A word on in-state recruiting

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on
It's become vogue, from Rosenberg, to Sharp, to current OSU commits, to talk about how little Rich Rodriguez is recruiting the state of Michigan, how well Dantonio is doing so, and how this spells trouble for Michigan athletics. Setting aside that we already have numerous offers out to 2010 recruits in the state, I thought I'd look back at Michigan history to see just how important the state of Michigan has been to Michigan football: -Of the top 10 rushers in Michigan history, only one (Tyrone Wheatley) went to HS in the state. By contrast, three were from North Carolina. -Of the top 10 passers in Michigan history, 1 is from in-state (Rick Leach is from Ann Arbor) - though I couldn't find hometowns of Steve Smith or John Wangler. -Of the top 10 receivers in Michigan history, 1 (Braylon) is from the state of Michigan -3 of Michigan's top 10 tacklers are from in-state (Sword, Anderson, Morrison) -2 of Michigan's top 10 in sacks (Woodley, Brandon Graham are from in-state) So - it would appear that most of Michigan's peak performers have come from out of the state. Looking at the best team in recent memory - the 1997 team, 6 of the 24 starters (including kicker and punter) came from in-state: FB Chris Floyd CB Andre Weathers LB Clint Copenhaver DT Rob Renes OT Jon Jansen LB Sam Sword This year, 8 of 24 are from in-state.

Comments

befuggled

October 25th, 2008 at 8:26 PM ^

Just moved out of the Madison area, and I have to admit I didn't think Wisconsin had that many in-state kids on their roster. So I did a quick count, based on the roster at Sports Illustrated.

 A quick count of their roster shows 47 in-state kids out of 123. There were a few where the state wasn't listed, a few of those probably are from WI. They also have about a dozen kids from Florida, 7 from Texas, a bunch from Illinois and elsewhere in the Midwest.

In comparison, MSU has 56 out of 107 in-state kids, and Michigan has 45 out of 120 in-state kids.

(Obviously, the accuracy of the above is going to depend on the quality of the roster on SI, which is potentially questionable.)

Joined: 07/01/2008

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Wangler2Carter

October 26th, 2008 at 8:14 AM ^

Your numbers are correct. I may not have worded my words the way I wanted, but what I meant was that their recruiting stays mostly in the state. They do pull recruits from other states yes, but they also have a decent amount of walk-on talent from out of state, and they often attract 1 or 2 star recruits from other states that do more than others to get themselves noticed (i.e. send out tapes of themselves). This dates back to when Alvarez took over and knew that it's easier to pull recruits that grew up watching Wisco football than it is to go out and try to attract people to come to this state. (I am not bashing the state, I love it myself, but obviously we are the joke of the country.) But in short, your numbers are correct, and my statement will lose significance as time goes on, seeing as how Bielema knows the importance of out of state recruiting.

Joined: 10/24/2008

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marco dane

October 24th, 2008 at 9:11 PM ^

WoW! Good memory. This guy was a top instate baller who played te in high school. Instead of wearing the coolest helmets in college football...unfortunately,he chose to become a nl for life...oh well!

Joined: 07/01/2008

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benAZ

October 25th, 2008 at 12:06 AM ^

rich rod isnt going anywhere with that new 6yr deal, so who really cares, get gardner and cass tech kids and a gr kid ever so often minus grady and it's all good

Joined: 10/15/2008

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Seth

October 25th, 2008 at 10:37 AM ^

The "RR hates in-staters" line has the stink of political rhetoric, and considering they're hearing it from 18 year olds who are in contact with MSU and OSU, I think we can chalk it up to nothing but the typical slander spread by rivals looking to steer Michigan talent away from their eponymous school.

It's ludicrous that any coach would want to turn away top in-state talent, or show up to a school with some sort of prejudice against against talent in that state.

Of course, since when has the fact that a comment makes zero sense ever stopped teenagers from believing there's truth in it?

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