Article on college recruiting in Grantland: Are they talking to us?

The article mentions Notre Dame's nationally recruiting this year, but DOES NOT mention Sparty's national recruiting.

I think that blog post is talking about "us" when it devotes an entire paragraph to Michigan, yes.

I like the part of the article where he talks about how fans say the other school payed him off or picked the wrong team when a guy commits to another school. To which I say, "Well he should have picked the good guys then."

  But I find it interesting that one of the broad conclusions is that we won't be able to compete with OSU unless we always have better recruits.  While I'm sure that will make it easier, I'm pretty confident that having top notch coaches goes a long ways.

  Urban Liar (ahahahahahahahah!!!  Liar!!!  Get it??!?!?!  zOMG!!!!) is a fine recruiter and successful coach, but I'll take our coaches any day, whether that means having a few less bluechip recruits or not.  I think the improvement from 2010 to 2011, combined with what he had done at Ball St and SDSU speaks volumes to that.  I've got a sneaking suspicion, mostly due to ignorance, that the Meyer Magic won't be all everyone thinks it will be (assuming of course he's there for more than three years).

I just have to laugh at the idea that a top 5 class is the only way to stick with OSU. There's something called coaching and player development. I'm not too worried about it anyways, because I don't expect Hoke to bring in many classes outside of the top 10. This staff is hungry and energetic and kids love that.

they were talking to you, not me

I found it interesting that they seemed to imply that OSU did NOT have garner top 5 classes to be competitive with us but we must get elite recruits to be competitive with them.  Not quite sure how they arrived at that conclusion unless they feel Meyer and his elite coaching taskforce is exponentially stronger than ours.  

I guess somebody forgot to tell him that the dude who used to coach Meyer's defense is now on the other side of the field.

Coaching ability combined with kids like Jake Ryan make recruiting rankings much less relevant.

I think the article captures the feelings of all College Football fans.  I'm not sure it was any more about the maize and blue than it is about the scarlet and gray.

Part of the fun is watching a player get recruited and seeing him develop.

It's the off season fergodsakes!  How else am I going to get my College Football fix?

Go Blue!

While i agree stars aren't a good indicator of a kids performance, coaching makes the difference.  With that said, i wholly disagree with the notion that class rankings do not matter.  Not that its been brought up, but in general a solid class every year does nothing but improve our odds of landing more and more talented kids year in year out.  Its a good feeling when we beat ohio in any area so when we haul in a better class then them or any rival its a great accomplishment which speaks volumes about our coaching staff.  Weather those kids perform or not.

I thought this statement was very insightful: "Pessimism is for the season. The offseason is a time of hope." 

I think Mark Hollis is praying that the MSU fanbase is did not read this line

"We care very much about our college football teams and we have absolutely zero control over their success."

or there goes his budget for building his "national" program.  

In general, I thought the artical read pretty true to most fanbases.

1. Watch HS junior highlight video—OMG, this kid is awesome, we have to offer him

2. TomVH/Sam Webb/Ace interview shows he likes us—kid's got his head on straight.

3. Hoke makes offer; recruit says we're in top three, wears UM hat at combine—I love this kid.

4. Recruit says academics "very important" and he doesn't expect anything to be given to him—he's a true Michigan Man, Bo would have loved him, I'll name my firstborn after him.

5. Recruit chooses rival school—kid's a goddamn punk, liar, obviously taking money on the side, hope his career sucks and he ends up in prison.