UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[WM Wolverine]

Rivals... Surprised how many committed kids Harbaugh is getting to visit, really impressive... He's going after kids that are committed to Florida, Nebraska, Texas, UCLA, Wisconsin, etc that he hopes he can flip...

With this being such a small class and JH having so little time to put together this class, I'll be more impressed by the class' average star ranking. It's not going to be easy to flip so many committed kids in the last few weeks of recruiting and there are so few quality recruits uncommitted left.

[iam416]

Eh, this is silly season. Visits aren't too hard, especially when a program with good name value significantly changes. Kids who would have been otherwise interested will visit now that they're not staring into a bottomless pit of 7-5 despair. Still, gotta get the commits.

So, what's your prediction on M's class ranking, WM?

[Hannibal]

Michigan will finish higher in Rivals than Scout because Rivals rankings are based on your 20 best and Scout is based on your 25 best. IMO, they have a credible shot at 3 depending on the service.

Of course, I don't know who decommits from Wisky (I know M has a 3* kid committed to Wisky that is very interested). I also don't have a clue who MSU, Wisky and UNL are still in on.

I'll say M signs 14 in this class. I'll say that's enough for them to get past Wisky for #4. That's assuming they sign Clark. If they can sign Marshall, they can finish 3rd. And that's the hard ceiling.

If they don't sign Clark or Marshall, then I'll say 6th.

I would be really surprised if we get up to 14. I was thinking more like 10-12.

[WM Wolverine]

5th... I'd imagine Sparty, Huskers could add some talent too... Star rating? M should stay in 3rd, which would make a very solid class if its 13+ members...

[hack]

There's that much space? I thought only 10 or 11 with Bosch gone.

[iam416]

I would be really surprised if we get up to 14. I was thinking more like 10-12.

If it's 10-12 then I would revise my pick. to 7th. I think Maryland is going to get Isiah Prince and I don't 6 additional recruits will be enough to bump M past them.

Star rating? M should stay in 3rd, which would make a very solid class if its 13+ members

If you're only signing 12 or 13, you better damn well have a really high average. Or the class is a failure. Your average tends to decline at rate from that school's baseline that is roughly inversely proportional to numbers -- unless you're Alabama. If M signs Clark and Marshall I'd expect them to lead the B10 in average stars, but I'd take the top 2 classes all day every day.

[Hannibal]

Jones is seeming like a lock. If we sign Clark and that Texas QB then that puts us up to 9. I don't know if we have much more than a few guys in the pipeline after that or not. We're getting some visitors but I would be surprised if we get a lot of flips out of that.

Speaking of visits, Josh McMillon scheduled one and cancelled it six hours later. What's the going rate on cancelling a visit again?

A top 5 B1G class would be great given the circumstances, and also given that we don't have a lot of spots to begin with.

Whatever happens, it would be nice to have some good fucking results again in the program. It has been nothing but misery since the 2013 Penn State game. Without looking at data, I would say that we are probably at zero net commits to the program over the past year, or maybe net negative.

[Hannibal]

Re: being behind the curve and coaches building "relationships" with recruits...

RichRod, who sucked as a recruiter, secured 10 recruits between his hiring and signing day. Six of them were four star guys, plus Floyd, Odoms, and Omameh.

[iam416]

Patience, Hanni. Didn't you already get a huge result with the hiring JH and then his A+ to A+++ staff? Relax. Just look at what the #HarbaughEffect did for the B10 in less than three weeks. Imagine what it will do for M.

[froot loops]

No doubt on the Harbaugh Effect. Its already done Yeoman's work on repairing the Blue Wall. Every day we get a new morsel of info on General Jim. Just a couple of days ago we learned that he has eaten Wheaties with Gatorade. How can you compete with that?

Seriously though, if you don't have that many spots available, this recruiting class is not as important as it is for other coaches coming into the first year. Most of the time those coaches are spending the first couple years trying to even out classes.

[iam416]

M will get Gentry and Wheatley. I think they'll get Clark. And probably that FB from Ohio that is committed to Stanford. I'm not down in the weeds enough to know the other likely commits. But that'd be a good start.

Also, after reading the hilarious threads at Mgo, this place is a beacon of sanity and rationality for M fans. God bless.

[Hannibal]

Patience, Hanni. Didn't you already get a huge result with the hiring JH and then his A+ to A+++ staff? Relax. Just look at what the #HarbaughEffect did for the B10 in less than three weeks. Imagine what it will do for M.

Results spectrum...

Coaching hire ----- > Recruiting ------> wins

You are right that the coaching hire was great news but it isn't an end result. Granted, recruiting isn't either, but it's closer. I want to see some end results with the football program that surpass my low expectations for a fucking change.

[iam416]

You've obviously not been apprised of the #HarbaughEffect. The wins and glory will come. It is written.

Seriously, don't you think JH is going to have M competing a high level sooner rather than later? I mean, he's not walking into Purdue. Lotta talent there...underdeveloped talent...but nonetheless...

Patience, Hanni.

[Hannibal]

The RichRod disaster will always be at the back of my mind. As will the crushing disappointment that has followed every good football season for the past 20 years. The Lloyd-Moeller-Harbaugh group hug followed by some unimpressive staff hires has dampened my enthusiasm somewhat.

[Jeff Buchanan]

........Seriously, don't you think JH is going to have M competing a high level sooner rather than later? I mean, he's not walking into Purdue. Lotta talent there...underdeveloped talent...but nonetheless.....

I absolutely think JH will get M back to where we have expectations that they should be.

The problem for the M faithful is that what used to be preseason hopefulness has been turned into doubt by two disastrous coaching hires and horrible program management over the last 7 years.

It's going to take two or three good seasons from Harbaugh to restore the hopefulness that was a part of every M fan's pre-season viewpoint.