Article on Michigan avoiding negative recruiting like other schools

UM doesn't have to resort to negative recruiting, the other schools are doing it for us.

But I do wish there was a way for us to not exactly negatively recruit, but point out, say, oversigning.com for battles against LSU or Alabama. Maybe that just opens a whole new can of worms, but it would be nice to think that big time coaches tried to hit people like Miles or Saban in a way that hurts.

fewer kids leaving, better rep with college coaches and with successive classes at schools where our kids (or even kids we recruit but don't get) come from.

Also appears to be paying off in the short term.

feeling.  Love some Hoke!

But....but....without Kozan, Reeves & Maderis there's no point in even talking about recruiting anymore is there? Seems like we have now determined the following based on posts this past weekend on the board:

1. Hoke has "lost his touch" and cannot close the deal on recruits anymore

2. Urban Meyer is a big, fat liar!

3. Our basketball team is likely to never win another game this year if ever

4. Urban Meyer lies and the only way he gets recruits is by lying cause he's such a liar.  Has nothing to do whatsover about his past national championships, his coaching resume or the fact the kids were OSU leans in the first place.

Good to know we keep everything in perspective.

this is what separates us from everyone else. we may not get all the best kids, but we're getting the right ones. hoke knows what he's doing, and its clear that character is as important to him as talent is.

Speculation abounds, but it is most important to be who we are, to do things the way we think is the right way, and to see those results in terms of wins and losses over the long haul.  There is a reason why we are no. 1 in terms of football wins in college, and it is that we know what works over the long haul, not just over the next 2-3 years.

Hoke already had a lot of good will in the Midwest before he came back to Michigan, and he seems to be increasing it all the more.  Michigan isn't going to get every recruit it wants - it never did.  But Hoke will, I think, pull in enough big-time guys to compete for Big Ten championships.  Anyone losing it over the last few weeks of recruiting is missing the forest for the trees. 

but the possibilities 

Garnett: without luck, what do they have?

Reeves: I hope your girlfriend doesn't want to go to ohio. good chance urban will try to make some moves on her.

Kozan: you really don't want to pee brown do you?

boom number one class. All kidding aside I love our staff and I couldn't be happier with the way they represent michigan to everyone in the nation. Thank god we got hoke and not miles. 

Are we willing to lose games in the name of "doing things the right way?"  Will we, as fans, be holding our heads high even if Ohio under Meyer beats us on a regular basis behind the strength of shady recruiting practices (if that's even a legitimate claim at this point)?  I'm not saying we can't win with quality kids (see: team 132), but it will be interesting to watch how much UM fans can take as the NCAA plummets deeper into its wild wild west era.  Perhaps more importantly, will we see enough 4* and occasional 5* kids continue respond to that attitude, suit up in the maize and blue, and feel successful even if our program struggles to keep up?  Fans and players alike are sure to have their faith tested if college football continues towards even greater semi-professional status and we choose to honor the spirt of the "student athlete."

The coaching staff is doing it the right way.  Sell the school and present the recruits with all the info about Michigan.  No need to point out that PSU is a mess and OSU was under investigation.  The recruits already know this and it only brings us down to discuss them.  Then let them make thier own decision.  We don't need to point someone else's bad, just accentaute our good.  Go Blue!

recruit decisions is that because they've waited this long (not always, but frequently) often they are more undecided about where they want to go.  A lot of coaches play on this by being more aggressive (negative) in their recruiting pitches.  I'm not saying that was THE factor in the 3 players who recently chose other schools, but it's true on a large scale in college football.  That's why Coach Hoke and others probably prefer to fill up the class much earlier so that the week or two leading up to signing day doesn't make or break us.  This is only logical as it cuts down the risk factor of ending up with not all position needs being filled.  I like what we're doing and the way we're doing it.  It will lead to winning more of these 50-50 battles in the future, not less. 

Dantonio can learn a lesson or two from Hoke on how to not negatively recruit.  We all know it was him that Rich Rod called out about someone in the conference negatively recruiting against Michigan day in and day out.

That's really nice to hear for a couple of reasons:

• The success of your recruitment efforts are based strictly on the good things about your school, which aren't going to change from recruit to recruit based on who else that particular recruit is considering
• You don't waste time digging up dirt on someone else
• If you are honest and open during the recruitment process, where it is easy to make promises you reneg on later, then you will clearly have that same integrity when it comes to the actual football
• Everyone knows where they stand coming in, so you can be fair to everyone -- it's all about team chemistry -- you know noone has special privileges

Hoke and company rule.  I'm excited about how we finish this class and what 2013-2028 will bring.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/preps/articles/2012/01/29/20120129arizon...

"Luke Neal called Urban Meyer's visit "intense." He said he tried to get a commitment from the Scottsdale Chaparral receiver/cornerback that night. It didn't happen, but now, it appears, Ohio State is right up there with Notre Dame in the Neal recruiting sweepstakes.

"He said, 'I came all the way here for you because there isn't anybody else like you,' '' Luke said Meyer told his son.

Neal said Meyer wants Davonte' to play right away as a kick returner and slot receiver. He also said he would hold a scholarship for Davonte' after Wednesday's National Letter of Intent Day."

I especially like it when the better-quality coaches (Tressel, Rodriguez) are willing to confirm publicly that their rivals are not negative-recruiting.

There were lots of stories, virtually all 'historical,' for lack of a better term, about Mattison being a notable example of a negative recruiter.  I've seen no hard evidence of anything, and most rumors seem to originate with Notre Dame complaints after Mattison left and went to Florida.  So if Mattison is not being negative as a Michigan assistant, that's good.

Negative recruiting shouldn't be a hard story to report, should it?  I always wondered why it would be at all difficult to get a kid to talk about another school recruting him if he didn't commit there.  People get grants of anonymity from reporters all the time to talk about stuff like that.  Why would any egregious acts of negative recruting go unreported if they were true and could be confirmed by multiple sources?  My own guess is that there's probably less negative recruiting out there than we might imagine. 

Everyone hates negative advertising in politics.  But it works.

This is cynical, but negative recruiting, especially on uncertain recruits still sitting on the fence in late January, probably also works.

Not that we should do it, but it is pretty effective on 18 year old kids that want to hear certain things.

Grabble Grabble Grabble Grabble.  No but I am glad that we are doing it the right way.  Though I don't think that we should be dropping all of these guys right away when we don't think that it would work out.  There are a ton of recruits who I think we could have (Reeves, Wright, Grant, Diggs) who we dropped for one reason or another.  I am not saying it wasn't the right thing to do, I am just saying that we really could have a assembled a phenomanal class.  We have a great class, but it still could and can be better.

Here is to getting Diamond, getting back in on Thompson (hopefully), Muller, Denman, and maybe a random other recruit along the way.