UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[iam416]

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, that they don't get's right to the M culture thing that creates the two pianos on the backs of the football program in it's quest for championships. Pretty sure, that's easy to understand in this context.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Liney ..... the world is changing dramatically and at light speed compared to what our parents experienced and even what we experienced. Dramatic change, predominantly technology, is affecting every aspect of our lives including education. Right behind it is medical practice and the kinds of things in store for people now in their 20s impacting their wellness and longevity are just as dramatic and far reaching in scope and impact.

[WM Wolverine]

Darion Green-Warren CB (4 star) expected to announce for M at the AA bowl. He'll help at a position of weakness.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Michigan seems to be in good shape for Stanford DT and Grad Transfer Michael Williams. At 6-2, 290-pounds he started for 2y for the Cardinal. As a redshirt junior in 2019, Williams recorded 24 tackles including six for loss and a sack. Observers think he's a decent space holder if not a bit on the light side to fill in as a run stuffing space occupying dude. He does fit Don Brown's defense though and if you like it, WIlliams could be a Mike Dana type of contributor at DT instead of of DE. His other suitors are SMU (he's from that area), Vandy and Rice.

https://www.si.com/college/michigan/football/michigan-wolverines-football-a-major-player-for-stanford-grad-transfer-michael-williams

[WingsFan]

[WingsFan]

Not surprising, but read was a silent verbal for SC for much of this past season, but Michigan flipped him after an official to Ann Arbor.

[lineygoblue]

Green-Warren is a big admirer of C. Woodson as well. If he only plays half as good as C. Woodson, he'll be better than anything we've seen on the roster in a long time.

[Hannibal]

Badly lacking difference-makers in this class, but not too bad, considering the circumstances.

[drok]

[iam416]

[iam416]

More on Wiltfong -- at last my opinion. I don't know how M recruits. I don't know the organization. I don't know the overall philosophy. I don't know the mechanisms. But, Wiltfong knows how recruiting works at a lot of different schools. And if what he says is true -- and I have no reason to believe it isn't -- then M's organizational approach is not going to cut it vis-a-vis elite recruiting machines.

UFM, as I'm sure you know, was maniacally type A and relentlessly demanding. It's why he could go into programs in disarray and turn them around in 2 years, or come into programs that were underachieving and elevate them to ridiculous levels. His recruiting organization, led by Mark Pantoni, was maniacal. And Pantoni is really good. Most everyone associated with the program would rather lose an OC or DC than Pantoni. Ryan Day, obviously, kept him.

UFM also loved to recruit. Loved it. When he hired assistants they had to be able to recruit. Ryan Day is continuing that obsessive approach to recruiting aided greatly by the continuity with Pantoni. What UFM did with recruiting at Ohio State (and everywhere he went) was amazing. That's why so many OSU fans are still waiting to see how Ryan Day does recruiting. We believe he's an elite offensive coach, but can he do everything needed to keep the program elite? ("keep" being the operative word -- there's no way he could have done what UFM did).

What Wilftong said accords with what I've read about M recruiting. I think he also mentioned that the staff doesn't have a lot of great recruiters on it right now (another thing I've heard). And I've also heard that HARBAUGH!!!!'s quirky nature means he doesn't hit it off recruits at the rate other coaches do (Dabo, e.g., and his aw shucks confidence and overt religious approach, is a big hit with lots of kids). And Don Brown has the same sort of limitations, but not as pronounced. Or so I've heard.

But, these criticism really only pertain to M vis-a-vis elite recruiting schools. HARBAUGH!!! has brought in classes over the past 4 years that probably average out to about lower top 10. That's pretty good. The 2017 class was outstanding. But then that gets to another issue -- player development/or recruit evaluation. If you look at Ohio State's generationally good 2017 class immediately see why they were in the CFP. If you look at M's 2017 class, you see massively unmet potential (or, perhaps, the potential was never there and they were overrated, I guess).

In any event, I don't think M's recruiting apparatus is anywhere near as strong as Ohio State's in terms of organization and in terms of who is doing the recruiting. Ohio State has the better brand right now, but M's brand is still damn good. And they're definitely doing a better job in-state (another issue, btw -- I thought their in-state recruiting was a total clownshow early on in HARBAUGH!!!!'s tenure). But, nationally M struggles. the 2021 class is a great opportunity to land a huge class. We'll see if they can do it.

[AlabamAlum]

[drok]

The idea of a disorganized recruiting process at M doesn't feel limited to just recruiting. Seems to me that it's a symptom of the entire program, with recruiting being just one outlet of that disorganization.

[hack]

The idea of a disorganized recruiting process at M doesn't feel limited to just recruiting. Seems to me that it's a symptom of the entire program, with recruiting being just one outlet of that disorganization.

Agreed. Which isn't what was to be expected from Harbaugh. All those stories about his obsessive attention to detail circa late '14...