With signing day wrapped up, what are your thoughts?

QB - We got our guy. 

RB - Marshall is elite. 

TE - The best TE duo in the country. 

OL- Elite OTs, Elite OC, Maulers at OG. 

WR - Love the two we got. Missed on a third.

EDGE - Perhaps the most gifted group of DE's we have brought in at one time.

DT - We got 4 guys who are probably all underrated. Palepale and Wafle in particular.

LB - Beasley is a great, well rounded LB. Curtis, Sullivan, and Smith are all freakish athletes who could play all over the defense.

CB - Edmond is a great pickup. Lowe is a bit of a flyer but I trust Clinksdale. We could have used another body here.

S - Oden is great but would have likes a second.

Overall: I absolutely love this class. We have studs are every position. Only misses is another elite DB or 2 and another WR. 

Beyond question the thing this staff does better then anyone in the country is find talent that fits what they are doing, bring them in teach them the scheme build their bodies and then weaponize them on the field. I have almost entirely stopped following the rankings where I used to be locked in all the time. This staff is elite in this area and why they have enjoyed the success they have. Mix in some top in end talent with their findings and you have ways to succeed. I think Ben Hall is about to make a bunch of us go wow and there was continuous grumbling taking him. I trust this coaching staff to keep us at the top

The longer I follow rankings I think the following runs true. 
 

1. NOTHING will beat having a great coach, with great talent development and the best players.  See Saban and Meyer. 
 

You can have a great coach and great talent and horrible player development (Clemson of today) and you can end up with 4-5 losses. 

I think there's a decent amount of 'copium' from Michigan fans on this stuff. I think all the rationalization put out there has some merit. Yes the coaching staff has picked out some highly talented kids that weren't super highly touted as recruits. Yes, player development is as important as recruiting. Yes, the transfer portal has given us an extra option which we have made good use of.

All of that is true but there is the simple reality that if any other 'blue blood' program goes on a tear like Michigan has these last three years it has an immediate and very tangible effect on their recruiting and by that I mean it goes off like a rocket. Michigan has not recruited poorly, in fact, it's always in that upper echelon that most teams can only dream of, but it also pretty much always compares unfavorably with the Ohio States, the Alabamas, the whatever's the 'hot school' at a time.

We can claim that this is somehow by Michigan staff's choice, but we'd be kidding ourselves. We can point to certain 'in-built' factors like local HS football and so forth, but deep down we also know that this isn't as great an excuse as some may claim. That's a much bigger problem if you're a team in that 20-40 range of programs. It's not an excuse if you're a top 5 program.

Michigan is doing a lot of things well, but I think it's quite obvious and has been for years that the team needs to do a better job getting those 'unicorn' guys with generational talent. And obviously that requires a particular set of skills and resources. Yes, a lot of 5 stars flame out, a lot of guys get paid and lose sight of what matters, but there's also plenty of guys who want to get paid and also want to be the best who ever played and are willing to put in the work to make that happen. For those unicorn talents, you need to be able to go 'all in' for and do whatever it takes to get them.

Alternatively, Michigan simply has to accept that the competition is more motivated and has more available resources. But if Michigan is just stuck fighting for scraps off those big boys' table, the mid-term future is 8-4 because you're not always going to have a coach like Harbaugh.