Kurt Taylor commits to Tennessee Tech
December 17th, 2019 at 8:28 PM ^
Good for Kurt. Always liked that guy. Real solid young man.
December 17th, 2019 at 8:35 PM ^
Hard work is undefeated. Best of luck to him.
December 17th, 2019 at 8:56 PM ^
That’s a clearly incorrect sentiment — Hard work is certainly not undefeated. Otherwise, yes. Good luck to KT.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:01 PM ^
Why is that incorrect?
December 17th, 2019 at 11:05 PM ^
I'm just guessing but maybe because sometimes you work hard and things don't turn out for you? Seems pretty uncontroversial.
December 17th, 2019 at 8:40 PM ^
I was going to comment on this, but honestly, this whole Kurt Taylor thing bugged a lot of us from the beginning. He went from never playing at Michigan to Iowa Central Community College to Tennessee Tech. That tells you pretty much all you need to know about his talent level. He's one of the biggest head-scratchers of the Jim Harbaugh era, IMO.
December 17th, 2019 at 8:58 PM ^
And wasn’t there some buzz about Mork trying to steal him before signing day? Or maybe it was a trick to make JH actually want to sign him and use up scholarship.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:26 PM ^
Yeah, the scouting missed the mark on this one. Harbaugh has hit on a good amount of his lower rated recruits though. I thought there were similar posts made about Hassan Haskins and Ronnie Bell at the time. Many people were down on Rashad Weaver at the time too, and he ended up turning into a decent player.
I didn't follow the recruitments as closely, but was Kurt Taylor recruitment that much different than some of the other prospects at the low end of Michigan's classes? I also wonder if the lack of production from RB recruits in the prior two classes made them take a flier.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:48 PM ^
I agree and disagree with you. Absolute jackpot on Ronnie Bell. Kid is a stud and a heck of an athlete. His lack of attending camps and basketball career had him under the radar. Amazing find and probably my favorite player on the team.
Disagree with you on Hassan. Haskins isn't a "diamond in the rough". Haskins is exactly what his ratings would suggest...a nice but not a great player. He is an average B10 RB. Haskins is not the athlete that Bell is.
December 18th, 2019 at 8:26 AM ^
Are people already down on Haskins? That was his RS freshman season and he played pretty damn well sharing carries with Charbonnet
December 18th, 2019 at 9:45 PM ^
I am not down on Haskins. Nor do I think he is going to be a great Michigan RB. He is serviceable. He won't make anything look pretty, exceptional, elite, or be any threat to take it to the house or scare opponent's DC's. He will get some yard for you though. Just not going to be a great player.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
One? There’s like 12 others from that class
December 17th, 2019 at 10:08 PM ^
The 2017 class included the following:
2 five-stars
19 four-stars
8 three-stars
1 two-star punter
So which 13 guys were "fliers"?
December 17th, 2019 at 10:42 PM ^
December 18th, 2019 at 2:41 AM ^
Magnus, common bro:
- Burrow: Had 5* Tate Martell that OSU loved, and switched to Fields
- Fields: Beaten out by Fromm and would not have seen the field.
- Hurts: Ever heard of Tua?
- Patterson: Ole Miss was under review/ sanctioned
- Peters: Beat out by Shea and DCaff
December 18th, 2019 at 8:42 AM ^
This information isn't really relevant to the discussion above.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:19 PM ^
Like it or not, the staff clearly takes commitments from some lower-ranked guys both as insurance when higher-ranked guys go elsewhere and because they want more chances to find gems. This fits with the roster philosophy, which replaces high attrition with large class sizes, giving the staff more rolls of the dice to find the right guys.
Still, elite programs get lots of dice rolls, too, and they’re rolling with 4/5 stars instead of 3-stars.
The thing that went weird about Taylor, I think, is how long it took him to transfer. There are guys that transfer every year that look like they’ll never play, but Taylor apparently really just wanted to be here more than he wanted to go somewhere he’d have a shot at the field. My theory is that most guys are perfectly eager to bolt when the staff tells them “it’s not going to happen here,” and Taylor was the exception that figured four years of a scholarship here with a token carry or two in the fourth quarter of a blowout his senior year was good enough.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:01 PM ^
I don't know, but I don't put a lot of stock in message board posts from a bunch of random strangers. There are plenty of them who want to kick the team MVP to the curb for an unproven Dylan McCaffrey or an even more unproven Joe Milton. There might be strength in numbers, but there ain't smarts.
Personally, I was relatively okay with Bell and Haskins, and Weaver was a much better player as a senior than he was as a junior.
Taylor is and always has been S-L-O-W, and speed is generally something you have or you don't have.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:11 PM ^
Yup. Also short and maxed out physically, so there was no way of getting more weight on him and shifting him out of the position.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:51 AM ^
Ronnie Bell and Hassan Haskins had insane production in a state that gets overlooked a lot. Kurt Taylor had mediocre production against a really talented schedule and was scouted plenty. Wasn't even the best running back at his high school. They also didn't need to take a flier because they had 3 running backs committed at one point, and instead of dropping Taylor to pursue Najee, they tried to move AJ Dillon to LB.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:39 PM ^
Agree. Nothing against the kid, but as a prospect he's the type that shouldn't even be considered if recruiting is where it should be.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:48 PM ^
As I recall, Taylor was spotted at one of the first of the Michigan out-of-state camps and signed based on his work there. His rankings were low and remained low. He was a baffling sign.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:54 PM ^
If I am remembering correctly, the initial offer wasn't crazy (as he seemed to perform well at the camp). But the fact that he wasn't kindly told later that he should move on was baffling. I believe he wasn't even the primary back for his high school.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:59 PM ^
Have any satellite camp signees panned out?
December 17th, 2019 at 10:13 PM ^
Eh, whatever, dude. The connections the staff made on those trips opened doors to prospects that signed and have contributed.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:25 PM ^
for example...
December 17th, 2019 at 10:57 PM ^
Chris Evans. J'Marick Woods also saw some decent PT until this year. The camps were about getting players access to college coaches, not necessarily getting players to Michigan. But please just keep bitching about everything...
December 17th, 2019 at 11:17 PM ^
Pretty sure Bush, Gil, and Metellus were all at the same camp with their team.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:25 PM ^
for example...
December 18th, 2019 at 2:45 AM ^
You are an OSU troll and I'm disappointed that you weren't banned. The point of the camps was for Harbaugh to get 1-2 diamonds in the rough, but to get the other kids exposure to college coaches.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:47 PM ^
Just off the top of my head: Metellus, Gil, and Ruiz.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:28 PM ^
It seems like every other cycle there’s a kid the staff just likes. He’s a “football player” or something. Some pan out and some don’t. As a result of them being inherently down the rankings ladder some don’t even make it in the class. It’s possible They wanted to justify the satellite camps. Or maybe the just saw a tough hard working kid and thought he’d improve because of it. There’s a romanticism for this staff around the lunch pail kid. Sometimes you get Ben Mason. sometimes you don’t. And sometimes you inexplicably decide to make that guy an undersized DT. ?♂️
December 17th, 2019 at 10:36 PM ^
It's the critcism of this staff. They seem to prefer personalties over football ability. It's why you get some of these offers and some of the personnel decisions like playing Devin Gil so much last year and rotating running backs. BVS had a key fumble in the Army game. Should he have been in there in the first half in a competitive game? Probably not.
December 18th, 2019 at 3:04 AM ^
That's easy to say after the fact about BVS. Plus sometimes guys fumble. He had one out of what? 16? In the first couple games.
Plus we wanted Ross over Gil but we saw this year Ross is good but not great. Had his struggles and got Wally Pipped. And we've seen how inexperienced but talented guys like McGrone made costly errors. People act like Gil playing was indefensible. He wasn't great but it's not like we had another Devin Bush riding pine.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:53 PM ^
Head scratcher only to the heartless. Kid was pumped to be a Wolverine. Was never going to be a starter. High character guy with potential connection to recruiting his high level school. Did not work out for anyone. It happens sometimes.
Edit - there was a photo of Kurt from his in home visit by Harbaugh ... Kurt's bedroom was decked out in Michigan stuff - M blanket on his bed and posters on the wall. Kid was all-in for Michigan. So let's not shit on him.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:02 PM ^
Lots of kids would be pumped to be a Wolverine. That doesn't always equal a scholarship offer from the Michigan Wolverines' football program.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:09 PM ^
OK - but that is no reason to shit on Kurt. Why say anything other than "good luck" ?
December 17th, 2019 at 10:19 PM ^
You tell me. You've posted three times in this thread, and not once have you wished him "good luck."
Sometimes there are other words to say besides a trite "good luck" to a guy who's probably not reading this thread.
December 17th, 2019 at 10:43 PM ^
So your ethos is a function of what he might read ? Good luck with that.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:06 PM ^
Also not what he said/typed nor implied. Why the fuck does this "thoughts and prayers" mentality persist so much? Magnus hasn't said anything rotten about the kid and I for one learned some tidbits about him and our recent recruiting via the posts.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:54 AM ^
All Magnus said was he was never good enough to be a Wolverine. And clearly he wasn't. It's not a sin to say it. Plenty of us wished he'd work out, but pretending like wanting to be a Wolverine should be enough of a reason to not move on from a kid is really silly. Hell, at least send him to prep school so you can give him a reason to move himself on.
December 18th, 2019 at 8:45 AM ^
LOL. Plenty of players/recruits/parents have read what I've written, and it doesn't bother me one bit. I've received angry e-mails and such. Oh well.
You said I should say "good luck." He's not reading it, so who's the "good luck" for? To make you happy? That's not on my radar.
December 18th, 2019 at 5:36 PM ^
I chalked this one up to Michigan was trying to make headway in GA, and had to start somewhere.
December 17th, 2019 at 8:53 PM ^
Really great donut place on tech’s campus called Big O’s. Best blueberry glazed cake donut you’ll ever eat.
December 17th, 2019 at 9:41 PM ^
The Blueberry Glazed Cake Donut is also a massively underrated sex maneuver.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:30 PM ^
You gonna make us Google that.....?
December 18th, 2019 at 12:57 AM ^
Don’t. Just saying, don’t google it.
December 18th, 2019 at 3:34 AM ^
Urban dictionary here I come
December 17th, 2019 at 10:15 PM ^
The thing I’ll always remember about Kurt Taylor, which isn’t much, is the size of his biceps. Dude had some serious guns for a high schooler