Harbaugh Recruiting Tactics

Submitted by Blueblood2991 on

Mods feel free to delete since this is hearsay, but I've seen a lot of "disappointment" in Harbaugh's recruiting tactics the past few days on the blog.  So I figured I would post this.

My former teammate's cousin is (probably was at this point) a Michigan commit.  I will leave his name out for privacy reasons.  I talked to my buddy last weekend, and he told me that his cousin would probably be playing at a different school.

However, he had nothing but good things to say about Harbaugh and his staff.  He said the coaches meticulously laid out who his competition would be, and explained to him that they weren't done recruiting the position yet.  Harbaugh also told him that his scholarship to one of the best academic institutes was absolutely still available to him, but he would need to work his ass off to see any playing time.  Said recruit has decided that while academics are important, playing football is his true passion and wants to see the field sooner than later.  He would rather fine tune his game on the field and get better. 

He also said he was ecstatic with the Michigan offer, because not a lot of schools were looking at him before.  Now he has quite a few offers.

Again feel free to delete.  This is only one recruit; I have no idea about any of the others.  I was having a hard time believing that the coaching staff was simply ignoring recruits (nothing about Harbaugh's personality suggests that type of passive-aggressive behavior).  There is always two sides to every story.  A true leader has to make tough decisions.  Not everything can be unicorns and rainbows.

*Queue brother's sister's cousin twice removed comments.

1464

January 20th, 2016 at 10:00 AM ^

I'd love nothing more than for Harbaugh to absolved of any shady practices.  But in life, not just on Michigan message boards, be very careful about people that tell you EXACTLY what you want to hear.

No offense meant to the OP in specific, but his post is custom tailored to assuage our concerns about the large number of commits that seem to be out on their asses.  Would he have the motive to lie?  Absolutely.  He's a Michigan fan.  Maybe he wants to mitigate the damage to the school's reputation.  Can we verify his honesty or his story in any way?  Nope.

I'm not necessarily saying that he is lying, but I certainly wouldn't try to say he's being truthful either.

That said, booting commits is not a Dahmer level offense.  It's a little unseemly, and it probably ruffles some feathers.  I'm not a fan of the practice.  But the kids will recover.  They'll play at another school.  They may not be big fans of Harbaugh at that point though, unless you're willing to fully buy into the OP.

LBSS

January 20th, 2016 at 10:14 AM ^

Thank you, this is exactly where I fall on it. College recruiting, as long as there is forced amateurism and probably after the NCAA flies into the sun and explodes in a burst of player-destined greenbacks, is going to continue to be shady. That Harbaugh does not fly above like an angel of virtue may disappoint me as a serious but decidedly "outsider" fan (i.e. I have never had any connection to major D1 athletics). But it does not make me cringe with embarrassment or regret.

The D1 money-making sports are dirty. We are all obsessed with a major D1 program. A bit of dirt comes with the territory. 

Gameboy

January 20th, 2016 at 11:52 AM ^

Sam Webb commented this morning that this is not something that should happen again and that Swensen and his dad will probably come out with some negative comments. This is a blackeye event for us, no mattter how many sycophants around here will try to excuse it. This definitely puts a huge damper in my enjoyment for this recruiting season.

<P>This is not Michigan and I am very very disappointed in Harbaugh.

JDNorway

January 20th, 2016 at 4:36 AM ^

You're Harbaugh's former roommate! Your father's brother is your uncle. His nephew, assuming they had at least a 3rd sibling, is your cousin. So your father's brother's nephew's cousin is you.

Isn't that special.

WolverineInTexas

January 20th, 2016 at 12:01 AM ^

I love it when I see an article about Harbough doing something outside of the norm in recruiting. It's unique and the recruits seem to really like him. On the flip side. I am curious to see how the Swenson situation will play out. The rumors don't seem like something that the staff would do.

MaizeJacket

January 20th, 2016 at 9:44 AM ^

Football factory is football factory.  SEC, Michigan, Big Ten, Florida State, UCLA, Southern Cal, whatever. Sure, Michigan has top-drawer academics.  But it is also a football factory.  Most of the athletes are put into the easier majors and ease through.  Harbaugh even said this himself when he was at Stanford, and he would know.

Coaching staffs end contact with recruits all the time, or pull their offers late.  Kids also get new late offers, too (Gentry last year?).  Recruiting will always be back-and-forth right up until the rubber meets the road, especially when the life blood of a multi-million dollar revenue stream (coaches and players) are operating on nothing better than handshakes for a year up to maybe 4 or 5 years or more.

goblue2017

January 19th, 2016 at 11:54 PM ^

I'm not going to name any names, but BlueBlood2991's cousins friends uncles former college roommates dog sitter told me that there's rumors that said recruit (who is actually my brothers mailmans dentists son) might, In fact, have a name that's rhymes with penis. Who knows, all just rumors at this point




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Blueblood2991

January 20th, 2016 at 12:33 AM ^

That's why I put the disclaimer that it was hearsay.

But seriously, in the Twitter-age a 17 year old could've came out and bashed Harbaugh on his "shady" tactics and it would be national news.  The media runs with anything Harbaugh related good or bad, even if it's based on a single tweet.

To my knowledge, nothing like this has happened yet.

xxxxNateDaGreat

January 20th, 2016 at 1:50 AM ^

...A bunch of guys who had or currently have severe injuries and took their disagreements public, which is fine but you'll only ever hear one side of that story.

Pipkins had a load of injuries and was offered medical scholarship. Time will tell whether or not he can physically play at the high level he believes he can, or any level for that matter. Same story for Falcon. Colter had a severe, career threatening injury in high school, which, again, we are never gonna hear about what was offered or not. All Colter said was that the staff cooled on him.

For the record, I'm gonna come out and say that I'm not one of those people who would bash Urban and Saban over these kinds of things, either, since we may never hear their side of the story.

WestQuad

January 20th, 2016 at 7:39 AM ^

The Pipkens thing was strange.  It's hard to see a former 5 star guy who had some success on the field being pushed out.  That said, in the age of Antwaan Randell El wishing he'd played baseball instead of the NFL because he can't walk down stairs without going sideways, you have to respect Harbaugh and the doctor's opinion that he shouldn't be playing football.  Harbaugh has to know a lot of guys that are quasi-crippled/disabled from playing football.

xxxxNateDaGreat

January 20th, 2016 at 9:49 PM ^

I mean, I agree that that kind of practice looks extremely shady, so I will grant you that.

That said, with everything currently going on with Michigan, recruiting, roster managements tactics, and all of the various rules preventing schools and school employees from commenting much on these situations, it's hard for me to leap to a solid judgement when the other half of the story is legally forbidden to say... well, anything at all, really.