Rodriguez And Personal Attention
A few days ago, Chris Brown of Smart Football posted an anonymous high school coach's negative opinion on Charlie Weis's recruiting mojo. It's interesting, if slightly preposterous from the Michigan fan's perspective. Weis spent his first three recruiting classes punching Lloyd Carr in the face, beating Michigan for large sections of his team en route to racking up the highly-rated recruiting classes that had Notre Dame fans making giddy little charts about how much they would own once the stench of Willingham passed.
When Rodriguez came in, Michigan's recruiting moved away from Weis's in geographical, cultural, and tiny-bastard terms, but what head-to-head battles did go down were still slanted in Notre Dame's favor. This year, Michigan lost out on cornerbacks Lo Wood—once a heavy Michigan lean—and Spencer Boyd. There were no other head-to-head battles. Last year Michigan managed to pick up OT Michael Schofield, but a variety of other recruiting battles went Notre Dame's way. Weis consistently recruited out of all proportion to his achievements.
So this seems a little funky…
Notre Dame has officially offered one of my linebackers, but no one from Notre Dame has ever spoken to the kid nor has anyone from Notre Dame ever returned any of my calls. …. Geewhiz Charlie, that’s not exactly the way to get a kid to choose ND over other BCS schools — and then you offer him blind without so much as making contact with any coach? No. That’s not the way to go about the business.
…and then Rich Rodriguez gets thrown in at the end…
Ohio State, Alabama, Virginia Tech, and others all recruit about the same way as Cincinnati. Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Michigan . . . they recruit like Notre Dame.
…and everybody gets ornery.
I don't know about the interpersonal relationships Rich Rodriguez has with every coach from sea to shining sea. I do know that Rodriguez reeled in a class that was nearly top five after his first year at Michigan and a number of parents from that class have taken to the internets to defend the beleaguered coach from accusations that he makes his players work too hard. I also know that Rodriguez and company fired off a thousand "offers" this spring, and those offers may or may not mean anything.
These things are in the eye of the beholder. I'm guessing the coaches at Trotwood-Madison and Chaparral don't share that opinion. And I know "Coach Ox," the Louisiana high school coach who emailed the blog in the aftermath of Carvin Johnson's commitment to tell us that we had a good player on our hands, sent another email about Rodriguez, unprompted. Here it is:
My feelings for RRod are exactly the same as Carvin's coach said on Rivals - if you are a real high school coach (i.e. you know football) from a real program (i.e. you coach players who will go on to college) and you need help or anything, RRod will bend over backwards for you. Not everybody likes HOW he coaches, but he loves coaches who coach HOW he does.
And here's Carvin Johnson's coach from that Rivals thread Ox references:
The thing I like most about him is him as a person. When other coaches and myself made the trips to WVU in the past to see them practice, etc. he treated everyone of us with nothing but respect. This is rare in big time college football.
So… some coaches like other coaches, and some don't. It's about the numbers. I wouldn't take an anecdotal aside too seriously. Michigan pays attention to the players they are seriously interested in, and offers a bunch more beside. The results were fine when Michigan wasn't dealing with the aftermath of a 3-9 season and a whole lot else besides.
Expect to see a lot of stuff like this coming out about Weis. It typical PR for firing a coach - people suddenly come out of the woodwork to smear the unemployed. The Palace crew have been masters at it.
The only mildly worrisome thing is we seem to be getting multiple sources (of questionable credibility) saying Ruch Rod isn't particularly coach friendly. And say what you will, but it hasn't been usual to get even NON-credible statements like that about the program. But a lot of that is probably more kick you when your down syndrome.
Having said that, are high school coaches the biggest set of whiney primadonnas on the planet? The girls at their high schools are not as overly dramatic and back-biting as these coaches.
...I have shown him...a man without hope...is a man without fear...
What does that mean?
Self proclaimed MGoBlog "quiz-bowl stud"
I think that situation was just because we cooled off on him after he repeatedly got burned at all the camps he went to.
I seem to remember Sam Webb saying that Mylan Hicks continually outplayed Mathis at camp.
Part of it too might be that he's obviously going to be extra nice to the coaches of kids he REALLY wants. He's not going to purposely diss a coach because of the chance that he might really want one of their kids down the line, but does anyone think he's not going to butter up the coaches of the kids that are at the top of his list?
Junior College transfers? When I was at UM, I remember several juco transfers on the team that played well and contributed. Is this out of favor nowadays in college recruiting?
Granted, I don't pay attention to football recruiting very much, but, doesn't it seem like UM could land some safety help from the juco ranks to fill the gap until the defense takes hold (hopefully) in 2011?
It's generally hard to get JUCO kids enrolled at Michigan, or so I understand. Coach Rod has said that a couple of times.
"That's horrible"
"Terrible is what it is."
has 2 JC transfer, one is a WR(forget his name) who help contributed to '97 national championship and the other is Austin Painter who has done nothing as a LB.
I don't think that Michigan routinely get JUCO transfers back in the days.
I believe the JC transfer you're looking for is WR Russell Shaw.
Craig Barker || The Hoover Street Rag || Twitter
"The Michigan fanbase: a cynical, Eeyorish bunch even in the best of times."--Doug Gillett
Russell Shaw. That's it. Pretty good receiver as I remember. That's my vintage at UM anyway 93 - 97. Good times, back when 9-3 was a losing season. :)
...some coaches like other coaches, some don't. if you're not wild about someone, then everything that person does is just further proof that he's a dick. and vice versa. in any case, it seems like the first quote says a lot more about the high school coach than it does about charlie. there are lots and lots of reasons to think charlie is an idiot...his recruiting methods are way down on the list.
by the way, is it a bad thing to be thrown in with (among others) alabama, ohio state, etc., when it comes to recruiting? or am i misreading the quote?
As someone who works in a high school, recruiting weirds me out on about sixteen levels. I view it as a necessary evil, but I really can't get all excited about it because I know that the kids who are being recruited are the same age as the kids in my class and I can't help but think that the overall ability to make a good decision is such a variable, that you can't just have one right way to do it.
What strikes me about this article though is the principle of reflected glory. Are there some coaches who finally have that one D-I FBS prospect, or even that one BCS level prospect, for perhaps the only time in their career, and they want to revel in it? They've dealt with the lower level coaches across the spectrum and now they want their moment to bask in some praise, no matter how faint, from a big wig in their field? So maybe that's where the "lack of attention" issue comes into play? It's not the player that's upset, it's the coach?
If it were me, personally, I would want to know my offers, make an early verbal, and be done with it so I could focus on my season, because otherwise, it's just a thing and a thing (and then you look at someone like Devin Gardner, who is being recruited by all of these other places to the echo of the whistle. It has to be frustrating to a certain kind of personality, whereas others might revel in it.)
Craig Barker || The Hoover Street Rag || Twitter
"The Michigan fanbase: a cynical, Eeyorish bunch even in the best of times."--Doug Gillett
Re: the first coach quoted, I failed to see where it was that Coach Rod had done something offensive. Giving your player a scholarship offer is bad? Lying to a kid is bad. Over-signing is bad. Just not calling? I don't see where anyone gets hurt.
"That's horrible"
"Terrible is what it is."
I have heard serious stuff about the staff not calling kids at all for months at a time. Dior Mathis didn't get a call for 4 months or something then all of a sudden bam. Also the support staff really has to step up, its their job to tell the coaches who to call and when to call them. There has also been stories about these same guys not printing field passes and credentials to official visitors. Just silly little stuff like that needs to be tightened up to be a top notch recruiting school.
more toward LC than RR.....
should have a byline of Leeroy Jenkins. they're just as thought out and desperate in their attack.
Thanks for the reminder, I have not watched this video in a year or so, and it's one of my favorites.
"rock, scissors, rock, rock, paper, scissors, candle, rock, wait what candle(?) oops you scored a touchdown."
I am getting tired of all the inside joke, jerk off crap posted on this site that has nothing to do with U-M sports. Why did I just waste 3 minutes watching this?
Go Blue
wow you must be awesome to hang out with. can you show up at kids parties too just to point out the inane nature of piñatas?
too gay for words. share it with Buckeyes. you are demeaning the site.
I'm going to make a few really stupid posts about bullshit, see if I can rack up some points that way.
Go Blue
"too gay for words?" Really? You're going to get high and mighty on people and then say something is "too gay for words?"
Who's demeaning this site? Someone posting a youtube video that is VERY OBVIOUSLY FROM A VIDEO GAME that you don't even kind of have to watch. Or someone with, and this is giving you the benefit of the doubt, some tendencies in their language left over from a society of bigots? Which person seems to bring this site down more?
Why on earth do you have that readily available for when someoen bashes the Leroy Jenkins video (which is hilarious, by the way).
GOD DAMNIT LEEROY
Great response, Brian. Right now, everything about RR is exactly as we hoped, exactly what we want, just what we need. The only glaring hole is, well, results.
If Rich is to be here past next year, the team has to be at least very good. Otherwise, he's gone, there's another massive cultural change, we edge closer to wandering the 'Notre Dame' desert for a good 10 years, and everything will suck forever and ever.
All in for 2010!
Sorry to nitpick, but... "Last year Michigan managed to pick up OT Andrew Schofield, but a variety of other recruiting battles went Notre Dame's way." That was supposed to be Michael Schofield, right?
Someday when you're outta here and you've forgotten all about this place and they've forgotten all about you, and you're wrapped up in your own pathetic life, Brian's gonna be there. That's right.
I don't understand what you mean by this. All I was intending to do is make a clarification since Michael was a 2009 recruit that Michigan landed over Notre Dame and his brother, Andrew, is a 2010 recruit unlikely to land at either program.
it's a Breakfast Club Quote
considering your icon... thought you'd catch that
Same actor, different movie. Sorry for missing that.
He was just joshing you, cowboy. Take 'er easy for all of us sinners.
or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
Yes. His little brother is Andrew.
MGoBlog | Sporting News | HTTV 2009 | e
I figured it was just a slip since Michael has been off the radar for over a year now while Andrew is sort of on the radar. Wasn't meaning to be a jerk. :)