2021 recruiting

Previously: Last year’s summary. The 2021 profiles: P Tommy Doman Jr. S Rod Moore. CB Ja’Den McBurrows. LB Jaydon Hood. LB Junior Colson. LB Tyler McLaurin. DE Kechaun Bennett. DE TJ Guy. DE/DT Dominick Giudice. DT George Rooks. DT Rayshaun Benny. NG Ikechukwu Iwunnah. C Greg Crippen. C/G Raheem Anderson. T Giovanni El-Hadi. T Tristan Bounds. TE Louis Hansen. WR Cristian Dixon. WR Xavier Worthy. WR Andrel Anthony Jr. RB Tavierre Dunlap. RB Donovan Edwards. QB JJ McCarthy.

I guess I’ll keep this now-three-year-old tradition alive as well, since I have stray remaining thoughts after this exercise. Now that I’ve watched all the tape, read every take, and scraped the internet for information in a year that had less of it than ever, I’ve got a few takeaways about the class.

It is another B+ class

I may just be more of a homer than Brian—which comes from inexperience at this—but I rated this class slightly higher than Brian put the 2020 class, despite 247 ranking them on average about 100 spots lower. Mathlete converts our “General Excitement Level” ratings into a 10-point scale that you can effectively halve to get a 5* scale we’re used to. Here are the two classes against each other, and the MGoBlog take versus the industry (247 Composite also converted to 5* scale).

I think in a few cases this was mostly the program itself relying on their evaluations more than they have in the past. They had huge Signing Day victories in December (Donovan Edwards and to a lesser degree keeping Hood & McBurrows) and February (the three DTs). I don’t think losing Xavier Worthy changed things; picking up Daylen Baldwin makes that sort of a Josh Christopher-for-Chaundee Brown situation. Grading by position group:

• QB: A+. Got the cornerstone
• RB: A+. Got their Dude of the Year plus a really underrated proto-Haskins.
• WR: B-. I really like Anthony. Was an A- with Worthy in it. Could go up to a B+ if you include Baldwin.
• TE: B. Love Hansen, wanted at least one more.
• OL: B+. Were handed an excellent situation and came in under the expectation, but El-Hadi is the surest thing, Bounds is the highest of upsides, and two real centers is nothing to sneer at.
• DT: B. Reverse of OL: Situation was dire when they needed a big haul, Nua & friends rescued the class late. Benny the only impact guy.
• DE: B-. Trusted Don Brown.
• LB: A-. Love Colson, like McLaurin more than I thought I would, Hood fits the doom squirrel mode.
• S: C. Moore is pretty good considering they didn’t have a coach, last year had three 4*s. Wanted more.
• CB: D. Nothing against McBurrows. Needed a lot more.
• SP: A. Can Tommy redshirt in Australia?

The end of 2019 and terrible 2020 season were big hurdles to overcome, and keeping this class together while the fans fell into the BPONE took a lot of doing. That alone was one of the greatest upset victories yet for a Harbaugh tenure that hasn’t had many of them. I mean, Harbaugh went through Early Signing Day without a contract! Starting with Gio El-Hadi and J.J. McCarthy and then adding Junior Colson is a big part of the reason there was a class to worry about losing last winter. Only one of these guys did I conclude was a flier, which is not how we felt this class would turn out at the end.

The big miss is at cornerback. While I like the guy they got a lot more than the scouting services did, they needed two more guys who could come in and compete immediately. This was circumstances—they were fighting uphill for most of their top prospects even before you factored in the ease with which opponents could sell instability. Michigan also addressed some of the issues they could affect. Mike Zordich wasn’t able to close on guys like Tyreek Chappell, Ceyair Wright, Prophet Brown, Ishmael Ibrahim, and Omarion Cooper, and was replaced with Mo Linguist and then Steve Clinkscale when it was already too late. They lost Cass Tech’s Kalen King (and his LB brother) to Penn State because Tim Banks has very strong relationships [with the bagmen] in Detroit that Harbaugh angered. Banks is still going to hurt us in Knoxville, but Michigan emphatically mended Detroit connections, and then hired Bellamy, Hart and Clinkscale.

That happened in time to rescue Rayshaun Benny from a life in East Lansing. It will make a big difference in the future.

[After THE JUMP: Superlatives, those who got away.]

Previously: Last year’s profiles. P Tommy Doman Jr. S Rod Moore. CB Ja’Den McBurrows. LB Jaydon Hood. LB Junior Colson. LB Tyler McLaurin. DE Kechaun Bennett. DE TJ Guy. DE/DT Dominick Giudice. DT George Rooks. DT Rayshaun Benny. NG Ikechukwu Iwunnah. C Greg Crippen. C/G Raheem Anderson. T Giovanni El-Hadi. T Tristan Bounds. TE Louis Hansen. WR Cristian Dixon. WR Xavier Worthy. WR Andrel Anthony Jr. RB Tavierre Dunlap. RB Donovan Edwards. QB JJ McCarthy.

The final recruit we need to talk about barely needs an introduction. He is the architect of his own class, a composite five-star quarterback, though he finished a super-high four-star to all the sites. He is the national recruit who bought in early, committing to Michigan the spring after the program’s dismantling at the hands of Ohio State’s crossing routes, and the *same day* John Beilein bolted for the NBA. Even the hockey didn’t look great back then, and McCarthy would have known, because he’s enough of a skater to have appeared on the Chris Heisenberg google sheet all the hockey nerds keep bookmarked.

But this is what McCarthy does. When Michigan’s at its lowest, he pops up to say “It’s fine. We’re great. We’re going to be greater.” This is the guy who organized that visit for all the 2021 and 2022 recruits for last year’s Wisconsin game, watched *THAT*, and then had several five-stars close to committing here in the aftermath. He singlehandedly turned Chicago into a pipeline as productive as Don Brown made Massachusetts. The most negative thing he’s said in the two years and change since his commitment was he wants the fans to be more supportive of the guys.

Positive rah-rah guys are uncommon, but of limited use. What sets McCarthy apart from others who set ludicrous expectations is McCarthy has an extraordinary track record of meeting them. He also plays quarterback.

[After THE JUMP: Michigan is a hockey school.]

Previously: Last year’s profiles. P Tommy Doman Jr. S Rod Moore. CB Ja’Den McBurrows. LB Jaydon Hood. LB Junior Colson. LB Tyler McLaurin. DE Kechaun Bennett. DE TJ Guy. DE/DT Dominick Giudice. DT George Rooks. DT Rayshaun Benny. NG Ikechukwu Iwunnah. C Greg Crippen. C/G Raheem Anderson. T Giovanni El-Hadi. T Tristan Bounds. TE Louis Hansen. WR Cristian Dixon. WR Xavier Worthy. WR Andrel Anthony Jr. RB Tavierre Dunlap.

We did it! Somehow, despite producing the most perfect running back for college football in 2021 at the most perfect school for Michigan recruiting, we managed to get Donovan Edwards to come in just under five stars in the composite, thus rescuing him from the fate of every 5-star Michigan RB since Tyrone Wheatley. It was a near run thing:

Five-stars start at 0.9831. If one tiny site realizes Ohio State’s own scouts liked Edwards more than the TreVeyon Henderson they got, does a comparison of NFL production to recruiting rankings and notices there’s a flaw in underrating Midwest players, or watches a football game that took place after 2007, there’s your .0025 points, and the jig is up.

Keeping Michigan’s #1 target in the 4-star zone was almost as challenging as keeping him home. Edwards was no help, popping to the top of his class as a freshman, and finishing his career as Mr. Football in Michigan while leading West Bloomfield—WEST BLOOMFIELD(!)—to its first-ever state championship in the state’s highest division. He left no flaws in his game: speed, strength, vision, body type, acceleration, agility, academics, PERSONALITY. He lined up at quarterback, running back, slot receiver, and WIDE receiver, where he ran real post, zig, slant, and corner routes, and connected. Oklahoma, Georgia, and Ohio State all had Edwards the #1 back on their boards, and were telling this to their recruiting people. Thank Denard for deaf ears.

We could not have done this without the help of ESPN, who ranked SEC-bound Damon Payne and Garrett Dellinger, as well as ND signee Rocco Spindler, ahead of the guy all of those guys’ coaches voted the best player in the state. ESPN also had to shoehorn 27 players committed to SEC schools, and 30 from the Southeast ahead of their 7th-best player in the Midwest. Rivals wasn’t so blatantly propping up a business venture, but they too ignored the pleas of people who bothered to watch the best football team in the best of states, and we are forever grateful.

It could have been a consensus, but Steve Lorenz betrayed us again, allowing the 247 people he has no control over—the same people who look most closely at their re-ranks and commissioned a study a few years back to uncover their own blind spots—to push Edwards all the way up to a “98” in their final re-rank. That’s higher even than they put Zach Charbonnet, as if that wasn’t what ultimately doomed every Fargas, Baraka, Grady, Green, Walker, and Isaac to get a fifth star. Midwest analyst Allen Trieu, speaking directly to us I am sure, tried to spin this while explaining they moved Edwards up because they could find no reason not to:

“I am sure the nay-sayers will point to the recent history of five-star backs who have signed with Michigan. The results have not been favorable. We cannot punish Edwards, a prospect with no real glaring weaknesses at this point, for the results of other recruits who he has no connection with though.”

That’s not how curses work. The Angry Michigan Five-Star Running Back-Hating God is wroth; if the recruiting services were to find a way to visit the future and report back exactly which RBs are going to be crazy sick awesome, AMFSRBHG will just have to find a more creative way to make us wish we never dreamed. In this case, all they have to do is banish the forward pass, or at least vanquish the idea of throwing to a running back from our coaches’ minds. See? There’s always a way.

[After THE JUMP: Immutable god meets adaptable force.]