UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[lineygoblue]

Iowa's Scout page on the Rudock transfer situation

http://iowa.scout.com/story/1533299-howe-column-rudock-deserves-better

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is what happens when your administration hangs on to a coach that is a shade above .500 in the last decade, regularly loses to cross state rival Iowa State, gets ripped by the Gophers and gets routed by Tennesee, yeah that Tennessee, in his last bowl game.

Seems to me, that article suggests there's a good deal of locker room discord and/or lack of energy. We've seen this in spades at M. That's done know. Iowa needs a coaching change if for any other reason to breath energy into the most moribund program in the Big Ten.

[iam416]

Iowa definitely needs a coaching change, but I have a hard time believing they are being held hostage by the likes of CJ Beathard. That story reads like it was written by Jake Rudock's mom.

But that Iowa shitshow is ancillary and off topic. The important thing is that JH reeled in one of the 2 or 3 best QBs in the B10 and arguably the most efficient. Further, from what I gather from Mgo comments, the JH recruiting train is even further along than I suspected. He's not recruiting at this point, he's choosing.

[Jeff Buchanan]

....... The important thing is that JH reeled in one of the 2 or 3 best QBs in the B10 and arguably the most efficient. Further, from what I gather from Mgo comments, the JH recruiting train is even further along than I suspected. He's not recruiting at this point, he's choosing.

Thanks again for your unwavering support of M football and especially Jim Harbaugh.

It is truly wonderful to have the real and totally insightful talent, esq. at hand.

Is your wife posting here with your moniker?

[Jeff Buchanan]

BTW, Ace is a tool. Way too flashy writing style that is cumbersome, wastes a lot of letters and space and doesn't say a whole lot. Brian can get away with it, the rest of his writers, NO. and ...... unfortunately, sometimes what is said by ACE about potential recruits is way off base. WM is way more realistic with his board.

[Hannibal]

Brian has gotten very lazy on that site. Ace and Seth both write more than him now. Ace is medicore and Seth sucks horribly.

[iam416]

Ace's recruiting columns are totally without insight. And I find whatever "take" he offers to be annoyingly awful. He ought to just conglomerate information into a chart, post it and avoid any suggestion that he has anything to offer.

JB:

It's fantastic watching JH work. I don't support JH or M football, but I try to prevent my antipathy from clouding an objective assessment of the facts.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, I'm just glad your around.

Over the years, the most aggravating aspect of your posts is their accuracy and the fact that they are the kind of slap in the face that the most fervent M fans need every now and then.

Let's put the osu/M rivalry in some perspective. Going back to Woody's arrival in the 50s, M, with very few exceptions, the most prominent being the Cooper years, M has been the also ran. We're pushing 3/4s of a century here!

The best part about this fact though is that osu needs a foil, has always needed a team to be that and that every year has the potential of kicking the shit out of your team in often surprising fashion or, at the very least, making a game of it.

Without that, you fuckers claiming allegiance to the scarlet and gray would be intolerable and both of you posting here are, well, that anyway.

[iam416]

Ohio State has largely had a good run since 1951. Continuing the early modest success of the UFM Era will get much more difficult with both M and Penn State returning to some semblance of their former selves. I also think Dantonio's boys will generally be pretty good. The Big Ten East will be difficult.

[The Oracle]

Michigan has a real chance, outside of Daelin Hayes, to lock up all the top talent in the state. Would be huge to do so by mid summer where they can move on and concentrate on getting the national guys on campus for their officials.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Keeping to the recruiting aspect of it .......

There is the appearance, and I think you'd agree, the Harbaugh is making inroads and doing it in ways that Danotnio and Franklin, and to a lesser extend UFM, are going to have to deal with.

Still, I think this is a longer term reclamation project for M than most think it will be. Sure, spring ball and all that, but besides a pretty good looking D, the offense is a work in progress and that is being generous.

I'm looking forward to the Ruddock saga. I don't think Morris is going anywhere. He has what Harbaugh seems to like in his QBs, a willingness to get better and compete. Depends on how dynamic, compared to Morris, that Ruddock is. In Iowa's offense ala Ferentz and Greg Davis (?), Ruddock was a game manager. Harbaugh wants his QBs to be that but also be able to survey the field and make the play or throw the ball to a guy that is open and can catch it.

I'm not convinced Ruddock, having been developed in a system like Ferentz seems to like (utterly boring but occasionally wins games) is particularly dynamic.

OTH if Morris (Malzone is NOT ready) struggles on game day, like he is known to do (looks good in practice - at least that's what Hoke used to say), Ruddock will probably become the man whether he is boring or not.

[iam416]

My number one take on spring games for any team is that they mean nothing. That said, if I were force to offer a take on M's game, having watched the bulk of this group of M players play for the past 2 seasons, I'm more inclined to analyze the 7-0 spring game score negatively. But, hey, Peppers!!!! Hurst!!!! HARBAUGH!

I have seen no indication in Rudock's two seasons at Iowa that he is "dynamic". In fact, his career 7.0 ypa suggests he's quite the opposite. To put that number into perspective, Devin Gardner in 2013 was at 8.6 (and 21/11 and 60%) with zero running game. I also don't think he has the arm strength to stretch the field or even pretend to. That said, JH is the best developer of QBs in CFB, so I expect to see huge improvements from every M QB, including Rudock.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, yes. It all depends on HARBAUGH.

At least we agree on Ruddock. I didn't have a feel for the arm strength thing but, yeah, that is Harbaugh's deal ...... run, run, run, look totally boring and predictable then run some weird out route where the unknown guy is totally open for a long TD.

QB HAS to be able to make that throw. Morris has the potential but I fear he is going to choke under the pressure of a real game, with guys crashing down on him at game speed. That's his MO so far but, well, M's OL was a disaster last season. No QB is going to look good behind that stinko OL.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Straight from mgoblog so credit to them as secondary source .....

But this is interesting. Beside methodology issues that seem to neglect a school like MSU (who should be up there with Wisky) and make Iowa look good, M recruits better than just about anyone and has the worst on field performance (except Tennessee). Read this as poor player development and that's what Brain was responding to in his mailbag post where the question was asked .... how bad was Hoke's player development of the potentially good recruits he brought aboard?

Note where Stanford is plotted. These are Harbaugh's coaches. I'd expect M to move toward that spot. Let's hope so anyway.

[iam416]

Run, run, run, run, PASS! works if your passing games keeps numbers friendly in the box OR if you have a hellaciously good running game. At the moment, I don't look at the M passing game and think, "boy, 8 in the box sure is risky." I also don't look at the M offense and think that it stretches the field horizontally OR vertically.