Gatlin Bair Commitment Date

Submitted by dcblue92 on July 20th, 2023 at 5:28 PM

August 5th at 7pm EDT. No Crystal Balls but M had his last visit and reportedly glowing reviews. Outrageous sprinter speed (laser 4.2x!!!). Essentially class of '26 with mission upcoming.

https://twitter.com/TheWolverineOn3/status/1682120000591605762?s=20

 

njvictor

July 20th, 2023 at 6:06 PM ^

While getting a commitment would be great, it's still a long way from when he would be on campus and we'll have to continue to recruit him. The chances our staff is remotely the same by the time he steps on campus are slim. We were able to grab Andrew Gentry while he was on his mission and other teams will be able to do the same

MEZman

July 20th, 2023 at 9:40 PM ^

That's not really how their missions work. They're really hard to get ahold of during missions as they only really get to communicate with family infrequently. If I remember correctly it took Michigan some effort to get in touch with Gentry and they were lucky because his mission was stateside due to Covid. 

BYU is a different deal but I don't think one needs to worry much about him taking many recruiting pitches while he's on his mission.

MEZman

July 21st, 2023 at 9:25 AM ^

It's ok that you don't understand how difficult it would actually be for this to happen. BYU has easier access as it's basically an arm of the church but everyone else is going to have roughly 0 access to him. Gentry was a once in a lifetime thing that only happened because the family helped and there was a global pandemic happening. 

I only barely understand it because I lived in SLC and asked former/current members of the church what it was like. They're more than happy to talk about it as long as you don't treat them like weirdos. It's pretty intensive stuff.

LSA Aught One

July 20th, 2023 at 7:50 PM ^

The location of his mission has a lot to do with his access to proper facilities to continue his training/conditioning.  I wonder when he finds out the location.

TeslaRedVictorBlue

July 21st, 2023 at 8:54 AM ^

Getting him is better than not, but in two years, what about a commitment now keeps him with UM? I know schools are offering to help pay for the mission, but that doesn't lock anyone in. Would be cool to get him, but...2 years can change a lot. Underwood will be dropping dimes all over the field by the time he's here

Don

July 21st, 2023 at 9:39 AM ^

I’m going to wait until he’s on campus and practicing with the team before I get excited about him playing for Michigan. In football terms 2026 is a lifetime away.

M_Born M_Believer

July 21st, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^

My brother is a Mormon (and a UM grad / lurking stalker on this site) and yes anyone outside of direct family will be nearly impossible to make any contact during the 2 year mission.

MgoBlaze

July 21st, 2023 at 10:49 PM ^

The idea behind a mission is that they're there to work. It's like being in the Army for two years.

Remember that the most important thing in Mormonism is converting new people. That's why they "baptize" dead people. The more of them there are, the more power the leadership wields both monetarily (10% tithing is expected from everyone including children) and culturally.

There's a very, very, very strong internal culture of trying to convert as many new people as possible, taught from a very young age. Some of my first memories are my parents at a checkout aisle in a supermarket trying to convert random strangers with the misfortune of sharing proximity to them. I picked up the love of arguing, but not their arguments.

That's the whole point of a mission- to gain new converts. Which means that all of the time they spend talking to someone back home or anything else that's not focused on their mission is time that could be "more productively" spent finding new members or rehearsing their arguments as to why their version of truth is the truthiest.

Essentially, they're there to create new revenue sources for the church, which for many reasons is much more easily done in isolation from anyone who's not doing that.