UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[WM Wolverine]

Weak year for DT recruiting, M will need to pull someone from outside B10 country... Put Darius Latham DT (4-star, Indiana) on the recruiting board... Also put Donovan Munger (3-star probably, Ohio) on the board who doesn't have an offer yet, he's likely a plan B guy who might get an offer at summer camps if M's top options don't show mutual interest...

Lots of mutual interest from blue chip LB'ers; EJ Levenberry ILB (potential 5-star, Virginia) being one of the top ones on the board... Dorias O'Danial WLB (4-star, Good Counsel, Maryland) has a top 3 of M, Ohio & Florida... M doesn't have a lot of open scholarships for LB'ers with a 4-5 man class in '12 (Ross, Jenkins-Stone, Bolden, Ringer & arguably Ojemudia)...

Its early but its looking like a likely a top-5 class with this red hot start. The hot start allows M to spend extra time with its top targets and not spread itself too thin chasing a lot of tough pulls for a few spots. Watch closely who decides to come to the spring game and M's junior day (March 10th I think)... Kids from outside of B10 country who make the visit to M on their own dime are generally very interested. Its telling that a lot of the recent commits were in AA for official (and unofficial) visit as juniors...

[Rob F]

By most accounts I'm reading, we have 11 spots left, after getting out 5th 4* OL this weekend. What's your best guess, WM, as to how we'll divvy up those last 11 schollies, # by position?

I see what you listed at the top of this thread (by position)--will we likely settle, then, for just 1 RB and one more wideout? Or can we possibly have room for yet another OL (Pocic?), and maybe either a 2nd RB or 3rd WR?

[SeattleLionsFan]

11 spots left? You think we are taking a class of 24? I thought I heard 19-22

[Rob F]

With Denard back there, Borges will still have plenty of the option game for him. 2012 is not going to look a lot different than 2011. Denard needs to develop just an adequate deep ball to make the 2012's offense the equal of 2011's. Not great but good enough. I'm not convinced he's going to get a lot better at that ..... expecting a drop off on offense in 2012 but I sure like what I see coming up in 2014. There will be plenty of power running .... but if Morris is as good as he supposed to be (or if Gardner gets better than he's looked so far) I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a lot of I-Form-spread/vertical passing in a 60/40 run/pass mix with lots of TE/alternating with slot play in the passing game.

http://mgoblog.com/content/michigan-depth-chart-class-0

It'll be interesting, with the highly-rated incoming 2012 class and the developing super class of 2013, as to how the depth chart will evolve over the next 2 years, but I am just geeked about the positive effect it's gonna have on our depth!

You mentioned Gardner as the assumed successor to Denard; I have no reason to expect otherwise. But with Morris not expected to be an early enrollee next spring, and Gardner's medical redshirt status not likely to be ruled upon until after his senior year (that's what I've been reading for some time), where does it leave the QB depth chart in 2014? I just read earlier this weekend that the coaches are highly pleased with Bellomy's development at QB, is it possible he might get a year as the starter if Gardner doesn't get that MedRS and if Morris isn't ready to start (Morris, IMO, looks like he needs to add a little muscle in order to QB in the B1G) ?

If you think I'm a little worried about QB depth over the short term, you're absolutely right---We're just one dirty Gohlston-type play away from potential disaster.

[Rob F]

11 spots left? You think we are taking a class of 24? I thought I heard 19-22

I've been reading 23-24, I believe

(edit---you might be right, as I just looked at the depth chart on mgoblog)

[The Oracle]

I'm pretty sure hoke said at his last convention he was expecting a class of 21-25.

[WM Wolverine]

How many spots left is yet to be determined and won't be till signing day of '13...

Right now M has 18 scholarships, typical attrition (4-5) would put M at 22-23 scholarships for signing day on '13. In the B10 you can request a waiver to over-sign by 3 if you know your going to lose players to transfer, academic or legal issues... M should be able to sign 22-25 recruits in the '13 class; 23-24 is a safe guess.

[WM Wolverine]

I've heard tons of third hand reports on what M wants from the remainder of their class; e.g. M would like to add another QB (but only if its the right one), M wants 3 WR's, M only wants one super RB (in addition to Shallman) in this class, M would like a 3rd TE, M could take an elite OL (Pocic)...

Obviously all the above can't happen as it doesn't allow M scholarships to spend elsewhere on defense... M already has 10 scholarships on offense (3 on defense) and it would be tough to spend more than 3 more on offense without sacrificing numbers on defense; though the '12 class was heavy defensively...

M is still recruiting CB's and S's (already have 1 CB, 1 S) but are being very picky about who they offer at DB, ditto LB; they aren't giving out a lot of offers so I can't see them taking a lot at either position... They are having some trouble getting defensive tackles to return interest but thus far they've went after mostly blue chip guys who are out of B10 region who aren't likely to visit till the summer or even fall...

In short, my guess on the last 11 scholarships:

*1 RB
*2 WR

*3 DL
*2 LB
*2 DB
*1 BRA

That's 11 and would give M a class of 24.

[Chuck Mallory]

The thing I really like about getting back to a pro-style offense is the overall amount of talent that it puts on your team. Not saying spread teams like Oregon aren't tallented, cause they def are. But to me it seems were seeing a night and day difference in the amount of talent that this type of offense is bringing in, as compared with what RR brought in.

It will be interesting to see what Myer does with his spread at osu.

[SeattleLionsFan]

The best part of going to a ProSet is that we will be recruiting pro style players against Wisconsin and MSU. OSU and ND are recruiting spread folks.

[Rob F]

The best part of going to a ProSet is that we will be recruiting pro style players against Wisconsin and MSU. OSU and ND are recruiting spread folks.

Good point, to an extent. Especially on offense, as now the pope and the angry one can take the smurfs that RR used to recruit, and we can take advantage of our higher national profile (and in-state superiority) in recruiting battles vs. dumbtonio and Bieldumb

[Rob F]

We still go head-to-head with practically everyone else when it comes to recruiting on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe all this is a good share of the reason for our early success in scooping up offensive recruits vs. the relative slow pace of gathering commits on "D".

[Da Geezer]

I understand that the decision on Gardner's red-shirt application will be made after his senior (4th) season. It seems to me that this puts UM at a disadvantage in recruiting at the QB position. Why won't the NCAA make a decision now? The facts of what happened in the year in question will not change. It would help the school and the potential recruits make decisions.

[Pasadena Blue]

does the NCAA ever do things that are truly in the best interest of the schools and the students?

[Da Geezer]

Damn sure did in Ohio's case. Gave them two coaching staffs. One to coach for the bowl and one to recruit.