UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[The Oracle]

Coaches???? I'm really tired of the youth shit. Most everyone is experienced and most everyone is talented. Needs to come together this year. No excuses.

Yeah, we all agree; it would be amazing if we had 5th year seniors at every position.

[*JD*]

Penn State gamewas more than very winnable. It was literally kicked (not thrown) away.

God, I'd forgotten all about that game. Thanks for jogging that memory loose.

[WM Wolverine]

Problem is the OL is all 3rd or 2nd year players with nobody left from '10 & '11. I like the talent from the 6-member '12 recruiting class but it would take a spectacular batting average to get 5 starters from that group along with maybe a starter from the '13 class.

I'm more optimistic about the DL as they have Frank Clark and Brennan Beyer as two likely solid (or better) defensive ends.

[hack]

Elite players want to play with each other...

Missing out on guys like Hand, McDowell, etc. hurt M with many players in this class as much as the shitty on-field performance. There are countless elites M was 'in' on that dropped off the radar after the bowls...

Campbell's, Harris' & Crawford's de-commitments hurt M in '14 and the coaches mostly have themselves to blame as the losses against Penn State, Iowa, Ohio and Nebraska were all very winnable.

Is your point here that it's the chicken to blame, or the egg? Or both or neither?

[WM Wolverine]

Very much the chicken and the egg; recruiting and on-field performance... I see it though as recruiting talent, developing talent and coaching up talent...

You need on-field results or a promise of to bring in recruits. M's on-field struggles this past season has hurt Hoke's ability to sell the programs potential. They are missing out on key recruits that would lead to a brighter future. Missing out on guys like Hand, McDowell, Campbell, possibly Harris will obviously hurt both their future on-field performance and their ability to lure in top talent. Of course if M wins 10+ games in '14, maybe some like Harris sign-on and buy what Hoke made him commit in the first place...

I've slightly downgraded M's potential in '15'/'16 if Hoke can't land top talent like Hand, McDowell, Harris, Campbell, etc. You need those types to play for National Titles, play in Major Bowls (formerly BCS) nearly every season like Ohio State did under Tressel. if M wins a couple more games in '13, I don't think you see M lose all the recruiting momentum they had before losing traction with Hand, McDowell, etc.

[WM Wolverine]

Ty Isaac visiting Illinois today, M next week. He's not liking the fit to NW's offense so if he's granted a hardship waiver and only NW and Northern Illinois are his programs he's eligible to transfer to without having to sit out a season, M has a great chance. The issue is the NCAA hardship waiver distance if it starts to include Illinois & Notre Dame (109 miles when in the rules is 100 miles) but not Michigan (250+), then those two might jump ahead of M.

[The Oracle]

Wouldn't the offense issue be the same at Illinois and ND?

[WM Wolverine]

Cierre Wood looked pretty good in ND's offense but that was a lot of running in a shotgun with 1 TE, no FB and they were always more of a threat to pass. Agree, not a great deal difference betweeen NW...

At M, he'd have more 2 TE sets I'd imagine but Nussmeier doesn't or didn't use his FB much at Bama. Kids place a lot of value on playing right away.

[Hannibal]

USC won't let him go to ND.

[Hannibal]

Sytem doesn't matter for running backs.

[WM Wolverine]

Just from the rumor mill, I've heard that USC didn't get their paperwork in time to the NCAA to block him from going anywhere.

[Hannibal]

That's weird but it would be just our luck.

Hopefully he ends up at Michigan. God knows we need him.

[WM Wolverine]

Sounds like he'll have the ability to play immediately for the Illini, no mention of ND so it's probable USC did block ND.

[Rocky Bleier]

They need to get the recruiting pipeline refocused on signing tough players. Doesn't matter if they're a 2 star 3 star or 10 star. Just get players who are both tough and smart. That is what Michigan needs most of all.

Michigan football right now is just too soft. They are routinely manhandled in the trenches and you just can NOT win consistently by losing the battle in the trenches. Even our "high profile" guys that have signed recently are not tough guys. They have big names, big bodies and big reputations, but they play soft.

Until this problem is fixed, there will be no more Michigan teams challenging for the B1G title, the Rose Bowl or the MNC. It cannot happen until this team, and this program becomes tougher.

Larry Foote said the same thing, but it was pretty much ignored. I emailed Sam Webb about it, but he didn't respond. That little nerd Ira probably thought it was too controversial and dumped it.

[Da Geezer]

They need to get rid of their limitations on contact during practice!