February 10th, 2013 at 1:32 PM ^
I thought urban said he wanted the b1g to start recruiting the south? Hmmmmm
February 10th, 2013 at 2:04 PM ^
The crazy thing is I'm not upset. I actually feel sorry for Lawrence Marshall that he has to go to Columbus.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^
This is a kick to the groin. A lot of time to flip him though.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:17 PM ^
I don't really think he's the kind of guy that you waste time trying to flip (unlike Webb). We can find an out of state guy of equal calibur. He's probably a borderline 3/4 star recruit.
February 11th, 2013 at 12:02 AM ^
Johnathan Hankins, 3 Star michigan dl to first round draft pick.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^
Marshall jumped to OSU when our staff is heavily vested in MI and OH recruiting. Makes sense when a staff devalues the Midwest, but Hoke has made it a higher priority than Urban.
The recruiting battles will be intense for years.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:38 PM ^
To be honest we have been much more national with our offers right now instead of first going into the Midwest so maybe it serves us right.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:53 PM ^
recruited both fairly hard. I would understand if we were late with offers as the staff chased national guys. If a kid is indifferent, then go with the first offer or most love. But we've been after both of them from the start.
Meyer's spiel of "we'll play for nat'l championships and I'll prepare you as well as the SEC" must work with some kids.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^
It's not like these kids didn't have M offers. Perhaps Meyer is just more credible as a coach than Hoke is right now.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:55 PM ^
It is, theoretically at least, possible that the kid liked Columbus and wanted to attend university there...
Football is a factor in these decisions, coaching etc. but many others come into play.
February 10th, 2013 at 3:14 PM ^
I simply meant that Meyer walks in with two NC rings and talks about winning championships. Hoke hasn't won any championships as a head coach. I'm not calling Hoke as a bad coach, nor am I arguing that Meyer is far and away a better coach. I'm simply arguing that, from the perspective of a 17 year old who wants to play football, get to the NFL and, presumably, to win things along the way, Meyer likely looks like a better bet.
February 10th, 2013 at 5:18 PM ^
I have thought about this in the sense that essentially every coach is basically selling their brand to potential recruits. The money question is which coach or which brand carries the day...is it the macro Dave Brandon "M", Brady Hoke's management level work, Greg Mattison's "I coached Ray Lewis" or the individual recruiter?
What carries the weight?...I suppose for each recruit it would be different. While Meyer has a couple championships his defensive coordinator was one Greg Mattison; he of the Ray Lewis connection.
At this point Meyer's brand might pull some recruits but, as in the Lawrence Marshall case, one wonders what role the recruiter played etc.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^
We are more Midwest than in the last 10 years. 2 kids from the south (3 if you count Virginia)?
February 10th, 2013 at 1:37 PM ^
Between Harris and McDowell if we don't get either of them we lost the state of Michigan recruiting to our rival. Especially since Harris a bit of an Ohio lean and they are going strong after McDowell, this may not end well for us.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:39 PM ^
and they didn't crack his top 5. Not every kid buys into what Urban Meyer's selling. I think ND is more of a threat for McDowell and Drake Harris had us in his final group before he committed to Sparty. Relax, friend.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:37 PM ^
As of now, in these kids minds, St Urban can do no wrong. Coombs is selling fire and brimstone (see the YouTube video of him) and Urban has yet to lose. Once the bucks start losing some they should win, and it WILL happen this year, the real Meyer starts coming out and when we beat them a lot of these in-state prospects will see things much differently. Right now they are going for what's flashy...we will prevail
February 10th, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^
Who are they going to lose to? Have you seen their schedule?
February 10th, 2013 at 1:58 PM ^
They do have an extremely easy schedule...just as they did this yr...they'll find a way to lose one of the close ones they pulled out last time
February 10th, 2013 at 4:18 PM ^
Last year they had a comeback win hosting Cal, beat Sparty by 1, Indiana by 3, went to overtime at Wisconsin, and again at home to Purdue. They'll try and lose more than a few games next year, too.
February 10th, 2013 at 8:55 PM ^
^^^This. People forget how easily they could have had a 5-loss season.
Next year they could very well be like we were this year . . . have a better team than the year before, but have a worse record.
February 11th, 2013 at 12:02 AM ^
Cal win wasnt a real comeback being at the game you never felt like there was any doubt of losing
February 10th, 2013 at 1:39 PM ^
We have the best history and largest stadium we will be fine
February 10th, 2013 at 1:55 PM ^
I hear big stadiums are worth 10 points a game
February 10th, 2013 at 1:46 PM ^
guess you can add RB Parris Campbell, who attends St. Vincent-St. Mary HS in Akron, OH. as a Buckeye
February 10th, 2013 at 1:49 PM ^
Bad news bears, no way to whitewash it. Can't keep on top if we can't even stay afloat in recruiting our own state. I give Meyer credit. He's targetting kids that aren't just good players, but the high-percentage targets we need. It's like a scorched earth campaign, burning the ground out from under us.
Man. I am not happy today.
February 10th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^
Agreed, kids like Marshall are the ones you need to nail down, good regional recruits that form the base of the class and represent schools you go into a lot. If Urban is making inroads here, that is very bad especially when he can use Ohio peer pressure to help hold onto Ohio kids and there doesn't seem to be equivalent pressure here in MI. This is definitely not good.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:57 PM ^
On touch the banner, it was written he was a Michigan lean. What gives?
February 10th, 2013 at 2:03 PM ^
Honestly, this is a bit of a surprise. I knew that he had interest in Ohio State, but I was still hearing that Michigan seemed to be his leader.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:13 PM ^
I think people have been underestimating how hard Kerry Coombs has been recruiting Michigan. I don't ever remember OSU focusing this much on Michigan prospects. As someone else said, this is probably bad news for State, but it's obviously something Hoke will have to pay attention to.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:30 PM ^
Magnus, when are your updated recruiting ranking going to be released? I think I remember you saying NSD or the day after AND it's been awhile now. So what's the deal lol
February 10th, 2013 at 8:38 PM ^
Soon. I just said shortly after signing day, and it's only been a few days...
February 10th, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^
No disrespect but he is just some dude with an informed opinion. I like what he offers as far as he seems to take himself serious, puts in the appropriate time, and doesn't let other people's rankings dissuade him from having his own value of an incoming player. That said, it isn't like he has come connection to the kids and can predict the future...
it is what it is homie.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:58 PM ^
Not saying this is the reason why Ohio is beating us on the recruiting trail right now, but as a kid I can tell you that a deal with Nike sounds a lot more appealing than a deal with Addidas.
February 10th, 2013 at 1:59 PM ^
You serious Clark?
February 11th, 2013 at 12:04 AM ^
He has a point that does have a minor sway with 17 year old kids and all the gear they get
February 10th, 2013 at 1:59 PM ^
We landed 10 guys last Feb with the mojo from the big weekend in early Feb, so I assume Hoke & co will repeat the event for some early commitments.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:03 PM ^
I'm...sure they would like to. That's not the kind of thing that's easily replicated, especially since, by all accounts, that wasn't a stage managed event. Especially since we aren't in on a lot of Michigan and Ohio kids, who formed the bulk of that event, I doubt we'll see the like of it again this year, if ever.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:17 PM ^
I wouldn't expect a huge windfall like last year but I'm sure a good local group could be assembled (Harris, Doles, McDowell, Lattimore, Booker, Berger, Weishar, Jones, Helm) with Ferns and Speight possibly attending.
Bball has PSU in 1 week and Illini in 2 weeks in AA which might be the plan.
February 10th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^
We can but hope.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:04 PM ^
Who is Lawrence Marshall and why does he hate himself so much?
February 10th, 2013 at 2:11 PM ^
He was a OSU lean. No doubt he's got some talent, but we can't get everyone. There will be others. Plus we'll have a small class next year. We already have 2 commits...gotta leave some drama for the latter months. I kid, I kid.
Sucks, but lots of time left. Let it all play out. I promise we get some Ohio talent to even things out.
Remember, Ferns is pretty damn good. Look where he's from...
February 10th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^
Umm, I feel confident in saying something give or take 20 scholarships for 2014. That's not really small. We can grab best available and there is greater flexibility in what position numbers we can recruit.
Speedy DE/DL and WR seem to be our biggest needs. SS is another position that could use more size and speed, thus finding freaky athletic chaps would be a huge gain at those spots. I still think another QB would be nice, but I just don't see the staff going that route this year and maybe only annually recruiting one QB per class.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:17 PM ^
are the michigan players that went to tsio in the last TWELVE YEARS (give or take a couple I don't know about or can't remember). Urban taking Damon Webb from Cass Tech and this one from Southfield shouldn't happen. Jackson was the only one to my knowledge that had an offer from Michigan and went to OSU (subsequently he transferred to Wayne State). The others even hinted that they would have gone to Michigan had they been offered. This is what is disturbing. Let's hope G Mattison (and Wilcher) work their magic.
February 10th, 2013 at 4:11 PM ^
but Hankins and Gholston were not offered until it was too late and we wanted Fragel to play tackle and he wanted to play TE which he did until inevitably switching to tackle. Jackson may have been a casualty of the RR transition but I could be wrong there.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:22 PM ^
Don't they have a scholarship reduction? How many scholarships did they lose?
February 10th, 2013 at 2:26 PM ^
This is suprising. I don't think any of us should loose sleep over this, I mean the kid looks like a very solid player on film and no doubt would love to have him on the good side, but let the season play out. Does anyone think Ohio will go undefeated again? I don't. Perhaps their eyes will be opened.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:41 PM ^
Stuff like this means very little to me.At the end of the recruiting cycle Michigan is going to have 85 or so scholarship football players; just like every other team in the country. And then, and then.... attrition happens....Start all over again
85 football scholarships on the wall, take one down pass it around 84 football scholarships on the wall
84 football scholarships on the wall....
You lose out on Lawrence Marshall, god bless his buckeye soul, and next thing you know a kid blows up in Pinconning, making all the little sad faces excited at the prospect of the Piconning prodigy becoming the next Lawerence Taylor.
February 10th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^
Pinconning represent. I hope you are right about that...
Ton of good memories of that area.
February 10th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^
It's okay, we're going to get Da'Shawn Hand and Malik McDowell