Those who stay [committed] will be champions.

This is about the most coherent thing I have seen written in a while.

 Newsflash: Recruits often don't really give a flying shit dong about Bo or our traditions. They don't commit to us because they get nostalgic and cry when they stop onto the field that so many All Americans stepped on. They commit because we may gave them the best shot at reaching the NFL or national exposure by way of winning lots and lots of games. Coaching relationships and academics play a part too, sure, but don't criticize these kids for making their own decisions about their future. You're pissed that a kid committed than decommitted? Fuck you. You have no idea what's going on there. Just because you have this archaic segregation era view on life doesn't mean you have any right to conclude what it means to commit to the Wolverines, or what it says about someone who decommits either.

Nobody BLEEDS MAIZE. 95% of the recruits we're getting nowadays had no ties whatsoever to the program or Michigan fandom until our coaches came into their houses and sold them. And what about those recruits who do BLEED MAIZE - and have to settle for Directional Michigan school since, shit, they fucking suck and Michigan coaches want no part of them? BLEED MAIZE my ass.

While I disagree with the necessity for our commits to bleed maize and blue (at least before they wear the uniform), I agree with the gist of your post.

Regarding a few of the comments: it's too bad that people hurl expletives and personal insults behind the safety of internet anonymity. And - to "Huss" - stay classy...

Calm down Huss. No need to be cussing and swearing about this. He is allowed to be upset that recruits commit then decommit. Some people value their word b/c sometimes that is all you have. I have been to Florida for a UF/LSU game before. SEC football is great in its own right but different from Big Ten Football. Their teams may be on the upswing of a cycle that runs ever few years while the Big Ten is down.

Before I write this, I am sure if you read: http://mgoblog.blogspot.com/2005/05/mgoblogs-recruiting-philosophy.html Brian has already covered a lot of what I don't like about this post.  That being said...

Those who stay will be Champions...
Bo's statement refers to guys that PLAY for Michigan, and he said it with reference to his 1969 team. You can launch on a rant about Justin Boren or Mario Manningham or Drew Henson or Justin Fargas or whatever. (I may not agree with said rant, but i concede that the "those who stay" argument can be made in those circumstances)

"Those who stay" does not apply to recruits. A commitment is not a binding contract and "staying" or dropping a commitment is essentially meaningless. 

It is disappointing when the latest 3 or 4 or 5 star guys changes his mind.  But that is how it works.  If you choose to follow it, be prepared for the ups and downs.  If you don't like the unpredictability, I recommend opening the paper on signing day and seeing who signed an LOI and start getting excited about the future wolverines.

It's interesting that nobody was complaining about weak commitments when Roy Roundtree switched from Purdue to UM and Michael Shaw switched from PSU to UM. Everyone was like "ha ha" and now everyone's like "wah wah." Chill out.

MGoAndy,

You do know that Michigan has within drawn offers from kids before. They can say "Hey were committed to you" then pull that offer back like it's nothing. It goes both ways and it has. We just don't hear about it that often. Coaches also pressure these kids into committing early and guarding them from other programs. They are a product of a problem, not the problem itself. Really, you sounded like a self-righteous ass in your rant and you forget that these kids are under a lot of pressure and that pressure is put on them by the coaches.

Until you've been around kids that have dealt with the recruiting process, or until you yourself looked up the football definition of committed(read: It basically means leave me the fuck alone and stop calling my house), stop trying to bestow the word 'commitment' as the most sacred bond possible.

Your problem is that you're, medically speaking, fucking retarded. Some schools, like Michigan, have a habit of getting out there early and releasing offers. Read the book Meat Market. A school like Ole Miss could be sending out upwards of 200 scholarship offers(pending approval, of course) to HS kids in the spring of their junior years. So when a school like Michigan comes a calling early - kids get hooked. Meanwhile, a school like USC takes its sweet getting into the game - they might only offer 20 juniors. Well, when senior year creeps up, the tape starts flowing, and schools like USC jump into the game. And as we all know, nobody recruits better than Carroll and the gang. So when a guy like Will Campbell commits to Michigan(via Lloyd Carr), upholds it with RichRod, and then suddenly has USfuckingC on his doorstep - he steps back and decides to take it all in. He wants to know if he's doing himself right. Does he want to stay home? His friends are going to UM, does that matter? USC is as elite as it gets and sends backups to the NFL, does he want to be a part of that? USCs coaches were the best I've talked to, maybe I should get more of a feel for all the teams recruiting me?

These are but a handful of a THOUSAND questions a recruit needs to ask himself - all while his cell phone quadruples as he gets harrassed by coaches, internet sites, recruiters, neighbords, friends, family, strangers, fans. That is the bare minimum of what a lot of these recruits go through. So, can you at least understand at some nominal level why a kid might step back, decommt, and re-evaluate what his priorities are as he gets set to become a man?  I mean, fuck - their senior year has barely started.

But things change, as in all walks of life. Anthony Fera apparently decommitted once he realized getting an MBA at Michigan is rather difficult. Bryce McNeal is a Minny boy who sees Eric Decker and the Gophers kicking ass and figures "Hmm, I'm much better off here than trying to catch lame ducks from Steve Threet" Will Campbell will apparently re-commit shortly. Everything is conjecture, which is why you need to be more open-minded about the entire process, instead of thinking a commitment as a guarantee of OMG MICHIGAN MAN status.

Again, who are you to say it was too early? To them, the timing was right. Recruits can't win with you people. Terrell Pryor is a fuckbutt for making everybody wait(when he could have just rotated commitments to UM,OSU and PSU like a good boy!) and making a sound choice, and these kids are getting shit from people like you for committing "too early" and revealing themselves to be the scum of the earth for not hating OSU and MSU and signing Hail to the Victors when they go to bed every night.

Now you've deemed yourself not only as someone who vicariously lives through Michigan, but you also vicariously live through our recruits, and can pass judgement and conclude with certainty anything regarding them.

You're more hopeless than I gave you credit for.

I'm with Andy on this one. Yes, a commitment is different from signing an LOI. An LOI is a binding legal contract (or at least as binding as the NCAA chooses to make it). A commitment is a verbal promise. You're giving your word that you will be attending that school. Call me a fossil, call me old fashioned, say I'm living in the past, whatever. But I still believe that your word should mean something and that you're only as good as it. If you're the type of person that will give your word with the idea that you might break it if something better comes along, screw you. Go to OSU or Bama or wherever. I don't want you playing for Michigan. I don't want to cheer my lungs out for you every Saturday for three months. Don't let the door hit you on teh way out.

Mgoandy,
Judging by the number of updates and edits you've had to make I can tell you've had a rough time with this Diary. Here's a tip, if you start your post with "I wrote this in a fit of passion and rage", stop writing. I'm not be insulting with that. The problem is that you will spend a lot of time defending your rage because it probably comes across differently than you intended. Just a word to the wise.

"If you're the type of person that will give your word with the idea that you might break it if something better comes along, screw you."

So you married the first and only girl (guy) you ever dated right? Otherwise you're a giant asshole that never should have dated the girl in the first place since you only were going to break up with her later.

Firstly you guys need to calm down. I'm am a recently graduated college student from Michigan and I have to agree with Andy here. There are VERY many parallels to high school recruits and "normal" people.

Is there really that much of a difference when a high school senior (academic) sends in his deposit to "save his place" at Michigan and then when he gets that letter to Harvard, MIT, or Yale says "screw the 250 bucks I'm going to School X". All the while this is screwing out all of the kids who really wanted to get into Michigan but just barely missed the cut off or were deferred?

Is there really that much difference when you're a junior/senior in college and are looking at going out into the "real" world. You get your fancy leather resume holders and you have your first round interviews. Sure you apply to a bunch of shitty places that you'd never really work for but you figure "what's the harm i'll just use it as practice there's no way that they will hire me". I'll just use this as a practice for that job at Google, Consulting company, etc job that I really really want.

Fast forward a few weeks and they've had the interview with Google, consulting company, whoever they really want and they rocked it. A few days later and they are given their verbal offer and they are asked whether or not they want to accept. They do. This is their dream job and they really want to work here. The pay is great but they see their other friends still interviewing going on trips, missing classes and they think "I wonder if I can find something better". And so they keep interviewing for that better job and better company.

I personally know several people who had offers from companies that they had talked about for months but then still interviewed with other companies just to "make sure". This is COMPLETE AND UTTER BS. Because while they have their 8 offers (yes I do know many people who had a lot of offers like that) there are many other seniors who don't even have 1 offer. These aren't students who have horrible gpa's these are just students who don't "interview obscenely well and have the stats to back it up". And then when these "great scholars" verbally accept their offer and then back out it makes the school look bad and the students look horrible.

 Now exactly how is this any different than a student athlete committing? Because IT IS NOT. I was one of the students who had no good offers coming out of school. So I took a crappy job and quit it 5 months later (Prep school route). Then found a "respectable engineering job" that I hated and quit another 5 months later (The JUCO route) and then finally found the job I had been searching for for 2 years (Finally got into the college of my choice).

I tell this story not because I'm mad that I didn't get any offers because I can't imagine that if I had gotten a "good engineering job" right after undergrad that I would be in my awesome career change job now. I tell it because the students who had their dream jobs screwed over other students and it's the same things that student athletes do.