I try to comfort myself with, hey, still doing okay on the OL. But it still sucks going 0-for-2 on two studs just 50 miles away who already wear the winged helmet. My main concern now is, assuming there's going to be a fiesta of decommits once on-campus visits start up again, how solid are Giovanni El-Hadi's and Raheem Anderson's commits?
If Donovan Edwards goes to Georgia, this board will be unreadable. Time to fix recruiting Harbaugh.
And it should be.
I think it's easy for a lot of people to forget that no visits goes for EVERYONE.
Michigan might suffer decommits, but so might Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Ohio State, etc. I'm not any more concerned for Michigan than I am for those other schools. It's going to be a weird year across the country.
I’m sure we will still be recruiting Spindler and Dillinger down the line. Crazier things have happened in normal seasons. This seasons signing day should be even crazier. Bama has all the momentum right now but most of their recruits signed in the middle of the pandemic. Who knows how solid those commitments.
Giovanni El-Hadi committed like two seconds after we offered and was the first commit in the class. I think we’re fine with him lol
FUCK YOU ALL!
Just got bombarded by ND fans saying how Quinn is a better OL Coach because he coached Kelce and Staley. Am I missing something or are they just delusional? Warriners got at least 17 lineman in the NFL currently and ND hasn’t had a lineman drafted in 2 years. Either way good luck to Spindler at Notre Shame!
it's not like we're ever going to see football again anyway.
This is bad. I’m willing to let the battles we had no chance in winning go without criticism. Can’t lose this kid to ND. Yikes
Not good. But at least ND sends o-line to the NFL on the reg.
If we get Edwards & Benny it's hard to be too upset, but it still kinda sucks to lose 3 top 100 guys from in state because we don't have that many guys from MI ranked that high very often in one class. Best of luck to him. Unfortunately we'll never get to play him to show him he made the wrong decision. Maybe he'll help ND beat OSU in 2022 or 2023. That's the best I can think of to offer :/
His loss
We will be fine, everyone needs to relax.
Best of real “Irish” luck to the young man unless we play them in a bowl game. We’ll be fine in the trenches with the young men we have.
And another big time recruit Harbaugh can’t keep in the state. Better not miss out on Edwards.
https://twitter.com/sbell021/status/1289052888606609408?s=21
Such a trash take. Go sit down somewhere.
We haven’t got the top ranked recruit in Michigan in the last 3 years.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
Maybe it’s just me and this is probably why I’m not a football coach, but I have to figure that as long as Harbaugh recruits guys who can win, what does it matter where they come from? If they can find a way to beat OSU, they could come from Mongolia, Madagascar, or Andromeda for all I care.
I'm not saying that recruiting your home state is unimportant, but if you are picking up talented guys from somewhere else, like CA (where Harbaugh has lured quite a few guys away from recently), and they win, are you really going to care what state they come from?
In the end I don’t think it’s relevant, because Rocco Spindler and other top instate players are not the difference between beating OSU and not beating OSU.
Michigan stopped recruiting two of those three pretty early in the process and the other was a lifelong Wisconsin fan who went to his dream school.
Context is important, even when you’re trying to push a shitty narrative.
Obligatory: to hell with Notre Dame
Well we swiped quite a few guys from ND over the last few years, including several in the last class alone. So this is the universe balancing itself out.
Best of luck to him unless he ever plays Michigan.
He's a good player and it sucks to miss in him. But Michigan has recruited well on the offensive line and I have faith they'll find a suitable replacement.
He’ll flip the moment he has any extended amount of time with Purple Face.
Does it suck? Like seriously? Does the whole “losing an in-state guy sucks no matter what” really apply to an offensive lineman? There are a lot of guys on the roster, we have a great oline coach, I’m really not worried about this. Some of the kids that I have in school played him and said weren’t that impressed (kids opinion I know). We also play West Bloomfield and they have always raves about Edwards. Now THAT recruit would hurt to lose. Just my worthless two cents.
I have a longer rant I could give about in-state recruiting and the bizarre, red-herring fixation a segment of the fan base has on it, but I’ll leave it at this: Michigan’s offensive line recruiting and development is PHENOMENAL right now and even without Rocco we’re going to have some major talents fighting to get playing time over the next few years. Along with maybe linebacker, this is the position group I’m least worried about
I did a series of posts on in-state recruiting, and my conclusions were very similar to yours. If Michigan got the top 25 in-state players every year, the team would be on par (based on NFL draft pick production) with Cal, Colorado, Oregon State, Texas, and UCLA.
Obviously, you probably want the top guys from Michigan and top guys from other states, but the truth is that Michigan is not rich with talent. It has occasional stars, but the top guys seem to end up as 5th or 6th round draft picks. If you want a team that's going to be competitive on a national championship level, you need to get elite players from Texas, Florida, Georgia, California, etc.
This is blatantly wrong. Wisconsin, for example, has been competing at a very high level for years with far less.
Yeah but it’s actually NOT wrong. Wisconsin is the exception to the rule, and even then you could argue they’re not that successful on a national level. Playing in a weak division makes Wisconsin’s path to 10 or 11 wins pretty easy. Even not getting elite talent, they’re able to get more than their other division opponents.
Let’s not sit here and pretend Wisconsin is the model everyone is going to follow here. The name of the game is getting talent.
The other side of that is, you’re basing “durrr Wisconsin” on what the recruits were ranked. Not how good they actually were. Wisconsin gets a lot of production and value out of lower ranked guys and sends them on to be high ranked draft picks. The State of Michigan hasn’t had the same trajectory in sending high ranked players to being high ranked picks. A LOT of high ranked flameouts.
Here's one reason why it's not wrong:
Cole Van Lanen
Zack Baun
Ben Bredeson
Tyler Biadasz
Nate Stanley
All of these guys, and more, came out of Wisconsin in the past five years.
Baun himself was drafted higher than any player from the State of Michigan.
Also, here's a list of some Wisconsin-born products in the 1st round of the NFL draft over the past decade:
J.J. Watt
T.J. Watt
Travis Frederick
Melvin Gordon
Kevin Zeitler
Ryan Ramczyk
Trae Waynes
Here's the complete list of Michigan-born products in the 1st round over the same time span:
Eric Fisher
(If I missed someone, please correct me.)
August 9th, 2020 at 10:32 AM ^
I had no idea Wisconsin produced that kind of talent. But I do remember what a big deal it was to land Bredeson...I’m guessing the Badger fans thought losing Bredeson was the end of the world and that Chryst better figure out how to keep the top instate recruits
Some of the time, but not all the time.
This is not a surprise. It was well known that his dad was pushing hard for this.
Drew Kendall is a must.
Wasn’t like we weren’t warned about this. Now go get Kendall.
Rocco's dad seems a little toxic...probably the source of Rocco's mean streak. Best of luck to him with the Irish.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:29 PM ^
Rocco's dad was a HOF had he not blown out his knee in college. He was that good. A monster.
August 8th, 2020 at 11:19 PM ^
To hell with Notre Dame
August 8th, 2020 at 11:33 PM ^
Losing out on Payne, Spindler, and Dellinger in a single in state class is BRUTAL and horrid recruiting on Harbaughs fault. Anybody who tries to downplay has their head up their ass
That is way too much trench talent to miss out on in your own backyard
Or anyone who tries to magnify this as the coaching staff’s fault has their head up their ass.
Two of the kids you mentioned had no interest in going to Michigan and had EVERY intention of going down south from the very beginning of their recruitment. Nothing Harbaugh or the staff could do about that. At all.
It’s absolutely not on the coaching staff when a kid who doesn’t want to go to Michigan, doesn’t. Once again, it isn’t everyone’s dream to wear the winged helmet and touch the banner. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.
August 9th, 2020 at 10:38 AM ^
“It’s absolutely not on the coaching staff when a kid who doesn’t want to go to Michigan, doesn’t.”
so how does OSU keep their talent in OH year after year?
August 9th, 2020 at 11:37 AM ^
Because kids in Ohio tend to want to go to Ohio State? Kids in Ohio that DON’T want to go to OSU, don’t. Not real sure where you’re trying to go with that bud.
2018, the top ranked kid in the state (and country) went to Clemson over OSU.
2019, 3 of the top 5 kids in Ohio left the state.
2020, 3 of the top 5 went to a school not named OSU, 2 of which left the state of Ohio (other went to Cincy)
2021, 1 of the top 5 is committed to go out of state.
So despite your claim, OSU loses out on quite a few of their top in-State talent. And that’s WITHOUT competing against an in-State P5 school for those players. MSU typically (not this year) gets the majority of the top 5 kids that don’t go to Michigan.
So once again, this is a shitty narrative with no basis in reality. I get people want to complain just to complain, but a BIT of research would show how out of touch you really are.
August 9th, 2020 at 12:56 AM ^
OL recruiting has been really solid so I’m not concerned about this one, but it would’ve been nice. Miss on Edwards though and it will be way more disappointing but that’s not going to happen. He’s all blue. This will be the class that finally breaks through against osu.
good article in the freep discussing how hard it is for everybody getting in state recruits of course with the exception being the team down south
Have no problem with the kid picking ND other than the fact that he said in his interviews that he made his decision a year ago. Then why string along other schools? Typical attention seeking high school player.
August 9th, 2020 at 11:39 AM ^
Or a kid wanting to enjoy the once in a lifetime process, see how the future unfolds for the programs and not make a decision at 15 years old he may end up changing his mind on so fans like you can chastise him for that too.
Don’t like how teenagers handle the process? Don’t follow it and quit your crying.
August 9th, 2020 at 11:40 AM ^
Or a kid wanting to enjoy the once in a lifetime process, see how the future unfolds for the programs and not make a decision at 15 years old he may end up changing his mind on so fans like you can chastise him for that too.
Don’t like how teenagers handle the process? Don’t follow it and quit your crying.
Bagmen