dante moore

The weather is warm, summer is in full swing, and you know what that means: it's recruiting season! Our last recruiting update was a few weeks back and at the time, I was talking about overarching questions, why there weren't as many commitments as some wanted, the Dante Moore saga, and a few key prospects to follow. Some elements of that story still ring true; Michigan hasn't gotten any more commitments since last time around and the Dante Moore sweepstakes still have no end in sight. 

But other conditions have changed, and the next few weeks are likely to see even larger changes. This weekend is Victor's Weekend, the third straight weekend in which the staff has hosted several key recruits and this one is the biggest. By the end of June, nearly all key 2023 recruits will have taken either an official visit or an unofficial visit, and a number of top targets are set to decide by early July. Michigan Football under Jim Harbaugh has typically done most of its recruiting in the summer and with school freshly out, it is firmly summertime. Time for some commits to roll in. 

Today I'm going to do an abbreviated mid-June version of the 2023 recruiting board, moving position by position to see what's going on, which targets have visited, which prospects could be close to committing, and where things stand as we get into the meat of the summer. Along the way I'll touch on some of the most burning questions and then wrap it up with a few thoughts at the end. 

Quarterback

Want: 1

Commits: 0 

Scoop: Speaking of burning questions, this is where we can talk about CJ Carr, even though he's in the 2024 class. Carr, grandson of Lloyd (if you didn't know this, I'm glad you just woke up from your coma), committed to Notre Dame last week and sent some corners of Michigan Twitter into peak Down Bad status. I got several CJ Carr-related questions for the mailbag piece I did earlier in the week, but chose to defer them to this piece. Carr's fate has long been linked to that of the only 2023 QB target, Dante Moore. The two talented in-state QBs were very much aware of the other's presence, and the smart reporting has said for some time that the two were unlikely to wind up at the same school. Both want playing time and spoiler alert, it's hard to start two QBs simultaneously.   

Dante Moore's recruitment has been long and winding and some schools are starting to get tired of waiting. It seems to me that CJ Carr may have been tired too. Rather than waiting for the older Dante to shoot his shot, Carr pulled a Han Solo and shot first. Notre Dame was once considered the leader for Moore, but now with Carr in the class, it would appear to be unlikely that Moore winds up in South Bend. He continues to look around at other schools besides Michigan, but the longer he draws this out, the more suitors will drop out of the running. A lot of schools don't want to wait for his timeline and if there's a similar caliber of QB willing to commit, they'll take that kid and bail on Dante. That's why many insiders have indicated that the longer it goes, the better it gets for Michigan ($). The upcoming commitments of Avery Johnson and Jaden Rashada are interesting to watch, because the schools those two pick will likely then drop out of the running for Moore. 

Michigan remains in a unique position being the school who is only recruiting Moore. There is no Plan B right now, and that makes it incredibly risky. If they end up getting Dante, then it likely will be worth it. But if they don't, that will be a major swing and a miss, and one with tough consequences given that 2022 was a pretty weak QB class too. As for 2024, the name Jadyn Davis has been rising up the board in the absence of Carr. Part of the Carr decision was Michigan allegedly not viewing Carr in the same way as other schools, and their pursuit of Davis was a factor.

The 5* QB from North Carolina visited Michigan early in June and the Wolverines have since picked up predictions at several sites for the QB. Ranked as a top 15 recruit in the class, Davis would be a massive coup to land, but obviously there are still ages to go in this one. Pulling a kid like that from the south is not going to be easy, even if there is early momentum and real mutual interest. What I will say is that if Michigan somehow were to end up with both Dante Moore and Jadyn Davis, then the thought of CJ Carr will be a distant (laughing) memory. But we are still a very, very long way from that being reality. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More positions!]

With little going on in Michigan athletics, I felt that now was a decent time to do a mailbag to see what our fine readers are curious about. I solicited questions Monday on the MGoBoard and on Twitter, and picked the ones I felt were most interesting to answer. I tried to select questions that were most frequently asked, and that covered the bases, giving different sports representation rather than just focusing on football. I also threw in a few silly questions and one on pro sports. 

[NOTE: I did not answer any NIL questions, despite there being many, because they would best be answered in a post dedicated to that topic. I am hoping that either I or Seth can get to that at some point soon]

Which non-conference game or series would you like to see for football, basketball, and hockey this upcoming season if you could schedule any opponent, and why? (-UMinCincy)

We'll start with a fun one, my favorite among the serious questions that I was asked. Here are my answers for each sport: 

- Football: non-conference games come with a pretty high risk when you play in a premier conference that regularly places teams in the playoff (like say, the B1G), so I'd want to schedule a game with some amount of upside, but one that limits the risk of losing and thus sinking your resume. In looking for a matchup that would be fun, likely to win, but still give you something to gain, I picked a home game against Miami. The 'Canes should be a solid team this year (hovering around 20th in early preseason polls), but don't represent the same threat that a Notre Dame would, especially if it's at the Big House and early in the year. This fulfills the goal of finding a team that would add to the resume but would not represent a titanic challenge. And in terms of the fun, there would be storylines galore given the messiness of the Gattis exit back in February, not to mention a new coach at The U in Mario Cristobal and two historic programs going at it. Sign me up. 

- Basketball: I'm all in favor of scheduling a slate of tough non-conference opponents in college hoops to bolster your tournament resume, so I looked for an opponent that would be tough and add intrigue. I rambled through different ideas and the best I could come up with was Gonzaga. They're a perennially great opponent, are always looking to schedule a tough non-conference, and Michigan and the Zags have surprisingly little history. They have met (1) time in history, and that was at the 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis. I'm always in favor of branching out and trying to play more marquee teams beyond the typical Duke/Carolina types, and getting a little more familiarity with Gonzaga could be good for the program, plus it would provide the chance for a resume-boosting win. 

- Hockey: The B1G is a good conference, but not typically a great one, so scheduling a big dog has a lot of upside. Putting teams like Minnesota State on the schedule last year is what helped get the #1 overall seed, after all. With that in mind, I'd like to see a re-match with Denver. Both teams are coming off a bit of turnover following their Frozen Four appearances, but there should still be plenty of talent on both sides. We learned during the run up to the Frozen Four that there is surprisingly little history between these two legendary programs, but thanks to what happened in Boston, now there is a little bit of it. Why not make some more and try to build a rivalry of sorts, while having a chance to get a quality win in the process? 

Alex, if Jim Harbaugh could turn himself into any animal in the animal kingdom what animal would he choose and why? (-Darker Blue)

I thought about this one for all of a couple minutes and came to what I felt was an easy answer: a cow. We know Jim Harbaugh loves beef football, and all the meaty boys who get it done, the Zak Zinters and Ben Masons. We know that he doesn't like white meat (chicken), so we have to assume he likes beef. We also know he absolutely loves milk. What animal produces milk and beef? A cow. Easy answer. It channels his tastes and football ethos, building a team that doesn't budge and can trample you, with the collective weight on the lines of many cows. 

[Bryan Fuller]

Specifically, we have so much talent at the WR position, can we realistically expect to keep them intact through the summer? (-othernel) 

This question was about the "play now" mindset of recruits and how to avoid attrition, and I was interested in the second half here. The Wolverines have a ton of hungry mouths at the WR position, even with Mike Sainristil's move to defense. The list includes Ronnie Bell, Roman Wilson, Cornelius Johnson, AJ Henning, Andrel Anthony, Christian Dixon, and then the three freshmen, with Darrius Clemons likely ready for playing time.

Just speaking honestly, it's hard for me to see this whole group making it through the season intact. The advent of the portal has made it very hard to keep positional groups together, but the WR position I don't even think is too affected by the portal. This would be a tough group to keep together even if we were under old portal rules and that's a good thing. You'd always rather have too many good players than not enough. With Michigan looking to take in 2-3 receivers in the 2023 class, there is going to be some attrition. The question is just who and when. 

I wouldn't expect a ton of attrition in the summer, to be honest. It's an inconvenient time to bail because it's too late to join a team in time for the season. I suppose if someone realizes at the end of fall camp that there's no chance they will play (Dixon?) that they may say it makes no difference and leave then. But I would expect that most of this group goes into the season and then at the end of it there will be a good bit of attrition either from NFL declarations, running out of eligibility, or transfers. But the fact Michigan got through the spring (which is the optimal time to bail) with this group makes it seem to me that they will be together for at least the bulk of the 2022 season before splintering after.  

This might be hyper-niche but if M is looking to replace Hutch and/or Bakich, do you have any names you think they should look at?

— Alex Garbarino (he/him) (@DrGarbs) June 13, 2022

Well this one is pretty topical now that there are reports that Bakich is leaving for Clemson. On the softball end of things, I discussed this in my post-season column. Bonnie Tholl will be the in-house, odds on favorite, but my top candidate is Duke's Marissa Young. Young is a former player under Hutch who has coached in southeast Michigan at EMU/Concordia and has built Duke from the ground up into a quality program. She's also only 40 years old and would be the perfect coach to lead Michigan for decades. 

As for baseball, with Bakich likely out of the picture, I'll throw out a couple names but more will be in a coaching search piece. Chris Fetter is the first that comes to mind and apparently it's on Michigan's mind. It's hard to imagine he moves back from the MLB to the NCAA, but if there was one job that could make that happen, getting to be the head coach at his alma mater might be it. Fetter was a phenomenal NCAA pitching coach and has been stellar in the MLB as well, evidenced by the Tigers having one of the MLB's best bullpens despite it consisting of a bunch of relievers no one has ever heard of (who the hell is Will Vest? I don't even think his own family members have heard of Will Vest). Fetter is also only 36. 

In terms of more realistic options, Central Michigan's Jordan Bischel seems like an obvious name of interest. He was a highly successful coach at Northwood University in Midland, before coming to CMU in 2019. Since arriving in Mount Pleasant, Bischel has been named MAC Coach of the Year twice, and has taken the Chips to three straight NCAA Baseball Tournaments, with two MAC regular season titles and two MAC Tournament titles on the way. He's 41 years old, a native of the Midwest and familiar recruiting in this state and region, and would be a stellar hire.

This is where I'll leave the answer but will have more on it in the future. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Harbaugh... to the LAKERS??]

About a month ago, I updated the 2023 recruiting board. It's a useful resource, but it is rather short on hard information about specific key recruitments, as well answers to some of the questions that readers ask in the comments. That's where football recruiting bits comes into play. Today we're going to scan the recruiting landscape for Michigan's 2023 class as we enter the most crucial portion of the cycle: the summer. Victors Weekend is less than a month away (weekend of June 17) and the Big House BBQ will be later in the summer. Many recruitments will enter their make it or break it stages and by the time the summer months are over, the class and the hunt for recruits will look very different than the present. 

Addressing the elephant in the room

When I updated the recruiting board, most of the comments were something like "WHY WE NO GET RECRUITS?????", which seems to be the mood of the Michigan Football fanbase right now. I get it. When Michigan defeated Ohio State in November and then clobbered Iowa a week later to qualify for the CFP, most believed that the Wolverines would quickly be rewarded with a top five recruiting class. Getting that 800 lb. Silverback Gorilla off Michigan's back was definitely important for the narrative, but it hasn't yet produced the sort of recruiting surge that many thought it would. Michigan currently has just six commits, not all of whom are totally locked in, and rank 22nd in the country. Meanwhile, Michigan State is making decent early progress on the class, Ohio State continues to recruit like Ohio State, and Notre Dame holds 12 commits and the #1 class in America (!!!). All of these truths has led many to mash the panic button like they're playing a video game. 

So what's going on here? First off, recruiting does not have a linear relationship with winning. They are correlated to some degree, but not exactly. For example, Mark Dantonio was never able to recruit at a high level at MSU despite ripping off 10-11 win seasons for a half-decade. On the flip side, Mel Tucker might be cobbling a better class than Dantonio ever had off a record at MSU of 13-7. Recruiting is about a lot more than winning. In many ways, it's about ~vibes~ more than anything else, which can be summed up as a combination of winning, the coaches/individual recruiters, $$$$, program history/brand, and more. You could go 12-0 every season and may not get the top class in the country if you don't have charismatic recruiters, aren't willing to play NIL, etc. 

In short, the reason Michigan has had a bumpy last five months on the recruiting trail despite the glories of 2021 is that the developments of the first six weeks of the year badly damaged the ~vibes~. Recruiting has a lot to do with individual relationships between positional coaches (who are the primary recruiters) and the players themselves (as well as the head coach), and when many of the positional coaches, coordinators, and coach all leave or threaten to leave, that does a lot of damage. It shouldn't be considered a surprise that one of the few positions that didn't see the coach switch jobs, running back, is also the only one where the class already has multiple commits. 

[Patrick Barron]

Michigan's WR, TE, DL, and S coaches all either switched positions or left the staff, in addition to both coordinators. And even guys who stayed like Matt Weiss at QB and Sherrone Moore at OL both have had to take on new responsibilities in the coordinating game with Josh Gattis gone. All this shuffling fractured relationships with recruits, as recruits had to get familiar with new positional coaches and essentially start the relationship-building stage all over again. For example, Michigan was in a great spot with 5* WR Jaylen Brown from the Miami area in early January, but since have fallen behind the pack after Josh Gattis, who was the primary recruiter, left the staff. Ron Bellamy, moving from S to WR, has been working from behind other suitors in rebuilding Brown's trust in Michigan. 

And of course, this doesn't even get into the Harbaugh --> NFL speculation. I do not blame recruits' families if they don't trust Harbaugh and his word right now, to be honest. If he says to you "I am done thinking about the NFL", he may be telling the truth, but it's hard to trust a guy who took an interview with an NFL team only a couple months ago and has coached in the NFL before. Those rumors were already powerful negative recruiting tools a few years ago, but actually interviewing with the Vikings and showing interest in that gig made it 100x worse.

Recruits and their parents want to know the man who will be coaching them. Legacy kids like Semaj Morgan were going to Michigan regardless of who the coach was, but for the many, many kids who didn't grow up with maize and blue bedsheets, it matters who the coach is. And when there is considerable doubt about who the coach will be over the next five years, it hurts recruiting. It hurt recruiting last summer when we went into 2021 wondering if Harbaugh's neck was on the block below the guillotine, and it hurts recruiting this summer after the NFL flirtation.

[AFTER THE JUMP: Big fish worth following]