Interesting article on Michigan recruiting class
After looking like a football program in total disarray in 2020, many folks, including myself, was surprised by Coach Harbaugh securing a top 10 recruiting class. The product on the field looked abysmal, the narrative surrounding the coach indicated he was a goner, and future success seemed bleak. Yet, here we are, and I couldn't be more pleased. I think Coach Harbaugh, staff, and student-athletes will turn this thing around.
Just my two cents. Here's a professional who has an interesting quote from DiNardo at BTN concerning the comprehensive experience these kids get at U of M. And, it's the exact reason that I never want the program to resemble 'Bama, OSU, or Clemson.
February 4th, 2021 at 2:34 PM ^
I love DiNardo's comment, that Michigan is —
"attractive to a lot of players that want more than just football. I don’t think its a football-centric type of program. I think it is a university-centered type of program. And as a result, you get a great education, you live in a great town, you play for a historic power and hopefully you have a good experience in football,..."
February 4th, 2021 at 4:40 PM ^
Yes still love to see UM offers a lot to kids instead of just a football factory. Many kids do care about getting a great education and they can do it all at UM.
I do not want UM to sacrifice everything it is today to cheapen it’s education just to win a couple of more football games a year!
Go Blue
February 4th, 2021 at 5:48 PM ^
OK, a nice group-hug that we somehow offer and care more about our student-athletes. Can we now please just beat Ohio State once in a while.
February 4th, 2021 at 6:19 PM ^
No. We don’t get to do that anymore. We’re allowed to beat MSU half the time. That’s it!
February 4th, 2021 at 6:26 PM ^
2 more regular season wins a year puts us in 4 Big 10 championship game in the Harbaugh era!
February 5th, 2021 at 11:49 PM ^
Yep! And I'm one Clemson win by less than 40 from my $5 parlay paying me $3500.
"Two wins" is also the same margin I am away from putting a baby in Beyonce.
February 4th, 2021 at 4:53 PM ^
That’s fine and dandy but don’t kid yourselves. Nobody will mention this stuff if Harbaugh goes 7-5 this year which is a real possibility. I’m impressed they managed to keep this class together but am in wait-and-see mode.
February 4th, 2021 at 5:37 PM ^
Bingo. These same people tired of blowouts to osu never say "yeah but at least our kids are here for school".
February 4th, 2021 at 10:47 PM ^
Nobody likes getting beaten by OSU but UM is not going to cheapen itself as an educational institution to hopefully beat them occasionally. Yes many people do care about our players being educated and having a life after football and even though you don’t think so many players on the field feel the same way and use football to get a top quality education. It’s really not about fans on message boards your talking about a lifetime for these kids not just a few years of football
February 4th, 2021 at 8:50 PM ^
7-5 seems like a likely outcome assuming they play a normal season. I could see anything from 5-7 to 9-3 though.
February 5th, 2021 at 7:30 AM ^
I'm in a wait-and-see mode myself but I will always mention this stuff.
The University matters to me not only because I'm a graduate and taught in the UM system but because it works to excel in all it does: teaching, helping students succeed, research, community engagement, athletics overall and athletics in the more widely watched sports.
Is it perfect in any of it? No. But the determination and talent is there, as the results show. Academics highly ranked nationally, and internationally renowned. Athletics, routinely ranked overall among the very top schools.
February 4th, 2021 at 5:38 PM ^
I feel like this comment will play better with Michigan alum football fans as opposed to non-alum Michigan football fans.
February 4th, 2021 at 6:22 PM ^
Agreed.
For alumni, I think there is love for UofM that goes beyond just sports. And in many cases, is completely independent of Michigan sports.
UofM is a special place, and doing things like OSU or Alabama would cheapen that.
February 4th, 2021 at 7:19 PM ^
Just curious, did the Fab Five cheapen UM?
February 4th, 2021 at 9:11 PM ^
Why do you ask? Unfortunately, there was a wealthy individual (illegal cash with no tax free place to put it) that distributed cash to high school players that attended at least three different colleges, one of which was Michigan (others being Illinois and Missouri). If Fisher hadn't given that man basketball tickets (after the cash changed hands) he wouldn't have qualified as a booster. NCAA violations tied to Michigan were mostly a technicality.) Or something like that.
February 5th, 2021 at 8:51 AM ^
Why do I ask? He said doing what these other schools do would cheapen Michigan. Michigan broke the rules, pretty much all through the 90s. So did it cheapen UM or not? I'm so sick of Michigan fans anymore. If you don't want to do the things it takes to be osu, then stfu about getting blasted by them and finishing 3rd in the division every year.
February 9th, 2021 at 9:05 PM ^
First, I would want to make it clear that in the following thoughts I'm talking about the "booster" and payments situation, not the members of the Fab Five, the people.
For me personally, I really want to come up with rationalizations about that situation, arguing that Martin wasn't truly a booster because he paid a number of kids (many who didn't go to Michigan). But ultimately, I don't think of it as a situation of which makes me feel proud of my alma mater. So, again for me personally, it does cheapen or cloud things.
In fact, I remember being pretty uncomfortable with Bill Frieder because he seemed to be more on the slimy side of things. And it seemed that a lot of people thought that (which was probably why people were not so upset when he left to go to ASU). Steve Fisher, ironically, seemed less slimy.
I have to admit, though, that I may easily be in the minority as an alumnus. Maybe it's only 5% of the alumni who feel like I do. On the other hand, I wonder if the percentage is significantly lower in the non-alumni fan group?
February 6th, 2021 at 12:06 AM ^
Things like .... winnning? Yeah ok! LMAO
February 4th, 2021 at 8:34 PM ^
Interesting observation. You may be right.
February 4th, 2021 at 8:50 PM ^
Cmon man. Somebody had to write that down for Dinardo to read. An intelligent and cordial comment regarding Michigan is out of his wheelhouse.
February 4th, 2021 at 2:35 PM ^
I love the experience culture, education, etc. that guys get in AA, but damn I want to win big in all sports, especially football.
Go Blue forever!!!
February 4th, 2021 at 2:39 PM ^
This is reminiscent of those commercials:
’I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.’
And I want just what you want Mick!
February 4th, 2021 at 2:50 PM ^
I want you to want me.
February 4th, 2021 at 2:57 PM ^
Wrong band HP, your reference is nothing more than a Cheap Trick!
February 4th, 2021 at 3:01 PM ^
You can't always get what you want.
(expecting a reference to the Smiths any second now...)
February 4th, 2021 at 3:21 PM ^
Lord knows, it would be the first time.
February 4th, 2021 at 3:43 PM ^
What Difference Does it Make, anyways?
February 4th, 2021 at 3:46 PM ^
always reminds me of ferris bueller's day off
February 4th, 2021 at 5:44 PM ^
It was really nothing.
February 4th, 2021 at 4:04 PM ^
But if you try sometime you find you get what you need.
February 5th, 2021 at 2:10 AM ^
Do you need me to need you?
February 4th, 2021 at 5:43 PM ^
Age divide right here. That’s Queen not a commercial for some of us.
February 4th, 2021 at 2:45 PM ^
Gerry DiNardo? That's pretty damning.
February 4th, 2021 at 3:01 PM ^
lol come on. The idea that players get a good college experience at Michigan but don't get that at OSU and Alabama is ridiculous and, quite frankly, the kind of arrogance and nose thumbing that Michigan is unfortunately infamous for. Programs like OSU and Bama get labeled "football factories" because they win a lot and place a lot of guys in the NFL. But isn't that what college is, an avenue towards achieving your professional goals? OSU, Bama and Michigan do that for a lot of players. And let's be honest, football players are gonna get a great college experience no matter where they go.
February 4th, 2021 at 3:09 PM ^
Agreed. Assuming they ever set foot on campus.
February 4th, 2021 at 3:09 PM ^
lol, yep
It's delusional.
I'm a Michigan alum and I wouldn't mind seeing the breakdown of what every *scholarship* player at Michigan majors in versus what their scholarship counterparts major in at Ohio State or Alabama or Clemson. (Teams like to use walk-ons and their majors to talk about how so & so is doing biomedical engineering or applied math or biochemistry when, in fact, those are the exceptions.)
Remember when Michigan fans here were pissed at Stanford Harbaugh for speaking the truth about the general studies major? It still rings true today. FYI: when he was HC at Stanford, Harbaugh compiled a list of easier seminar classes his players could take for academic credit. (So his criticism was a tad bit hypocritical.)
Ultimately, Michigan recruits well enough to go 11-2 every season. But the execution/coaching hasn't been there for one reason or another.
So our fans come up with all kinds of (bullshit) narratives.
Ex: Remember when MGoBloggers came up with excuses for Coach Beilein's poor recruiting?
I do. Anyone here could find them reasonably quickly if they cared to use Google to search for those MGoBlog threads. Coach Juwan Howard laughs at that bullshit. (Granted, credit to Coach Beilein for doing more with less.)
Furthermore, do these schmucks actually think Alabama's rich alums couldn't afford to send their football team on a trip to Paris or Tokyo or Shanghai? They just don't. Why spend that $500-600K when Alabama wins MNCs with or without recruiting gimmicks?
/That said, I like the trips.
//But the notion that Alabama is purely a football factory and Michigan is above the fray is hilariously disingenuous nonsense devoid of reason and detached from reality.
February 4th, 2021 at 3:21 PM ^
Yep, exactly. Your point about Juwan vs Beilein is well taken. Do we think recruiting against Duke and Kentucky in basketball is any easier than recruiting against OSU and Alabama in football? I don't. We pulled in a top 10 class because of the name Michigan alone, with the younger and more recruiting-focused staff I think we'll start pulling in classes closer to the top 5.
February 4th, 2021 at 4:38 PM ^
Its 100 times easier. Are you high? Without taking anything away from Juwan, Beilein chose not to recruit 1 and dones. It wasn't that he couldn't. A basketball team can compete for championships with 3 great players. In football you need 3 to 4 times that amount to compete and win championships. In basketball freshman can dominate the game, that doesn't happen in football. You can build a winner in basketball over night, you can't do that in football. You don't have to recruit against Duke and Kentucky to win, Beilein proved it. You can't win without recruiting against OSU, Clemson and Bama. Dude you are talking apples to oranges.
February 4th, 2021 at 5:02 PM ^
Nice reading comprehension. You're arguing a completely different point. Kentucky and Duke get the majority of elite players in basketball, just as Bama and OSU do in football. So how am I wrong again? How is it easier to land the #1 class in basketball than it is in football?
February 4th, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^
They don't. Elite players go to MSU, Kansas, NC, FSU, Oregon,Villanova, Virginia and LSU. That's my point. When you only have 12 players on scholarship there is more talent to be shared.
February 4th, 2021 at 5:14 PM ^
There's plenty of talent to go around in football too. There are about 100 blue chips in basketball compared to 300 in football. And yes, elite football players go other places too. Hell Michigan gets about as many elite players in football as MSU gets in basketball. Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, USC (normally), Oregon, PSU all pull in elite talent. But there are recruiting powers in football just as there are in basketball. You wanna argue that Kentucky and Duke don't get a disproportionate amount of 5 star players each cycle then be my guest. It would be pretty easy to prove you wrong.
February 6th, 2021 at 12:23 AM ^
Hahahahaha!! The Kool Aid is flowing freely in A2. Belein CHOSE not to recruit 5star players. That's the funniest thing I've read this year.
February 4th, 2021 at 3:34 PM ^
I don't know if their undergraduate major is automatically easier/just as easy at Michigan just because it's general studies.
And when I say I don't know, I honestly truly don't know.
However, I know that the academic side of Michigan functions on its own standards, while the AD, while self sufficient, doesn't get to tell the academic people what to do. I do not believe that this is the case at most, if not all other powerhouse programs. At OSU, every faculty and staff member worships the football program. I'm sure it's the same at Alabama and other SEC schools. So if an OSU player needs an easy A so they can spend their time focusing on beating Michigan, you better believe most OSU faculty will not get in the way of that. We all know that Michigan would die before it allows that sort of shenanigans.
This is the kind of culture that will always keep Michigan a step below other programs. Personally, this is why I have advocated for athletics to have specific majors. Like a football degree or what have you. Because if a player wants to commit all of his time to his sport, he should be able to.
February 4th, 2021 at 4:02 PM ^
"At OSU, every faculty and staff member worships the football program."
I find this hard to believe. Faculty at OSU are drawn from the same pool of people who become faculty at UM. It's not easy to become tenure-track faculty anywhere, certainly not at OSU. Maybe the broader culture puts some pressure on faculty and staff there to go easy on athletes, but I can't imagine the difference is anything but subtle.
But maybe some here have more inside knowledge than I do.
February 4th, 2021 at 4:04 PM ^
My FIL got his PHD from OSU. While I haven't conducted a scientific poll, I have heard enough from plenty of different sources to feel strongly about this.
February 4th, 2021 at 4:41 PM ^
I know several people who teach at OSU and their attitude toward the football team ranges from viewing it with mild annoyance to active disdain. So I think there's a range of opinion.
February 4th, 2021 at 5:15 PM ^
That's fine, but nitpicking on this sort of thing is not really where I was going with this. Think of E Gordon Gee. Can you imagine someone like that ever being appointed to run the University of Michigan? It's a cultural thing. When a culture is strong, individuals will not be able to do much to oppose it.
February 4th, 2021 at 4:38 PM ^
No, you’re just flat out wrong. Michigan draws its profs/faculty from a much more selective talent pool than OSU. We’re competing with the UCLAs, Northwesterns and Ivies. OSU is closer to a Michigan State/Rutgers in terms of academic prestige and the talent pool of their faculty reflects that.