Michael Jordon (NTMJ) to Ohio State
The 4* OT from Plymouth, and probably best player in the state in 2016, just committed to Ohio State. He was thought to be a Michigan lean and Michael and his father had said many times that his recruitment would not be ending anytime soon. This commitment seems both fishy and soft, and I am sure Jim and Staff will continue to hound this kid. He is a very important get not only for his skill set and position, but also to help fend off the growing perception that Michigan does not prioritize players from the state of Michigan, especially kids from the SE portion of the state. Definitely a player to follow, hopefully we can get him back to the good guys.
Still waiting for that fabled Harbaugh recruiting bump...
The OSU Bagman cometh....
Oh yeah, becasue they really need one.
The bagmen jokes apply when say, Ole Miss starts reeling in top 10 classes despite not being relevant in football since segregation was still around.
Ohio State's pitch is easy. They just won the national title game plus all the other things Ohio already had going for them (which if we're honest is about the same pitch Michigan can offer)
Yeah that National Championship and losing like 3 games in 3 years really hurts.
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it's not like it's WCC. It's not like all the players coming to Michigan are doing engineering or B-school anyway
Yeah, OSU won blah blah blah...
How do you think they got the personnel to win all of those games in the first place? It's well-documented that OSU has been providing illegal benefits since, at the very least, when Jim Tressel arrived on campus. It's not much of a leap to infer that the addition of an ultra-successful SEC coach "upped the ante" in Columbus for talented recruits.
Sam Webb seemed pretty adamant he wasn't anywhere near a decision. Interesting
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the Mike Weber saga was just one recent example of a situation that made Webb look and sound foolish. Nice guy. Well spoken. Loves UM. Not near the insider he pretends to be.
Michigan isn't favored or totally out for most of the heavily pursued targets in the state.
Hayes - USC
Corley - Leaning elsewhere
Jordan - OSU
Kareem - former MSU commit
Hill - PSU
When was the last time Michigan went 0fer on the top 5 in-state kids?
This class is looking a little MSU-ish in that regard...
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How bout we give ol Jim Harbaugh a year or two to see if your thesis works out here.
He seemed plenty competitive with the USC's of the world (when they were straight ballin' under Pete Carroll)
Perhaps he's got this thing under control
The MSU-OSU game last season was quite even and the outcome hinged on two or three key plays. It wasn't the blowout that many people misremember.
Ohio State spent the entire second half up two or three scores.
Not true. OSU was up by 4 points with about 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. And that was after 2 quick touchdowns to close out the first half. The stats were pretty even. If not for an unnecessary holding penalty to negate a Langford touchdown, it might have been a different outcome.
Not to relive the RichRod era or "the era that shall not be named". But the thing i found myself asserting to less knowlegable fans (none of who frequent this message board) is that based on RichRod's recruiting, there was no way UM could be a sustained National Championship caliber team. With the way he recruits, RichRod's ceiling is a 10-2 season with a BSC bowl berth, if things magically fall into place he might be in the conversation for a playoff berth. Along the way there will always be enough 8-5 and 7-6 years that your program will firmly be placed in the second tier of the college football hierarchy.
If we want Michigan to be an elite Football program, which I assume we all do, we have to have both coaching and recruiting. And we have to have them both as a very high level.
is recruitng at a high level. What you do with the kids you have is completely separate from the process of recruiting them. Some staffs are good a recruiting (see Hoke) some staffs are good at coaching and developing (see Dumbtonio). You have something special when you have both great recruiting and great coaching (see Urban Liar and Nick Satan).
You don't see too many National Champions that weren't pulling in top recruting classes. This has been true since recruiting classes have been ranked. So i will never under value getting big time recruits or recruiting classes.
Like they say there are two seasons in every football year, the recruiting season and the regular season. OSU has had a large gap over us in both seasons. And it really stings when they widen the recruiting gap with kids from our own backyard.
Having said that, I love Jim Harbaugh .... go get em Jimmy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I know he his an in state kid and is pretty good, but there other prospects we can get like Ben Bradsen who I am personally real high on. Also out there is Deverey Hamilton who is also pretty good. Plus we have Erik Swenson already. I know we will be fine at the Tackle position. We need to recruit more guards and center positions though. I know we are high on Terrance Davis list but would like to see other guy recruited for the interior positions.
I know that there are other talented OL recruits that we are in good shape for. Terrance Davis, Devery Hamilton, Ben Bredeson, Michael Onwenu, Cole Van Lanen all have us in the top 2 if not the lead. We have Erik Swenson. We will have a good OL class and, with Drevno and our staff our OL will continue to be a strength.
This is more disappointing because of the kid's location. There is a growing sentiment amongst metro Detroit HS coaches that Michigan isn't prioritizing in-state kids. I know Michigan doesn't produce the same talent year-to-year that TX, CA, FL, OH, NJ, PA do, but the top players from here are generally very valuable, and relying on kids from states that contain tradtional powers is a dangerous game. Michigan State has shown that good coaching can win a lot of games with kids from this state. I don't believe that this staff doesn't care for Michigan talent, and I do believe that Harbaugh will pursue MJ until signing day and probably end up flipping him. It's just concerning that the staff has to work to show that they desire the top in-state recruits to come to Michigan.
Also winning. To this point, 2016 recruiting has been slow and somewhat disappointing to the average observer, but winning will cure all come fall. There will be a lot of 18-year old eyes on us on September 3rd. ~~creepy wink~~
The average Ohio high school football player is better than the average Michigan high school football player. But, look at the Sparty team that won the Rose Bowl>>>
Michigan: DeAnthony Arnett, Lawrence Thomas, Mylan Hicks, Bennie Fowler, Tony Lippett, Aaron Burbridge, Jeremy Langford, Taiwan Jones, Max Bullough, Kyle Elsworth (Rose Bowl MVP), Ed Davis, Blake Treadwell, Jack Conklin
Ohio: Connor Cook, RJ Williamson, Kurtis Drummond, Denicos Allen, Marcus Rush
They've had great production from Ohio kids as well, but in-state talent has been a huge part of their resurgence.
You forgot to list the pharmacist from East Lansing.
got good when UM started to suck.
Me thinks it's how they develop players, strong QB play and some bad ass defenses.
kids he's not fond of?
Well, Michigan has offered 200+ players in the 2016 class. Obviously, some are going to be a higher priority than others.
Harbaugh has got to start winning some football games if we want to keep these kids out of Urban's slimy clutches.
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I didn't get the chance to read three and out to know if Urban played by the rules or not but I'd be more than interested in knowing what he said in his book about Denard's recruitment. Go on!
Bacon didn't explicitly say Florida, but there's a story about Denard visiting an SEC school and finding two hostesses in his hotel bed when he got back. Devin (who didn't take officials down south) was kind of incredulous, implying that this wasn't the same treatment he got in Big Ten country.
Putting the pieces together, it was probably Florida, but you won't find a passage in Three & Out saying "Urban Meyer did thing x at Florida."