Has Brady Hoke actually "recruited" a single Michigan kid?

Submitted by Section 1 on

The answer, I think, given a reasonable definition of "recruit," is No.

Let's review.  Here are the Hoke recruits:

  • Russell Bellomy - Arlington TX
  • Tamani Carter - Pickerington OH
  • Keith Heitzman - Hilliard OH
  • Antonio Poole - Cincinnati OH
  • Matt Wile - San Diego CA

Now to be sure, there is Raymon Taylor of Highland Park.  Decommit from Indiana who, by all accounts, wanted a Michigan offer all along, and took the offer from Hoke as soon as it was extended.  We might be able to debate whether that is "recruiting," or simply "offering."

And there is Jake Fisher; having decommitted following the firing of Rich Rodriguez, Fisher is now being "recruited" all over again.  We can likewise debate whether Jake Fisher is a Brady Hoke "recruit."

Finally, there is the likely offeree, Thomas Rawls of Flint.  Who apparently did not ever need to be sold on Michigan, who was understandably below Dee Hart on a list of desired RB's, and who until recently had serious ACT concerns.

In fact, I'd argue that Hoke has done a decent job in dealing with the terrible problems that were caused by the premature termination of Rich Rodriguez's six-year contract.  Hoke has done okay in recruting some Ohio, Texas and California kids; some of whom were previous SDSU recruiting contacts, albeit kids that Hoke was not successful in actually committing to San Deigo State.

We have some great Michigan kids in this class, of course; and they were all recruited by Rich Rodriguez and his staff.  Hollowell, Beyer, Hayes, Morgan.  Kids from Ohio (the traditionalists think that Ohio recruiting is nearly as sacred as State of Michigan recruiting) include Greg Brown, Jack Miller and Chris Rock.  Among the Top 50 high schoolers in this state, Michigan got 5 of them (MSU got 6 of them), and three of the Top 10 are coming to Michigan.  It is hard to picture a single high-level recruit in the state that was lost to a rival because of Rich Rodriguez.  Zettel certainly comes to mind, but we just don't know what that story really was.  MSU got the kids it was expected to get its reliable feeder-schools.  Notre Dame got the state's best kicker, with apparently nothing anyone could do to sway Kyle Brindza, who might have given ND an oral commitment when he was in kindergarten.  Valdez Showers is going to Florida, DeAnthony Arnett is going to Tennessee.  Eh.

The real point of all of this has nothing to do with Hoke's skills or deficiencies, but rather with the exploding myth that Rich Rodriguez was somehow a deficient Michigan recruiter whose errors, in Michigan, are now being somehow corrected by Hoke.  That is a myth that is unsupported by the numbers and the names. 

Edit. - Amazing it is, how a post that contains some mild congratulation for Brady Hoke, and some very moderated defense of Rich Rodriguez, can get flamed on the 2011 MGoBlog.  Drew Sharp's favorite attack on this and all other similar blogs was that they were beneath consideration as serious information outlets, because they were simply collections of fan-boys.  I rejected that; my contention was that there was more thoughtful criticism of Michigan football from Brian Cook than one could ever hope to find in the Free Press.  I still think that I am more closely-aligned in my thinking with this blog's host, than are most of the readers and particularly some of the members replying below...

Edit. II - Some of you dumb-asses really need to learn how to read.  I didn't criticize Hoke's recruiting.  I didn't suggest that Michigan needed to recruit more Michigan kids.  I didn't say most of the things that you guys are imagining.  Just read, people.  I'll make it real easy for you all:  Amidst all of the claims that Brady Hoke is currently "repairing" in-state recruiting damage allegedly caused by the Rodriguez tenure, Brady Hoke hasn't landed a single new Michigan recruit.  I am not saying that he should.  I am not saying that we need some more in-state kids.  I am not even predicting that Brady Hoke won't do some very good recruting in Michigan.  Apart from stealing Brindza, or Lawrence Thomas, or Showers, etc, I'm really not suggesting that Hoke somehow needs to get some more in-state kids.  I am simply saying that the anti-Rodriguez argument, such as it may be based on Brady Hoke's "repairs", has no supporting evidence in the real world. 

And special replies to two commenters:

Blue_in_NC:  You are SO right!  Hoke's biggest recruit so far, by far, has been "the media."  The Media is Michigan's biggest recruit of 2011.

Yost Ghost:  I hope that my bias in favor of Rich Rodriguez isn't "veiled" at all.  Not even "thinly veiled."  My support for coach Rodriguez, and my distatse for the way that he was treated in Michigan, is as open as it is determined.

 

yoopergoblue

January 28th, 2011 at 12:27 PM ^

It is real hard for a coach to come in and swipe away in-state kids while being hired so close to signing day.  It's definitely unfair to judge his prowess in getting the Michigan kids based on 3 weeks of work.  I would wait until a year from now to judge that.   I think he will do VERY WELL in recruiting the state of Michigan's best talent next year.

WolvinLA2

January 28th, 2011 at 12:28 PM ^

Your conclusion may end up being corect or incorrect, but at this time it's neither.  You're ready to debunk a myth after 2 weeks?  Let's see how Hoke does in Michigan for his first two full classes, then we'll go back to your myth, k?

GoBlueX2

January 28th, 2011 at 12:28 PM ^

Hoke has been recruiting for less than a month, and regarding Rodriguez just look at the past top 5-10 recruits of Michigan in the past few years and see how effective he was.

 

Speaks for itself.

teldar

January 28th, 2011 at 12:51 PM ^

IF RR could have gotten a top notch coordinator, it would have been right to keep him. Without a new DC who was allowed to, you know, coach what he knew, it was time for RR to go.
A response may be that RR was not given opportunity ti get a good DC. To this I say, rumors indicated the only dc rr pursued was casteel. There are other rumors that say he pursued others and was turned down. Either way, it would have been time for a change.

DrewandBlue

January 28th, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^

 

Hoke has been a part of closing all recruits.  Plus, don't forget, he basically had to re-recruit all the commits we already had.  Some were in for sure, but others I'm sure took convincing and persuading.  I will go with the experts on this one and they have praised him for a job well done! 

 

TrueBlue2003

January 28th, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^

He's been the coach for all of about two weeks.  Did you expect him to flip Thomas, Arnett or Zettel?  Those guys were all solidly committed when he came aboard and pouring the snake oil with them would have been a huge coup.  Who else should he have tried to recruit?  He has an incredibly short time and isn't going to waste his time on low probability guys.  Enough of the crying about RR's mistreatment.  Turn the page.

Ponypie

January 28th, 2011 at 12:58 PM ^

The point is that the worn out (should have been worn out) drumbeat of "Rodriguez screwed up Michigan in-state recruiting; ruined connections with in-state coaches"; blah, blah, blah continues unabated.

But, as noted in several other posts, bringing up facts in an attempt to overcome the Brady Hoke slobber fest that includes distorting the Rodriguez record is an exercise in futility, and is probably best shelved.

TrueBlue2003

January 28th, 2011 at 1:38 PM ^

...why be irrationally negative about Hoke?  He picked up Taylor and kept the other in-state recruits, which was a good recruiting job.  That's not slobbering, that's a fact.  The OP admits Hoke has done pretty well given the situation so if this is just another "oh, boo hoo, RR was treated unfairly by the media post," I agree with most other replies on here:  Give it up, or at least title the post as such, and leave Hoke out of it.  Time will tell how he recruits the state but 2-3 weeks is not that time.

NathanFromMCounty

January 28th, 2011 at 9:48 PM ^

...the big beef regarding in-state recruiting came during 2009 & maybe 2010 when Michigan State got a ton of Rivals 4-stars (particularly 2009-Gainer, Carper, Norman, Spencer, Sims) from Michigan, many of whom apparently got completely ignored by UM (though not all, and there were some of MD's Renaissance commits, but not all).  Rich Rod did much better in in-state recruiting this year, but the previous 2 years were not great.

Skunkeye

January 28th, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^

I think that the topic is extremely dumb given the situation.  It may have been long winded but to make such a statement at this point in the process makes no sense and makes me question the OP's motives.

Don

January 28th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^

Which, as you know, will not change the prevailing mass-media-promoted notion that RR didn't recruit Michigan or midwest kids, and that he only wanted players from Florida. Brady Hoke is their anointed savior, and that concept has acquired an unstoppable, train-like momentum that will last at least until we get back on the field next season. That's not Hoke's fault; all he's doing is trying to do the best job he can as Michigan's coach, and so far it appears as though he's doing a very good job at the immediate tasks in front of him.

There's virtually nothing you can do to change this in the larger world beyond MGoBlog, and you'll drive yourself crazy if you think you can. You can have an effect here, and that's about it.

The disease and rot afflicting mass-media sports journalism is just a subset of that which afflicts journalism in general, with unhappy effects on politics and public affairs. I won't say more for obvious reasons.

 

PurpleStuff

January 28th, 2011 at 1:53 PM ^

Perception is reality, especially in the media.  The story was that Rodriguez recruited a bunch of speedy midgets (guys like Lewan, Hopkins, Campbell, Ash, and Washington become surprisingly svelte when viewed through media goggles) with dreadlocks and long rap sheets who didn't understand Michigan or deserve admission to our pristine bastion of higher learning.  He then implemented a faggy offense (the "spread won't work" meme did die a little late in his tenure but was going strong for much of it) and an even faggier defense (the fact that we ran the 3-3-5 way less than half the time he was here and that our current head coach ran the same defense last year is irrelevant) so he could get more of his dumb dwarfs on the field at the same time and remove any chance of Michigan being competitive with the best teams in the Big Ten.

Hoke, on the other hand, is going to have tough, disciplined, hard-nosed teams that excel in the classroom and embody the virtues of baseball, apple pie, and democracy (which, as we all know, was invented in the Midwest just before smashmouth football).  No one is going to write a lengthy article about how Rawls (a guy no other AQ programs have offered) doesn't deserve to get into Michigan in light of his academic struggles in high school and that Hoke is a devious bastard for even recruiting him, for example. 

I certainly wish things had gone differently, but I don't see how being a media darling is a bad thing for Michigan.  PR has its place in college football and Hoke is excelling in that respect (and will probably continue to do so for quite some time) no matter what he actually does on the job.  I'll take more coverage like the front page Rivals article (on the main site a few days ago) about how losing Hart, Frost, and Crawford while stealing a few meh recruits from Minnesota, Indiana, and Purdue indicates that we are now "rolling" in the recruiting process.  While it is certainly unfair bullshit to the guy who was here before, I'll take all the positive headlines we can get right now.

 

dahblue

January 28th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^

 "I'd argue that Hoke has done a decent job in dealing with the terrible problems that were caused by the premature termination of Rich Rodriguez's six-year contract."

Dude....get over it.  Maybe if RR beat State (as did Beilein with an inferior squad, on the road), he'd still have a job.  But, he didn't.  He didn't compete with any decent teams and deserved to lose his job.  Be excited that Hoke is now trying to figure out which players to bring in, as it was only days ago that people were screaming about how we'd only have a class of 12.

Go Blue!

PurpleStuff

January 28th, 2011 at 5:18 PM ^

If they were held to the same standard (not the "I expect to win at one sport and don't and/or don't really care about the other one" standard which you so eloquently exhibited), all we would have heard about is how Beilein has never finished higher than tied for 7th in the Big Ten (a feat his maligned predecessor equaled or surpassed in 4 of 6 seasons), "ran off" Ekpe Udoh, forced his "gimmicky system" (that of course will never work in the super awesome Big Ten) on Harris and Simms (much more talented than Threet/Sheridan), and doesn't get and/or can't win the rivalry game. 

Luckily for Beilein and the basketball program, this school has a bunch of bandwagon fans who love following a winning football team but don't give a shit about basketball (SEE Crisler Arena, attendance) so our AD probably isn't going to fire two proven head coaches while they're in the middle of turning around subpar programs simply because the masses are dumb and/or impatient.

dahblue

January 28th, 2011 at 8:47 PM ^

Get over it.

The phrase fits very well for you as well.  RR did a terrible job in A2.  Terrible.  He has the worst resume of any coach ever to touch our football team.  He lost his job because of his performance.  The standard that RR failed to live up to was "being competitive against decent teams".  He wasn't.  JB found himself on the hot seat after a serious of bad performances, but his team actually beat (not just competed with) a "better" team.  That is what RR never could do.  

So, again, get over it.  

PurpleStuff

January 28th, 2011 at 9:12 PM ^

Michigan State is 12-8, .500 in the Big Ten, and just had a starter booted off the team.  If they are a "decent team" then so are the 8-5 Notre Dame team (that blew out Miami in their bowl game and beat USC with a backup QB), the Illinois team (.500 in the Big Ten and blew out Baylor in their bowl game), and the UConn team (won the Big East) that Rodriguez beat this year.  And like I said, this is year 4 for Beilein in a sport where recruits take less time to develop. 

The standard Rodriguez failed to live up to is "win no matter how shitty a team you inherit because many Michigan football fans are dumb and spoiled."  But feel free to keep patting yourself on the back because your genius "team lose = coach bad" mentality has carried the fucking day.

NathanFromMCounty

January 28th, 2011 at 9:55 PM ^

...University of Michigan has what is universally considered the worst basketball facilities in the Big 10 (and some claim worst in the country, but I'm not going that far) which is considered to make it much more difficult to recruit.  Fact, Beilen went to the NCAA Tournament *and* won a game in his second season (the equivalent of which Rich Rod did not do in his second season).

But by all means continue to act with an unwarranted and annoying sense of being unduly wronged, it makes you soo appealing.

dahblue

January 28th, 2011 at 10:26 PM ^

It'll be fun to watch and see if you can ever get over your boy's departure.  Here we are, long after the rest of the world has accepted (or was thrilled by) RR's firing, and you're still rattling off excuses for the guy.

I'm not claiming that JB is without flaws (personally, I prefer not to have a "system" coach in football or bball), but JB has had some success.  JB's teams have risen up to beat teams which they were expected to get killed by.  RR's teams rose up to barely beat Illinois in multiple overtimes.  His defense got worse each year.  His offense got worse as the season progressed.  The "master of the spread" had an offense that scored less points per game than boring ol' Brady Hoke at SDSU.

Dude, if you can't get over it...maybe drop all the swearing rants and insults.  They just make you look even more unhinged.  

vnperk

January 31st, 2011 at 1:06 PM ^

JB led a team noone expected anything out of to huge wins over top-5 teams in Duke and UCLA, then took us to the tournament.  This year, we competed with three of the top teams in the country down to the wire.

See RR: Not even remotely competitive against any of the tough teams on our schedule this year.  Understand his firing wasn't unwarranted, his situation nowhere near the same as JB's, and move on. 

BigBlue02

January 28th, 2011 at 3:26 PM ^

I'm pretty sure without Lucious, Beilein's squad is more talented than Michigan State's. In last night's game, a couple times they were playing what amounts to two walk ons at the same time. I think Michigan might be deeper and more talented as crazy as that sounds

dahblue

January 28th, 2011 at 3:48 PM ^

Our squad is more talented?  Have you looked at their roster (even without Lucious)?

Byrd - 3*

Lucas - 4*

Guana - 3*

Payne - 5*

Roe - 5*

Appling - 4*

Green - 3*

Nix - 4*

Sorry...I got tired of typing and checking on the "talent".  No need for you to degrade our win by suggesting State played "walk on" level talent.  They have multiple 5* players.  They have a handful of 4* players.  We have two juniors, a bunch of freshmen and only one real "big man".  We did a great job and hopefully, we'll begin to land that talent soon.

BigBlue02

January 28th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^

You need to learn how to read. I didn't say we have higher ranked guys in the recruiting rankings, I said we have more talent. If you think Roe is playing like a five star kid, go ahead. If you think Nix is playing like a 4 star kid, great. The only thing he has done in 2 years is put back his own missed dunk while hanging on the rim. If you want to argue because Novak and Douglass were 3 star guys they aren't as talented as Byrd and Guana, great. You misplace star ratings with actual basketball talent. If they are so fucking talented, why the hell were there 2 walk ons on the court at the same time last night? And if you say because all their talent is really young but good, ill take that as you not seeing how extremely ironic that statement is.

dahblue

January 28th, 2011 at 8:41 PM ^

I don't see why you're so intent to devalue the win.  You defend RR like he's the Second Coming even though he couldn't compete with anyone but Indiana, but Beilein won...eh...it's cause he had better talent.  Roe is better than Morgan.  Green is much more talented than Morgan.  I'd compare our other bigs, but we don't have any.  Lucas is better than Morris.  State has more talent on their team than we do.  Period.  Hopefully, we'll turn that trend around in the upcoming years.

We held their players in check because WE PLAYED WELL.  There's no need to downgrade the way our guys played by claiming that they played lesser talent.  That's bullshit.  Besides, lesser talent (Indiana) beat us senseless.    

BRCE

January 28th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^

"Dude....get over it.  Maybe if RR beat State (as did Beilein with an inferior squad, on the road), he'd still have a job.  But, he didn't.  He didn't compete with any decent teams and deserved to lose his job."

B...bu...but he had a lot of underclassmen on defense!

 

Frank Drebin

January 28th, 2011 at 12:48 PM ^

Sure, Hoke may not have had to do much to get Taylor to UM, and the same will be for Rawls. But are you saying that in the past, when we were winning the B1G year in and year out that Bo, Carr and others had to really recruit the best players in the state? They were waiting for an offer and would commit as soon as they received it. If Hoke starts producing winners again, it will be the same as it used to be. The top kids in the state will want to play for UM and we will be able to select top recruits to target from the midwest and the rest of the country. That will be where he can really show what kind of recruiter he is. Not whether he can convince a lifelong fan of UM to come to play at his dream school.

briangoblue

January 28th, 2011 at 12:49 PM ^

A few weeks ago we were afraid this class would have a dozen guys and leave a crater in the program for years to come. Now, we're trying to figure out who to leave out. This has been a resounding success so far, and if they can add Cooper it will be a fantastic job considering the circumstances. Trying to blow up the old Rich Rod myths is pointless. WE know how it really went down, and isn't that good enough? Anybody who bought/buys into that crap isn't worth your time and effort. You'll just have to settle for rolling your eyes when some bluehair digs up that stupid myth. Just remind them where Gardner came from in a couple years when he's going Death Star on our opponents.