pluckiest portal pickups
my votes for most indispensable pick ups for M football and men's bball in the "portal" era are Jake Rudock and Duncan Robinson. Maybe it's not even close?
tried to find a pic or vid of harbaugh "prepping" rudock's pads for his first start but came up empty. still vivid in my memory so hope I am not making that up.
Olu and his Olu-can-eat buffet.
Also, the "portal era" started October 15, 2018. That would exclude both Rudock and Robinson.
Yep, and Chaundee too
Mike Smith was a great pickup
post 2018 olu is my choice and only thought. bball pre-portal honorable mention to charles matthews then. The portal is a fickle mistress.
The Kentucky transfer, Charles Matthews.
Listening to broadcasts, how could you even have known that?
We might need to reset the CFB and CBB calendars so that 10/15/2018 = time 0, and then refer to anything before that as BPE and everything after as APE (After Portal Era or APEshit crazy).
Olu is the obvious one for me. The best and most important player on an offensive line that just wrecked people. The most crucial piece for continuing the OL momentum--and general offensive improvement--that began the year before. Indispensable piece in Michigan's first back-to-back wins over OSU and B1G titles in a lonnngggg time
Olu-can-eat buffet
For the love of all that is holy...PLEASE...no Chris Berman references!!!
It's Rudddock.
Rudddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddock.
I like the question.
Jake is a great choice and I think he is most important of all portal pickups. Who else would have been the QB on that 2015 team? And he turned out to be a pretty damn good QB.
My runner-up would be Olu. Without him, the center would've been Crippen or Anderson? Both might turn out to be good OL for Michigan, but they were both Sophomores. Would the OL have been what it was last year without Olu? (Plus, his name is Olu, just like OLU or Offensive Line University 😊)
I'm actually gonna go out on a limb and say that Shea Patterson was a pretty important portal pickup. He gets poked at quite a bit on the board (including by me) but he was actually a decent to good QB imo. Would we have won 10 games in 2018 with Joe Milton (freshman), Dylan McCaffrey (sophomore), or poor damn Brandon Peters? The same for 2019, with McNamara (freshman), Milton (sopomore) or McCaffrey (junior).
Edit: I guess Shea wouldn't count either.
I'm old enough to remember when one knock on Shea Patterson was that he might inspire Dylan McCaffrey to transfer. You know, the guy who has more INTs than TDs in his career at an FCS school
Rickey Green. :-)
I think we should give an honorable mention to Jim Knowles.
We should all throw down to get Knowles a gift card to red lobster
Better yet..."reverse buckeyes" candy......They hadn't seen them for a while.
Just don't make it Golden Corral or Bert might trample him.
Man did Beilein nail it finding him, developing him, then dropped ball not playing him effectively. He scored zero points in national title game.
If you're referring to Duncan, he came in and got two quick ticky tack fouls and then was auto benched. Never had a chance to get going. His sixth man presence was phenomenal all year long. Not sure why you are dissing Coach B for his use.....
The two foul auto bench was probably one of the boards biggest problems with Beilein. I mean other than the whole fire him years.
he struggled the first half of his senior year. that's why he lost the starting job. his junior year was disappointing as well.
Pardon. . . prepping pads pic’s portal pickup pertinence? Please. Pathetic post.
/ probably
April 23rd, 2023 at 11:07 PM ^
Picked a peck of pickled Jabril Peppers?
April 24th, 2023 at 12:44 AM ^
There are always the 7 Ps: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
robinson stagnated or even got worse after his soph season. he lost his starting job his senior year. he had a good feb-mar of that year. other than that, pretty meh. i will give him credit for his improved D his senior year.
The “portal” didn’t start until October of 2018, so if we’re framing this under the “portal era” then Rudock and Robinson are out.
Edit: guess I should have read the first comment before chiming in
Top five of all time:
1. Willie Heston (transferred from San Jose State)
2. Elroy Hirsch
3. Rickey Green
4. Olu
5. Duncan Robinson
April 23rd, 2023 at 10:04 PM ^
I'd forgotten Rickey Green transferred in. Also on the top 5 all time hair list.
April 23rd, 2023 at 10:01 PM ^
as a northern indianian who fails to understand the definition of the word portal i will toss in spike albrecht from deep. definitely an impact transfer
April 24th, 2023 at 12:25 AM ^
If nothing else, he should be in the conversation for his tremendous efforts in trying to leverage the tournament success into a date with Kate Upton.
April 24th, 2023 at 12:27 AM ^
This thread made me realize how many great pickups we’ve had in the portal era. The only two big pre-portal that come mind are Robbie Reid and Russell Shaw. I’m sure there have been more, but not many.
Ruddock would have easily been number 1 had he stayed another year. Lamp Hill was spot on when he said that we would have won the title in 2016 with Jake under center
April 24th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
I believe the clip you're referring to is Harbaugh and Speight.
April 24th, 2023 at 10:19 AM ^
Was Jake Ruddock a grad transfer?
And - the suggestion of Olu, I have to agree with that selection. Olu acclimated immediately and complemented the talent on the OL. He was a great addition to last year's team and one of the reasons Michigan has a two consecutive Joe Moore Award winning OL.