UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[AlabamAlum]

lol

[lineygoblue]

Michigan lost another recruit today. Miami flipped Elias Rudolph an Edge rusher ranked 292 overall and the number 21 edge. He's from Deerfield Beach Florida, by way of Cincinnati.

The drop continues. Michigan is also rumored to be in danger of losing the commitments of the twin brothers Jerod and Jacob Smith both defensive linemen from Chesire CT. The brothers are reportedly considering a flip to Kentucky.

[iam416]

Rudolph is a pure high ceiling guy. He’s years away from CFB-ready.

[edindetroit]

HAMBURGER!!!!!!!

SHAMBURGER!!!!!!!

[THE_WIZARD_]

HEH!!!!!!!

BURGERMEISTER MEISTERBURGER!!!!!!!BURGERMEISTER.jpg

[Hannibal]

After a really good start, recruting for this class has tanked badly, especially when you consider our back-to-back B1G titles.

[THE_WIZARD_]

HAMBURGER!!!!!!!

[Jeff Buchanan]

................especially when you consider our back-to-back B1G titles.

I doubt the W/L records of the top tier teams in CFB carry significant weight in an 18yo's decision on where he is going to play football. Today's CFB recruiting landscape has changed dramatically from the pre-portal, pre NIL periods. When kids quit a verbal from school A to commit to school B, that school understood to have a well organized and well funded NIL organization, it's pretty obvious he isn't decommitting/recommitting because he wants to be an engineer and school B has a better engineering program than school A.

Show me the money.

[Hannibal]

If it's NIL then we've got to fix it yesterday. Recruiting should be Top 5 caliber after the past couple of seasons, and also with the depth chart being what it is and the holes left behind by the 2023 class. They current staff has finally proven that they can win some big games. If lesser programs are beating us with cash then we've got to ante up.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, that's been the well articulated approach for months but it doesn't look like it's happening to the extent it is required to pay for top talent. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know but when it comes to football these days kids and their families are looking for monetary incentives to play for a team. I'm suspecting that a lot of top players come from socially and economically disadvantaged families. I checked and was surprised to find this:

The most common ethnicity among football players is White, which makes up 72.8% of all football players. Comparatively, 8.9% of football players are Black or African American and 7.5% of football players are Hispanic or Latino.

https://www.zippia.com/football-player-jobs/demographics/

However, those numbers change dramatically when you look at players in the NFL (and NBA) by race:

Of the big four professional sports leagues in North America, the NFL and the NBA have the highest percentage of African American players. In 2022, around 56.4 percent of NFL players were African American, as well as around 36.3 percent of assistant coaches.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...tant%20coaches.

I think it is safe to infer that the best players matriculate from CFB to the NFL and the majority of them are black. CFB teams have to pay to get top talent and that talent is predominantly black, socially and economically disadvantage and more sensitive to playing CFB for a school that will pay them what they perceive as their financial worth.

[iam416]

As I've said, M doesn't need to be top of the line with NIL, but they need to be in the general ballpark. There are a few recruits that are straight NIL kids. M will never win those. But there are way, way more kids who are looking for the complete package and that now includes NIL. If M is at least "competitive" in NIL then that won't be the holdback.

If you lose out to Miami then it's a pretty safe bet the kids is NIL-focused and Miami is probably overpaying. This cycle, Florida State is also in the boat.

Most schools are moving to a more sustainable model. For some that means dialing it back (Georgia, in particular, is an example, I think) or ramping it up (Ohio State got NIL'd for two huge recruits last year, so they're now in the ballpark). M very much needs to ramp it up.

Now, with the Portal, HARBAUGH!!!!'s reruiting isn't such a big issue, but even the portal has NIL issues.

[Hannibal]

As I've said, M doesn't need to be top of the line with NIL, but they need to be in the general ballpark. There are a few recruits that are straight NIL kids. M will never win those..

There is no reason for this, other than our own stupidity.

[iam416]

Well, there are market-based reasons.

[Hannibal]

Well, there are market-based reasons.

There's no reason that we can't compete in that market.

[iam416]

That's true, but eventually some team could outbid you. I mean if you're operating on the assumption that resources are limited. Ohio State lost out on KJ Bolden because FSU put out a crapton of money for a safety. OSU offered a lot, but FSU was 2x.

And on the other side, OSU put out a ton of NIL for Dylan Stewart, but he chose South Carolina for less -- ballpark less -- because he had better relationships there.

Even if M were fully committed to NIL it's still a tough market. They should never lose anyone who WANTS to come to M for NIL reasons. Ever. A straight NIL recruit really doesn't "want" to go anywhere.