UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[Prime2]

There are 3 things Hoke did well, hoodwink Brandon, homestead & eat.

Sadly Michigan football fell much further down his list.

As Brian at MgoBlog stated earlier, Harbaugh is clearly alarmed at the state of the roster and is trying to get in guys who he thinks are a good fit as quickly as reasonably possible. Purge, purge & purge.

[Jeff Buchanan]

M's football success with Bo, the 10 Year War, and Bo's miserable Rose Bowl Record speak directly to what he thought was important for the Wolverine players. Play as a team, beat osu and MSU, win the Big Ten. That's about it.

My view is that I don't think he cared about winning national titles picked by sports writers or coaches, for that matter. I don't think he cared about being viewed as an elite team on the national level. Football in his day was still very regional in nature. I also think he hated the drift of college football to the high dollar, sports entertainment product it has become.

Both Moeller and Carr continued that sort of thinking and it shaped the culture of the program making it what it is today. Just speculation but I can see Harbaugh continuing this culture fundamentally.

The players and the team are more important than accolades, awards, national championships although I think Bo revered the BT Championship and so will JH. Not saying other football programs don't strive to place developing a few good men, solid citizens and outstanding members of the communities in which they will ultimately reside ahead of those things, but M is on the far right of the scale in making that an important goal of all M's sports, including football.

Given the hype that goes along with all the TV coverage and the dollars that generates for M sports, being an elite, national team that not only wins conference championships but also makes the play-off and rises to NC can be viewed as very important. I don't think it is THAT important for those that have substantial influence on what IS important and what does shape what M football is all about.

[Prime2]

This was the breakdown I did previously. Of particularly note, Coach F'n Hoke. Also of note, Tennessee. No local talent. Long run of mediocrity.

Talent, you are missing the trees for the forest IMO. Your list is impressive but frankly these coaches have never tested their mettle in the Pros other than Saban and of course he crashed and burned. Your sample is clearly at home in the college ranks.

Consider Pete Carroll, Jimmy Johnson,Tom Coughlin, Jim Harbaugh, et al., coaches that have had tremendous success as professionals as well as amateurs, their bars , measuring sticks and metrics are much higher.

[iam416]

I expect JH to match the recruiting success of rank amateurs, but some of your fans aren't quite so sure. We'll see. In any event, I've already resigned myself to never seeing Ohio State beat M again until JH departs the job. Will you accept $475 now in lieu of the $500 I will owe you in November?

[entropy]

wasn't hoke's class rated so high because of the size of the class?

[iam416]

No. He had 25 commits. 15 were 4* and 10 were 3*. He had 4 top 100 kids and 8 top 150 kids.

You obviously don't recall "32* weekend". It was a super-strong line class, but it wasn't particularly balanced. Zero real playmakers in the class, though Funchess sort of became one -- but he wasn't viewed as a playmaker in the recruiting cycle. The 90.63 247Composite average is pretty high -- anything above 90 is high.

[froot loops]

Brady Hoke's inclusion on Talent's list should immediately make anybody more suspect of the star rankings system. That 2012 Michigan class is not very impressive. Some decent pieces on the line and Devin Funchess.

[iam416]

His 2nd full class was rated higher (4th), but the average was "only" 90.28. 1 5* kid and 17 4 * players in a class of 28.

[entropy]

No. He had 25 commits. 15 were 4* and 10 were 3*. He had 4 top 100 kids and 8 top 150 kids.

You obviously don't recall "32* weekend". It was a super-strong line class, but it wasn't particularly balanced. Zero real playmakers in the class, though Funchess sort of became one -- but he wasn't viewed as a playmaker in the recruiting cycle. The 90.63 247Composite average is pretty high -- anything above 90 is high.

thanks for the correction.. I had it in my mind Hoke had one of those 30 kid sized classes that get ranked high because of size.

[entropy]

you'd think with that many 4*'s you would have started to see some of that talent shine through... especially with RR recruiting.

[iam416]

So, in 2 years he brought in 1 5* and 32 4* kids. I'd argue that's far more a condemnation of how awful he and his staff were at player development. In particular, he brought in tons of OL talent and produced and OL that was blindingly awful in 2013 and barely mediocre in 2014. There's really no excuse for it.

Of course, he fucked up the QB spot worse than anyone could have imagined, and that sort of bled into shit everywhere else on offense.

No Titles was a total disaster. But he could recruit. Ya gotta be able to do all 3 aspects of the job, though, to win...recruit, develop, coach/gameday/scheme. He and his staff were an A/F/F in that regard. JH, in my book is an ?/A/A. I'd feel safe in saying he's probably at least a "B" in recruiting.

[froot loops]

I'm not sure that 2013 class is better. A lot of flotsam.

[Hannibal]

Talent has listed some excellent examples, and there are more. Ron Zook pulled in probably Illinois's best ever recruiting class after starting off there 4-19 (not a perfect comparison since it was full class #2, but it shows that a great recruiter is a great recruiter). Rick Neuheisel -- Rick Fucking Neuheisel -- pulled in the country's #14 recruiting class as his first full one, on the heels of a 4-8 season and a decade of being USC's prison bitch. Not to mention, he had no record to brad about.

Harbaugh is inheriting talent. I'm sure it's no less than what Pete Carroll or Bob Stoops inherited when they started off at USC and Oklahoma, respectively. A quick turnaround should be an is expected.

[Prime2]

Welcome back Hanni.

"We're not going to be satisfied with eight wins or nine wins or 10 wins. He said the goal is to win the national championship. Right now." Jim Harbaugh

From a man who took his NFL team that hadn't made the playoffs in 10 years, to 2 NFC Title games and a Super Bowl in his first three seasons....persuasive.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, guess I was wrong about JH continuing the previous culture if those words are to be taken seriously and I think they are.

Just like when he guaranteed a win over osu in c-bus that fateful year, and Bo gave him hell about that pronouncement, then turned to his players and said you better help this poor SOB out, he better deliver.