tom brady

Sponsor Note. Well, here's a guy you may know.

Download the Autograph app, use the code "mgoblog", and you'll get all your Michigan content in one place, plus get rewarded for doing the things you're already doing. The more points you get, the more exclusive merch (like a signed Roman Wilson shirt), apparel (a custom shirt launching next week), and experiences (FAM tailgate tickets).

Do it now! It is the critical time! 

Don't you judge me. Hey, folks: some of this is pretty old. Non-Signgate roundup stuff got put on the back burner for obvious reasons. Do not yell at me for posting old stuff. It is rude.

Consistent but not explosive. This is from before the Purdue game, but I don't think the numbers from that game are going to change the bottom line here (click for big):

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You've got Michigan with one of the best adjusted line yards in the country and a barely above average rate of highlight yards.

Better than "neither," though. I continue to wonder how PSU is going to move the ball on Michigan's defense:

51 points against Maryland is something to perk your ears up about but they only managed barely over 400 yards of offense against November Maryland and got a lot of scoring opportunities from turnovers; I'm expecting PSU to look about the same as they did against OSU. 

[After THE JUMP: draft prospects, crootin']

commit to the bit [Patrick Barron]

SPONSOR NOTE: Tom Brady (yes that Tom Brady) and our friends at Autograph reached out recently looking for a way to get the most deserving fans access to the most exclusive Michigan football rewards curated by Valiant Management Group. Brady asked what would make a good Michigan Fan Flex Challenge and we looked at all you all and said "Uh, Trivia!"

How it works: You answer 12 questions as quickly as you can (it's timed) before Thursday, July 13 at 6PM EDT to secure your spot on the leaderboard. Your performance will be ranked based on the number of correct answers you submit and how quickly you complete the questions. You only get one shot, so make it count and check out the Challenge Rules for more information. Or listen to the man himself:

At the end of the submission period, the top performers will unlock front of the line access to purchase exclusive University of Michigan football rewards curated by our friends at Valiant. Once the competition ends, look out for an email from Autograph notifying you if you are eligible with details to purchase.

We are all going to die soon. I bring terrifying news:

San Diego Lincoln 2025 quarterback Akili Smith Jr., was one of the standouts at Future 50 last month at IMG Academy in Florida. The Top247 prospect said he has a loose top three, not an official group, but the one he’s working with right now and it includes Florida, Michigan and Oregon.

The existence of a recruitable Akili Smith Jr. has caused me to drink from the wrong grail. If I find out there's a JJ McCarthy Jr in the 2026 class I'm going to evaporate.

I'm not joining "Threads." Elon Musk is currently running Twitter into the ground but "Facebook but narrower" is not something I will tolerate, folks. I do not want an algorithm populating my social media feed. I want it to be the maniacs I follow in chronological order. If Bluesky attains critical mass I'll migrate, but the sheer number of people I've blocked on Twitter is a critical advantage for that platform. Someone step in and buy it from Musk, please.

[After THE JUMP: Fred Jackson!]

[Bryan Fuller]

HTTV Note: The books are done and we're going to have copies in hand by the end of the week. If you backed the kickstarter and want to skip waiting for the mail (which is going to take longer than usual this year), we have socially distanced pickup options at Cultivate in Ypsilanti this Saturday, at Five Shores Brewing in Beulah next Saturday, and after I drive a few boxes out there, at Bryan Fuller's wife's Cheese Lady franchise in Kalamazoo. If you want to get your books there email me and let me know. If your address has changed email me and let me know.

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Are we starting to get desperate for content? Sure. But also I noticed we talk a lot about 3-stars versus 5-stars, when Michigan's classes have historically been filled primarily with standard 4-stars. And by that I mean "just" 4-stars—not top-150 players, and not high 3-stars either. They're the kind of players who would headline a Michigan State class, whom Ohio State would take but not fight too hard for, the constant subjects of Notre Dame-Michigan-Penn State battles with a hometown favorite thrown in.

Previously: Pro Offense/Pro Defense, 1879-Before Bo, 5-Stars, 3-Stars, Extracurriculars, Position-Switchers, Highlights, Numbers Offense/Numbers Defense, In-State, Names, Small Guys, Big Guys, Freshmen

Rules: Lower bound: must be a four-star to at least one major ranker of his era, and average over 4.0 stars on the Seth scale. Upper bound: cannot be ranked top-100 by anybody or higher than a 4.3 on the Seth scale. Since 1990 because data go back that far. College performance considered only.

The Mike Hart Thing: Hart was the equivalent of a solid four-star to places that didn't create a lasting online database of the 2004 class, and a high 3-star to Rivals and Scout, who did, forever after immortalizing him as a "3-star" (this is a well-known malfunction of the human brain). Just giving you fair warning that your brain is going to rebel. Also "bucket list" wasn't in the lexicon until the 2007 film.

Quarterback: Tom Brady (1995)

Rankings:

Nat Rec Advisor Lemming BlueChip Illustrated Superprep ☆s Rkg
5.7 (#10 PRO) #6 PRO, #26 West (AA) #6 QB West, All American #65 Far West 3.84 #27 QB

(Ranking is among Michigan recruits at his position, which has a sample roughly as large as an annual national class so I've included it. National Recruiting Advisor was proto-Rivals.)

This seems like an obvious answer but Brady really only narrowly won a competitive three-way competition with longtime starters who preceded him and proceeded him. That's a good summary of Tom Brady's Michigan career, which has been poured over by so many better journalists there's not a lot I can add to it.

The just-a-four-star rating is also representative of his recruitment. Brady had a few top schools after him as a #2 option behind some monster 5-star or close to it. He might have gone to USC if they didn't get their first two guys on the board, and Cade McNown committing to UCLA removed Michigan's main competition. Michigan waited until Florida won the battle for 5-star Bobby Sablehaus then pulled the trigger on Tom.

2nd Team: Todd Collins (1990)

The only data point I have on Todd is he was Tom Lemming's #8 Pro-Style QB. Well that and pick two guys out of these three:

Player Att Comp TD Int Cp% Yds Lng YPA Rtg
Player A 1366 765 72 31 56% 9254 77 6.77 125.8
Player B 711 443 35 19 62% 5351 76 7.53 136.4
Player C 711 457 37 20 64% 5858 90 8.24 145.0

Player B is Tom Brady. The guy with nearly identical college stats and vastly higher yards per attempt is the longtime starter who also had an extremely long NFL career. You also have to know that the two years of Collins starting were even more frustrating offensively than the Borges and DeBord offenses, and the Number 1 frustration was they weren't uncorking the passing game. Amani Toomer and Mecury Hayes were the Nico Collins and Ronnie Bell of the era, except when Michigan did deign to send them a pass Collins almost always put it on the money. Watching the semi-heralded Collins outperform Notre Dame golden boy Ron Powlus was one of the highlights of my young fandom.

The Field: Collins (4.24, 199), Scot Loeffler (4.20, 1993), Cade McNamara (4.12, 2019), Joe Milton (4.11, 2018), Nate Holdren (4.07, 1990), Alex Malzone (4.06, 2015), Spencer Brinton (4.05, 2001), John Navarre, who's Player A above (4.04, 1999)

[After THE JUMP: Guys who were dudes]

please do not give joe tiller a bat

bill curry is a little rude but also not wrong

"Me and Tom had a lot of those games to where it was like, Okay, we’re rolling, let’s go. Period. He came out, we looked at each other and bam bam."

Tom Brady Michigan

Build the best NFL offense with Michigan players

It’s “Recruiting rankings don’t matter!” guy’s turn to forward a link that proves nothing except we’re short on #content in the offseason