Cornerback recruiting
Ohio State just picked up a commitment from 2021 4 star WR Marvin Harrison Jr (sorry to those who now feel old). Between the 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 classes OSU has now signed 10 top-100 WR recruits:
Julian Flemming (#3 overall, 2020), Garrett Wilson (#29 overall, 2019), Jameson Williams (#82 overall, 2019), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (#57 overall, 2020), Gee Scott (#64 overall, 2020), Mookie Cooper (#78 overall, 2020), Marvin Harrison Jr (#54 overall, 2021), Jayden Ballard (#74 overall, 2021), Jaelen Gill (#30 overall, 2018), Kamryn Babb (#73 overall, 2018)
In that same time frame UM's cornerback recruiting has consisted of the following:
Gemon Green (#382 overall, 2018), Vincent Green (#700 overall, 2018), DJ Turner (#400 overall, 2019), Jalen Perry (#200 overall, 2019), Andre Seldon (#221 overall, 2020), and the now departed Myles Sims (#170 overall, 2018)
I'm having a hard time seeing how this is not going to be a major problem going forward in our match-ups with OSU. Michigan has been lucky to sign a string of top rated corners like Jourdan Lewis, LaVert Hill, Ambry Thomas, and David Long recently but that well is almost dried up. Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
October 31st, 2019 at 11:35 AM ^
Mike Zordich has got this covered.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
Like OSU last year?
October 31st, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
Can't do much with Brandon Watson. Its not the best plan to play man when they did either.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
So you switch him with someone else. That's typically what coaches do when a player is continually getting burned. Zordich not doing this was a problem. He didn't even try to see if something else might work.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
I'm pretty sure the defensive coordinator makes these adjustments, not the cornerback coach.
It would be a mess if each position coach got to make their own substitutions.
November 1st, 2019 at 9:20 AM ^
Actually that is how it works. The defensive coordinator manages the game plan and calls the defensive plays. Each position coach is in charge of their own room and the depth chart for their group. Of course they discuss it with the coordinator, but they make the call in terms of who is in there and who's up next. The D Coordinator will at times tell his position coach to take a certain player out or get them off the field if they are making mistakes or getting beat. But the position coach will do that also.
In the case with B-Wat, Zordich felt that while he may have been getting beat, he still felt that he was the best option of what they had available.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:35 PM ^
Right, so what if you end up with 2 or 3 Brandon Watsons on your team? (solid 90% of the time, subject to getting scorched). I'm concerned
October 31st, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
Zordich is a great coach. Shit recruiter. You can’t coach agility and speed. Ask Brandon Watson.
October 31st, 2019 at 2:17 PM ^
Watson was recruited by Hoke, not by Zordich. If you want to rip Zordich for HIS recruits, then list them all, and go from there....
October 31st, 2019 at 11:36 AM ^
Cornerback recruiting sounds like a good idea.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^
Once you accept Ohio State as an annual loss and just ignore everything else they do you will enjoy Michigan football much more. I have adopted this mindset and I am much calmer about everything this season.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:40 AM ^
Awesome. Glad that you accept being a loser. Good for you...
October 31st, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
No thanks.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:54 AM ^
This sounds crazy, but until we can get close to their level of recruiting wins should not be expected.
"Tell that to Purdue and Iowa!"
Yes, yes. I remember. Something tells me, though, that TSUN is not going to be a beneficiary of OSU's yearly flake-out game.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:42 PM ^
Pretty much. They’re going to pass Michigan in the rivalry, win % and possibly overall wins with Alabama soon enough at the rate they’re going.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
Is it a bit concerning? Sure.
But Michigan State's heyday Dantonio teams thrived on handsy underrecruited corners that got the job done and beat OSU more than their fair share of times.
They're still in on Darion Green-Warren, 4 star and composite 209 player in the 2020 class. There might be other guys they're in on too, I'm not sure.
Also there's more than one way to skin a cat/win a football game.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:43 AM ^
Very true, but our defensive scheme in particular relies on guys who can play press man one on one coverage. I do think we are going to notice during the next couple of years how spoiled we have been with very talented corners.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:48 AM ^
And you can see from MSU now what relying on that strategy does. It’s completely unsustainable. You win consistently through recruiting period. Nobody wins consistently through player development
October 31st, 2019 at 11:51 AM ^
FWIW the 247 West Coast analyst Blair Angulo said yesterday he expects Green-Warren to sign with USC and that's also where Greg Biggins crystal ball is at the moment.
I get your point about Dantonio, but there's a reason that program has fallen off a cliff lately and it's not because he forgot how to coach. Banking on 3 stars to become All Americans is not an effective long term recruiting strategy.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
Interesting on the Green-Warren to USC stuff. I would imagine a coaching change could shake some things up there though, right?
October 31st, 2019 at 11:43 AM ^
You have to give them credit. That WR recruiting is just insane. I am worried about cornerback but have no idea what the solution is. The good news is that the corners you listed that were highly rated ended up as exceptional players. So at least you can take solace in the fact that we coach up the kids we get.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:02 PM ^
Yea exactly. Everyone cries about the recruiting and that we just signed another 3-star, but what’s the solution? There isn’t one, the end. Anyone who says “i told you so” about 5-stars vs. 3-stars isn’t saying anything we don’t already know. Yea 5-stars are better, we get it. OSU gets more, what are you gonna do about? Nothing. Next thread.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
Well, we can complain about recruiting after OSU shreds UM’s secondary again and again.
Here’s an idea: open up the offense so elite WRs want to come and play for UM. Kind of like what OSU has been doing. And you don’t have to be a surgeon to understand why Rice steered away his kid from UM.
October 31st, 2019 at 2:17 PM ^
Jerry Rice is not involved in his son's life.
October 31st, 2019 at 7:07 PM ^
I take it you don’t know a whole lot about the relationship between Jerry Rice and his son...
October 31st, 2019 at 8:58 PM ^
You seem concerned
October 31st, 2019 at 12:41 PM ^
Ohio State has been loaded at every position for a long time. Winning and cars will do that to a program. Nothing new here.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
Zordich is the man. But yeah I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about the talent coming in at CB.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
Methinks Chris Partridge needs to lend some 'crootin support to Zordich. You know, like, actually recruiting the position for him. Zordich is a great secondaries coach, but I don't think he cares much for the 'crootin side of things.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:51 AM ^
IIRC, Michigan's recruiting approach is a lot more complicated than "position coach recruits position player". I think the primary approach is regional (coaches recruit areas to which they have ties, regardless of position), with a certain amount of effort sharing split between the primary coach and position coach.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
Concern: who the fuck is Vincent Green?!
October 31st, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
In general our CB recruiting is really terrible. We can only hope that we find some sleeper recruits. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if Hill were to move to CB since we have so many coming in at safety
October 31st, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
Makari Page might also be able to move outside.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
Ohio St. is a terrifying death machine and is recruiting like one. Michigan is a very good football program that is recruiting like one and unfortunately this is not quite enough in this current era of four or five programs getting all the top end talent.
You can either keep wringing your hands about this or accept that nothing lasts forever and eventually Ohio St. will stop rolling sevens. Not much else to do about it right now.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:58 AM ^
What's the point of singling out WR recruiting? They are dominating us at every single position and it's not even close.
October 31st, 2019 at 4:46 PM ^
said this in the Harrison thread as well.....
Fun Fact!! Best receiver on the 2019 OSU team is the lowest rated....Chris Olave a 3-star in 2018 Ranked 399 overall in the composite. YMRHFSPA the same guy our fans were bitching about as a “reach” by M’s staff before OSU stole him away.
OSU will definitely hit on a few of those guys but we should trust our Staff Evals on DBs as well - the highly rated CB from Georgia left because the staff-selected lower-rated kid(s) were better.
That said, if we could clone 3 or 4 more Dax Hills I would be ok with it...
October 31st, 2019 at 12:01 PM ^
I have a feeling this dude is Maizen.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:02 PM ^
Yea, I'm disappointed I didn't catch it earlier, usually he's a lot more obvious. But it makes sense that he's back here considering he recently got kicked off of 247's board once again.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^
Maizen adds a decent amount of knowledge on here. It's just a shame that he can't keep his weirdness at a reasonable level - he always eventually turns it up to 11.
October 31st, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
This exactly. There are very few people who pay attention to recruiting more than Maizen. But eventually he will spaz out because Michigan somehow didn't pull in all 5 stars when it's obvious it takes two to tango.
Fact: Michigan only goes after certain players it feels will be good citizens, try-hard students and good athletes.
Fact: A lot of 4-5 stars don't go to college to play school, or to be/become good citizens. College isn't for everyone.
Michigan has a culture and they recruit guys to that culture. Apparently there are not any 4* -5* corners who are interested in that culture enough to come here. Or Michigan failed to identify those what would have. Same difference.
October 31st, 2019 at 2:20 PM ^
What did he say to get kicked off 247? A maizen meltdown is mildly amusing.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:03 PM ^
Transfer portal. Not worried.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:11 PM ^
DJ turner and seldon are really good. The rest of the corners are built to defend the fade.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:16 PM ^
Unfortunately CB has slipped the last couple of cycles. Zordich may be a good coach but recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and for a guy that only recruits his position, he should be doing a lot better. It's time for an upgrade in recruiting swag at the position.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:19 PM ^
Sure, that's not great. I don't know what to say; I'm sure they are trying to recruit better corners. They'll have to figure out a way to compensate.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
It’s a major concern and just one more factor as to why OSU has the far superior program. OT recruiting is the other key troubles spot.
October 31st, 2019 at 2:09 PM ^
Michigan is just fine at OT.
October 31st, 2019 at 3:08 PM ^
Remember this statement when Runyan and Mayfield are trying to block Chase Young.
October 31st, 2019 at 3:17 PM ^
Chase Young can’t be blocked by anyone in college.
UM has promising tackles in Mayfield, Hayes, and Steuber.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
I agree with both points. UM's tackles look very promising, and I would judge them on their growth over the season and not on their performance against one of the best college pass rushers ever. Having El-Hadi committed in the 2021 is further proof that OT recruiting seems to be going just fine.