UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[Jeff Buchanan]

To be fair to RR but not in his defense, he was recruiting specific kinds of players for an offense that he proved could be prolific and a defense .... well, a defense that I don't think he understood very well.

RR was convinced he could win in the B10 and among other elite teams with his WVU style offense and defense and he will tell you to this day that he wasn't around long enough to prove it could be done. Maybe some truth in that but, in hindsight, I think his idea was never going to work.

But RR wasn't recruiting against any schools that run these hybrid pro-style offenses like osu, Alabama, Auburn and others. He certainly wasn't recruiting against MSU, Iowa and Wisconsin. I think that was part of his scheme as foolish as that now looks.

Mattison brings a chunk of cred to recruiting, Hoke is a Carr clone when it comes to the way he presents the program to parents. The style of football that M is returning to is a proving ground for HS players who have the NFL as a future job target ..... esp., it would seem, QBs and defensive players. Combine that with the tradition of M football and a quality educational institution, you've got some real strong football recruiting tools. We should expect the kind of quality it appears M is getting out of this staff.

Did Brandon really know what he was doing all along?

[Jamie H]

I'll give RR somewhat of a pass on offense since the offense did at times work really well (against lesser teams for the most part) but how much of that was him getting extremely lucky with Robinson? I don't think even RR expected him to be as good as he is.

On defense, he seemed to be way too eager to recruit guys that were either too small to be linebackers or DL or too slow to be DBs. Or not able to qualify. Or that were going to bail on the team within 2 weeks of getting here. Maybe that was just all horrible luck, but whatever it was, it was certainly horrible.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I don't think RichRod ever properly adapted to te Big Ten. I think he believed(s) that the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big twelve, big east and PAC 10 are all the same. And whatever works in one will work in the others.

That's just silliness. I don't think his offense would ever have been consistent enough inthe big ten. There were just too many moving pieces that had to execute perfectly. One mistake (or a good play from the d) and it's bad news.

If he would have run a defense that his coordinator was familiar with, and developed even the threat of a power run game, he would probably still be the coach today.

[lineygoblue]

If Rodriguez would have just won 1-2 more games, he'd still be the coach.

[Chuck Mallory]

I'm glad he didn't then.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Me too .... but it took a long time before I was ready to give up on him.

[Jamie H]

I was ready for him to go for Harbaugh. Not so much for Hoke, but Mattison changed my tune.

[Hannibal]

One of the first big red flags that went up for me in the Rodriguez era was when I would read mgoblog's recruiting profiles for defensive guys, it seemed like over 50% of them were described as "perfect fit for the Craig Roh DE/LB hybrid spot" or "perfect fit for the Stevie Brown LB/S spot". Not once did I read "this guy looks like a great deep safety prospect" or "this guy will make a great middle linebacker". Michigan has a ridiculous number of scholarships tied up in guys who don't project solidly to any position. Lots and lots of 210 lb linebackers who are too slow to play safety or 240-lb DEs that are too slow or stiff to play LB. Furman, Cam Gordon, Thomas Gordon, Marvin Robinson, Jake Ryan, Jordan Paskorz, Isaiah Bell, Brandon Hawthorne, Mike Jones, Brandon Herron, and probably some others that I forgot. I might even throw Craig Roh in that bunch. The old staff never figured out what to do with him. Under Rodriguez, "hybrid" pretty much always meant "too slow to play position A and too small to play position B".

[WM Wolverine]

Mike Jones, Isaiah Bell & Brandon Herron are pre-RR...

A lot of the other guys are guys who I see as future starters or key reserves. Not every recruit is a blue chipper future All B10, every recruiting class has 3-5 guys whose upside are as likely reserves; that is what Jordan Paskorz, Brandin Hawthorne, Thomas Gordon imo were.

[Jeff Buchanan]

You'll have to admit, WM, Hanni has a point. It was pretty clear to me that RR had a philosophy in mind for his defense that centered around an odd man front with a very quick back five stacked to play runs when needed but essentially meant to defend spread offenses.

Why he hired Shafer in the first place is just mystifying given what we know in hindsight as much as why he fired him was stupid. Why he hired GERG is also a mystery solved only by the knowledge of his alleged loyalty to Tony Gibson who he gave unjustifiable responsibility to for running a 3-3-5, probably expecting GERG to be a guy who would just roll over for Gibson. He was right about GERG but horribly wrong about TG. It will be interesting to see how Pitt's defense looks next season. My bet is that it will suck if Gibson has anything to do with coaching the LBs or secondary.

[Jamie H]

I dunno if one coach will ruin their D, but he certainly didn't do anything to help ours.

In his defense, I'm not sure anyone coaching our DB's could have done much with them. But that doesn't explain why Wisconsin RAN for 10,000 yards on us.

[Rocky Bleier]

Agree with Hanni. I was alway scratching my head about our defensive recruits under RR. Seemed like they were all tweeners.

[Pasadena Blue]

since we don't practice oversigning, what will Hoke's options be if we are getting low on schollies just as the big fish start deciding?

[geo weidl]

Rumour out of awburn is that zeke pike was lied to during recruiting. He was told certain coaches were offered nfl positions after the newton scandal but turned them down citing that everything is honkey dorey in awburn, no need to worry about possible sanctions, when in fact coaches were never offered jobs to begin with. From what I read everybody does it, so its ok. Interesting to see should zeke rethink the situation.

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/did-auburn-coach-lie-to-recruit-about-nfl-offer-29691

[WM Wolverine]

Everybody meaning everybody in the SEC, well except Vandy.