Da'shawn Hand's New Top Three
Not good.
Can't tell if serious.
He hasn't even been to Florida yet.
Alabama - yes... could be troubling. But - he hasn't even met with their Sports Management person yet (he got a presentation from their engineering guy).
And if the reason that he eliminated Va Tech is true (no Sports Management department), ALONG WITH the rumors that he hated South Carolina's Sports Management guy and LOVED ours... well... "Not good"? LOL.
Alabama doesn't have an undergrad sports management program, so I'm not sure he will ever be meeting the sports management guy.
He did meet the head of their 122nd ranked engin department, you know, the one ranked lower than UAB.
that 'bama has accepted his being good at sport to as a prereq to their grad school sports management program, which is unsupdeproprecedented
"We will pay you to play sports. You manage the money we pay you. Thats our sports management. Welcome aboard!"
Then Alabama shakes Hand until Hand turns BLUE
Per SBNation, who has some quotes from Hand, that is precisely the reason (LINK).
Straight from Hand himself:
"I eliminated Virginia Tech because they don't offer a sports marketing program. And with South Carolina, the professor just didn't wow us. "
...and regarding Michigan and Alabama:
"At Michigan, the [sports marketing] program was so impressive, I wanted to sign up right there. During my visit to Alabama, I met the dean of their [sports marketing] program, and it's an excellent program."
He seems to be very serious about sports marketing. If he's making his decision based on an academic department, then I think it bodes well for us.
He must come to Michigan. He can learn Sports Marketing at the foot of the absolute Master, Dave Brandon.
1. "?? What the hell is a professor?"
2. "Christ, who let him talk to a professor..."
3. "PROFESSOR!!!"
In a totally unrelated story , The University of South Carolina hires
Jerry Mcguire as their new Sports marketing professor.
So the fact that we're now head-to-head with Bama is a good thing? No, fighting for a recruit with Saban is never good. Ever.
I would say that it is better than not fighting Saban for a recruit.
Tell that to Henry Poggi.
Let's not kid ourselves. Poggi was a huge get for us but not nearly as big a priority for Bama.
Hand's recruitment is going to be a dogfight. Saban's track record of getting guys into the NFL has got to be attractive to recruits.
I have no doubt that Hoke will return Michigan to the level of a top 5 destination for college football recruits but that isn't the case yet.
Um, yes it is.
For a recruit who seems to see through BS, it's not a terrible thing. Saban is not totally full of poo like Urban Meyer is, and he's great at getting the most out of his players, but I think Hand is going to see that Alabama doesn't offer quite as much as Mich, total college experience considered.
definitely not good if you're a Hokie. I think it's good news for us though.
Before today, we were presumed to be in his Top 2. We weren't the ones eliminated, so this is a good thing.
I liked being matched up vs VA Tech more. Well we've beaten Bama for recruits before and we'll do it again.
have to figure if Bama offers they're in any dude's top whatever list.
SATAN?!?!?!? Nick Satan keep your HANDS off HAND!
Link ($) straight from TomVH's mouth (keyboard?)
http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/michigan/forums#!/topic/1371039583-966-0
You should pay for Insider. Then TomVH can hold you too.
Seriously, you can find it for like $8-$10 a year. It's too ridiculous of a deal to not do it.
I have the ESPN Insider. You are right. It is a great deal and is very cheap for what you end up getting. I didn't use it as much until they came up with Wolverine Nation. Now I use the Insider quite a bit which is well worth it.
In this case here I think what everyone was saying is that they were expecting some tidbit of information besides just a link.
I wouldn't give ESPN one fucking penny of my money...
But then aren't you stuck with that shitty magazine? I'd rather not kill the trees.
You can get it sent to you via email, which you then can delete w/o even opening, like I do.
Because that means you missed the fashion issue. And the music issue.
Because those things are important in a sports magazine.
first sustainable industry. They give the trees a shot of painkiller before they cut them down. They don't feel a thing.
The problem is that you don't get access to Insider until you start getting the magazine which takes 8-10 weeks to start from when you sign up. I know because I signed up a few weeks ago when the latest great deal was announced and was really bummed to learn that I would have to wait this long because I only signed up for the Insider access.
I think it bodes well for us being in his ear so long and that he loves our staff, but if you were 17 and the best player in the country it would be hard not to take a look at Bama and all there rings and early draft picks.
So you're saying that the reason he isn't interested in OSU is that they've sold all there rings?
Gah both of you used there instead of their? Gah.
But I also correctly used they've... gotta grasp the subtlety.
Okay then. Grasped.
Sam Webb just got off the phone with D. Hand and he's going to cover it on the other side of this commercial break. He said Michigan just took a major step in the direction of landing Hand. Sam sounds VERY giddy....tune in!
Details for those of us at work. I expect a detailed synopsis in this thread. Pretty, pretty please...
The "revelation" is that Hand dropped VaTech (which should be a reminder of how ridiculously well informed we MGoCultists are) and he is now considering Alabama because he likes their engineering program, and was blown away by the engineering professor he spoke with. He also said something about how the professor is a "football guy" and Sam doesn't know what that even means.
Sam reitereated several times that this is "a step closer" to Michigan landing Hand because he believes it is about relationships and he implied that Alabama would not be able to make up the ground that Michigan already has in that department. He kept saying again and a gain that he could never have imagined that Hand would drop Virginia Tech but the academics aspect was just too important. Ira was blown away by that part. I think that is basically everything.
I think someone said above Alabama is 122nd in engineering whereas Michigan is typically top 5. For comparisons sake, I think MSU, Tech, and Western are all in the top 50 so Alabama at 100+ effectively means their engineering school is a big joke
I think the real reason he dropped VT isn't because of the sports managment program. I don't have any concrete info but logic dictates that if he considers Alabama's engineering program and he still really liked the coaches at VT he wouldn't just drop them because of no Sports Management. That would mean he would have to drop Alabama too because no SM.