Tennessee Vols Recruiting
So Tennessee has been tearing up the recruiting trail for the past two weeks. Two 5-stars and four 4-stars were signed in the past two weeks. All this for a team that has been sub-.500 in half of their seasons for the past ten years.
If they can do this after being "down" for so long, why does it still seem like Michigan is lagging behind? What does Jeremy Pruitt bring to the table that Jim Harbaugh (or staff) does not? Going from 4-8 to 8-5 in two years is a plus, but to start like this seems more in the realm of Ole Miss and their Treadwell class. I'm leaning towards the obvious "more probable than not" checks that are being signed down in Knoxville now.
Picture for reference.
I present this to you without judgement as to why this occurs. Look at Saban at LSU & Bama, Fisher at FSU & A&M, Smart at UGA, & Pruitt at Tennessee. They all recruited top classes before winning. They also all happened to be in the Saban coaching tree.
This is strong evidence that Michigan isn't cheating. We have as much money as anyone and would labs these recruits over Tennessee with a more successful program. Unfortunately, our academic standards interfere for done recruits. Relationships do matter. If we are cheating, then we are terrible at it
Holy hell, another "academic" comment. UM follows the NCAA guidelines for academic eligibility, you're no different than any other school. UM is a great institution, but your acceptance (if you actually attended) has nothing to do with UM's athletic acceptance. 2.0 GPA to be on scholarship, 2.3 to play... stop thinking yourself any different than any other B1G Ten school. Fuck its annoying.
https://mgoblue.com/sports/2017/6/16/compliance-pr-initial-eligibility-html.aspx
Online classes are definitely a perk Michigan does not allow at this point. That will change.
The point is few players who are in high demand from skill might not meet academics or be dissuaded by a perception of it being challenging. It might be why we aren't interested in a random few players or why they aren't interested in us- especially in this comparison with Tennessee, who have been worse than us as of late and who have a harder road to the CFP.
Graduated a long time ago. Completely irrelevant to the topic at hand.
Weird that OSU has no minimum required standardized test scores, wonder if that helps to justify enrollment in certain cases... like when a prospective student-athlete excels in other areas outside the classroom?
Also, I have the enchanted beans that you asked for. Turns out it'll cost double.
http://undergrad.osu.edu/apply/freshmen-columbus/who-gets-in
You’re the one out of touch. Dwayne Haskins cannot read the Washington playbook. Actually just because you get into OSU doesn’t mean that you go to class afterwards,”Einstein!”
Hop on out of here then.
The issue is not whether one school has markedly different purported requirements than another, but whether it complies with those requirements. Some schools do (the Ivies), some schools don't (UNC during the "paper classes" scandal is probably the most tangible example).
Tennessee is better at doing less with more talent than even Michigan!
Best thing for the UM staff to do is start recruiting the golf courses.
Fuck Tennessee
To Hell with Tennessee.
Oh, wait. That is Notre Dame.
Never mind. Carry on.
They can sell some hope since they finished 6-0 (against absolutely no one) and I am sure there is a healthy amount of cash floating around. Michigan has struggled, but Tennessee has been essentially irrelevant since all these kids have been born. Now they're all going to Tennessee? Hmmmmm...
Honestly, looking at Tennessee's 2019 schedule again, wow. They got walked on by all three ranked teams they played and didn't play another good team outside of that
I know we are all preoccupied with bagmen to explain our shortcomings with recruiting, but as some posters alluded to above, I think we are vastly underestimating academics. Remaining eligible just to be able to play is the priority and some of these schools guarantee recruits that this won’t be an issue. The path of least resistance to the nfl is a big selling point to a lot of kids.
Che(U)aT
Although Tennessee has had a bad decade they have historically been one of the best college football programs. It’s not too surprising that they are getting recruits... they are historically a lot better than Ole Miss.
I love how the drum beat on here always gets to academics and the fact that we don’t pay players.
while the student body, as a whole, is smarter than 95% of the other schools, let’s not kid ourselves about our student athletes...Rashan (9 on the wonderlic) Gary is a perfect example.
Michigan also has had a couple of instances in its past of players getting paid. Also had some parents given jobs...
Of course.
But there is cheating, and then there is CHEATING.
Calling out Rashan for being dumb due to his Wonderlic is an asshole move. Have you ever taken it? It's basically a bunch of weirdly worded questions that you need to read and process as fast as possible. Something that someone with dyslexia, like Rashan, would be absolutely terrible at.
That sounds like every standardized test I’ve ever taken. I think his point is that Gary scores a terrible 9 on the wonderlic but also managed to be an all American at Michigan. Alluding to the fact that all schools, even Michigan give their athletes a lot of academic assistance. It doesn’t mean he didn’t work hard.
Let’s just be a little honest, here...
I noticed this today, but Tennessee is also just blatantly lying to/misleading recruits with their recruiting graphics:
https://twitter.com/amarius_mims/status/1259559261526528007
They're promoting Tennessee Jordans even though they're a Nike school and if you go to UT you don't get them
Sure. But with the bag men $$$ they can just buy some Jordans, right?
I also still hate Tennessee for getting jail sexed so bad in 1998 voters felt the need to vote for Nebraska. And also their dickhead coach Fulmer for (presumably) putting Michigan 4th in his vote.
It's nice to win recruiting battles. It's better to win on the field. We'll see if Pruitt can get it done where it counts. I don't believe he will. In fact, I could see Luke Fickell coaching there in 21'.
“The pot calling the kettle black”??
Tennessee is throwing around the kind of money Georgia's been throwing around. They typically do it the Alabama way: the assistants get a big pool that they give to the players, and Pruitt pretends he doesn't know anything about it. But Tennessee also has an entirely separate bagman operation that's humming right now. They've got a group of contractors who all do cash deals under the table (while collecting unemployment) in the building offseason, and this is one thing to do with the cash.
This NIL stuff needs to pass ASAP. I think our hoops team was ready to play the same game the other big time programs (and Tennessee) are playing, but the G League offering half a million OVER the table to those kinds of guys makes that pretty much moot. Michigan's just not set up for this.
Tennessee is exemplifying the SEC's motto, 'It just means more.'