UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[iam416]

I don't doubt that. The question I have is doubling it with 3* or 4*?

[WM Wolverine]

There aren't that many 3-stars that have offers they'd accept. M is only going to take 3-stars they really like.

[Da Geezer]

I too have been concerned, but let's consider a few things that happened under Hoke.

First, it has now been exposed that the Hoke staff didn't spend a lot of time viewing film of high school players. They went with the ratings services. Do you remember the day about 4 years ago that UM got eight 4* commits in one day? Mostly OL. How did that work out? I'd say not so good. Most colleges don't get eight in a total class. And what about the 5*'s we got. D. Green has shown nothing, and Kyle Kalis has trouble remaining a starter.

Hypothetically, what if Funk was not only a bad coach, on which we all agree, but what if some of these kids were simply overrated? UM started an undersized true freshman at LT last year. What does that say of the depth on the OL?

And most of Hoke's classes started with a bang, but ended out of the top ten after signing day. He was a good recruiter, no question, but is "a family atmosphere" another way of saying "a players' coach" or more pointedly, "easy practices".

We are used to having much of the class wrapped up by the end of June. Let's see what June holds. Bredeson is a good yardstick, since everyone has him at 5*. And let's follow Ferrell. We really need to get LeVert Hill.

Finally, in reading about Onwenu, it appears he is about as good on defense as on offense. He goes both ways for Cass. This "multiple position player" seems to be a pattern with Harbaugh so far, and in this case, buys UM time to wait for Gary, even though we know he will be in the $ 200,000 range in the SEC.

[hack]

The ones that get me with Hoke were the M/MSU battles. He had no business winning his share of those and won more than his share. Guys like Harris, Cole, etc. MacDowell had it figured out. Hoke may not have been good at spotting the talent, but he certainly knew how to sell kids and get them in here. He held on to Peppers, and that was big.

[The Oracle]

I'd bet by the end of July, Swenson, Onwenu, Brederson and Davis are all part of the class. Without going through every class, I'd bet that's as good as any.

[WM Wolverine]

As important, they'll be coached by a competent OL coach.

[froot loops]

They'll figure it out.

[iam416]

Kugler, Bosch, Dawson were 247Composite top 100 and Fox was 110.

Swenson is 171 and Onwenu is 185. Bredeson is 29 and Davis is 90.

[The Oracle]

I was talking vs. other teams in the country. I don't much care what rankings Hoke landed as the OL pool varies every year.

[froot loops]

The fact is, you were hiring a coach that is more on the development angle than some whiz bang recruiter. That's not to say he won't be a great recruiter but he's not going to be a pied piper 6 months in. Hoke had high profile classes, but he also had a lot of job openings to advertise. And in the aftermath, those classes were not good.

You have to be careful comparing to OSU's initial classes under Meyer. Meyer had a big resume and he was taking over a program that had trouble with the NCAA, but really never had an extended dip like Michigan has seen over the last 7 years.

You can develop 3 star recruits.

[The Oracle]

And has sick in state talent.

[Da Geezer]

Kugler, Bosch and Dawson were part of that 32* evening, I believe.

[Hannibal]

Hoke had high profile classes, but he also had a lot of job openings to advertise.

Harbaugh has a lot of job openings to advertise too. With all of the misses in the '14 and '15 classes there is not one spot on the roster other than quarterback where a blue-chipper can't easily lock down a starting spot by his sophomore year if he lives up to his billing.

There are enough favorable circumstances to where an average recruiter starting off in this job should be able to pull off no worse than Top 15. Class size is relatively large, underclassman depth chart sucks, it's a decent class in-state, and three of the blue chippers that we are targeting have big brothers playing a sport at Michigan.

[froot loops]

Yeah I understand that Hannibal, to me it seems like the roster had less roster spots available than what Hoke had. And you never know what the recruiter is promising. Maybe Harbaugh is selling it the way you're explaining when other coaches like Hoke are promising playing time.

[WM Wolverine]

I was going to make the same argument about Hoke had the ability to sell playing time much easier than JH, not to mention Hoke was recruiting against Fickell and an Ohio program that was on probation/sanctions. Talent seems to believe M and JH is competing with Ohio & Urban Meyer for the best recruiting class...

JH isn't going to win that battle or even come remotely close. Meyer right now has something very special in Columbus, which has built in advantages over M not to mention he had a 3+ year head start on JH. M isn't competing with Ohio yet, they are competing with the Spartans, Nittany Lions and the like.