Damon Payne (Belleville DT) commits to Bama
I suppose if he was never coming to Michigan, having him out of the conference is the second best thing that could happen.
Belleville (Mich.) DT Damon Payne just announced for Alabama. Says it is a place he can see himself excelling in athletics and academics. https://t.co/QRGlmiYKgl pic.twitter.com/oenhqJTMLW
— Allen Trieu (@AllenTrieu) July 26, 2020
Yay!
Feels like Nick Perry 2.0.
Feels like Belleville's staff made sure to steer him away from Michigan at every turn. It's fine, Bama will get him to the league if he puts the work in. If not, he'll be transferred out. His will be going in as a low floor but high ceiling recruit. Has a lot of work to do and is raw.
I wish him the best and hope he enjoys his creepy, rapey red-light locker!!!
It was widely known he wanted to go to a school that offered really good player motor vehicle lease deals.
Who knew he had a 65 year old white father to co-sign the lease for him?
I still don't understand how Harbaugh had a falling out with the most talent rich school in the state...
He didn't think they were all that great at developing that talent, and wasn't quiet about it.
HS Varsity players are 15-18 years old. How “developed” should they be? They should have the measurables and athletic talent that Harbaugh and his assistants should be able to mold and develop. He’s getting paid $9 million a year to develop players. Is Bellevue’s high school coaching staff getting paid that?
this isn’t a knock on your post, it’s just a knock on Harbaugh expressing his views to an extremely talent rich high school like that
It wasn’t that the players weren’t developed. Story is that Belleville had a really crappy practice (that everyone thought was crap) and it got back to Harbaugh who said that some of the players on the team may be struggling because they received poor coaching as high schoolers. This got back to the Belleville coach who started spouting off about Harbaugh and Michigan and Harbaugh responded in kind.
There have been attempts to fix this relationship but if the Belleville coach continues to undermine the recruitment, it makes sense to pursue other avenues where your time and effort aren’t wasted.
IDK man, Meyer didn't seem to have any issues fixing the Cass Tech issue after Weber. I'm guessing the problem is JH won't suck it up and let his ego take a back seat for the greater good of the team. Just give your honest assessment, apologize for handling it poorly, and offer some assistance to improve their coaching/practice. Then it looks like you're willing to help them, which actually helps the kids too and your program by getting better developed HS players. Problem solved. Plus, if a kid really wants to go to UM, I doubt his HC will be able to prevent it.
You're telling me the dude who slept over at a high school special teams player's house won't "let his ego take a back seat for the greater good of the team?" I don't think so.
There's bad blood there. I'm sure Harbaugh has tried, hard, to patch it up. Some things can't be fixed. FWIW from what I've seen on the web (i.e. no personal intel), Harbaugh "offering assistance" would not make Belleville like him more, just the opposite. (See e.g.. etc)
More broadly, I don't get the take that M has to have great relationships with every HS in Michigan or M has failed if it doesn't get the #1 player in MI every year. We're gonna lose players to Bama sometimes. Everyone loses players to Bama sometimes. Shit, players who go to high school in Auburn and get the Auburn logo tattooed on them to symbolize their commitment to War Eagle flip to Bama sometimes. That's, uh, life, and if you want to fire Harbaugh for that, well fire Day and Dabo and Orgeron too.
Shit, Mack Brown didn't own Texas, a state that's way more important to own than Michigan, and his only job was owning Texas. Are we gonna fire Harbaugh because a single HS coach in MI really dislikes him? That feels obviously dumb.
(Also worth noting that we pulled Andre Seldon from Belleville in the last cycle.)
Don Brown should schedule a meeting with the coach.
To that meeting he should bring a bag of cash, a cricket bat, and a note that says "your choice".
Texas is 3x the size of Michigan and that includes the Upper Peninsula. It’s impossible to own Texas. It’s very possible to own Michigan, a state with far very established programs and fewer hotspots for talent.
And it’s even more inexcusable when the holy grail of CFB talent — a good DL recruit — appears in your backyard and you don’t immediately go lips to ass to make sure you’re on the best foot possible with that staff years in advance.
+1 for "lips to ass"
I don't get the take that M has to have great relationships with every HS in Michigan or M has failed if it doesn't get the #1 player in MI every year. We're gonna lose players to Bama sometimes.
Every year? We haven't gotten the #1 player in MI for the last 3 years. We missed on Payne, Rogers the year before, & Logan Brown the year before that. Meanwhile our benchmark down south has secured the #1 player in OH in 7 of the last 8 years and I got bored of checking how far back it would keep going.
Shit, Mack Brown didn't own Texas, a state that's way more important to own than Michigan
You can not own Texas and still do quite well because of the amount of talent in Texas. You can't to the same degree in MI. Texas has 7 players in the top 50 and 15 players ranked in the top 100 compared to MI that only has 3 in the top 50 and 5 in the top 100. So, even though Texas only has 2 of the top 5 in 2021, both of those guys are in the top 35 nationally. Both of their committs are higher than everyone in the state of MI other than Payne. Even if UM lands Spindler & Edwards, Texas would have way more top 100 guys in state while not having as large a share of the state's top guys. This is particularly a problem at DT where there are very few elite ones in the Midwest.
That feels like an argument for putting relatively little emphasis on MI recruiting to me. There's not that much here! Why should we blanket the high schools, make it a prime focus of our recruiting efforts, etc, if the end result is not that much talent? Send the folks to Florida and California and New Jersey instead of having them court, like, Seaholm, Andover, or Groves.
I dunno, I care about M getting elite talent. I'm indifferent where that talent grew up. If MI was a recruiting hotbed, I'd be triggered by the fact that M doesn't own it. But MI isn't, so I don't care that much.
I agree with this sentiment. The one thing that bothers me about it, though, is that Michigan kids grow up understanding the M-OSU rivalry. Even the kids that grow up abused (ie: MSU fans), understand that rivalry. But kids anywhere else (other than Ohio) don't understand the depth of it. That is, really, the only thing that bothers me about recruiting outside of Michigan. It can be overcome, though, so your main point - about getting elite talent regardless of where it is - is more important to me...
That feels like an argument for putting relatively little emphasis on MI recruiting to me. There's not that much here! Why should we blanket the high schools, make it a prime focus of our recruiting efforts, etc, if the end result is not that much talent?
It wasn't intended that way. Of course you should go after the places where there is more talent, which is probably why we've tried to hire assistants from talent rich areas like Partridge. But, I'd also expect a blue blood to be able to hold down their states top recruits regardless of emphasis. If you're from MI you should grow up a MI fan more often than not. Unfortunately we are probably in the middle of a generation of kids that grew up from 2008 - 2014 that maybe weren't UM fans because of the lack of success under RR & Hoke.
I dunno, I care about M getting elite talent. I'm indifferent where that talent grew up
Me, too. If we had another 5-star DT from another state it would be no biggie. But, because there are so few top DTs in region which we obviously have a higher success rate with and we struggled at that position last year it sucks to lose one so close to home.
I don't think it's reasonable to expect a blue blood to pull all its state's top recruits. Alabama frequently loses elite in-state players to Auburn and (less often) other major SEC powers. Look at 2019: of the Alabama HS recruits, #s 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 all didn't pledge to the Tide. This idea that M has failed because it doesn't close MI recruit #1 seems to be a sorta silly standard. Recall, too, Oklahoma wasn't really in play for Dax Hill. Sometimes it just doesn't work out.
I'd push back a bit on Michigan not "getting" Rogers. Multiple schools in the area passed on him; MSU, under the flagging years of Dantonio, passed on him by all accounts. That's how a top-50 DT winds up at UK. And Logan Brown was a diehard Wisconsin guy seemingly from the beginning; arguably you could say that UM should have been a bigger player but people were calling that commitments years in advance. Payne didn't want to to come to UM and apparently the coach at Belleville doesn't like UM. Harbaugh apparently tried to mend the relationship somewhat but it didn't take; at some point you have to just move on and not try to placate a HS coach. Kids from Belleville who want to go to UM do and others don't, and that's fine. The fact OSU has a lock on their top players is pretty low on my list of concerns about how those two programs currently stand, and I don't think getting a couple of kids who were convinced by their HS coach that UM is a bad fit for them is going to bridge that gap.
I think it’s more likely Crowell is a jackass and holds a grudge in high regard.
Belleville kids that want to go to Michigan will still go to Michigan. It just becomes more of a challenge.
I didn’t think it was that they had one bad practice. It was that the coach has a really lax attitude in practice, and particularly no discipline for the star players. Some of those guys have transferred and left early from Michigan. Harbaugh is old school in that he’s a hard ass in practice and accuses players of faking injuries (personally I think he should re-evaluate that approach). When someone wasn’t performing in practice he snapped and threw a shot at the player saying he was babied in HS and picked up bad habits. That got back to Crowell.
Harbaugh isn’t perfect but I think the solution of hey man we don’t get along so I’m going to send my young assistants to start fresh at your school is a decent approach. They weren’t receptive to that. Crowell is a little too full of himself. You’re a Hs coach man, your job is to get these kids to college.
Being paid a lot isn’t the only reason to develop talent. I have coached HS football for very little money but I took my job serious to develop the players and get them ready for college. Many HS coaches do a good job of it however many don’t and they shouldn’t be coaching if they are not developing the players
Glass houses.
And yet Nick Saban was okay with their talent development.
Saban has a fail safe. Every year they have two to three guys who are 6’3” 315 lbs who are strong as an ox (I’ll add we know what players have tested positive for steroids at the NFL combine).
If Payne doesn’t work out, it will not cripple their roster. So you take the kid with less quality high school coaching, and see if your coaches can develop him. If not, he gets processed (we know what program burns through the most medical issues) and they try again next year.
One other note, yes Alabama gets D-Lineman drafted and if you want the onetime payday, fine. That said, for the number of d-lineman drafted, I think Alabama guys underperform in the NFL so if you want the long term money where you can really get rich, it probably pays to look at other college programs.
The point is to get in the league, after that, The rest is on you, off the top of my head i can’t think of a current D line factory like that, but nicks gonna put weight on you (read muscle) he’s going to teach you nfl level D line play/thinking and you will have a chance to play against others you may see on Sunday, but bottom line as bad as we need DT’s this should not have happened, not sure what the solution is though
If that’s true then that really dumb on Harbaughs part
Harbaugh can’t help but Harbaugh
Wasn’t the most talent rich school until a year or two ago. Cass tech and King (CC maybe as well) out classed them by a wide margin.
also of note, for the most “talent rich school in the state” they sure don’t have any trophies to back that up. Maybe the coaching isn’t up to it...
Their coach is a touchy douche.
So is ours. You’d think they could bond over that.
Crowell was already a MSU fan and the recent events have just made his hate for Michigan worse. Saying this is solely Harbaugh's fault is stupid when Crowell can't put his emotions aside for what could be best for his kids
Yes sir.
Better than him going to OSU, I suppose.
Sucks watching top instate talent continue to leave the state, but it is what it is. If your goal is to go to the NFL and play for titles, then Alabama is a far more attractive program than Michigan right now.
Or get paid what you are worth in college.
Michigan is stupid as fuck to not have a well established bagman program.
Partially agree. I think they should do it all above board, on the books. Then when the NCAA comes after them, leave the NCAA and start our own athletic league that is fair to players. Other schools would join, or the NCAA would be forced to cave, and in a hundred years we would be seen as the leaders and the best.
As long as it ain't Ohio State.....
Let's get next on the board.
And another 5 star kid from Michigan leaving the state. Harbaugh needs to do a better job of recruiting this state. Let’s hope he can get Edwards and Spindler.
This has LITERALLY nothing to do with Harbaugh or his recruiting ability. This is a kid who insisted from Day 1 that he wanted to leave the state. Either to OSU, or the SEC. Period.
This isn’t Harbaugh not doing his due diligence with a kid. This isn’t Michigan ignoring a kid. This isn’t Michigan not going after a kid. This isn’t even Michigan simply getting out-recruited by a school with more to offer. It’s simply a kid who had no interest in going to Michigan. At all. Ever.
You want to bash Harbaugh’s recruiting ability and his ability to bring in-state guys here, this is absolutely not an example to use for that.
Correct, it really has more to do with hiring RR and Hoke and having several poor seasons from '08 to 15. These HS kids growing up, never seen Michigan being Elite. I think this will be a trend but the coach at this HS is not a fan of Michigan, so that hurts as well.
No, it has to do with a kid wanting from Day 1 to leave the state and go south (in search of “benefits” according to some) It doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the University of Michigan at all.
Not every kid in the state of Michigan has the lifelong dream of going to UofM. A lot of people on this board need to realize that.
This one isn’t on Harbaugh. Dude never had a chance. Now, we miss on Edwards and that would be a massive dong punch and Harbaugh Fail!!!
Sniff sniff....something smells familiar in this post....can’t put my Maizen on it.
I just have this feeling that Michigan high school kids have very little”connection” to U of M. Unlike most of us who grew up caring about Michigan and deeply invested in their athletics success. Kids nowadays could care less about Michigan’s stadium, helmets, or being the winningest program of all time.
Kids from out of state now seem more loyal to U of M than kids from Michigan.
2020 - #2, 4 & 6 kids in Michigan go to Michigan
2019 - #3 & 6 go to Michigan
2018 - #1, 4 & 5 go to Michigan
2017 - Top 6 and #8 go to Michigan
2016 - #1 & 4 go to Michigan
current status of 2021 is #4 & 7 committed, in the mix for #2, 3 & 6
if we get Edwards and Benny we're at #2, 4, 6 & 7 - Spindler adds #3 as well
so...no, the sky isn't falling
Reads post looks up its Coldwater again saying he has a feeling. *Chuckles for everyone. Your feelings mean nothing.