UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[*JD*]

Nice news!

[Prime2]

Of course the political corruption, re-rankings and bags of Benjamins yet to exchange hands but it's good to be on top of this corrupt recruiting game. Thankfully we've got the best coach in CFB to equalize the field.

Walker's commitment will move Michigan from No. 5 to No. 1 in Scout.com's team rankings for 2016, ahead of Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Ohio State.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2015/12/17/kareem-walker-five-star-rb-picks-michigan/77485082/

[The Oracle]

The only concern I'd have is figuring out why he looked like a superstar as junior, but didn't really pop off the tape as a senior. Fix that and get him to his junior-self and he'll do great things. If he is what he is as a senior, then he's fine, but overrated.

JMO.

When I heard all that and finally looked at senior film, it wasn't near as bad as people were saying. Looked good to me. Probably splitting hairs, no matter what he's a SOLID 4 star in any year. It is a weak RB class though.

[iam416]

No, right. IMO, it's different than his junior film. Still a 4* and still probably top 100. Nothing wrong with that. I agree with your initial take on him.

[Rocky Bleier]

Wheatley Jr. is 6' 6" 260, which is fine for what he was recruited to be - TE or DE.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Best comparison?

UGA's Todd Gurley.

The one thing Harbaugh demands in his players is effort. Combine Walker's talent with desire to excel along with competent coaching and Kareem has the potential to be really good. POTENTIAL.

Green, Isaac, Baraka ...... long list of highly ranked M backs with POTENTIAL that pretty much failed to live up to that.

I'm not keeping track, but it seems to me, M, with it's emphasis on power football, has had a terrible decade of RBs compared to other programs with similar offenses (let's forget about the RR years and Denard). Iv'e said this before, but, IMO, there are reasons for that. Not only does it take good OL's (M has been missing one of those for, oh, about a decade), but it takes elite coaching and player development.

I'll certainly acknowledge that Harbaugh has brought the M coaching staff closer to being elite and having the capability to develop talent than any of the last 3 M coaches. Now that that has occurred, elite HS talent appears to be interested in signing with M and being developed.

Aspects of the defense improved. Not all but that is an indication of how good this staff is. The offense did OK but at best it was mediocre. Adding Walker to the offense will test Drevno's and Wheatly's coaching and player development skills. We'll see how that turns out in 2016.

[froot loops]

Wheatley Jr. Is much closer to 300 than 260.

[Hannibal]

Wheatley weighed in at around 285 for fall camp IIRC, and if you see a picture of him it wasn't bad weight. Guy's a great candidate to bulk up to OT and he's probably too big for TE. Probably also too tall to play DT.

[The Oracle]

Was definitely 280-285. Had an injury too, so who knows how/if that affected him, but agreed at that time it wasn't bad weight. OT, TE and DE are still on the board for him, IMO. Rivals people still think he's a TE because he's never lost the athleticism.

[Rocky Bleier]

I like this pickup more for the rankings than the talent. Obviously, a great pickup given the position.

I agree. Does not jump out at you, but he's better than Derrick Green was coming out of high school. I saw Green play against Hackenberg's team on ESPN and thought he was overrated. Had Kevin Grady written all over him. He's never had a great O-line, but he certainly wasn't a 5-star back.

[hack]

Well it certainly doesn't mean we can sleep on RB recruiting next year. Does not look like that to-the-house-on-any-given-carry kind of back, and Brian said it well -- Deveon Smith but more athletic and faster. That's great for a team like ours which really had no running game at all last year. If not a differencemaker at least he looks like he can bring credibility to the running game in a way that Smith could not. Harbaugh can make another major addition to the stable in the '17 cycle.

[lineygoblue]

We need some big nasty ugly guys up front opening the holes.

[hack]

Indeed. Might be a few years before the line gets where it's going though. Was better this year, but not the big jump we'd hoped for.

[jaadam4]

We need some big nasty ugly guys up front opening the holes.

Aaron Gibson?

[Prime2]

Indeed. Might be a few years before the line gets where it's going though. Was better this year, but not the big jump we'd hoped for.

Without Rudock, we don't go bowling, next up, Jack Miller. Wish he would of stayed.

No depth, when Glasgow went down, teams ran the ball on JH, defense was gassed often, no rotation as Ohio A & M enjoyed, most of their underachieving season.