UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[WM Wolverine]

If you followed Harbaugh's twitter account, what he said wouldn't surprise you. He's a great twitter contributor when he posts.

[SeattleLionsFan]

Did weber actually say that he was told he was the only back being pursued? That would be strange because he and Higdon were actually visiting the same time the last weekend before signing day?

[iam416]

Weber has said very little about both Higdon and Drayton. Those around him have said gads, probably to his detriment (and to there own ends). In that spirit, this is what your boy Sam Webb said:

Mikey said that he was led to believe that he would be the only running back in Michigan's class, and when he saw that Karan Higdon committed it raised questions for him. Sounds like he was saying that those questions weren't a manifestation of his fear of competition, they had more to do with the trust factor. I don't know if he was told explicitly that he would be the only back for Michigan, or if he just assumed that he would be based on omission of mention, but he is making it sound like it was the last factor he considered.

TBH, I doubt Higdon mattered much to him on NLOID and I'm fairly confident he's over the Drayton thing and wouldn't go to M in any event (if, you know, his mother is to be believed).

[lineygoblue]

If its true he made his decision based on JH recruiting Higdon, then it means Weber didn't want any competition from a classmate for the RB job.

Going forward, he's going to have a bigger problem at OlieO, because not only will he not have the coach that spent the most time recruiting him, he's also going to have at least 2 hotshot RB's nipping at his heels in every class behind him. So, I hope he scouts out a nice cozy spot on the bench early on in his career, because he's not going to see the field very much.

He wouldn't see it very much in years 1-2 at Michigan either.

[iam416]

You must not have read what your boy Sam Webb said:

Mikey said that he was led to believe that he would be the only running back in Michigan's class, and when he saw that Karan Higdon committed it raised questions for him. Sounds like he was saying that those questions weren't a manifestation of his fear of competition, they had more to do with the trust factor.

In any event, he certainly has a chance to come in and earn some mop up carries. I tend to think UFM won't redshirt him, but we'll see. Elliot and Samuel are pretty well set at the top of the depth chart.

[hack]

Well it appears that Weber is a poor judge of character then, based on what we know about all that's transpired. But that's that. More grist for the mill until November.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Oh, I read it ........

Not dismissing the trust factor but I doubt that IF he was being told he was going to be the only RB in his class (and I've got my doubts about that but what would you expect from an M homer), that was NOT the only factor in his decision to stick w/osu. How he saw himself fitting in the MANBAUGH offense was likely to be another.

I actually do see him having a better shot at seeing playing time with osu than with M. Aside from all the BS about Weber and who did what to whom, I think he made the right choice. No need to over dramatize it ...... and I still like JH's tweet.

[iam416]

I'm not sure depth chart had much if anything to do with it. Ohio State under UFM is proven. If you're good enough to start at RB in that offense, look out. I think that's what Weber probably focused on to the extent he went beyond "comfort and relationships" and all of that jazz.

Would you rather be the next Carlos Hyde/Ezekiel Elliot or the next, ummmm,.....

[hack]

I'm not sure depth chart had much if anything to do with it. Ohio State under UFM is proven. If you're good enough to start at RB in that offense, look out. I think that's what Weber probably focused on to the extent he went beyond "comfort and relationships" and all of that jazz.

Would you rather be the next Carlos Hyde/Ezekiel Elliot or the next, ummmm,.....

Good post. All other things being equal, here's a place where the top of the depth chart is going to be full of NFL types, and Michigan hasn't put a quality back in the league in forever. That's a very reasonable way to make that decision.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Just a little bit more of an explanation to my take that Weber might have felt he didn't "fit well" in Harbaugh's offense.

I can't remember if Stanford had a water bug running back playing slot. I don't think they did. Harbaugh subbed a couple of mobile QBs to present NFL defenses with that dimension at SF but he did not use little fast guys in the slot. That just doesn't work at the NFL level for any number of reasons .... and no, Dennard is not a good example of that working in the NFL.

I think that's why Harbaugh went after Higdon. He wants a back like that and he does not have one on the roster after Justice Hays, a back who never found a spot with the Neanderthal offenses M was running, transferred.

Weber is not a back in that mold. Maybe Harbaugh told him that's where he wanted him to play or he lied to him or whatever. Doesn't matter to me. I also may have confused readers by using the term tailback in referring to the list of them on M's roster. That list includes Green, Isaac, Johnson and D. Smith, all prototypical big, power runners. Half back or just plain Running Back is probably a better term in M's offenses.

[iam416]

I think JH wanted Weber as a RB and Higdon as an H-back.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Dunno ..... Higdon is a little on the small side for the H-Back .... if by that you mean a guy that might also line up and look like a TE or he might be a full back. Higdon fits better as a slot and a lot of his film demos his quickness and pass catching ability. He seems to be a bigger waterbug but he's got those moves from what I can see. But what do I know.

[iam416]

I guess I'm using H for "slot". If a TE lines up in the backfield he's still a Y to me, but I'm probably wrong.

In OSU terms, I think JH recruited Weber as Elliot and Higdon as Jalin Marshall/Dontre Wilson.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, shit you're probably right, talent. Here he never lines up as a slot. He lines up and looks like an H-Backwith good speed who can also catch the ball.

He's either bowling over guys a lot smaller than he is or he's outrunning them. Have no clue of the competition he faced but he looks dominant in this league of small boys.

http://iowa.247sports.com/Article/Scouting-Report-4-star-RB-and-Iowa-Commit-Karan-Higdon-34066445

[Da Geezer]

The best point made today is that OSU sends backs to the pros. When Weber committed to OSU, he didn't know what was going to to happen at UM. I can't imagine him being unwilling to compete for playing time.