles on offense and defence the build from.

[iam416]

Nothing to really disagree with on that. I think the coaching staff is a delicate balance. I think mostly you wanted the best and that typically involves upward mobility (hopefully -- you want them to be good!). But I also think having a proven assistant coach or two with no real aspirations is good. For OSU, I love having Larry Johnson. For M, I think Mattison is that guy. Don Brown, I suppose, could be like that, too. I don't know enough about him.

But, by and large, I'll take a guy like Schiano for my DC.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think the key point here is that the best HCs running the best CFB programs in terms of winning have developed a way of managing their organizations well.

What I mean by this is understanding time horizons and knowing who to hire that is not only very good at what they do but is going to contribute to building stability over time. Hires like Brown at M and Shiano at osu are good examples of this.

Building program stability is an aspect of winning CFB football that's underrated. The hard part today is that like most high performance jobs, the best employees, in this case CFB coaches, are looking at, at the most, a 4y employment horizon, sometimes less.

The HC and school's AD have to be acutely sensitive to this and work together to develop sustainability if they want to compete for Championships. It's not easy and I don't think a lot of HCs and ADs think long term about that and have a plan. From what I know about Jim Harbaugh, from his hires, he absolutely understands this concept.

It's my view that as long as M is moving forward on a time line that Jim has in his mind, he'll stay put but I can pretty much guarantee that he is already planning for his departure and grooming key personnel for succession. That may be in 20 years, it may be in 5 but he has a target date in his mind. He's just like that.

[iam416]

It's not just grooming successors, it's understanding who outside your staff can come in. It's understanding who will leave and who will be the top 3 choices. I think, e.g., UFM knew Ash was only there for his two years. He knew he had to have someone lined up, and my guess is Schiano was informally, hypothetically a "yes" before Ash ever left.

I can't agree more about the "program" aspect. The HC can't just be an Xs and Os guy. It's so much more than that. Putting together and running a topshelf organization requires some real skill and, IMO, experience. I think that's why schools seem to really like UFM or HARBAUGH!!! assistants. They've spent at least 2 years learning how to do exactly that. Now, they don't have the brand value and may not be as good a coach, but organizationally, they're at least been schooled correctly.

The other thing that's absolutely worth mentioning is that these guys make mistakes. Not often, but they do. The question is how they redress those mistakes. UFM has proven fairly swift. I'm not familiar with HARBAUGH!!!!!'s overall record to really comment on that -- I mean, at M he hasn't really had to deal with a mistake, yet.

[iam416]

On the recruiting front, I think critical mass has been reached re Teradja Mitchell and Max Wray. The former always spoke highly of OSU, but seemed destined for FSU. It appears that OSU is his likely landing spot -- at least for his initial verbal. The latter wasn't really on radar. He visited with his family, was blown away and now seems very likely to verbal to OSU.

Mitchell would make up for losing out on Gaoteote to USC. He was, IMO, in if Fickell stayed and UFM may still be able to get him to flip, but I'd rate that as very unlikely. West Coast Samoan kid dissing USC? Please.

[iam416]

Max Wray is OSU's 6th verbal. All 6 are in the top 65 in 247 composite. Wray is 56th overall and 4th OT. He DROPS the average down to 97.85.

[iam416]

Josh Proctor, too. Bit of a surprise. Safety. 87th overall. Solid get, I suppose.