Oregon now favored to land top-100 WR Gatlin Bair
https://saturdayblitz.com/posts/oregon-football-trending-for-elite-2024-wr-gatlin-bair-01hnbt8mq6zj
Originally, he was favoring Michigan. This seems to be an indication that Michigan's NIL is not where it needs to be. Bair has a 3.93 GPA and will be going on a mormon mission for two years. Losing this kind of guy shows how stupid our NIL policy is.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:42 AM ^
Based on the offenses we've run the last 10 years, if I was a top WR who lived on the west coast...I too would probably favor Oregon over Michigan.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:23 AM ^
Yup - outside of Jeremy Gallon in 2013, there hasn't been a single WR/TE to hit 1k yards since Manningham/Avant/Braylon era.
This is why I hope they blend a bit more passing into the current offensive scheme. I am not saying go full-on Mike Leach, but a bit more passing would help the offense be more balanced and likely lead to better skill position recruiting.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:53 AM ^
Before last year Oregon had one guy go over 1k in the past decade. Michigan doesn't throw the ball a ton but they aren't running Army's offense out there either.
Michigan's offense balanced enough; they averaged 25 pass attempts a game and 38 runs and had a top-10 offensive efficiency per SP+ and FEI. OSU threw the ball 30 times a game and ran it 33 times, so we're basically arguing 5 plays a game difference and given some score effects I'd assume that gap shrinks in competitive games. Alabama threw the ball 23 times and ran 40 a game this season and seem fully capable of recruiting top-level WRs.
Michigan's "struggles" recruiting at WR feel a bit overblown; Roman Wilson and CJ were solid WRs at UM and will likely have good careers. Nico Collins has been a good WR in the pros. Ronnie Bell somehow has 3 TDs on 6 receptions for SF. Tyler Morris was a top-100 WR prospect and should be good next year. Karmello English was a 4*. They've got solid guys and while I agree they need to keep recruiting guys there likely isn't a world where they're consistently pulling in top-50 guys. But apparently whatever they've been doing is good enough to win a national title and have a top-10 offense and a very efficient passing attack, so I'll take it.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:34 AM ^
The amount of attention this dude has gotten is baffling. Won't be here for 2 years regardless of where he commits, who cares.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:38 AM ^
OSU has had a better recruiting group than most NFL teams over the last 3 years along with a #2 drafted generational QB and the #1 2021 RB recruit- and we know how that worked out for them.
I'm good with Michigan's strategy. Maybe running the ball with a top defense isn't what every fan would like to see but I'll take what works over what attracts top ranked receivers.
Rewatch the 2020 Alabama game- Michigan had a 5* and high 4* star receiver in that game. However, they dropped a number of balls and were much less effective than Roman Wilson and CJ. I'll take clutch players like CJ and Roman over hyped players every time.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:45 AM ^
No, you're right. The only thing at play here would be UM's NIL program, which was apparently fine for him until about 1 week ago when something must have changed with it. Absolutely nothing else with the team changed, obviously.
I mean only a certain level of disrespect to people like the OP but learn a new song because playing the same tune every time you're unhappy doesn't make it any more popular.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:53 AM ^
I don't want to lose out on this guy. He's really fast.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:59 AM ^
Not surprised. Oregon has a wide open offense where he'll get a ton of touches and Michigan does not. Also, he's going on a mission, a lot can change in 2 years.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:18 AM ^
Anyone who has the time and interest to post here to complain about Michigan's approach to NIL certainty has the time and interest to donate to the collective supporting Michigan student athletes.
So, give a link and inform us as to the amount of your contribution.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:39 AM ^
I contributed $1,000 and still believe Warde's inability to adapt to the new way of things is going to set the program, and specifically poor Sherrone, back significantly over the coming years.
Our NC was THE outlier of outliers, in being the first team to win it with talent ranked outside the top 10 in like, forever. Another outlier is how incredibly atrocious our recruiting class rankings have been recently relative to what they should be after going to 3 straight playoffs and winning it all this year, not to mention everything else Michigan has to offer. We won in the portal but guess what? Our competitors are increasingly leveraging NIL to take those best options in the portal away from us.
We'll bask in the glory of this year for a long time, but we'll see how long we enjoy it when we start getting our asses handed to us against teams like Oregon and OSU who have 100% embraced and adapted to the new way of NIL.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:23 AM ^
Is this NIL related or maybe, which is a crazy thought I know, related to the fact that the best head coach in college football took a job in the NFL?
January 30th, 2024 at 10:38 AM ^
It's sort of insane that people are looking at a guy reconsidering Michigan after their head coach leaves and jumping to the conclusion that NIL, a system that seemingly hasn't changed in years and was good enough for Blair when Harbaugh was around, is the culprit.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:28 AM ^
I feel bad for Sherrone. We will witness a Hoke-like annual regression over the next 5 years that sees us consistently out of the top 15 in recruiting rankings, and get to 3-5 losses each year due entirely to Warde and Michigan's arrogant "NIL vs culture" posture.
Ohio State is the clear favorite to win it all next year, not because of the "culture" they are preserving either.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:54 AM ^
What exactly is our NIL policy?
IMHO uncontrolled and unregulated NIL and Transfer Portal are the two biggest issues facing college football.
January 30th, 2024 at 12:17 PM ^
What exactly is our NIL policy?
"We do things the right way" and "This is Michigan forgodsakes" and "its about the culture" and other arrogant bullshit from a bygone era...sprinkled in with a laughably small money watergun while the other big schools have started to build M65 atomic cannons.
It was great to win a championship - truly a lifetime dream come true. That said, everyone knows that it was a massive outlier championship won by a team outside of the top recruiting rankings that will rarely be repeated by any other team.
Couple that with Warde's general incompetence and other issues, and it is very possible that was the last championship they win until a better AD is installed and the donor base realizes its not the good ol' days any more.
That said, Bair is great and all but who knows what he will be in a few years when he plays.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:42 PM ^
He won’t be available for two years. Why wait that long for a guy your recruiting now when there are others as talented that they could get into the program a lot sooner?
January 30th, 2024 at 7:51 PM ^
OP please explain the NIL policy and how it lead to Gatlin choosing Oregon? Where and how did it fail?