UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[Hannibal]

RJS has said he's not taking any visits.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Here's an interesting take from a poster at Rivals who follows recruiting. Georgia hosted a camp this week and got a buch of verbal commits mostly for 2013 and out, one for the 2012 class. You can read the rest here:

I, for one, am very happy for Georgia. Why, you may ask? Well, because this is a program that has not had a great degree of relative success the past few years under Mark Richt. In my view, in order for Michigan to compete on a national level with the top teams in the southeast (SEC schools, FSU, Miami) a couple of things need to happen on the recruiting front (I won’teven get into the actual games played and inherent luck involved in playing for a national title).

First, Michigan needs take care of business at home and dominate recruiting in the Big Ten. This means, of course, dominating in the state of Michigan and competing for the best of the best in the Midwest. In addition, Michigan needs to continue to recruit successfully nationally, poaching the odd blue-chipper from California, Texas, the Southeast, East or Midlands. If Michigan does not take care of business at home, forget about national title aspirations. By winning he Big Ten, however, they will put themselves in a position to possibly win a national title.

Second, assuming U-M takes care of business at home, it is in U-M’s best interest for the top talent in the Southeast to be spread out as thinly as possible among the teams in that area. This is critical, because it is the most talent-laden region in the nation and if fewer than five teams in that area have their pick of the top talent then it will be tough for any programs from outside that region, with the exceptions of Texas and USC, to compete.

The good news is that more than five southeastern teams are currently successful in attracting talent from the region. Two programs that are clearly on the rebound when it comes to recruiting are Florida State (which had been down the last 7 or so years under Bobby Bowden) and, after yesterday, Georgia. In addition, Auburn is recruiting at a higher level after their surprise national title last year. Add those three programs to the recent dominant southeastern recruiting powers of Alabama, Florida and LSU nd the talent will be spread thinner among the elite of the region and they will beat themselves up during the season and the one who emerges as a winner come bowl season won’t be as dominant as some of the recent SEC national title teams.

In addition, some so-called “second-tier” teams have also been successful in poaching five and four star level talent away from the biggies. Clemson has added a few five and four star types the past couple of years. Steve Spurrier and South Carolina have ramped their recruiting up a couple of notches with the likes of Lattimore and Clowney and just pulled in a few blue-chippers the other day. Even Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi State and, surprise, surprise, Vanderbilt have poached some five and high four-star talent recently. This speaks well for the overall strength and depth of teams in this region, but by spreading the wealth as thinly as possibly across the Deep South schools it will only make Michigan more competitive against the elite in the league.

The two so-called laggards in the region, schools that are not recruiting at the level that they historically should, are Miami and Tennessee. Being the historic powers that they are they have attracted, and will continue to attract, a good deal of talent. Their recent hauls, however, put them a clear step behind the elite of the region. I would be more than happy to see them step it up a level or two over the next couple of years, although not at Michigan’s expense (think Dan O’Brien).

[Jeff Buchanan]

............. lets put this guy's account of UGA's success on the recruiting trail in the context of M's competition with MSU and osu (and by extension the rest of the teams in the B10 who can compete for the title).

If osu gets dinged with a loss of scholarships and a post season ban (probably), they are going to be screwed for a significant amount of time with regard to the pipeline of talent they've hauled in (by cheating) over the last decade. A decade that brought them so much success under tressel (by cheating). We're talking multiple years going out beyond 2012 and 13 .... so, five years seems to be about right where osu will be playing at a distinct disadvantage with respect to talent.

Obviously, this is a supposition regarding osu but put in the context of the Rival's poster's thoughts above, you can see how this advantages the teams that compete against osu for talent (and have lost out for a decade because of osu's cheating), particularly M and MSU.

Hoke and staff, couldn't have come around at a more opportune time to build M football back to where it will compete for championships. Dantonio had developed a foothold in SE Michigan and was pulling in some good football players. Hoke has nearly stopped MSU's dominance in one class; I have every reason to believe it will continue ..... as long as M beats MSU this year in EL and why this particular game is so vitally important to Hoke and the future of M football.

If Hoke controls the Midwest, including pulling talent from ohio like it appears he will do for a few years, and recruits on a par with ND and Neb (thereby insuring M has as much or more talent in place), he'll put the team in a much better position to win the legends division.

So I see M as possibly sitting in the driver's seat from a recruiting standpoint in the Legends Division, while osu slides in the Leaders Division behind Wisky and Illinois. I don't see PSU competing until JoPa retires. All of this adds up to Michigan gaining significant recruiting advantages at the expense of osu as the talent that tressel was able to reel in (by cheating) either gets sucked up by Michigan or gets distributed to other B10 programs that can actually play for championships and compete on the national stage.

[lineygoblue]

There is a window of opportunity that Jim Tressel unwittingly opened for Michigan with his transgressions. This window will last for only 2-3 more years max. OLieO will get thru whatever sanctions the NCAA puts on them, and if they hire a "name" to coach them, who promises them the moon like their previous coach did, they'll be back as big as ever.

Therefore, Hoke has to firmly entrench himself as the big kahuna in Midwest recruiting. I agree with the Georgia writer, that not only does he need to stamp the midwest as his, but he also needs to pluck a few here and there out of other areas of the country. Kind of like Carr did with Tom Brady.

Its been proven that success breeds success. Hoke's objectives, as I see them are as follows:

a. Continue recruiting as he is today. Compete for ALL the top talent in the Midwest, and pluck a few gems from other areas of the country as well.

b. The big unanswered question. Can he do it on the field? He absolutely must. He's got to deliver at least 9 wins, and that's going to be tough to do. The second half of the schedule is brutal, and those last 4-5 wins will be hard to come by.

c. He's got to keep the program out of trouble. No recruiting hanky-panky, and no players getting in trouble and bringing the program down. Obey all the rules, even if it costs a win or two along the way.

He needs to win some big games. We need to stop seeing so many visiting fans getting easy tickets. We need Michigan fans to regain interest in this program, and make this the toughest ticket in college football again.

[whodean]

The Notre Dame game will be big, win that one and the first half of the season should line up well.

[entropy]

btw.. I told you guys Hoke was your best choice for Michigan's head coach.

So far, I think I've been proven right.

[whodean]

I was in the Hoke camp from the beginning, I hope his on the field accomplishments mirror what we've seen off the field thus far.

[lineygoblue]

He seems to be a pretty decent on field coach. His Ball State team came into Michigan Stadium a few years back, and had a chance to beat Lloyd Carr and one of his better teams late in the 4th quarter.

He's surrounded himself with very good assistants, and in the next few years, he'll have more (good) talent playing for him than he's ever had in his coaching career. He should be fine.

[WM Wolverine]

Hoke built up Ball State to a 12-2 season, then in just a couple years turned SD State around immensely, winning 9 games last year in the MWC. Hoke played a pretty tough schedule and their losses were all of the 'quality' variety. Those losses were all 'close' games to quality teams.

[Hannibal]

Hoke's turnaround of SDSU was more impressive. He had four really bad Ball State teams before finally building a good one, and he didn't leave behind much of a foundation as the team collapsed immediately into being terrible again once he left. Hoke is an example of a guy who's probably not the best coach, but a good fit for this time and place. If he doesn't win, he'll probably still leave some talent behind for the next guy.

[*JD*]

I imagine it was at least a little easier to recruit as SDSU than at Ball State.

[Jamie H]

Right. At least there you have the weather. But Hoke was really winning with the last guys players as he wasn't there long.

I think it took him a few seasons at Ball State to "get it", and he was able to do things much quicker at SDSU.

Does that all translate to winning at UM? Dunno, but he's certainly got the recruiting thing going very well, and that is at least half of the battle.

[WM Wolverine]

Not much recruiting news to report, just that RR's old BBQ idea is a good one. Hoke is bringing in a ton of talent for the BBQ, even more talent would be in attendance if M wasn't filled at several positions already...

re: Ball State... Hoke didn't have the resources at this disposal there with no commitment from his athletic department. He had to build that program by himself and he eventually did go 12-2 in his last season.

[WM Wolverine]

Here is TomVH's list for the BBQ:

http://mgoblog.com/diaries/tomvh-big-house-bbq-visitors

[Rocky Bleier]

Can anyone here tell me the rumored reason why Kellen Jones isn't listed on the roster with the incoming freshmen?