Big Ten Recruiting Class Rankings

Its 18 now :)

that Michigan State's recruits are ranked higher than ours. And disturbed.

Tim, you still have Jibreel Black on the Indiana commit list, even though you have pointed out he is a decommit to Cincinnati.

Tim (or somebody) what does "with unrated guys getting q 5.0" mean?

I liked this feature on VB. Glad to see it make its triumphant return.

There is some talk about who is under rated.

Therefore I will talk about who is over rated on a few of the teams.

I nominate Joe Boisture and Robert Bolden as both being over rated.

Who else is over rated?

This is great!

Nit Pick: Anyone else confused by the table heading, "Big Ten Recruiting Class Rankings 2009"?

I thought it was ranking the current freshman who made it to campus until "after the jump" I starting looking at the names...

You mention that you've done this before, for past seasons. Do you have a url you could post? It'd be really helpful to look at how previous classes with more or less gaudy ratings have fared around the B10.

Why is Michigan ranked #4 when MSU (and maybe Illinois?) have better numbers?

With Marvin Robinson and Jerald Robinson slated to join the team next year, Denard , Terrance and Coach Greg already on board...four underclassmen and a coordinator named Robinson...how on earth did the staff let Purdue swoop in and steal Sean Robinson from us?

Rivals loves them some Iowa players; Scout and ESPN not so much.

that MSU-commit Mylan Hicks is no relation to former U-M (and 49ers) d-back Dwight Hicks.

Because I'd be mightily p.o.'d if Dwight let one of his family become a Spartan.

I understand our recruiting suffering this year after 3-9, but what I don't understand is this: why would we or another team suffer the year after a terrible season? We didn't we suffer last year during the bad year? I don't get it. We pulled in guys that were top rated right after our bad year, in November/December of last year when the season was over and the terrible year was fresh in recruits minds. Why would that be the case but then recruiting suffers this year, when its clear we are improving and will likely go to some sort of bowl? It seems like the reverse should be true.

Nice to see all this. I realize the whole thing is there in order to show quantity and quality, but it would be great to have an additional column that shows where the recruits are from. I know where most of our guys come from... but it'd be interesting to see that info for other schools. Yeah, I could look it up my damn self, but I am entirely too lazy for that.

If we can get the guys that we should get our clas could be a definite top-15 class in the nation.

Iowa really does focus on defensive recruiting, and Penn St. is piling on some offense.

Deducting for athletes, who may have been recruited for either side of the ball, specialists, and ignoring position changes for the time being, the rough breakdown of offensive and defensive recruiting thus far is as follows:

Team Offense/Defense

Penn St....70%/30%
ND..........53%/47%
Ohio St.....45%/55%
U of M......59%/41%
Mich. St....42%/58%
Illinois......63%/37%
Wisc........40%/60%
Iowa........33%/67%
Minn........56%/44%
NW .........50%/50%
Ind..........43%/57% (including Jabreel Black)
Purdue.....38%/62%

Some of the stats are a bit skewed by incomplete classes (notably Purdue), but Iowa and Penn St. are both relatively full at 19 and 20, respectively.

It may very well be that the four athletes already committed to Iowa will wind up on offense, and that Iowa is anticipating losing some of its veteran defenders to the NFL, but somehow I am not surprised by a lopsided defensive class for Kirk Ferentz's Hawkeyes.

I tend to believe (baselessly) that there is some correlation between early recruiting numbers and the focus a coaching staff gives to a particular side of the ball (almost certainly over a long period of time, less true in any given year). I would not be surprised if all but one in the remainder of U of M's class is a defensive player. As it stands today, however, Michigan has initially targeted offensive players at an approximate ratio of 60%/40% (higher, assuming Dileo is utilized at slot) despite the already young and relatively deep offensive talent. The early emphasis on offensive recruiting is consistent with what I've come to expect from this coaching staff's offensive prowess.

At any rate, I expect Iowa to retain a staunch defense for a few more years and Penn St. to continue its recent trend of offensive firepower. Thoughts?

i was looking at who we could snake oil from illinois if/when the zooker gets canned and it looks like we'd only want CJ Fiedorowicz. is that right? seems like we took a pass on easterly though if signing day is approaching and the zooker is gone and we haven't filled that spot, we may want to look at him again.

Looking at the list, I'm wondering if maybe Avery will get a little bit of a bump once he stops being evaluated as a QB option? Everything I've read makes him sound like an underrated CB, but it seems like he is still being viewed as a mediocre QB as well. Just wondering.

A few days ago I looked at the recruiting classes for both Iowa and Wisconsin over the last several years as reported by Rivals. What I find most interesting is that both schools recruit poorly compared to Michigan, at least based on the number of stars and final ranking, yet somehow both Iowa and Michigan field very competitive teams. I also looked at Both Boise State and Cincinnati and their recruiting, which is even worse than Iowa or Wisconsin. Needless to say, if Michigan, even in a bad year, had incoming classes like any of the four schools I mentioned, the sky would most certainly be falling and we would wonder what we did to anger the Gods.

One thing that is common to Iowa, Wisc, Cinci and Boise State is that there is relative constancy in their coaches and/or schemes. Michigan, on the other hand, has had three new defensive schemes in the last three years and a major modification to its offense since RichRod replaced Carr.

In my mind, this raises some interesting questions. Obviously, great coaching and great talent makes for national championships or top five rankings. USC and Florida would be good examples. What the data suggests is that good coaching and solid O and D schemes which have been in place for several years can largely make up for less than stellar talent. Maybe we are looking into recruiting class numbers a bit too much.

I just need to know that Michigan lost because PSU was better, not because UM was in a funk. Beating Illinois would tell me something about this year's Michgan team. I don't like not knowing what to expect from Michigan. I know this team is really young, they are really talent too. I'm tired of "Guess who is coming to the game?" situations.

I'll be glad when Michigan steps on the field and causes the other team to melt like butter on the sidelines. I hate the rebuilding process! Hurry up and mature Michigan. Go Blue!