Curious about a "what if" (recruiting)
I know that we currently have 16 commits and to the best of our knowledge we will probably only have 20 or so scholarships to hand out for 2010. We know that there are some big name kids that we really would love to get to go Blue ie; Dior Mathis, Cullen Christian, Brandon Ifill, Kyle Prater, Seantral Henderson (who we are probably on the outside looking in with), and not to mention guys like Grimes and some other guys. So with that being said I was hoping to spark some conversation and get some discussion going on what your opinions are about what would happen if all of these guys were to commit. Do you think that RR would pull back his offers for some of these lower ranked commits ie; some of the recievers or would he stick to his word and tell these top name guys they lost their chance? What would you do?
With Feagin and Wermers gone, we almost certainly have more than 20 scholarships.
OK but my question still remains What If. Is there a precedent set for the kids that commit early and what is your opinion if the best case scenario should happen and every recruit that we are after right now wanted to commit to UM.
Not to mention what will happen between season's end and signing day. There are often a guy or two oh decides to throw in the towel, or, heaven forbid, gets injured and goes on a medical scholarship.
i think once we reach as many commits as we have scholarship he would pull the outstanding offers before he was over committed. With as much crap that has been thrown about "family values" i don't think he would take the PR hit
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:54 PM ^
IF, and that is a huge if, I cannot see any coaching staff who has offered them say that they are full and have to look elsewhere.
So IF it was to happen the staff would need to re-evaluate who they have committed and who is already on the team. Sorry, but its not like a decommit or transfer is foreign to the staff, not trying to sound like a jerk though
Ask Jordan Barnes.
And if you cant get in contact with Jordan ... ask DeWayne Peace
I believe RR would do his best to inform player x that in light of a recent commit from player y, that player x's opportunity for significant play time has just decreased. RR would urge player x to pursue other opportunities if he wished to have a better chance to see the field. However, player x is more than welcome to stay and bust his ass to try and see the field and prove himself, but that opportunity now seems much less likely.
OK, but in your scenario, what happens if player x decides to stink it out? We're still over the limit.
are you telling me player x doesnt wear deodorant ?
...but I don't think too many players would elect to stay when they know they are going to struggle for playing time. There are too many opportunities out there to play for kids to be stockpiled like they were back in the days of 115 schollies.
My guess is that a lot of these issues get handled a lot closer to signing day, when the picture gets a little bit clearer for everyone. There is always a lot of decommits and out-of-the-blue signings that occur on signing day, and I would attribute this to that idea of "player x no longer sees the same oppotunity at his #1 school, and sees a need to choose an alternative."
We will probably take 21-23 players. So that leaves 5-7 more players, not including more transfers/decommits. Hopefully we get Christian, Grimes, Ifill, Hagerup, and some OL and DT.
between 22-25 recruits for this class. I have no idea how or why but if i had to put money on it, i would choose 23. If so that leaves us 7 spots.
My best guess at the remaining 7 commits:
DL/DB Terry n Terrence Talbott
DB Cullen Christian
P Will Hagerup
DB Tony Grimes
OL (Seantrel- hopefully but doubtful) or (Torrian Wilson)
LB/S either position but i want a LB/S hybrid like Josh Furman, Sean Parker, or CB Josh Shaw
EDIT Shariff Floyd would work too but we're on the outside looking in.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:14 PM ^
We will almost surely have a true linebacker commit by the end of the recruiting cycle. If not, that would give us two consecutive recruiting classes without a true LB. I don't think that will happen.
Josh Furman, a S/LB hybrid, is the only one I can think of. Gloster seems like he is going to Stanford or WVU. Jeff Luc, Christian Jones, and Khari Fortt are longshots. Who else is left?
August 4th, 2009 at 12:53 PM ^
I would guess there will be a handful of other offers for linebackers coming. We don't have a great shot at anyone right now, but I think with a successful season, we could get in on a few guys who might not be considering us much right now.
I'm not closing the book on Fortt, Gloster, Nelson, or Lavey, and Rodriguez always seems to be able to pull off some magic in Florida.
For one, we might end up signing a full class of 25 this year. With all the recent departures and judging from the MGoDepthChart, we should be at 11 open scholarships. Also, 11 players are graduating, which puts us at 22, not counting players who could leave early for the draft.
As for getting a player to decommit... It's not hard. Not sure if GoBlueMichiganWolverine has any credibility on this issue, but they recently mentioned that when the staff is no longer interested in a commit, they will completely stop contacting him and his parents in hopes he will "get the message" without actually getting the message. This is an effect of the blanket recruiting method that we and many of the country have now adopted.
Is it the right thing to do? I guess you can argue that end justifies the means, but who knows what these practices do to the reputation of the program, relationships with high school coaches, etc.
Uh, not to be a doggie downer, but who's leaving early for the draft on the '09 squad?
August 4th, 2009 at 12:41 AM ^
Donovan Warren could have a breakout year and decide to enter the draft. Beyond that, I can't see anybody leaving early.
If anybody's worried about Warren leaving early for the NFL Draft, then you should also be concerned about Ezeh and Schilling. None of them has really accomplished much, other than starting lots of games.
Every year fans worry about us running out of scholarships. It never ends up being an issue by the time Signing Day arrives.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:12 PM ^
It hasn't been an issue for Michigan, but it's been an issue elsewhere. It could happen here (although the chances are slim).
will not be going Blue as KP has dropped us and we have kind of parted ways with Dior because of his timeline.
I have read along with doing a little reading between the lines it seems to me that UM has cooled on Mathis because they feel they have (or had in the case of Knight??) really good chances with guys they think are a bit better than Mathis. From all I have seen and read about these young men it seems that each are near the same level in skill and technique but all the others have significant height advantages over Mathis. IMO, all things being equal, I would take the guys with equal skill and more height than the shorter guy. Anyway, as I said this is me reading between the lines but that is the impression I got when following this story.
Well, this does make sense. Rodriguez has done well with smaller corners in the past, but Greg Robinson likes bigger corners. If we're recruiting for what Robinson wants - which would be prudent, I think, rather than forcing players on a DC that he doesn't want - then we should be going for guys who can be a little more physical.
I think after a 3-9 season, having too many top level recruits is the least of our worries.
August 4th, 2009 at 12:11 PM ^
I don't think anybody is worried about having too many top level recruits. What worries people is that we may miss out on some of the real top level recruits in the end, because we have settled for mediocre recruits that were willing to commit early.