UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[Hannibal]

There's also a WDE with a funky name that they are in on.

[Wellington_beefhouser]

Levi olazinkeandizerdrefjybakckdh

I like M to pull in Hill, Gary, Jones. long is still a toss up and I read M is still pulling for Asiasi and Boss Tagaloa. We may have a couple of suprise commits we weren't expecting.

[hack]

Re Ohio, good players are good players. Not sure why M isn't after more Ohio kids. The "regional/national" thing seems thin at best. Especially considering how active f'n Notre Dame is in Ohio. I think it's more of an efficient allocation of resources.

Harbaugh tried to hire Vince Morrow from UK, and that was billed as a way to leverage Morrow's Ohio recruiting mojo. My guess is that for now the geographical emphases are a reflection of where his assistants are connected.

What was Mattison's territory under Hoke?

[Prime2]

Morrow was coming aboard but the death threats from friends and family proved too much. MSU, ND (Catholic schools) & OSU have flipped most recruiting stones in the immediate future anyway.

Ohio is a longer-term project, use NFL Machine Inc./Harbaugh celebrity to select players from across the US, while re-establishing B1G traditional geographic connections with M.

Can't underestimate the damage done to the M brand by Rodriguez & Hoke.

[Hannibal]

Levi olazinkeandizerdrefjybakckdh

I like M to pull in Hill, Gary, Jones. long is still a toss up and I read M is still pulling for Asiasi and Boss Tagaloa. We may have a couple of suprise commits we weren't expecting.

Long is supposedly a Michigan lock. (Sam Webb gave him the "gut feel" treatment.)

[Pasadena Blue]

Only way for M to break O-state and Sparty's lock on Ohio is to actually start beating them, and then hire some Ohio coaches onto the staff. I still think that's coming. We'll see.

[iam416]

Harbaugh tried to hire Vince Morrow from UK, and that was billed as a way to leverage Morrow's Ohio recruiting mojo. My guess is that for now the geographical emphases are a reflection of where his assistants are connected.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at, in part, with efficient allocation of resources.

Only way for M to break O-state and Sparty's lock on Ohio is to actually start beating them, and then hire some Ohio coaches onto the staff. I still think that's coming. We'll see.

Notre Dame is more of a thorn in OSU's side. MSU has a tough time pulling Ohio kids from OSU. They sort of did with LJ Scott, but that was probably more OSU's decision to slow play (behind Harris) for so long.

But Notre Dame is a real pain. Tommy Kramer would be really nice to have. F'n Kelly.

In any event, it hasn't hurt JH's recruiting. And now he's planning on moving spring ball to IMG!!!! LOL.

[The Oracle]

Long is supposedly a Michigan lock. (Sam Webb gave him the "gut feel" treatment.)

Correct, Long lock, I'd say Jones is the toss up. M/ND.

[Da Geezer]

In any event, it hasn't hurt JH's recruiting. And now he's planning on moving spring ball to IMG!!!! LOL.

Say what? Are you talking spring ball for UM or for IMG kids. If anyone could establish a pipeline to IMG, that would be something. Those kids have already decided that living away from home in order to further their football fortunes is OK.

I agree with Hack in that I believe that UM doesn't have a Ohio-centric recruiter, but UM does now have an opening at Special Teams Coach. It will probably go to Chris Partridge. But if there is an opening, then it should be filled by someone with Ohio ties. For UM to just concede Ohio considering all the great UM players that have come out of that state would be crazy. There is a history at UM that none of the other schools can duplicate when it comes to Ohio players. Shoot, hire Hoke for recruiting coordinator. He had pretty good luck in Ohio.

[iam416]

Literally moving a portion of spring practice to IMG. Flying the team down, etc.

I doubt any team establishes a pipeline to IMG. Kids come from all over to play there so it's not like they're brought up in a certain program that has great ties to a school. They're brought up in their own programs and spend a year or two at IMG. Nauta, e.g., was far more a Georgia kid than an IMG kid.

[Rocky Bleier]

Shoot, hire Hoke for recruiting coordinator. He had pretty good luck in Ohio.

Mostly because Tresel was caught in a scandal, and some kids were jumping ship and looking for a soft landing. It would be an interesting recruiting pitch, however: "Hey, you oughta come play for coach Harbaugh. He's a way better coach than I ever was."

[Hannibal]

The scandal did help him a lot in that first class but even after Meyer was announced as the coach he continued to do well in Ohio. Also pwned Dantonio in that department from Day 1.

[iam416]

Yeah. Kalis was pretty much the only kid who Hoke got because of Tressel departure. Hoke was a good recruiter.

[Hannibal]

Nobody here should be under the impression that I am a Hoke fan, but IMHO he deserves appropriate credit for the recruitment of Lewis, Peppers, Hill, Wilson, Ross, Houma, Poggi, Hurst, Godin, Bolden, Wormley, Henry, Charlton, Butt, Cole, Kalis, Magnusson, Braden, Darboh, Smith, and Chesson. He even beat Tressel in a mini recruiting battle for the walk-on services of Graham Glasgow IIRC. That was arguably his most significant recruiting victory.

Not getting any kids from Ohio and barely any from Michigan is deeply concerning. We were not a presence at all as far as taking away kids from our biggest competitors. We are hurting Florida State and Auburn this recruiting cycle more than we are hurting OSU and MSU. Harbaugh should have done what Urban Meyer does and try to poach plan B kids away from his competition at the end ala Gareon Conley. But instead he pissed away his allotment of "under the radar" scholarships on out of region prospects eight months before signing day.

[iam416]

Yeah, I'm not feeling that criticism of JH's recruiting. And, he'll do well in-state for 2017. And he's done really well in 2016 overall.

I could, conceivably, acknowledge a shred of truth to the criticism when it comes to MSU. JH an really hurt MSU if he takes the best in-state kids. MSU, obviously, doesn't have the same ability to get kids outside the region. So maybe Corley and Crawford are roughly the same and if you take Corley then MSU has no Plan B... But, eh...

As it relates to OSU, it doesn't really matter. OSU can pretty effectively Plan A-.