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.

MGoBoard

Wolverine fan …

January 20th, 2016 at 9:50 AM ^

Sam Webb referred to the events surrounding this Swenson saga as "regrettable", which is kind of a big deal. I think the reason this is turning into a quasi-scandal is partly because of the dedication this young man has shown to Michigan. With other big name schools reaching out, combined with the staff turnover and the disappointing 2014 season all going down, it's pretty clear all he wants to do is play for Michigan. His character and steadfastness is what makes this suck for everyone. I'm sure the staff/Harbaugh have their reasons, and we may never know what they are, but it doesn't look like anything will be disclosed that could make this less than a shitty series of events.

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JFW

January 20th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^

To me, it depends.

If he went in there saying "your scholly offer is still solid, but I want to be honest you likely won't see playing time" then he's just being honest. That's far better than ghosting or forcing them out later.

So far Harbaugh hasn't given us reason to doubt his integrity. Without facts I'm going to stand by him.



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WorldwideTJRob

January 20th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^

Sam is as die hard blue as it gets. If he's using words like "regrettable" and phrases like "I hope this doesn't become a trend in the future" leads me to believe that the coaching staff could've handled it a a little better. Also, remember he's pretty tied in on both sides so I tend to believe what he says.



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evenyoubrutus

January 20th, 2016 at 9:55 AM ^

If this many fans are really flipping out and turning on Harbaugh for something so benign (in the grand scheme of things) relative to the actions of our rivals and heck, any of the most successful coaches in football, then this is why we will never get back to the top.  Because we have fans who flip out and turn on our coach because he decided to tell a guy before signing day that he wasn't good enough to be in the class (if that's what happened, but do we really know what happened? no).  Or they flip out on our coach because he recruits players from Florida who are fringe academic qualifiers, or any number of ridiculous things that people flipped out about over the years. But it's fine, let's just bring back Hoke.  At least he gives everybody hugs and is a nice guy.

(FTR I'm not arguing whether Rodriguez was a good coach, just how absurd some of the things were that people got upset about)

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grumbler

January 20th, 2016 at 1:14 PM ^

I'll say it: if it turns out that Harbaugh's word isn't is bond, I want to see him go.  There already are several leagues for mercenary football.  College footnball is supposed to be about the student.  If Michigan has reached the point where it will tolerate dishonorable behavior to make a buck, then it should demote football non-scholarship and play like the Ivy League does.

Winning isn't the most imortant thing.

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grumbler

January 20th, 2016 at 5:47 PM ^

I mentioned a hypothetical.  Why not mention hypotheticals?  I agree that there is no evidence, and I am assuming innocence on his part, but I wanted to utterly reject the popular point of view here that Harbaugh should just worry about winning at all costs and that shady shit is okay if we call it "big boy football."

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poseidon7902

January 20th, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^

A couple caveats before you get to the meat of my question so I don't get blasted to Bolivia...  

1. I belive that till the full story comes out (which it liekly never will unless John Bacon writes another book) Harbaugh has not violated the the ethics and morals most of us hold dear.  
2.  I'd love to see a comparison of Harbaugh's atrition while at Stanford compared to here as well as compared to other big programs.  Perhaps the CFP from this year and throw in OSU for good measure.  I would love to do this personally, but have no earthly idea how to track that amount of data down.  

 

Now, continue reading.  

Here's my question to those who say "To compete with Urban Et Al we need to play dirty".  Can you show me where Dantonio has played dirty in recruiting?  For that matter, Can you show where Urban has.  I'm not talking a situation like Weber.  I mean where it appears he pushed a candidate out to replace him with a better candidate.  

I struggle with the idea that we cannot win without violating the moral code set by previous coaches in relation to recruiting.  Did Lloyd do this and I was just too young to see it?  Does 10 years of questionable football teams prove we need to do this to succeed?  What changed from Lloyd's last season till now to make it where we have to be a potential dick to a recruit?  


I get it, I want to win.  The recruits honestly have no moral obligation to stay loyal to us so why do we need to stay loyal to them?  I'm all on board with that mentality, but I still feel shady at the end of the day.  What impact does being a dick have downstream?  Do coaches start blocking you?  do you burn bridges with potential future recruits?  

 

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AmayzNblue

January 20th, 2016 at 2:34 PM ^

Your point is well taken, but your last paragraph is where you need to find peace and resolution. Can some recruits end up screwing UM by waiting until NSD and picking another school? Yep. If that's the case, the option to choose another recruit should always be on the table for UM. It's really that simple



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grumbler

January 20th, 2016 at 5:53 PM ^

The second and third sentences of the last paragraph puzzle me.  Why should the obligations of the school and recruit be perfectly reciprocal?  That the recruit may back out of his commitment has no bearing on whether the school should be able to.  They are apples and oranges.  

If the school could only pick one recruit, like the recruit can only pick one school, the reciprocal argument might make some sense.  As it is, though, merely saying that the obligations are reciprocal doesn't make them so.

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Stimulus Progression

January 20th, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^

We finally have the professional recruiter that we've needed since Moeller, and of course the self-hating Michigan fans are out in full force.

I love my alma mater, but why anyone would take this job is beyond me. Michigan fans are tedious. 

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BIGBLUEWORLD

January 21st, 2016 at 1:00 AM ^

he did once tweet, "Oh what a tangeld web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." 

I certainly hope and expect these sorts of "awkward" situations will be an anomaly. 

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