Matt Dudek resigns
Title says it all, per Sam Webb "Major shake up to recruiting department".
For sure!! Great decision Matty!
This news is welcome! Dudek complete dork who spent way too much time tweeting non sense at fans instead of doing his job
Yep, seemed like a weird guy to be the face of the recruiting effort.
I prefer my weird guys as head coach
You're in luck!
How did I become a UM fan??? I'm too much of a jock :/ I was indoctrinated by my dad who got his MBA at UM (my brother and I were born in AA but my family moved away from MI when we were young), but I don't think I have a lot in common with your average UM fan or grad.
April 14th, 2021 at 10:05 PM ^
What?
Ace would be a perfect fit for his role.
I have no idea if this is good or bad news, but thanks for sharing...I recognized his name, but thought he was a writer or something.
Writer?? No he makes pierogi.
Is this a resignation or a "resignation"?
Well, we hired his replacement a week ago so I’d lean “resignation”.
Is it real Digital or is it Memorex?
Are we human or are we dancer?
Maybe she's born with it or maybe it's Maybelline
My favorite Band!
I don't know. I think I'm denser...
Someone just tell me how to feel.
Dudek leading RC candidate at Bovine University
Good!
Not gonna lie.....
Finally, some positive news out of spring practice.
What was the problem with Dudek? And who is this Courtney Morgan that people are talking about? I feel like I've missed something here, I always had a positive impression of Dudek. Though I admittedly have not followed recruiting as closely lately.
Well, for one, he argued with Michigan fans on Twitter a good amount. Goes hand and hand with losing....but not a great look.
And of course our recruiting classes have been solid, but not as elite as we expected. That is more a losing/Harbaugh issue, but his literal job is to make recruiting as great as possible.
Have heard this many times.
Non-athlete / non-player
Hard to relate to players and prospects. Kind of a nerd IMO, but always very nice to me and always in a good mood.
IMO he got his dream job probably 10 years too soon, and might be better for a top tier school in compliance.
Cheers
Middle School gym teacher was how he was described to me. You gotta have your guys doing the evals have experience playing, coaching, or been taught for several years by someone who does. He should’ve carved out a nice lane as being on-campus recruiting coordinator, but it’s hard to move up from that, especially when he’s had the title of director of recruiting for 10 years.
I suspect that we know the same people... but I was told great at visits not so great at all the other stuff.
So... since this happened now, I'm curious about your thoughts as far as what else needs to happen to get us where we want to be as a program. You commented yesterday (or the day before?) about Morgan being a great hire and you'd like to see a few more. My question is what hires (as in titles) and was Dudek leaving part of your list of wants you were referring to?
So without getting too much into the weeds on this.. I've written plenty about this before....
Michigan should have had 3 people doing what Dudek does. The part of the job he is really good at he should've been able to just focus on that. Instead, because the staff is smaller you have a few people doing all of the work. And that's not good.
Morgan is the 1st step (I hope) in expanding this part of recruiting/player development/player personnel and taking it up to where all the big boys are at.
I would hire a DPP and a staff of analysts underneath him, an on-campus recruiting head, a player development staff (former players), and an entire team to handle social media/content, and then a person just to handle NIL. Basically, let's put our money where our mouth is-- you wanna beat the best, well you gotta have the best staff in place.
why was so much put on one guy? Is it a cost limited issue in that the AD doesn't want to expand the staff? Recruiting staff doesn't count towards the coaching head count limits right? All this talk about the Michigan Cannon yet one of the most important aspects of building a future in the program has a single person doing the job of 3-5 people? No wonder others (see Ty Rogers) quickly point out how other schools are just so far ahead of Michigan.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:25 AM ^
Not to speak for umgoblue11, but to summarize one take away from a prior diary he did, it seems like Harbaugh originally had a large staff in 2016 and then people started to get picked off by other schools. So Harbaugh sort of made his circle smaller and was more about loyalty. Sounded like he was getting mad when people left and maybe discouraged that he had to keep finding all these young up and comers, hire them as minor staff, only for someone to poach them away.
So basically not money, Harbaugh’s choice. Obviously was a bad choice and hopefully people he trusts are telling him to change. He’s gotta realize he will always have a target on his back and turnover will be super high in these positions. But as umgoblue11 says, we should expand the team, hire a bunch of people and throw money at the problem.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:21 AM ^
Ok, I had read your diary before (I should have mentioned this) about how Harbaugh had a large staff before and they all got picked off by other schools. He got discouraged and put off by a lack of loyalty so to speak and decided to ditch that model. I was just curious to know if anything had changed since then as far as your opinions. Thanks for the feedback.
Since when does the recruiting coordinator do evaluations ? I hope not. That should fall on the staff and analysts.
I heard a few here complain about Sean McGee regarding the disorganization.
I do think film evaluation is part of the recruiting coordinator's responsibility.
Granted, and to your point, they do not have a say on which prospects earn scholarship offers; but they do watch tape and identify prospects to put in front of the coaches to evaluate (I'm sure a lot of coaches do part of this on their own as well).
Middle School gym teacher was how he was described to me.
You probably don't mean anything by that, but as a HS PE teacher I take offense to that. I have a master's degree in exercise science. I've been a college S&C coach at several universities and used to work with Dan Nichol at Minnesota when I worked with him at UMaine. I'm also an adjunct exercise science professor. I'm also a former college athlete. But, I'm a "gym" teacher. Maybe at one time it was, but it is not a bad thing today. There are lots of jobs that are easier to get than a PE teacher position. Many states require a master's degree to do this. We don't just roll out balls.
Sorry-- that was relayed to me, not my actual opinion :P I think the way they meant it was the old-school gym teacher who would be all raa raa and then roll out the balls and sit back.
I respect what you do! Not all PE teachers are the old stereotype!
Lighten up francis.
Thanks for the insight...had no idea about this dude and was always curious about the mixed feelings with him.
But for me the part of your post that was eye opening... if you are Director of Recruiting for a program like Michigan, you better have been an above average athlete and preferably in the same freakin sport you are recruiting for. Ugh
Thanks for the insights on this. He always kinda came off that way to me, but of course I only had an outsiders perspective.
To me it seems like someone who would excel in a role like Recruiting Coordinator at a high-major program is young and energetic/relatable to high school kids, and also has experience as a player in their position and can share their perspective. A great communicator with a lot of charisma. Basically someone who can be influential towards teenagers for all the right reasons.
Dudek always kind of came off as dopey and dweeb like. Not a bad guy by any means, but maybe not the interface you want for prospects at a high-major football program.
The program only had two top 10 classes when he was here and last year's class was barely a top 10 class.
So we hired a guy who’s career trajectory is UCLA to San Jose State to Fresno State... to Michigan. I’ll hold off on the champagne.
He was headed to Mississippi State, then Michigan called.
That doesn’t fill me with optimism either.
Who also toiled in the offensive lines trenches at Michigan Stadium, loves the program, knows what it's like to live the life of a D1 football player, and is smart, young, and energetic. Do you know why he left UCLA? Perhaps it's related to the head coach that hired him was fired in 2017. Maybe not, but it seems logical. By all accounts, he excelled at SJSU and Fresno State. It's a good sign that his recruiting classes were excellent at mid-majors.
That time line is not correct. He left UCLA to work for Vanguard Sporting Group and then started his own sport communication business. He Vanguard to get back into college football recruiting and quickly moved UP from San Jose to Fresno State.
Thanks. I appreciate the correction. +1
April 14th, 2021 at 11:08 PM ^
*whose
I mean the rumors were Michigan ran a shit recruiting operation so this seems like a good thing
Exactly. I believe Wiltfong talked about Michigan being a disorganized mess. If so, it was Dudek’s fault and this move was long overdue.