Matt Leinart's Michigan Recruiting Visit
Matt Leinart shares a few interesting tidbits in a brief, 10 minute interview with The Ringer's Ryan Russilo on his podcast today. Definitely worth the listen for his Rick's story alone, but he also gets into how close of a race it was between Michigan and USC before choosing the Trojans, who were not very good at the time and going through a coaching change. He also brought up the house he stayed at on campus and the players that lived there, including David Terrell and Dave Petruziello. Interview begins around 26:40, but this episode includes a bunch of similar stories from other big names.
April 28th, 2020 at 11:52 PM ^
Wonder if he was mad when he found out Reggie got paid to go there and No One else on the team did.
Reggie got paid by a shady agent while he was at USC. Not by USC while being recruited.
He got paid by a shady agent AND USC.
April 29th, 2020 at 10:18 AM ^
Totally...and the flu kills more people than COVID-19 ?
April 29th, 2020 at 11:40 AM ^
Epstein didn't kill himself.
April 29th, 2020 at 12:13 AM ^
Michigan and finishing a close second for elite recruits, name a more iconic duo.
April 29th, 2020 at 12:47 AM ^
Calipari and getting said recruits?!
So we’re the Robin to everyone else’s Batman?
We're Mary Ann to Ginger...
and that's not that bad of a place to be.
Gonna disagree. Everyone knows that Mary Ann is a lot prettier than Ginger. If we were Mary Ann, we'd have a helluva lot more 5*'s in Ann Arbor...
April 29th, 2020 at 10:30 AM ^
People keep saying this, and I don't know why.
Have you ever seen Ginger?!?
April 29th, 2020 at 10:41 AM ^
Sure but Ginger's going to step out on you every night, surrounded by a gaggle of admirers. Mary Ann will be loyal to the grave.
I'd say we are more like Mrs. Howell (Lovey) to Mary Ann and Ginger
April 29th, 2020 at 10:55 AM ^
This seems very right.
April 29th, 2020 at 10:16 AM ^
You guys old or something?
April 29th, 2020 at 11:02 AM ^
username checks out.
Matt Leinart would have been a Lloyd Carr-era recruit. Lloyd landed his share of elite recruits, even at the tail end of his tenure (Ryan Mallett, Donovan Warren, Stephen Schilling, etc).
The problem is that too many of our 5-star recruits either didn't quite live up to their billing (e.g, Will Campbell), played on bad teams (e.g., Brandon Graham), or transferred away (e.g., Ryan Mallett). We haven't really had a 5-star recruit who went on to be a breakout superstar since... Charles Woodson? I guess you could count Jabrill Peppers, but that's two in 25 years.
Brandon Graham qualifies even if his teams weren't so great. Chad Henne played like a 5*, he was not worse than Peppers.
The problem is that too many of our 5-star recruits either didn't quite live up to their billing...or transferred away
3 coaches later and we seem to be having the same exact problem.
As Matt pointed out, it could be that many of these players get drunk at Rick's prior to playing! HA!
Lamarr Woodley
You can complain about Ohio getting shut out on his watch on the tail end, but cant complain about his recruiting...Carr was always right in mix for the top QBs.. we aren't anymore.
Umm, J.J. McCarthy. #13 recruit in the country. Yup, just can't seem to get in the mix for those top qb's anymore. Noob!
youre the noob.... Carr would be on the top one or two every year.... and McCarthy has been the exception, in 15 years now.
April 29th, 2020 at 11:01 AM ^
I will agree that QB recruiting has regressed since Carr but part of that is the change in the QB position. I think you are generally wrong (at least under Harbaugh). Devin was a borderline 5 star before Harbaugh and Tate was relatively high. Under Harbaugh I was expecting top QBs every year, but let's remember that Dylan was a highly rated QB and Peters wasn't quite as highly rated but I think still a top 150 guy. Plus we had 5 star Shea. The problem is that so far, these guys have been decent but not elite. Hope that changes this year.
April 29th, 2020 at 12:11 PM ^
QB recruiting hasn't regressed as much as QB development has regressed since Carr retired.
April 29th, 2020 at 10:53 AM ^
I am reserving judgement on McCarthy. I have seen a lot of his social media postings and right now it would be better for him to walk softly and carry a big stick. He seems pretty brash and cocky, not a bad thing to a certain extent but at the same time I'm worried that if he comes in and doesn't get the starting job he will be jumping to the transfer portal. I hope I'm wrong but so far I am not just super wow'd by him.
I listen to this podcast on the reg - Booger's stories is pretty good . He called Gerry DiNardo "a piece of shit" lol.
April 29th, 2020 at 11:37 AM ^
That was a great listen!
April 29th, 2020 at 12:26 PM ^
I feel you Matt. I too have been carried out of Ricks. Good times