UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[Da Geezer]

I notice some services have Kuger listed as a center. Certainly, with his background and family, he is one recruit who can begin working on the technical aspects of being a center during his senior year in high school.

It must be a good recruiting tool to point out that professional coaches approve of their kids going to UM. The same applies to the basketball coaches coaching Hardaway, Robinson and Dumars. Speaks well for the coaches.

[Rob F]

I bet mgoblog has Kate Upton dancing overtime today. Poor girl's getting tired.

does it really??? See ya later; I'm heading over there pronto!!!

[Hannibal]

Does this mean that we are still recruiting Pocic?

[Pasadena Blue]

This OL class is going to start rivaling Stanford's from last year.

[hack]

Great, but let's freakin get some RBs and whatnot too. What else is needed? CB, I bet. Tho surely Issac has to be liking the UM's OL factor in this.

[The Oracle]

Word out there is that we would still take Pocic if he wanted to come.

[lineygoblue]

I've never seen a Michigan recruiting class fill up this early before. And, its not with "MAC" quality talent, either. These are Top 250 guys.

Coach Hoke made it a priority to re-establish Michigan as a power running football team, and with this group, plus the one he just signed, it looks like were well on the way.

2014 and beyond looks pretty doggone good up front.

[hack]

Do you really think the team is headed back to power running? I know that that's what they say, but Borges just isn't that kind of OC, is he? He's way too ``creative'', and I mean that in both the positive and negative senses of the word. He's a guy who wants to have a ton of looks and packages and wants to outsmart you (and sometimes ends up outsmarting himself). In no way does he seem like a guy who believes in winning at the LOS. He seems to believe in winning through game plans and, to a lesser extent because I think he's not a great first-quarter-to-fourth adjustments guy, creative play calls.

[whodean]

Do you really think the team is headed back to power running?

Compared to what we've had for 5 years? Definitely.

[JRB]

Do you really think the team is headed back to power running? I know that that's what they say, but Borges just isn't that kind of OC, is he?

When he had Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams at Auburn, he absolutely believed in power running. I saw that Auburn team in person-- they could dial up a bit of trickery if they needed it, but they didn't make their living trying to fool anybody. He had no problem giving a freshman RB, Ronnie Hillman, 262 carries in 2010 at San Diego State. I think a lot of what we saw with Borges this year stemmed from having an unconventional QB and no proven tailback on the roster at the start of the season. He was pulling out everything just to see what would work.

[hack]

Good points JRB. Dunno. That MSU game, though. No true believer in power running passes 40 times in a wind storm. And the 4th-down silliness right at the endzone sticks in my head. That is the essence of making your living trying to fool the DC, to me at least. Maybe I'm overstating it, but nobody who really believes in ``MANBALL'', so to speak, makes that play call. An OC that really believes in power running sends Denard right up behind the Rimington-award senior center. I don't doubt that Borges is keen to run the ball. Maybe you're right that he was just tossing stuff out and seeing what would stick, but my suspicion is that it's not necessarily going to be about overpowering/between-the-tackles running. He'll want to do a lot of east-west too.

[whodean]

Mitigating circumstances: You have to pass more when you are trying to play catch up, MSU's Dline was stuffing the run and that was before Fitz emerged at the RB position, so there wasn't a viable running option to give the ball to.

[hack]

IMO those were are not mitigating circumstances or an explanation of why that game was what it was. Michigan was never down by an amount that would have forced them to abandon the run -- always within 2 scores. They didn't try to establish it the run, even. I think moreso now that we have a full season of Borges to think about, the explanation is that he had game-planned a buttload of passes, just as he gameplanned a lot of running against others. He didn't adjust.

The case of Fitz is interesting. That is definitely before he emerged, which was the following week against Purdue. That's another reason to be cautious of claiming that Borges is by instinct a power-running guy. A power-running guy would find out what he's got in the backfield, you'd presume, before taking to the air. But Fitz had not gotten 20 carries a game at that point. In the MSU game he had 2. It wasn't as if they had to abandon the run.

I agree with JRB that Borges spent most of the year tossing stuff out there to see what would work. It's interesting that he explored using his WRs before using his RBs.

[WM Wolverine]

OL class filled up in a hurry, all 5 in the Rivals top 200, 4 in the top 110, 3 in the top 60... Really like how we stole Kugler from Sparty, supposedly he grew up a Sparty fan. If Dantonio can't get those guys, competing for B10 championships will only be a dream for them...

10 offensive commits, only 3 defensive. Offensively M needs a WR (or 2) and a RB before its finished on that side of the ball... I'd assume they wouldn't pass up Pocic if he's interested...

[Pasadena Blue]

we need Treadwell and Isaac to sign up soon ... but I suspect they want to take a lot of visits. The OL's we are stacking up have to make Isaac feel good.

Probably the best reason to take Pocic at this point is to keep him from the Bucks or Domers. I am not sure if I would want any of our other five OLs from this class to drop out.

Has Hoke announced how many he will take in this class (does it match what's at the top of this thread)?