New in-state offer: 2019 CB Rod Heard

Submitted by Magnus on

Michigan offered 2019 cornerback Rod Heard from Farmington Hills (MI) Harrison. He's 5'10", 170 lbs. and has offers from Cincinnati, Indiana, Iowa State, Purdue, Syracuse, and some MAC teams. 247 Sports has him as a 3-star, the #84 cornerback, and #893 overall.

https://247sports.com/Player/Roderick-Heard-46036409

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Magnus

February 27th, 2018 at 8:28 AM ^

I'm not sure I agree that he looks really fast. He looks like he has good speed, but he's not a blazer. Some of the guys he's running away from are...not very fast.

My guess is that the offer would be committable right now, but if Michigan gets a commit or two at DB, that window might close.

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Trader Jack

February 26th, 2018 at 10:19 PM ^

Magnus, do you think Michigan is offering so many in-state prospects in the 2019 class as a way of just establishing a relationship earlier than they have in precious classes? I can’t imagine all these offers are commitable at this point.

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Magnus

February 26th, 2018 at 10:26 PM ^

I think that's a part of it, yes. Michigan has been burned recently with "late" offers to in-state kids. The nature of recruiting has changed, and kids don't think you're serious until you offer.

It makes sense that Michigan was holding off, because if they yank an in-state offer, they might burn bridges with local programs. But I think that's a risk you have to take. 

I think the best approach for Michigan right now is to "offer" prospects and then stop contacting them over time if they don't see them fitting, kind of like they did with Kalon Gervin. But they'll really get themselves in a bind if they accept a commitment from an in-state kid and then yank the offer, so they have to walk a thin line between actively recruiting kids and accepting commitments they don't want.

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Albatross

February 26th, 2018 at 11:32 PM ^

i respect your opinions Magnus, but i think your not representing early offers correctly. Nothing has changed regarding recruiting and early offers. In fact they are two different things. Schools have routinely issued offers early to kids they feel are Division 1 prospects for decades. If they actually recruit the kids after they issue an offer is another thing all together.

Sometimes all a kid gets is an offer letter and then little or no contact, that is really not recruiting the kid and if a kid in that situation picked up the phone to commit, the answer would typically be "we are still in the process of sorting out our offers and are not ready to accept a commitment yet". Of course if it for a elite kid like an Ernest Shazor, who was the No. 1 safety in the country, they would certainly take his committment. In this starndard model you never have to "pull" an offer, you just don't go through the process of recruting the palyer. Kalon Gervin is a perfect example, they never pulled his offer, they just didn't recruit him after issuing an offer. And hence Michigan was never an option for Gervin.

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Albatross

February 27th, 2018 at 2:58 PM ^

Cause he was talking about offering and then pulling an offer as part of the process. An offer really is meaningless unless you are actively in contact with a kid. So the key is what kids the staff is using their energies on rather than who holds a Michigan offer. In you are doing things the right way, there should never be a reason to pull an offer. If we are talking about building or burning bridges it has more to do with how earnestly the staff is recruiting kids. The reputation we have had with instate kids recently is that we have taken a “we’ll get to you when we get to you approach”. That is what has hurt us with Dobbs and Rogers. We seem to be more in front of instate kids now, which should help.

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Magnus

February 26th, 2018 at 10:20 PM ^

Also, Michigan has offered about 9 cornerbacks in the past couple days. I doubt it's a coincidence that so many offers came out at one position, so maybe they just recently had a staff meeting where they evaluated cornerback prospects.

Regardless, they seem to be gearing up for some possible early departures. It wouldn't be too surprising to see Lavert Hill and/or David Long leave early after the 2018 season.

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goblue16

February 27th, 2018 at 1:18 AM ^

Comparing our classes to MAC talent is ridiculous but we can’t do anything with elite talent anyways what makes a drop in talent might be the nail in the coffin for this coaching staff. But who knows maybe that’s the motivation they need

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Frank Chuck

February 27th, 2018 at 4:06 AM ^

"we can’t do anything with elite talent anyways"

You are either very very very dumb or a delusional concern troll.

Our young defense - which has lots of highly recruited players - finished top-10 despite having to carry a clusterfuck of an offense.

This feels like the same bullshit argument some fans put forth in 2013/14. I argued with Michigan fans across various boards. As a former HS coach and scout, I firmly believed we had lots of future Sunday players that were being wasted by Hoke/Borges. They didn't believe it. They couldn't look past the record. Moreover, I saw Sparty slappies yapping at us about how we lacked talent when Harbaugh took over.

The 2015 and 2016 plus the 2017 NFL draft proved that Hoke successfully recruited a lot of next level talent. He just couldn't mold all that talent into an enduringly winning product.

Furthermore, people don't seem to understand that a season hinges from 7-5 to 11-1 on a range of just 15-20 plays. That's the margin between a memorable season and a miserable season. Injuries played a critical part in damaging our execution.

The 2017 Michgian offense was designed to hit the homerun ball. When our superfrosh Tarik Black went down, teams could double up on DPJ or Grant Perry. When Speight went down, O'Korn couldn't connect downfield. The spark Brandon Peters gave us was lost with his injury.

This chain of events (going as far back as Newsome's injury in 2016) severly damaged what we could do. It didn't help that our offensive staff lacked imagination at times.

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goblue16

February 26th, 2018 at 10:36 PM ^

Recruiting is starting to waver a little I don’t think players are buying in anymore this season is crucial and I think Harbaugh knows it. With that said what happens if we go 9-3 with loses to ND MSU and OSU? I don’t care about what you expect happen but would you want Harbaugh back for a 5th season and what would be his expectations in that season?

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Gentleman Squirrels

February 26th, 2018 at 11:00 PM ^

Yes, Harbaugh gets a 5th season. We have a tough schedule this year and even with a better team, we could still end up being 9-3. But that also means we beat Wisconsin and Penn State, both of which are good teams. What we need to see is improvement. WRs are getting better. QB of the future is set. OL takes a massive step up. Defense maintains its dominance and has future players ready to step up the year after.

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goblue16

February 27th, 2018 at 1:16 AM ^

A new coach always gives you hope but the fact is that the elite talent Harbaugh brought in is nearing their end. Not saying the talent he is bringing in won’t be elite but there’s no doubt that his best recruiting class were his 2nd and third class. 2018 was eh and 2019 looking like it could be promising but another mediocre season and that goes out the window. My question is how can we expect to make a playoff or win the Big ten or just beat OSU with 2/3 the talent?

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Mr Miggle

February 27th, 2018 at 8:46 AM ^

But how else to explain your arguments? The elite talent is nearing its end, but the next class is looking promising. And all that elite talent in the 2016 and 2017 classes isn't going to help us win if one class that follows isn't elite too. One eh class and all is DOOM.

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Magnus

February 27th, 2018 at 8:34 AM ^

Are we losing a ton of talent after 2018? Winovich, Mone, and Kinnel are the only projected starters who are seniors, and only Winovich has proven to be a player who might be hard to replace.

There's a possibility of losing Gary, Bush, Long, and Hill, but those aren't guarantees.

Offensively, we're not scheduled to lose anyone except Higdon.

Michigan is still a very young team.

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