Steve: Recruiting mailbag questions

How is our defense recruiting looking? After this year I see a lot of positional holes becoming exposed that will be filled with young talent.

In case you haven't seen, there is a thread with insane amount of comments about Les helping us with recruiting. I mean literally employed by us and helping us recruit. I won't state my preference, but would rather hear your opinions. Thanks much for doing this by the way.

It seems that Harbaugh's "meritocracy" system resonates well with the highly-ranked prospects, but does it negatively affect those with lower rankings, i.e. low 4 stars or 3 stars?

Is LSU gonna poach from us now?

Penn State game this past weekend?

Any chance we get back in on ND TE Brock Wright?

Think is the most important uncommitted recruit for us to get? and which commit do you think is most important to keep?

OL Austin Deculus, Saftey Grant Delpit, D-tackle Neil Farrell, Full Back Tory Carter and USC Commits RB Stephen Carr, D-end Hunter Nichols, LB Julian Falaniko

Will we see M recruiting any more Aussies or Pacific Rim nationality players?

What are the odds that Aubrey Solomon ends up back in the fold? Has the ship completely sailed?

LSU commits? ND commits? MSU visitor reactions and positive news to Michigan. USC recruits? Texas recruits?

know some people associated with their athletics... kids seem to commit to the school more so than a coach... LSU will not have a huge vacuum of commits leaving. The State of Louisiana is loaded with talent...

I found myself watching the Stanford vs UCLA game and hoping UCLA would lose because of some recruiting battles... Same for Florida to lose to TN because it appears we are in more competition for recruits? Any rationale to this? Who should we hope wets the bed this weekend?

but I'm interested in the Aussie punting style and how the staff feels about that going forward.  Other than one play we don't speak of any longer, O'Neill seemed to have 2 completely different modes that stymied returners (end-over-end long ball and the "kick the point of the ball" shorty).  Not to take away anything from K. Allen who is also doing a very good job but I was just interested if O'Neill was a timely coincidence to gain an upperclassman or if this style of play is something the staff was interested in specifically recruiting going forward.

Pulling recruits from CA is always hard.  With players like Asiasi and David Long contributing as freshmen, are we having better luck making inroads?

What is your absolute favorite outrageous or just downright funny story from the recruiting trail. Names and places need not be mentioned.

We all know that one of the most important aspects of recruiting is on the field performance. We all know that Michigan has been playing pretty well so far this year. I understand that there haven't been too many officials because of the lack of exciting opponents and that commitments are more likely to happen when these kids are on campus. Furthermore, it is clear that many of the kids who are high on M's board right now are the "decide on signing day or at the All Star Game" type of recruit - not complaining because this is a great problem to have. What I am concerned about is the lack of ballz. Those sweet sweet ballz. It seems like it has been around a month since anyone put a crystal ball in for any of the kids that mich is going for. Is it that we a) have reached a critical mass with these recruits and that the ones whose interest would be reported on have already recieved said ball, b) we're being punished for a lack of respeck by the Oversoul, c) Michigan is getting outrecruited, or d) the CFB recruiniks are prejudiced against Michigan and their success and will not report the benefits that M has justly reaped from their victories in the form of curried favor from 17 and 18 year olds. Feel free to make your own e. 

Name the player JJH would most like to ink in our next class. Why?

How do the coaches manage a class when they are going after so many high profile players that are looking to make their decision on National Signing day? I know some of the recruits tell the coaches ahead and wait to go public, but all of the post signing day comments made it sound like the coaches were not 100% sure about Gary until he announced last year. That means there are probably a few important recruits the coaches really will not know about until the last minute. Seems like you missing out on option one could force you to miss out on options two, three and four.

Who do you expect to end up in the class at signing day?

What is the one thing offensive recruits consistently bring up about our program? What do defensive recruits regularly mention?

Is the Michigan strategy of loading up visitors for one weekend (which as luck would have it is an pretty big with an undefeated Wisconsin) normal for other big time programs? Is this how Harbaugh wants it or is it just coincidental/ convenient for the recruits?

Just trying to gauge how "normal" this is.

D line

Next year

Are we screwed?

“Okay, here's the shot out of the cannon: Oprah, Barbara Walters, your wife. You gotta fu*k one, marry one, kill one, go!” 

Any news from the visitors? I believe two top receivers were present for PSU but I'm wondering their thoughts since we didn't exactly get pass happy during this game and spent more time pounding on the ground.

which OT is most likely to land here?

when it came to either Michigan not recruiting a player or why is Michigan recruiting this guy???

during the RR and Hoke years was there any player that you thought for sure would fit perfectly into either one of their offences or defences and they just didn't go after or was there a kid or 2 that either one did recruit that just didn't make sense???

Do we have a realistic shot at any superstar-level CB recruits who could play right away next year behind Long and Hill?

 

From what you saw of him in HS plus what we've all heard out of camp, what do you think of Onwenu moving full time to DT?

1) DT is a premium pro position (both in the draft and in free agency) ... OG generally is not

2) we seem to have many irons in the fire w/r/t interior OL recruiting.  DT (as noted in other posts in this thread) is pretty thin.

Would seem to be a win-win for him and the team if he moves to DT full time. But I might well be missing something that you mght have picked up about him in live action.

Or have you been asked what's going on in a program when there appears to be a coaching change possible prior to signing day?

If so, how do you handle those while being impartial?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Can you elaborate or give us any kind of insight into how Harbaugh handles offers to guys that may not be "takes" early on in the process?  With so many high-profile recruits showing interest the last few cycles and waiting until National Signing Day to announce/commit, obviously he must be forced to slow-play some of the guys lower on their board to an extent, hoping to land a blue-chipper but wanting to have backup options available.  (That sounds awful, but it's obviously the way recruiting works to an extent.)  Are there any rules-of-thumb in terms of when Harbaugh would decide to cut bait on plan A and "settle" for plan B?