UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[Rocky Bleier]

WM,

His offer list sure makes it a head-scratcher. Was the LSU offer real? Penn State is known as Linebacker-U, but their recruiting is relly hampered by the Sandusky scandal. Yale? Well, we know he won't have academic issues. The MSU offer tells me he may have potential, and it is alway nice to deny them someone they offer.

[Pasadena Blue]

I understand the desire to legacy players a chance ... but given how many top shelf players we are in on, and given our small number of remaining scholarships, got to question the decision.

[WM Wolverine]

Wangler is a classic late bloomer, under the radar type recruit. Undersized (safety last season, moving to LB) that worked to grow into a linebacker and when it came time to get noticed, he was injured and missed every camp this spring/summer except one where he excelled.

Wangler certainly wasn't a Plan A recruit but imo the coaches felt he was worthy of an offer and felt they wanted more LB'ers in this class.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I understand the desire to legacy players a chance ... but given how many top shelf players we are in on, and given our small number of remaining scholarships, got to question the decision.

re: top shelf players we are in on...they aren't all coming and some of the guys we are "in" on are the longest of long shots. If he's gonna be a good player, welcome aboard.

[hack]

Can't have a team made of only four- and five-stars, I'd think. And for depth it's not a bad idea to have guys that work hard and have a legacy to uphold here. Some legacy players are going to be shitheads, but the good kind must surely want to come and do right by the family name.

Point made upthread about the Edwards kid. Wonder what the situation was there, but maybe as simple as that they have plenty of RB depth with Rawls, Hopkins, etc. Speaking of, what's with Justice Hayes? Does he have a role in the future here?

[WM Wolverine]

The two incoming RB's (Green & Smith) supposedly will leapfrog almost everyone in front of them on the depth chart except for Toussaint. Hayes could get lost behind those two and will fight for carries with them and Rawls & Drake Johnson.

[Rocky Bleier]

Berkley Edwards looked like another Nick Hill to me...

[Hannibal]

I'm surprised that Hayes hasn't been moved to slot receiver yet. Maybe he will be.

[Hannibal]

Wangler is actually bigger than Lawrence Marshall, according to their weights on rivals. Gotta wonder what Marshall's role is going to be. His offer list is pretty impressive, but he is ridiculously undersized.

[WM Wolverine]

I saw no reason to offer Edwards either, marginal B10 player and certainly not worthy of a M offer. I think he ended up a Gopher...

Great speed but didn't look like a RB to me and not a fit for Hoke's style of RB.

[Rocky Bleier]

Wangler is actually bigger than Lawrence Marshall, according to their weights on rivals. Gotta wonder what Marshall's role is going to be. His offer list is pretty impressive, but he is ridiculously undersized.

Marshall is taller, faster, more athletic, and has a bigger frame. Here's a comparison from 247 Sports. Scroll down to the part where they rate skills numerically:

http://247sports.com/Player/Lawrence-Marshall-24961

http://247sports.com/Player/Jared-Wangler-29119

[Rob F]

I see what you're pointing out, Rocky, but Michigan values tradition more than most schools (and maybe a bit too much in a few respects). One tradition, though, that they have done well with (for the most part) is legacy players. Sure, there have been a few that blew up on them, most famous of those has got to be Mike Boren's brat, but otherwise, Michigan does usually find some amount of success with legacy kids. I saw a list of legacy players several months ago linked on MGoBlog; I'll see if I can find it and post it here later, but off the top of my head, I know of a few on the Michigan roster right now, including DB Allen Gant and WR Bo Dever, who both show some promise and will see some playing time.

I'm of the belief that we'll have to trust Hoke and Mattison on Jared Wangler. Like has been pointed out, he suffered a hernia injury and missed a lot of camp, so there had to have been something in the coaches evaluations of Wangler that caught their eyes. I looked thru the offer list on 247 too and see that, though 2/3 of the offers are from MAC-level programs, he also had some interest from Northwestern, ND, and The ohio (non-commitable offers?). The offers from Yale Northwestern and U of M indicate to me that the kid has plenty of smarts. And then there are the offers from LSU, PSU, msu, Cinci and Syracuse; Wangler doesn't get that many major programs to take a look-see unless he can play the game.

So many want to pooh-pooh the offer from LSU, but I know of no evidence that Les Miles and Papa John Wanglers are friends and that The Mad Hatter offered as a favor rather than for legit reasons. Miles may act like a fool frequently, I won't dispute that, but he hasn't been a success by blowing recruiting on the defensive side of the ball.

Only time will tell, but with relatively small class sizes projected in both 2014 and 2015, I just don't think Hoke would recklessly throw a bone to the Wangler family and waste a scholarship.

[WM Wolverine]

Issue with Justin Boren was that M wouldn't offer his lil' brother (Zach) who was the one who convinced big brother to go to M over Ohio State... It wasn't a RR issue at all...

Small recruiting classes (~17-21) will become the norm from here on out, Hoke isn't going to send kids to MAC schools just because they have a better player with more eligibility like Saban, Miles, Spurrier and other coaches in the SEC routinely do. Hoke will be honest with them and tell them their chances of playing time. A lot of these kids want to play football more than they want an education from our great University, Hoke will help these kids find a program where they can play.

[Chuck Mallory]

I question no decisions made by Coach Hoke. You can't have a team full of 4 and 5 star recruits. With the way this staff has recruited there are still people here who "question" their decision making. LOL.

[Pasadena Blue]

sorry, I don't take things on blind faith.

Even if Coach Hoke turns these great recruiting classes into titles, I still reserve the right to second guess. :-)