ESPN Grades Michigan's 2018 class at a B+
Grade: B+ | National rank: 20
Even without the notoriety of previous years, Michigan continues to stockpile talent and fill key needs. The signing of ESPN 300 signal-caller Joe Milton following the news that former Ole Miss starter Shea Patterson would transfer to Ann Arbor is huge. Michigan went into Texas and signed the best tight end in the state in ESPN 300 Mustapha Muhammad. In-state ESPN 300 defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and four-star offensive tackle Ryan Hayes have high ceilings. The Peach State continues to be great for Michigan, with safety Myles Sims and ESPN 300 running back Christian Turner. Signing ESPN 300 linebacker Cameron McGrone was also big. Lone Star State twins Gemon Green and German Green will bring 6-foot-2 frames to the cornerback position. Versatile athlete Michael Barrett out of the Peach State could end up on either side of the ball.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 1:06 PM ^
Backus and Hutchinson were RS freshman starting and Hutchinson was a DL recruit in HS.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
Because that's what matters...
Look, that is very abnormal. That is not common to have that kind of success with young guys or guys recently switching positions. That's even considering that Michigan had a long line of success within the program at that time, something that has gone away in the past decade.
And there are highly rated prospects that don't work out, and lowly rated walk-ons that do. Recruiting rankings, particularly on OL, aren't exact science. If MSU's staff knew Conklin was going to be so good, or Michigan's staff knew Glasgow would have been so good, they wouldn't have risked losing them by having them as PWO; the Center for the Eagles was a walk-on RB at UC. Some guys are better right away, some guys take time. That goes for both lower rated guys and higher rated guys. So if your beef is "BUT WE NEEDED OL THIS YEAR", well ok, that would be great, but there are also a ton of young bodies on the roster that were decently rated. Give them a chance to grow.
February 8th, 2018 at 2:26 PM ^
Cool story. Give me Alabama's recruiting every year and I'll take my chances.
February 8th, 2018 at 2:37 PM ^
Give you Alabama's recruiting or scrap the program? Cool story.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
I believe my answer was clear, but nice attempt at a straw man argument.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:33 PM ^
Give me Alabama's recruiting. Sure, we'd all love Alabama's recruiting. No one has said otherwise. So your argument was pointless. That was the straw man.
February 8th, 2018 at 4:10 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 1:07 PM ^
TLDR.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:24 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^
You cherry picked one line. Here is another sentence in that paragraph: "If the OL coaching gets sorted out (ie: someone that can spend 100% of his time actually coaching them), I think they'll be just fine."
I'll concede your point, though - I don't have anything tangible to believe this, just my thought (hope, if you prefer) that these young players will be up to the task. All I have to go on is recruiting buzz for Hudson and Filiaga, and the others building on what was a decent season for true freshmen. The opener will be tough (thanks, Warde!), but I think that they'll be good enough.
I don't think you were trying to argumentative, and didn't take it that way. But the alternative to my line of thought is to believe the 2018 OL will just suck. I refuse to do that. Shades of grey exist, and the reality will be somewhere in that grey mass, but I coose to believe that it will be better.
You can choose whatever you want...
February 8th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
Wasn't trying to be argumentative and sorry if it came off that way. I was just curious what made you think we'd be okay next year given the past and present circumstances of our OL. Let's be honest: it hasn't been any good in a long time. And while there is recruiting buzz for these guys, there was that same buzz for Kalis (who was as much a "sure thing" as you could ever get), Magnuson, Kugler, Bredeson, Onwenu, JBB, and several others. The first three never even remotely lived up to their potential, even with 2+ years of coaching under Harbaugh, and while the last three still have time, they haven't done so yet. I give Ruiz a pass for being a true freshman.
I really want to believe they will be better. And the pure talent is there for it to be a pretty darn good OL. If someone forced me to guess, I'd say we'll see at least marginal improvement next year. But I recall at least several years where we came out of Spring Camp, went into Fall Camp, and all the insider/media buzz, even talk from Brian, was about how THIS was finally the year for the OL. How much more in-sync they looked. How much faster and athletic they looked. How they all functioned together as a unit. Then toe met leather and it was same story, different year.
I'm reserving my opinion until I see them play against an opponent with a pulse.
February 8th, 2018 at 11:28 AM ^
Never lived up to their recruiting ranking...
2016: Magnuson - 1st team all-conference; Kalis - 2nd team all-conference
You are letting a recruiting ranking blind you. They were fine players. That they weren't drafted doesn't mean they were bad. They were good, just not good enough to get drafted (although they were good enough to stick on NFL rosters this year).
And again, they improved a ton under Drevno (as did Braden, also 2nd team all-big ten).
February 8th, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^
I'd define good as being able to help pick up at least one first down in the 4th quarter of an OSU game. Where one first down probably means you ice the game and win. But hey, that's me.
I am not trying to rag on these guys. I know they came in every day, busted their ass and did their best. But when the schedule got tough and they their real opportunities to shine, it largely just didn't happen.
But hey you know that's just....like....my opinion, man.
February 8th, 2018 at 10:28 AM ^
ESPN recruiting is also a joke.
February 8th, 2018 at 10:38 AM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^
Your work isn't our concern. Don't let it get in the way of providing us some form of content!
/s, if its needed...
February 8th, 2018 at 11:33 AM ^
A lot happens between high school and pros. That kind of analysis would tell us that successful college players who were not drafted high were not worth their ranking. Would you consider Jason White a bust of a recruit?
February 8th, 2018 at 2:06 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^
I higher rated kid is more likely to drafted in the NFL, or drafted higher. So it's predictive ability has been shown.
It's accuracy is still pretty meh. That's because so much happens between high school and the pros, and that there are tons of factors. A baseball player is not more likely to get a hit than not, but a higher batting average is a good predictor that a certain batter will get a hit vs another. But every player is still unlikely to get a hit.
February 8th, 2018 at 2:24 PM ^
LOL.
I guess it;s just a coincidence the teams at the top of the recruiting rankings every year are the same teams in the CFP. Anyone want to tell me how OSU, Bama, UGA, Clemson, and USC classes looked this year? That's what I thought.
February 8th, 2018 at 2:36 PM ^
Because I just said higher rated kids turn out more often than lower rated kids. All those programs you listed also still have a lot of highly rated kids that don't work out. Recruiting a lot of highly rated kids helps your odds in finding a good one, no one is arguing that it doesn't.
So, LOL, no it's not just coincidence. No one ever said that. ~48% of 5 stars don't get drafted. ~31% of 5 star OL get drafted.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:04 PM ^
I'm exhausted trying to comprehend your mental gymnastics within paragraphs upon paragraphs of text trying to explain away how recruiting rankings don't matter but they really do but they really don't and it's ok our class sucked this year.
I'm done. Have a nice day.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:35 PM ^
You have no capability of grasping nuance. You have no ability to understand multiple strands and how they tie into a greater whole. You are only able to focus on a sole thing (recruiting), and live or die by it. If it doesn't meet your expectations, it's a "disaster". No middle ground. No nuance, no seeing the bigger picture, no context, just black and white about one subject equates to the whole.
February 8th, 2018 at 10:34 AM ^
Early commits from SEC country are born to cause us angar.
February 8th, 2018 at 10:35 AM ^
I'm really curious what was off this year with the class. From very early it didn't seem like we were in on a lot of elite guys. Combine that with missing out of the guys we thought we were going to get just magnified things.
Maybe it was the subpar season but we got off to slow start recruiting even before season got rolling. My personal belief is that we have a couple coaches that are subpar recruiters. Obviously Partridge and Mattison are great but I think losing Wheatley really hurt us.
February 8th, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^
think that something was off this year, period. There are some things that we are not privy to as fans and will maybe never know. I am not going to speculate to what was going on, and really don't even know if I could venture a guess, but I think it is clear that something was amiss under the surface.
I am genuinely stunned that there has not been much movement on the staff. My best guess throughout the season was that there was discord within the staff, but if that was the case, it would certainly seem that there would be more of a shake-up than there has been after the season ended. Next season is going to be very interesting. It is not "make or break" in terms of national title, playoff, etc. But it is make or break in terms of the coaches and the players generally looking like they know what the hell is going on.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:06 PM ^
Plus losing all of our big games. I think once we can find a good QB our offense will improve dramatically. Top recruits want to play in a NC game and will go to the teams they think have the better chance.
February 8th, 2018 at 10:45 AM ^
Unfortunately, Michigan fans are like a 16 year old Japanese kid with an overbearing father, so that B+ just caused us all to commit harakiri....
February 8th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
It all depends how you look at it:
One view we didn't add many instant impact players (That is ok because you have a loaded sophmore and junior class to field in 2018). Not great, but we return damn near everyone, so there is that.
Second view this is the ultimate red shirt class that will be baking in the wings for 2019 or 2020 season.
Adjustments around lack of Tackle play in 2018 (assumption) they will move to more spread with Shea at QB. Our defense will be top 3 in every major category and will win 9 games by themselves. Having a B- offense in 2018 will lead to 10 or more wins.
I am loving the 2018 outlook. Win big in 2018 and the rewards will be great!!!!!
Go Blue!!!!
February 8th, 2018 at 10:43 AM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 11:04 AM ^
It's an incredibly average comment that lots of people are making. There is very little originality to it as well, which is why it gets the minus.
February 8th, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
No, it doesn't have the top level guys, but the class has a ton of depth.
Remember, there are 22 players playing on each side of the ball. Given the multiple personnel, there are anywhere between 14 "starters" on offense and 14 "starters" on defense. That's essentially 28 positions to fill with starters, and the vast majority of those don't come from those "instant impact" guys. So if Michigan would have landed a few, great, given the hit rate, maybe 2 of those guys are instant impact starters, out of 28 positions.
Michigan had back-to-back huge classes, filled with a lot of highly rated players. Those were some of Michigan's best classes. While this class lacks instant impacts according to the rankings, there are really only a few that I believe aren't good fits within any Michigan class. Honestly, it's a very strong, solid, deep class.
I know people are also upset about the OL, but we really had two true SO playing and one true FR replacing a true SO. We will have 4 more additional RS FR next year, to go along with the remaining upperclassmen. Another OT piece would have been nice, another interior OL piece would have been a luxary, but particularly for the OL, they likely were not going to be instant impact regardless of ranking; these classes shouldn't be required to be big impacts next year, that's not how programs get built 99% of the time. These players are generally sprinkled in within a strong foundation from previously classes, even at the best programs.
So forgive me for not assuming the sky is falling. The class is fine. The past few classes were great by rankings standards. Based on the film I watched, I think the players Michigan got were mostly the right kind of foundation building players or project players with high upside. And with the depth of the last two classes, that's good if you miss out on the highest rated guys. You can win, and win a lot, with these guys.
High recruiting rankings are great, it's a great place to get to start from, but people are putting way too much stock into it. They put too much stock into for the great classes, and too much doom and gloom into the lower rated ones. You have to get good players, you have to coach up good players, Michigan has a strong foundation it's building with their recruiting, a foundation to compete with anyone in college football, literally. Now the rest has to take fold.
February 8th, 2018 at 10:49 AM ^
No it doesn't. Just because Braden, Magnuson, and Kalis didn't get drafted, doesn't mean they didn't improve a bunch under Drevno. Just because they were highly rated, doesn't mean they were destined to be great college linemen. Drevno got a lot of good out of those guys, and their pass pro in their final two years was quite good.
Glasgow improved a ton under Drevno. Was solid before, was a mid-round pick with his work under Drevno. Butt improved under Harbaugh. The young TEs on the roster improved a lot over the course of the year last year. The RBs continually have improved under Harbaugh, both Smith, and Evans and Higdon last year, even if pass pro still struggles to stick. Both Chesson and Darboh improved a bunch under the Harbaugh staff. Give the young guys on the roster some time to improve. Michigan was bad by Michigan standards last year, the OL improved over the course of the year, the young players improved, the bowl game be damned. Some of you guys see one result and make up your mind about the entire trajectory of the program, you need to back up and look at some trends rather than looking at two data points and considering it a true trend.
The team will get better, the staff will coach them, they need a lot of work and it will take a lot of work to get them where they need to be, let's see if they can before tearing the program down ourselves because we're too impatient to let it grow. A winning culture, attitude, and foundation does not get built over night the vast majority of places.
February 8th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
think that people who think that the "coaching staff sucks" and that are tearing down the program are really a very very small minority of fans. I think that vast majority of fans fall more within a "hmmm that sure was strange hopefully that will just be a one-year thing" perspective. I think that the coaches on this staff have proven that they know what they are doing and have developed players really well for the most part so far, but there were some head-scratchers last year with personnel and scheme that I think fell outside of the standard "rebuilding year" kind of analysis.
February 8th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^
I see these whinny little gits as the same people who comlain about an elevator being to full, Thanksgiving dinner having to much food, or who wait to the last second to get over in construction and the complain two seconds later when someone else does the same thing to them. The negativity from these negative Nancys are pushing this board to the edge of the cliff.
If this board is your life and you are not an admin here, you have a problem. Go live life. Go for a walk. Go on a date. Hold the hand of someone you love. Do something other than fester on athletics all day long, on what could have been, or what you would have done if you were the coach. There is more to life than sports.
February 8th, 2018 at 11:41 AM ^
elevators do suck though. I don't mind a little traffic in there, but I do start to get irritated when I have to contort my body into unnatural positions when that one person decides to get on instead of waiting for the next one.
February 8th, 2018 at 11:43 AM ^
Thanks SC for a dose of reality.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^
Game planning and in game play calling still seem to be a point of weakness for the team. Very little inventiveness or trickeration being deployed.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:59 PM ^
prior to that we were known for being hard to game plan against. Last year is significant, of course, but its 1/3 years we've been here.
I've heard people complain about 'outdated schemes' and 'predictable' or 'Bad' playcalling as if its plagued us during the entire Harbaugh era. That isn't true.
It seems the loss of Jedd was bigger than anyone thought. And the addition of Pep/Frey just flat out didn't work. But the whole Harbaugh philosophy isn't indicted, just the last year of trying something different.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 5:15 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^
The grade is fair. I think there are some very good pieces and even a few that can contribute immediately in 2018.
The issue with this class for me is not the players, it's that the coaches got beat down the stretch. They lost Otis Reese, Tyler Friday, and Jarret Patterson. I'm not optimistic they can now close on Calvin Anderson.
No body knows what happened internally this season and why they were seemingly asleep at the wheel and disorganized. It will probably go down a mystery.
It's somewhat clear that once Wheatley and Fisch left something happened with the chemistry and functionality of the staff. It definitely was noticeable on the recruiting trail. We can only hope Harbaugh has a clear understanding of the issues and is working to correct it. I think (*hope like hell) he is addressing it.
February 8th, 2018 at 11:17 PM ^
Rumor has it Michigan cooled on Jarret because the equipment manager didn't want to deal with putting a "J." and "S." in front of their last names.
/s
February 8th, 2018 at 10:55 AM ^
k1400 grades ESPN at an F-
February 8th, 2018 at 11:06 AM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
But he slipped into the middle class this season. Hopefully Harbaugh will get rich again in 2019.
But look at what getting into the NC game will do for you! If Michigan would ever get into the playoffs the recruiting would really ramp up. May be we'll have a to 5 class in 2020, if our 2019 season is great.February 8th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^
Hmm, I have it as a B.
20th out of 128. That's 108th best. 108/128 = 84.4%
February 8th, 2018 at 11:53 AM ^
Your math is off. If we're 20th out of 128, that means there are 108 lower than us. That makes us 109th (not 108th). 109/128 = 85.2%