Dear Diary Carves Up Ohio Again Comment Count

Seth

ohio-road-mapturn2

Dear Diary,

This is the conclusion to Carving Up Ohio Part I from last week.

As a refresher, I split up Ohio into 7 regions, then went over the 4- and 5-stars since 2002 (based on Rivals.com) to see if there's a regional difference in how Michigan recruits, and also if there are any opportunities I can see where the Wolverines could do better. Ultimately, my hope is that this could serve as reference for future discussions of Michigan's Ohio recruiting. Last week was Toledo, Dayton, Cincy and the Columbus regions. This week I finish up with Cleveland, Eastern Ohio, and conclusions. Also remember by "2012 Prospects" I mean "mentioned on main page of MGoBlog this month." There have been a few more added from the offer cannon since then, thanks to umhero's Offer List, and Tim's just-released 2012 Recruiting Board. Also, I went back and found a lot more former Wolverines (going back to 1991 grads), which I have added to the Spreadsheet. That Spreadsheet lives here.

Notes before you start: Figures given are for 4- and 5-star recruits from 2002 through 2011, based on Rivals. "5-Star Recruits" are those given 6.1 on Rivals Scale, if available. Current and former Wolverines include all recruits I could remember or find because a good way to get the blue chips interested in your school is to have their old teammates come and have a good experience there. Conferences without a percentage in the Conf. Breakdown got one guy.

Notes so you don't complain about arbitrary regional divisions: Where the "Steel Corridor" is separated is up for debate: I put Cleveland and Akron together as I might include Ann Arbor as part of Detroit, and made a separate region for Wayne County, Canton, Warren and Youngstown. In the southwest, Cincy (with its own cultural image) is separated from Dayton.

Cleveland/NE Erie: 37 players, 70.3% Ohio State

Cleveland ClevelandSplit

And you wonder why they say God hates Cleveland? By far the largest football factory in the state, The Mistake by the Lake allows less than 30% of its high-profile recruits to take their talents somewhere other than the big black eye of the Big Ten.

That's mostly thanks to the Glenville Academic Campus, a powerhouse program run by Ted Ginn Sr. that pumps blue chips directly to Columbus on an annual basis. Of the 14 Glenville 5.8+ products since '02, 10 were Buckeyes, including standouts Ted Ginn, Donte Whitner, Jamario O'Neal, and Troy Smith. The last 4-star or higher to come out of Glenville and go blue was Pierre Woods in 2001. Cleveland's big Jesuit school St. Ignatius gave us the Massey brothers and Jake Ryan, and sent as many 4-stars to Pitt (Mark Myers) or Notre Dame (Dan Fox) as Ohio State (Tony Gonzalez). St. Ed's in Lakewood is a power program (2010 D-I State Champs), that takes in players from all over the state (e.g. DT prospect Greg Kuhar is from Concord Twp., between Akron and Columbus), and ships out at least one good Big Ten player a year. No past Wolverines – Alex Boone was the last big pursuit - but Hoke has offers to four of their 2011 seniors.

Ted Ginn Sr. You really can't separate Cleveland recruiting from Ginn, who has made a life's work out of taking in at-risk inner city youth, and bussing them around to Ohio campuses. Michigan fans tend to wonder if Ginn Sr. steps over the line from educator to active OSU recruiter (recruiting fans will remember the unpredictable, visit-canceling decision processes of safety prospect Latwan Anderson (Miami-YTM), and OL Aundrey Walker (USC)). On the other hand, Pierre Woods was sleeping in a car when Ginn found him, and even the most jaded among us would still rather have Troy Smith win a Heisman for Tressel than seen him continue on the path he was on: one more gangbanger on the Cleveland streets. Still, until Ann Arbor becomes a bus stop on the Tour de Ginn and the Wolverines burst the Glenville pipeline, the Cleveland pickins will remain slim and scattered.

Any positives? Well Desmond Howard was born and raised in Cleveland. And a guy named Glenn from the Akron suburb of Baberton became the most quintessential "Michigan Man" since Yost. The area was once a major pipeline for Bo and Mo. More recently, Brady Hoke secured a commitment this month from tight end Frank Clark, a Glenville product who has vowed to redirect that notorious Cleveland pipeline northward.

  • Current Wolverines: Christian Pace (Avon Lake), Frank Clark (Glenville), Jake Ryan (St. Ignatius)
  • 2012 Prospects: DEs Greg McMullen and LaTroy Lews (Hoban), DE Pharaoh Brown (Lyndhurst Brush), DE Tom Strobel (Mentor), DT Greg Kuhar, OLs Kyle Kalis and Tyler Orlosky, and TE Sam Grant (St. Edward-Lakewood), Kyle Dodson (Cleveland Heights)
  • Former Wolverines: Desmond Howard and Elvis Grbac (St. Joseph), Scott Loeffler and Joe Ries (Baberton), Ricky Powers and Eric Graves (Akron-Buchtel), Jason Foster (Medina), Dave Henkel (Cleveland Heights), Ray Edmonds (Hoban), Randy Stark (Mentor), Dave Petruziello (Lake Catholic in Mentor), Dennis Washington (Lorain), Brian Wallace (Padua Franciscan-Parma), Michael and Patrick Massey, John Jaeckin, Trent Zenkewicz, Jason Brooks and Pat Kratus (St. Ignatius), Caleb White (Akron-Washington), and Zoltan the Inconceivable (Romania, Space, Twinsburg)
  • Notable Recruiting Sites: Cleveland (Glenville, St. Ignatius, Cleveland Heights), Akron (Hoban), Twinsburg, Lakewood (Lakewood H.S., St. Ed's)
  • FBS Schools in Region: Kent State (MAC), Akron (MAC)
  • Other FBS Schools Nearby: Ohio State (Big Ten), Pittsburgh (Big East), Toledo (MAC), Bowling Green (MAC), Buffalo (MAC)
  • 5-Star Recruits: Latwan Anderson (Mimai-FL), Beanie Wells, Robert Rose, Ted Ginn Jr., Alex Boone and Mike D'Andrea (Ohio State)
  • Conference Breakdown: 86.5% Big Ten, 5.4% Big East, (ACC, Pac Ten, MAC)
  • School Breakdown: Ohio State 26, Michigan 1, Notre Dame 1

Eastern Ohio: 24 Players, 37.5% Ohio State

Eastern-PA NortheastSplit

If there's a football capital of the world, this region would have a strong claim to it; the predecessor to the NFL was established in a 1920 meeting at a Canton car dealership. Penn State has a lot of natural fans out here, as does Pitt. Notre Dame has recruited here for a century. Contrasting sharply with the nearby Cleveland area, Eastern Ohio sends more high-profile kids to other Big Ten schools than it does Ohio State. Tressel, who came up through the area's FCS power YSU, still has enough connections in the region that Ohio State fares well at the smaller programs. The big ones, on the other hand, have been relatively unkind to the Buckeyes, at least as compared to the rest of the state.

Here Michigan has had success, mostly from a connection to Warren G. Harding H.S. (Burgess, Manningham, D.J. Williamson, Davion Rogers) in Warren. That school has sent a fair amount of 3-stars to Michigan State, so some defense is necessary. Harding's responsible for two Buckeye RBs, Maurice Clarett (you remember him) and Dan Herron. In Youngstown, Cardinal Mooney is kind to Penn State, but Rodriguez recruited Taylor Hill out of there (to both West Virginia and Michigan), and more recently Ray Vinopal. Across town is confirmed Michigan pipeline Liberty; all three of its FBS commits since '02 (Isaiah Bell, Antonio Kinard, Fitz Toussaint) have chosen Michigan. Ursuline (Penn State's Daryll Clark) is a very successful Div V Catholic program called "The Irish," yet strangely sends few players to Notre Dame.

Wayne County is a football-mad region southwest of Akron. The Wooster-Orrville rivalry in Wayne is famous in the state, but doesn't produce as many top NCAA prospects as neighboring Stark County, i.e. Canton. The Canton area includes Washington HS in Massillon and their archrivals at Canton McKinley. The former has produced a few Wolverines (Crable, Turner), the latter a few Buckeyes (Mike Doss, Tyler Everett). GlenOak [sic] is a suburban school in Plains Twp. that is basically the north side of Canton. On the opposite side of the city is Canton South, a separate district that includes Pike Twp. and produces more than its fair share of FBS talent.

  • Current Wolverines: Fitzgerald Toussaint and Isaiah Bell (Youngstown Liberty), Jerald Robinson, (Canton South), D.J. Williamson (Warren Harding), Ray Vinopal (Cardinal Mooney)
  • 2012 Prospects: S Deshaun Hall (Canton-GlenOak), DE Se'Von Pittman (McKinley), LB Mason Monheim (Orrville), RB William Mahone (Austintown Finch)
  • Former Wolverines: Ben Mast, Shawn Crable, John Woodlock and Justin Turner (Massillon), Mario Manningham, Prescott Burgess, Davion Rogers and Carl Diggs (Warren Harding), Alfie Burch (Warren West Reserve), Bryan Wright (Salem), Taylor Hill (Cardinal Mooney), Antonio Kinard (Youngstown Liberty), Buster Stanley (Youngstown East), Deollo Anderson (Youngstown Ursuline), James Otis Williams (Canton-GlenOak), Shawn Lazarus (Canal Fulton)
  • Notable Recruiting Sites: Massillon, Youngstown (Ursuline, Cardinal Mooney, Liberty, Austintown), Canton (GlenOak, South, McKinley), Warren (Harding), Coshocton, Carrolltown
  • FBS Schools in Region: (none)
  • Other FBS Schools nearby: Ohio State (Big Ten), Penn State (Big Ten), Pitt (Big East), West Va. (Big East), Ohio (MAC), Akron (MAC), Kent St (MAC)
  • 5-Star Recruits: Prescott Burgess (Michigan), Maurice Clarett (Ohio State)
  • Conference Breakdown: 91.7% Big Ten, Big East, Big XII
  • School Breakdown: Ohio State 9, Michigan 6, Notre Dame 1

Southeastern Ohio: (0 Players rated 4-stars+)

The area has produced very little in the way of top talent. Driving through here you'll see a lot of Ohio State stickers on mailboxes sticking out from the (beyond knee-high by the Fourth of July) tasseled corn stalks. That which isn't farmland is forested. Much of the population lives in Appalachian-influenced rust belt towns like Portsmouth and Ironton (a big rivalry) along the Ohio River. West Virginia and Marshall are not that far away, and many Ohio-side towns from Rome to Bellaire are either tributary towns, or small Windsor-like reflections of larger West Virginian population centers.

Southeast Current Wolverines: (none)
2012 Prospects: (none)
Former Wolverines: (none)
Notable Recruiting Sites: Portsmouth, Ironton/South Point, Athens, Marietta
FBS Schools in Region: Ohio University
Other FBS Schools nearby: Ohio State (Big Ten), Penn State (Big Ten), Cincinnatti (Big East), Pitt (Big East), West Va. (Big East), Marshall (C-USA), Ohio (MAC), Akron (MAC)
5-Star Recruits: (none)
Conference Breakdown: N/A
School Breakdown: N/A

 

Totals & Conclusions

ohio-road-map Splitting Ohio

I was writing this before blublooded put together a shorter, similar thing on Michigan in-state recruiting. As he notes in that article, which used the same metrics, 76 4- and 5-stars were produced in Michigan. For comparison, in the same timeframe, Ohio produced 136.

This is why Ohio recruiting is important for the University of Michigan: our biggest rival has a state that produces almost twice as many top prospects as ours. An whereas we share the mitten with an in-conference rival, OSU is situated smack dab in the middle of this bucket of NCAA talent, with only a Big East commuter school and a bunch of MACrifices around its edges to compete with. Remaining a player for talent across the state keeps that talent away from the one rival who can make or break our season, and establishes pipelines within our region's biggest talent centers. When Michigan is a national title contender, we're winning with Ohians.

Conference Breakdown:

Region Big Ten SEC ACC Big East Big XII Pac Ten MAC
Cincinnati 57.7% 19.2% 11.5% 7.7% 3.8% 0.0% 0.0%
Cleveland 86.5% 0.0% 2.7% 5.4% 0.0% 2.7% 2.7%
Columbus 84.2% 5.3% 5.3% 0.0% 5.3% 0.0% 0.0%
Dayton/I-75 82.6% 4.3% 4.3% 8.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Eastern OH 91.7% 0.0% 0.0% 4.2% 4.2% 0.0% 0.0%
Toledo/I-90 71.4% 0.0% 14.3% 0.0% 0.0% 14.3% 0.0%
Grand 80.1% 5.1% 5.1% 5.1% 2.2% 1.5% 0.7%

You'll note not a lot of talent escapes the conference. Only Cincinnati, which has the state's only other BCS tie and is situated across the river from the SEC, had a significant amount of talent going elsewhere (Toledo's 28% departure rate is due to one USC guy and one player who went to Wake Forest).

Regional Breakdown:

Region Total OSU OSU% Michigan ND MSU
Cincinnati 26 7 26.9% 1 4 0
Cleveland 37 26 70.3% 1 1 1
Columbus 19 9 47.4% 1 2 1
Dayton/I-75 23 14 60.9% 4 0 1
Eastern OH 24 9 37.5% 6 1 1
Toledo/I-90 7 2 28.6% 2 0 0
Grand 136 67 49.3% 15 8 4

Consistent with what you'd expect from a big state with one major program in the middle of it, about half of the 4- and 5-stars from Ohio go to Ohio State, while a third go somewhere else in conference. Among other Big Ten schools who got more than 1 blue chip Ohioan since '02, Michigan State was the only one to leave the major highways in the north of the state. Notre Dame got half of its haul out of the Cincy Catholic schools, but like MSU got another four from various places. Penn State's three were all from near the Pennsylvania border.

Ohio State showed its strongest presence in Dayton and Cleveland, but the Canton-Youngstown region, Cincy, and Toledo were dramatically more open, even showing pipelines to other schools. It's a daunting task, but it seems the best thing Michigan could do would be to focus on competing with Ohio State for kids near the hometowns of Bo Schembechler and Brady Hoke. Goal 1 would be to crack Glenville in Cleveland, and hit Western Ohio hard, thus tapping two excellent recruiting pipelines while simultaneously cutting directly into Jim Tressel's most consistent resource.

Bo-hi-o

Michigan's better years in recent memory coincided with strong success in Ohio recruiting, but this should be obvious if looking at any out-of-state recruiting: more wins = more national interest in the program. However I do think I've gotten to the bottom of how this whole "Must Own Ohio" meme got stuck in our brains in the first place:

Coacheseach

The chart shows Michigan's roster for each year using stats from Bentley. That big blotch of yellow from 1969 to 1989 peaking in the middle of the Ten Year War was Bo Schembechler building his program by stealing tools out of Woody's garage then using them to beat his old sensei senseless. After four or five years of this, Bo actually had more Ohioans playing for Michigan than Michiganders. (Aside: the thing also shows Rich Rod inheriting the smallest roster since World War II).

Years Coach Ohio% OTHER%
1879-'90 (none) 6.67% 50.01%
1891 Murphy & Crawford 11.11% 63.89%
1982-'93 Frank Barbour 13.70% 59.01%
1894-'95 William McCauley 9.48% 56.27%
1896 William Ward 10.00% 57.50%
1897-'99 Gustave Ferbert 8.56% 49.06%
1900 Langdon Lee 8.82% 42.65%
1901-'26 Fielding Yost & George Little 7.41% 37.89%
1927-'28 Elton Wieman 10.81% 31.45%
1929-'37 Harry Kipke 12.71% 30.75%
1938-'47 Fritz Crisler 11.28% 35.10%
1948-'58 Bennie Oosterbaan 13.37% 31.19%
1959-'68 Bump Elliott 20.62% 24.86%
1969-'89 Bo Schembechler 26.90% 33.26%
1990-'94 Gary Moeller 14.34% 50.41%
1995-'07 Lloyd Carr 11.22% 44.94%
2008-'10 Rich Rodriguez 11.48% 40.89%
  M Average 13.64% 38.30%

Versus those who came before, Bo dramatically increased out-of-state recruiting, first in Ohio and then all over the country. Versus those who came after, Bo was doing more than twice the going rate. My point: Recruiting the shit out of Ohio is a diademed Schembechlerian value. 'Course once Hayes retired Bo noticeably shifted toward national recruiting, a direction which his heirs maintained. As for Hoke, it's really hard to glean much from an offer list since S.O.P. for out-of-state offers is to give 'em out like candy, but of the 100 on umhero's list, here's a statewise Top 5:

1 Ohio 18
2 California 10
3(t) Florida & Michigan 9
5(t) Maryland & Texas 6

Hoke uber Bo alleles!

Diaries

DIARIestoday

Since football's hibernating and playoff season is near for the other two revenue sports, the diarists have been mostly focusing on these other things, as we try to figure out what various postseasons will resemble.

Hockeywise, mfan_in_ohio has been keeping up with pairwise. As of last week, Hagelin et al. were about as high in the PW as we could go (emphasis mine):

"It’s almost impossible to flip two of these comparisons. The best we are likely to do, if we win out, is a tie for fourth and winning the RPI tiebreaker to get the top seed in a regional. Of course, none of the regionals are particularly close (the closest are St. Louis and Green Bay), but the top seed means not having get by an east coast team on the east coast to get to the Frozen Four. This, however, is about as likely as the basketball team making the NCAAs. The most likely scenario now is a 2-seed."

Then something magic happened:

Meanwhile, around college hockey, Merrimack got swept (crushed, really) by Maine, allowing Michigan to flip its comparison with Merrimack and move up to a solo fourth in the Pairwise rankings … Michigan is in the driver’s seat for the fourth spot in the Pairwise and the #1 seed hat goes along with it.

Precarious things including Ohio State winning (they're back below the Maginot line but if they can climb back into the Top 50 our 5-1 record counts). But they no longer seem as far fetched as M basketball in the NCAA Tournament.

Speaking of hoops hopes, Michigan was seconds away from finally getting that signature win that makes the difference between feasible and pipe dream, when…

blowawaygun goal-sporting-goods-aluminum-fan-basketball-backboard_0_0

I wasn't there to see it. But one man in Row 42 poetically captured the feel of it:

Backs to the wall, battled the Maize and Blue.

Though they may fall, they fought to find their way through.

They'll stand, and fight those who stand in their way.

They'll stand, and with all their hearts they will play.

Blazefire's point is that this team is the kind that's really easy to root for. Like remember the first time Hart got the ball instead of Underwood or Jackson or ol' what's his name who was the same year as Hart and higher rated out of high school, and you weren't expecting much but then the little fella was still going forward long after three Big Ten linebackers did the thing that would normally bring down even a Perry or Thomas, and you were like…this basketball team is kind of like that.

Not all hopes died that day. For one, there's still the possibility of a Big Ten Tourney run. As we try to puzzle out what such a run might look like, AC1997 started with the edges and then worked in:

Right now we know who the top three teams are (OSU, Purdue, Wisconsin). We also know who the bottom four teams are (Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Indiana). At this point those seven spots aren’t really likely to change barring some upsets in the final week. But the middle four spots are totally up for grabs among Michigan, MSU, Illinois, and Penn State.

He then breaks down those four and concludes a scenario where we beat State in the finale then Illinois in the first game of the playoffs could be enough to beat the bubble field.

Speaking of the bubble, mfan_in_ohio (apparently buried under the snow this week with only an internet connection and NCAA comparison charts) has been making the M case against the field this week. Part I compares us to Butler. Then in an epic Part II is Gonzaga, Alabama, and UAB. These, plus the pairwises above – apropos given the header topic – make this Maize and Blue Ohioan the Diarist of the Week.

Elsewhere, Michigan Wrestling finished the season last week by pinning Little Brother and giving him a noogie (no word yet on whether we did that thing where you let your spit hang over his face before you suck it back up again). The Big Ten tournament is up next.

And finally a Magic Muppet Mazel Tov to the Michigan Men's Swimming team, i.e. your BIG TEN CHAMPION Men's Swimming Team.

Also women's basketball ended the regular season at No. 3 in the Big Ten. And softball, now 15-0, can't lose.

Comments

Jivas

February 27th, 2011 at 10:13 PM ^

He was "ol' what's his name who was the same year as Hart and higher rated out of high school".  If I recall the story correctly - and I would have read it somewhere here - he wasn't attending class as a freshman, and when the coaches asked why he said something to the effect of "none of my friends at SEC schools go to class."

(Unfortunately, Max didn't last long here).

M Fanfare

February 28th, 2011 at 12:49 AM ^

I love the graph but you need to re-do the X-axis, the years are all screwy (it shows Crisler's tenure lasting from the late '20s to 1937, Bo taking over in 1958-ish, et cetera). Probably a formatting issue?

Loved this series on Ohio recruiting. Well done!

Jon06

February 28th, 2011 at 12:55 AM ^

They'll stand, and with all they're hearts they will play.

Let us not quote bad poetry unless it is at least free of embarrassing grammatical errors.

Seth

February 28th, 2011 at 8:27 PM ^

Actually a ton of Ohio talent ends up at the MAC schools, especially the six (!) in-state (plus an Indiana one on the border), just verrry little of the 4- and 5-stars, which is what this study encompassed.

School 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 stars Grand Total
Bowling Green   5 78 5 88
Akron   10 75 1 86
Miami (OH)   5 78 1 84
Toledo 1 14 69   84
Ohio   2 72 1 75
Kent State   3 70 1 74
Ball State   7 55   62
Eastern Michigan     38   38
Buffalo     14   14
Central Michigan     9   9
Western Michigan   1 8   9
Northern Illinois     2   2
Grand Total 1 47 568 9 625

So a grand total of 1 player ranked 4 stars or higher from '02 to '11 signed with a MAC school, but hundreds of the lower-rated guys went to the nearby MACrifice. Compare that to some lower Big Ten teams...

School 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 stars Grand Total
Michigan State 4 31 16 1 52
Indiana 1 12 30   43
Northwestern   15 12   27
Minnesota 1 11 14   26

...and basically what you see is the MAC's lifeblood is two-stars from Ohio.

Also, you wonder why Toledo isn't dominating the MAC.

UMgradMSUdad

September 1st, 2012 at 8:26 AM ^

Great info. and analysis. I do have a question, though: does the Blue portion of the Bo-hi-o graph represent recruits from Michigan? 

It will be interesting to see how the new coaches in the league and a new team affect Ohio recruiting in future years.  We know Hoke is doing well in Ohio.  Meyer seems not as focused on Ohio as Tressel was, it's almost guaranteed that Penn St. won't be as big a player for Ohio recruits as in previous years, and Pellini seems to be making a greater effort in Ohio now that Nebraska is in the B1G.

Seth

September 8th, 2012 at 9:56 PM ^

Blue = Michigan recruits, yes.

With RR I guessed things wouldn't change all that much and that ended up being true: despite claims by people you should never listen to, Rodriguez recruited very strongly from Ohio and from Michigan. He did recruit slightly different dudes, but the e.g. here is getting Toussaint from Ohio instead of, I dunno, Le'Veon Bell of the home state. Meyer will focus on getting the best players and he will do better than any other school in Ohio because duh. If he doesn't have a snake-hold on the state like Tressel did, the difference for M's sake is maybe a guy a year--significantl, but not world-changing.