Harbaugh/Stars and the NFL

Is this today's "Don't worry about stars" post? Or should we expect another one in a couple hours?

I appreciate you taking the time to compile and publish this.

That said, at this point my mind is telling me to get past the recruiting fireworks and focus now on spring practice, the spring game, and the prospects for the fall.

I can't wait to see how things unfold this fall.  I can't wait to see how key elements of the team show improvement year over year.

I'm particularly geeked about the offensive line play ... I caught Tim Drevno on the streaming coverage yesterday, and was really struck by the guy's focus.

Out of the 14 guys we signed, I think eight of them have four stars on at least one site.

The counterpoint would be that imagine what harbaugh could do with 4/5* players...some of the later rounders may have gone earlier. Talent can be developed but some talent is innate - some people are just faster, bigger, stronger. That being said, our recruiting class was fine, I'm not sounding any alarms like many people. Next year will be great!

This class was screwed when Hoke lost to Minnesota. Harbaugh had less than a month to start relationships with all these recruits. It's not like he was coaching college ball where he already had relationships with recruits. This recruiting class was always going to be a wash. Let's see what he can do with this year's team and with the 2016 recruiting class. I don't think we're going to be worrying about average stars in the future.

While I totally agree that Harbaugh and staff do a phenomenal job developing talent, you're also conveniently omitting the four-stars that went undrafted. That happens all the time, but you can't just highlight the positives.

I don't think this class was a wash as much as some people claim.

Remember that we still had a top-20 class according to average rating and the class is headlined by guys like Zach Gentry, Brian Cole, Tyree Kinnel, and Grant Newsome, who were composite 4-star players with a number of suitors.

While there are no immediate game-changers among the class (and I'm skeptical that Weber fits in that category), it certainly won't hurt us at all. In fact, it could pay huge dividends with high upside guys like Wheatley, Johnson, Jones, Washington, etc. There are positions of need for the future (like at linebacker), but Harbaugh has set himself up nicely assuming that he recruits at a high level given more than a winter break to do so.

Does Doug Baldwin count or was he recruited by the previous Stanford coach?

I'm definitely in the camp that thinks next year will be a top 5/ top 10 class, but I'll play devil's advocate and say we've never really seen Harbaugh recruit at an elite level.  I know, I know, he had a lot of restrictions at Stanford and he recruited the guys that would fit his system.  

It got me wondering how many 247 composite top 100 players has Harbaugh ever had on his teams? 2, just Luck and Skov.  At Michigan he inherits 1 in this recruiting class in Brian Cole, and 12 others on the roster already.  

Stars don't mean everything, but they definitely mean something.  Depending on how fast these players pick up the systems and philosophies the coaches are teaching we could see big things happen quick.

Harbaugh even admitted that the only way to fill this class was to flip kids and that's not a strategy he prefers("that's kind of the way the pickle squirted this year"). I'm sure he'll have better success starting in 2016. In the meantime, can't wait to see how he develops all the 4&5 star players Hoke left him.