Crowdsourcing Request for 1993-1999 M Recruiting
Looking for help, links, information and memories on Michigan recruiting prior to databases and the like. I thought I could trust my memory but then realized I completely forgot things like James Taylor (apparently a 2000 WR we stole from Sparty who didn't qualify).
Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlZp0ugnJIGddGNtM3dmaDFQcm…
I highlighted the boxes I need help with. This is for an upcoming Hokepoints.
December 17th, 2012 at 8:51 PM ^
http://www.mikedesimone.com/recruiting/recruiting.htm
It's fairly comprehensive and breaks down who played out their eligibility at Michigan and who did not. I had a link to it - I believe it is actually a link provided in an old blog of Ace's.
December 17th, 2012 at 8:54 PM ^
Yeah I picked through his data awhile back but he doesn't have information on how highly they were rated unfortunately. A lot of my "Career Summary" information came from there.
December 17th, 2012 at 8:51 PM ^
the site, but Brian linked to one old site that tracked the Hutchinson class, and had commentary on each of the players. I'd take a look there if you haven't yet.
December 17th, 2012 at 8:56 PM ^
Are you thinking of Vijan? http://www-personal.umich.edu/~svijan/foot.html
I think I was the one who put that up. Did Brian mention another?
December 17th, 2012 at 9:11 PM ^
I think that's the one he was referring to.
December 17th, 2012 at 9:00 PM ^
Thanks so much for this link. Never even knew about it. It's like christmas morning already.
My only question is where do the stars come like from the 2000, 2001 etc classes? That was before the Rivals & Scout era.
December 17th, 2012 at 9:15 PM ^
ESPN used to use star ratings but made those inaccessible when Lemming went to MaxPreps (I think he owned the rights to his rankings and took them with). Fortunately my nerd-ass college self was big into downloading the names of the recruits and plugging them into NCAA Football franchises, so I have those old printouts.
It was behind a paywall eventually, but fortunately my freshman year roommate never changed his login info through all of college.
December 17th, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^
December 17th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
Go find back issues of "The Wolverine." They would put out a nice synopsis of Michigan's recruiting classes each year in February.
As an aside, it shows how much the focus on recriting has changed. I remember one year, during the 90's, receiving my copy of the Wolverine in February and being delighted to see that Michigan had landed a very highly-rated class.
That was the first and last time I heard anything about that recruiting class that year . . . that one issue of the magazine.
December 17th, 2012 at 9:16 PM ^
This would just fall into the "memories" category, but I remember Fargas being about as highly-touted as any running back Michigan ever got. He was in the class with Henson, Terrell, etc., which was already ranked #1 nationally and then when Fargas committed all the recruiting gurus at the time were like, "oh boy, now this Michigan class might be the best ever..." I don't remember if they did star rankings at the time, but if they did I am pretty sure Fargas would have been a 5-star. I think he might have even been the #1 overall RB on some of the sites.
Edit: the only other guys on the list I recall being a big deal to the recruiting geniuses were Henson, Tony Pape, and Jason Kapsner. But there really wasn't a whole lot of information available for free until around maybe 1998 or so.
December 17th, 2012 at 11:52 PM ^
December 17th, 2012 at 9:20 PM ^
Heeeeeyyyyy old Maxpreps database. SCOOOOORE!
December 17th, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^
I think he ended up going to Carolina.
December 17th, 2012 at 10:08 PM ^
December 17th, 2012 at 9:40 PM ^
It's a little difficult to navigate, but you could try the Michigan Electronic Library. You can search old newspapers, including the Detroit News back to 1998. I had wanted to pursue this more, but I've never had the time. For instance, I found this link about the '01 class. Not sure all of these links work perfectly, but you get the idea.
December 17th, 2012 at 9:42 PM ^
Thanks!
December 17th, 2012 at 10:00 PM ^
Here's an interesting article about JaQuon Hart that I found through MEL. I vaugely remember the name, but I would have forgotten all about him except for this article. He's not in Bentley's roster database, so apparently he never actually became the next Glen Rice.
December 17th, 2012 at 10:48 PM ^
If you could somehow find the original proprietors of footballrecruiting.com (now defunct), perhaps their recruiting databases are still available somewhere out there.