UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[lineygoblue]

Mecole Hardman from Georgia (ATH) said he had a great visit to Michigan. Says Harbaugh told him he could play "anywhere" on this team, a lot like what Peppers does now. Hardman is supposed to be one of the top remaining uncommitted players in the country.

[Pasadena Blue]

our team has a lot of needs:
Drevno is a proven OL coach. Our OL is a pretty good pass-blocking OL, but it's pretty clear no amount of coaching is going to get the current group to be dominant run blockers. I realize that the backs are not doing a good job of hitting the holes, but those holes are just too small at the college level. I am pleased to see that Harbaugh is recruiting a pretty complete OL class. Getting the right instruction from the beginning may make a difference.

It looks like Harbaugh is doing a good job of D-Line recruiting as well, especially if we land Gary. The secondary recruits look suspect to me, but Harbaugh has a specific body type he is recruiting. We'll see if that pays off.

I worry about our LB recruiting, but it seems this coaching staff has high hopes for Viramontes. I presume a few others are going to get converted to LB's along the way. With read-option teams still in vogue, Ian Gold - type linebackers are a must. Slow-footed Ross/Bolden types aren't going to cut it.

The biggest concern I have is our lack of recruitment of explosive playmakers. Even if we land Kereem Walker, he is not that type of player. This makes players like Hardman big gets. It's also why DPJ is a must for the next class.

Unlike with previous regimes, though, I have a certain amount of confidence that Harbaugh gets it and will rectify these deficiencies.

I don't understand these predictions, though, that we will be 11-0 heading into C-bus next year. Our team has serious deficiencies which based on who we are currently projecting to get, will not be addressed by next year. Can someone explain to me why they are expecting next year's team to be any better than this year's?

[Jeff Buchanan]

.......Can someone explain to me why they are expecting next year's team to be any better than this year's?

In short, no.

Besides I don't think they will be a whole lot better. They will be fundamentally better by virtue of 19 Bopwl pracitces and the same system and (maybe) the same coaches for two years running. What I do think is that MSU, who we will meet on the road, will be worse in 2016. M can beat them in EL. osu looses a shit ton of NFL talent but they'll still be difficult to beat in c-bus ...... which reminds me everyone, including me, though M would beat the bucks but something happened on the way to that supposed win (stolen from mgoblog but maybe one of the funniest things I've seen relative to The Game "I swear I did not see" yesterday:

[froot loops]

Classic Daniel Bryan

[hack]

Well to start, it's not as if you play a ton of incredible teams before The Game. Michigan was awfully close to going into the game with one loss, which is really something. So a one-game improvement on that isn't a quantum leap. Next year's OOC doesn't feature a road game. It's Hawaii, Central Florida and Colorado. Road contests before The Game are Rutgers, MSU, Iowa.

The other reason to expect next year's team to be much better is because that's what's happened with every other team Harbaugh has coached.

[iam416]

I really think the M RBs are total garbage. I think they make the OL look way worse than they are. I don't think the OL is great or anything, but they need to create semi-truck size holes for M RBs do anything with.

In 2012, Ohio State had massive struggles at LB. It bled into other parts of the defense. However, contemporaneously there was much debate about whether LB the real problem. Well, UFM moved a fucking FB to LB for the first time in his career and he STARTED!...and the defense improved markedly! So, yeah, LB was an shitshow.

When I see Peppers run, there are holes -- college holes, not HS holes...and maybe a little too close to NFL holes -- but there are yards to be had. And that's with the defense roughly 90% sure he's going to get the ball. On sweeps he can grind out 5 yards easily. When they run him inside he gets yards. He looks clearly better than anything else M has back there. And he's a fucking safety.

A lot of M's running problems would go away if you, say, traded Deveon Smith for Ezekiel Elliot.

[Pasadena Blue]

Well to start, it's not as if you play a ton of incredible teams before The Game. Michigan was awfully close to going into the game with one loss, which is really something. So a one-game improvement on that isn't a quantum leap. Next year's OOC doesn't feature a road game. It's Hawaii, Central Florida and Colorado. Road contests before The Game are Rutgers, MSU, Iowa.

The other reason to expect next year's team to be much better is because that's what's happened with every other team Harbaugh has coached.

this year's team, despite major deficiencies, was more talented (relative to other teams in their respective leagues) than other teams Harbaugh inherited. I'm pretty sure that every other team he coached had an increase in overall player talent in Year#2 ... not as clear to me that that is happening here.

But I agree that we may be favored in every game until Ohio except for the game at Sparty.

[iam416]

Didn't M literally win every game they were favored in and lose every game they were not (OSU closed at -1).

[hack]

this year's team, despite major deficiencies, was more talented (relative to other teams in their respective leagues) than other teams Harbaugh inherited. I'm pretty sure that every other team he coached had an increase in overall player talent in Year#2 ... not as clear to me that that is happening here.

But I agree that we may be favored in every game until Ohio except for the game at Sparty.

Sure. But there's still going to be improvement. To get to 11-0 going into The Game we do not need the kind of dramatic improvement that takes you from 1-11 to 5-7, or from 4-8 to 8-4. We're talking about a one-game improvement. From a team that, if it can find the answer at QB, will have lost very little year-on-year.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Didn't M literally win every game they were favored in and lose every game they were not (OSU closed at -1).

Yes, and they also performed one win better than what the consensus regular season record would be (8-4). IOW, they did not lose that one game most people thought would be to a team that M should beat, like NW, IU, Minny or PSU. They won all of those. 2 easily, 2 really close wins.

I think, given M's schedule, they'll be at least one game better in 2016 than they were in the regular 2015 season. I don't fear road games anymore (that could change I suppose) but Harbaugh was 4-0 in league away games. That's pretty damn good. Road games are hard to win.

Frankly, I think Harbaugh is going to win some games we don't expect him to win on the road just because HARBAUGH!!! ..... and believe me, I know I'm jumping in to "fellingsball" with that statement, something I loath but he hates to lose. HATES it. In a way HATE is "unknown to mankind."

He's not going to let on to any of that HATE but it is going to be there the entire off season and will build for the 2015 season as it approaches and plays out.

You think you saw hate from ufm and his boys translated to overpowering play when they came to AA Saturday? You haven't seen anything yet.

[WM Wolverine]

Exactly what Talent said about M's running backs. M's best back, DeVeon Smith on a good day is serviceable. No speed to get outside, defense doesn't even have to account for him getting to the edge or keeping containment; every gap is filled without worry of him getting outside. No chance of a big play. An offense with Deveon Smith only works if your offensive line has 4+ NFL draftees...

With Peppers in the backfield, the opposing defense has to account for him. When he's in, you see defenders moving all around to gameplan for him, usually cheating the edge at the expense of softening up the middle of the defense. Gamebreakers like Peppers make it so much easier on the players around them, not just the OL but the WR's, TE's, QB's, everyone.

[Wellington_beefhouser]

Lavert Hill make you happy?

Lavert Hill just decommited from PSU. Harbaugh was seen leaving his house a few hours before that.

Kareem is good but Mecole Hardman would be the offensive gem of this class.

[WM Wolverine]

May as well bold Lavert Hill.

[hack]

Hardman possibly could be that gamebreaker RB we need?

What's Walker like? Isn't he the top RB this year? Why is there meh excitement? (Certainly that's happened before. Derrick Green.)

[Wellington_beefhouser]

IMO both are game breakers but Hardman is faster than Kareem. I see Hardman as a Percy Harvin from Florida type player...explosive and can take it the distance on any play. Kareem is a massive upgrade from the RBs we have and is more of an in between the tackles guy than Hardman. He's got some nasty jump cuts and seems to be able to change direction without losing speed all while keeping tremendous balance. Don't get me wrong, Kareem is really good but Hardman appears to be the guy who has a better chance of breaking a long TD.