2017 recruiting class attrition

This list is awful. That's a lot of time and money spent on players who leave. That churn doesn't seem worth it to go 9-4.

If there's any concern with recruiting, this would be it in my opinion. Most teams win with upperclass players and keeping players around. St-Juste and Hudson would be big helps in 2020, IME. Figure out this issue and I think it would help Michigan.

My opinion, on reflection: this isn’t that bad, and it’s only a little higher than we should expect.

There are 85 scholarships. Using round number estimates, that’s enough for 20 guys per class, plus let’s say 5 left over for 5th year players.

So when Michigan takes 30 guys, we can’t pretend that there won’t be a lot of transfers. It’s baked into the cake.

Then, one must consider that Harbaugh actually likes having more room to get more guys in. 20 scholarships a year only allows for 20 recruits, and Harbaugh wants more guys than that. It gives him more bullets in the chamber, more chances to hit on guys. For every Jordan Anthony that gets buried on the LB depth chart, there’s a Kwity Paye that develops into a key cog on the DL.

And if, on occasion, a guy is so good that he can enter the draft early, well, that probably means he was a good choice.

So attrition is at 16, including two NFL draft entries, with 14 left, and a couple more to go? Honestly, that’s only a couple of players higher than I’d expect. Hudson and Solomon stand out as the guys we thought we were going to get something from that left. And when you look at all those 4* guys, you’d obviously like a few more to be hits (in contrast with 3* guys that don’t play that haven’t left). 

But honestly this is maybe 4 or 5 transfers more than I’d like. Not great, but hardly an epidemic. 

That’s the point of the portal, right? How does this look for OSU or PSU?

We also picked you a few transfers and grad transfers too!

Jim Halpert *Yikes GIF*

I think what's more concerning than the numbers is the fact that so many of these guys leave for lesser programs and still struggle to make an impact/crack their new lineup.

Recruiting is hard.

Still hurts to see that when it's all compiled together. 

Aubrey: Not performing well at Tennessee either.

Singleton: Passed on 2 deep

Anthony: Passed on 2 deep

Black: Saw more PT elsewhere

Martin: Closer to home

Hudson: Weird

Irving-Bey: Passed on 2 deep, also left CMU

JKP: Passed on 2 deep

Hall: They wanted him to stay, he wanted to go

St Juste: That seems like a real oops from the coaching/medical staff

Woods: Passed on 2 deep

Taylor: Never cracked playing time

Most the transfers are because better players passed them.  Singleton never really got it going because he came in with an injury.  
 

But most these transfers are for PT, and yeah, that’s gonna be the norm.  Look at Penn State, Georgia, etc have a rash of transfers too.

3 of them were significant contributors, maybe 4. Some hardly ever played. 

I am only looking at the top group of kids, not the bottom who are still on the team.

The only difference now than decades ago is guys who are stuck behind others and not seeing the field are able to look for a better spot.  It wasn't like guys wouldn't have transferred 25 years ago if it was as easy then as it is now.  The NBA used to draft 6-10 guys every year who didn't attend college, then stopped.  Was it because HS players stopped being good enough to make the leap?  Nope - the NBA just made it much harder for guys to do so.  Now they're bringing back the ability to make the jump and I assume guys will.

I don't see why people are really that mad; look at most schools' classes and you'll see a lot of attrition.  I noted this elsewhere but Florida lost a third of their guys off last year's class already.  Guys don't want to be buried on the depth chart and feel they can compete elsewhere; why the hell not try it.

The scary thing is not the number of transfers.

The scary thing is that there's only been a handful of good players from that list.  It may be somewhat incomplete, but it does make a case for those saying our recruiting needs to get better.  Regardless of the rankings, recruiting needs to improve.  Maybe our talent evaluation is weak.

This is the way of the world.  With social media all these kids coming in thinking they are already stars with ton of crazy people following their every post and utterance.  I'm the greatest, come in and think they should start day 1, especially skill positions, before heading off to NFL in THREE years. Wait, someone better than ME, IMPOSSIBLE.  Right into the portal!  Always going to be attrition, but now anytime a player enters transfer portal, its "BREAKING NEWS!"  Before guys had to wait!  Guarantee nearly every kid who came to MI or any other major program thought this was a pit stop on the way to the NFL.  This is only the tip of the iceberg!!  Good luck to the guys who work hard, get their degree and see if the grass is greener. 

As somebody who was really disappointed that Martin transferred, I looked up his stats for 2019.

Appeared in 8 games.

5 receptions for a total of 28 yards.

Not exactly burning it up in Iowa City.

Yes this is how college football is and I would not count being good enough to go to the NFL Attrition 

All fretting is meaningless unless you see what is attrition over several years for a handful of programs.  If you don't know that, you don't know if this is high or low.  And -- no -- looking at 2 years for one other school is not sufficient comparison.