Local vs National Recruiting

Submitted by Rodriguesqe on

The Crawford / Corley commits got me thinking about national vs local recruiting. Harbaugh seems to have tilted towards national in a way that Hoke and even RR never did. Maybe someone who followed recruiting back in Carr days could compare. 

I went through the current top 10 classes to see how each school did in state vs out of state. First number is commits from within state, second is class size.

1 LSU - 12 /20

2 Michigan - 1 / 24

3 OSU - 8 /18

4 FSU - 8 / 18

5 Georgeia - 12 / 16

6 Florida - 15 / 26

7 Ol Miss - 4 / 20

8 Alabama - 4 / 17

9 ND - 0 / 22

10 Auburn 4 / 17

I think whats apparent is that Michigan has a built in disadvantage of residing in a football poor state.

If I did a bit more work I think if you considered region Michigan would stand out even more. 1 from MI, 1 IL, 1 Wisconsin, 3 from Indiana, everyone else is from out of region. Even ND has more midwest kids.

It seems like the sights view Corley and Crawford as just about even. We don't know who Harbaugh thinks will be better. I'm no scout either. But philosophically speaking, I used to think tie breaker went to the local kid since 1) he'd get our rivalvies 2) it would keep him away from our rivals. My opinion is the opposite now, possibly skewed by watching Hoke reel in local kids and also not developing talent. 

This might also just be an aberation, as I think we are targetting plenty of local kids in 2017.

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hazardc

January 9th, 2016 at 11:25 PM ^

I was row B right in front of the first harbaugh flip out at Michigan v Oregon state... It was glorious. ... Haven't felt energy like that in that stadium in years Oh, on 3rd down on defense , harbaugh was actively pumping up he crowd ... When offense had the ball he was actively quieting the crowd. The man is seriously processing every tiny variable at every single second . After a while he was getting other players and coaches to work crowd noise. I'm kinda surprised so many on this forum don't know what the blue hair thing is referring to.

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Perkis-Size Me

January 9th, 2016 at 9:15 PM ^

You can't neglect completely instate talent, but by the same token, you have to go out and get the best talent you can get. Regardless of where it lives.

Michigan isn't devoid of talent, but it has nowhere near the level of talent that a state like California, Texas, Florida, or hell, even Ohio has.

If the best team Harbaugh can field means he recruits 2-3 instate kids a year, then so be it. I'm hope this doesn't sound cruel, but Harbaugh doesn't owe instate kids a damn thing. He was brought to Michigan to win titles. If a recruit from the state of Michigan can help him do that, then that's great. But I'd rather he get the best talent available, regardless of where it lives.



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WOLVERINEinTHEsun

January 9th, 2016 at 9:19 PM ^

Pipeline 9; let's see how many we get for next year... The Harbaugh name alone can recruit nationally on its own, unlike Hoke & even Rich Rod... Carr did a solid job of getting the California Kids to come to UM..

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Mr. Yost

January 9th, 2016 at 9:19 PM ^

Corley and Crawford are different style players, IMO.

Corley is a big play outside WR type and Crawford, IMO, is a dangerous slot WR.

Corley, IMO, should have the better stats and highlight plays. But Crawford could actually be the better football player when it's all said and done. We'll see.

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WorldwideTJRob

January 9th, 2016 at 10:13 PM ^

Can we stop this...Corley by all accounts is the better WR of the two. That catch he made in the state title game is the stuff of legends. As I stated earlier today, it simply was a case of Corley not being as interested in us as we were him. We recruited him hard and even brought up the idea of him being a package deal with Hill. The kid just wanted to play at state, simple as that. We are not going to get every recruit we want and it's illogical to think that every time that happens that the kid we replace them with is automatically better and Harbaugh's first choice all along.



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schreibee

January 10th, 2016 at 3:08 PM ^

Bye Rob... your "bigger point" was lost amid a flurry of facts!!!

I think you're asking for a level of maturity and magnaminity here that our opponents would never consider, and it doesn't look like we're going to either...

Corley is essentially an equal player to Crawford, but they have different skillsets. Either would be a great get. Congrats sparty you got a good one looks like. But so did we!

Why stress? Why lecture?

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Rabbit21

January 10th, 2016 at 8:45 AM ^

Exactly, Corley is a hell of a talent, but he wanted to go to State and as much as we all dislike it, State has a pretty good resume right now to sell. This is a loss and while it is likely down to him liking MSU better regardless, Hokes staff cooling on him early falls, yet-a-damn-gain, under inexplicable recruiting decisions by the last staff.



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mischill

January 9th, 2016 at 9:50 PM ^

It's a down year for talent in Ohio, and Urb has been recruiting the kids there for years. Give it time. If there's kids Harbaugh wants in Ohio in upcoming years, I'm sure he'll go after them.

And look at next year in-state. They're already doing the whole "Pipeline Nine" thing to try and lock down the state in a talent filled year. There's a lot more variables to this than just grabbing kids from the state just to take them. Take the best players first, regardless of the state.



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tolmichfan

January 9th, 2016 at 9:33 PM ^

Imo... Recruiting has more to do with ties to the different regions... Hoke was only 2 years removed from mainly recruiting the Midwest at ball state.... RR was recruiting fla before he got to Michigan. Harbaugh at Stanford recruited Texas and fla well so that's where he started first.



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kb

January 9th, 2016 at 9:37 PM ^

On the one hand, Michigan isn't really a hot spot for football talent and many of the instate recruits, especially from the Detroit schools, have not panned out well for Michigan. On the other hand, the local kids understand our rivalries very well and it's very good to always get the best in state recruits. I trust Harbaugh and think Michigan has to recruit nationally to compete for a national title. Harbaugh also has the brand name and marketing to pull it off successfully.

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WolverineInCbus

January 9th, 2016 at 9:47 PM ^

I think Harbaugh knew it would take a year to prove to some of the in state kids that Michigan was back. So this year he developed national pipelines. Next year I think we will see many more local kids with the "pipeline 9" guys.



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Asilver21

January 9th, 2016 at 9:49 PM ^

Let's start by keeping Donovan Peoples-jones in state and at MICHIGAN!! He would be a big one that also could start a trend of top in state talent staying!

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AlwaysBlue

January 9th, 2016 at 9:56 PM ^

coach he said he wanted to recruit more Michigan kids. As I remember, he thought they had a built in passion for the Wolverines which he thought was invaluable to the program. I think that makes sense. Harbaugh is such a unique personality though and well positioned by his roots to bridge the geography.

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Coldwater

January 9th, 2016 at 10:32 PM ^

That's all fine and dandy about Calfornia. If they want to "specialize" and have their rich parents pay for private coaches, more power to them. But in reality, college coaches want well- rounded multi sport athletes these days.

Harbaugh can NOT expect to routinely get 4-5 stars from Cali. Some yes, like the Crawford kid. But not very often...he must lock down the top players from Michigan and Ohio, then pick and chose the best of the best from other regions.

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UMinSF

January 9th, 2016 at 10:11 PM ^

to find kids with both top-level athletic and academic ability.  There are only so many top athletes that really prioritize academics.

Fortunately, precious few schools aspire to that high a standard, and they recruit nationally as well - ND and Stanford.  Some other schools (Duke, NW, etc.) emphasize academics, but they don't recruit many 4*.

I'm not saying all our recruits are Rhodes Scholars, nor do I think that every kid at Georgia or MSU is mailing in their education, but I hope and expect UM fields a team of real student-athletes.

It's also a reflection of Michigan's student body - UM draws students from everywhere.

One of the most exciting things about JH's hire for me was his proven record of recruiting and developing real student athletes.  Maintaining academic standards is also one of the things I admired about BH.

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Jalm

January 9th, 2016 at 10:16 PM ^

I'd rather get a better talent from California than stick with what we have in MI. Sure the best instate we should recruit hard but I wouldn't care if they went out of state for the whole class if they could get better players than instate.

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kb

January 9th, 2016 at 10:24 PM ^

A team takes a lot of guys from in state, and it becomes harder to pull recruits from elsewhere for whatever reason (lack of effort, no connections, perception, etc). I've heard quotes at least a handful of times this year from recruits down south that said some southern recruits were interested in Michigan, but felt that Michigan really wasn't interested in trying hard to recruit them.

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MLG2908

January 9th, 2016 at 10:48 PM ^

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/sec-states-produce-tons-of-fbs-talent/

Florida high schools have the best yield in terms of FBS signees from their pool of football players.  Michigan has only about 1000 fewer players in high school football than Florida, but has only about 20% of the signees in football that Florida does.  Almost 1 of every 100 football players in Florida becomes an FBS signee.  

Texas and California have the most high school players that become FBS signees.  Texas has about four times as many football participants as Michigan and about 6 times the number of FBS signees.  California has about 2.5 times as many football players and almost 4 times the number of signees.

Ohio has about 10% more football participants than Michigan, but produces slightly less than double the number of FBS signees. 

There is also data available for participation in both football and other high school sports by state that might aid an analysis of how much dilution may occur due to some of the best athletes focusing on other sports.

http://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatics/ParticipationStatics.aspx/

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schreibee

January 9th, 2016 at 11:33 PM ^

So what you're saying is... work like Hell to get the top in-state kids, while recognizing other states have multiple times more FBS talent, so keep channels open?

Sounds like a plan! A plan I'm pretty sure JH plans to adopt.

I won't be surprised if some of the "Swarm" commits from last summer end up being from schools that turn into pipelines to M. That's planning ahead!

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UofM626

January 9th, 2016 at 10:53 PM ^

Too 2-3 kids from Michigan every year. I am very surprised at how many we kids we missed out on from Michigan this year. I do think we 2-3 from Michigan and Ohio each year to make sure the kids know in the Midwest the best come here.

1 from Michigan and 0 from Ohio very interesting

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WolverineMaize93

January 9th, 2016 at 11:11 PM ^

Carr recruited Michigan and Ohio harder than any other state, as did Moeller and Bo. Harbaugh has recruited differently. He hasn't even targeted the sate of Ohio and has only targeted about half the local talent that Hoke did. 2017 is different in terms of local recruits because there is a large number of top local prospects in that class. Harbaugh has targeted the south, east coast, and west coast much more than previously coaches. These satellite camps are careful thought out and measured. This staff is mart and knows where the real talent is. It's in Florida, Texas, Jersey, and Cali. I've been saying for years that we should recruit out of the mid west much more than we do.

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WolverineMaize93

January 10th, 2016 at 1:31 AM ^

I grew up in Florida, then moved to Michigan. Football in the south (specifically Florida and Texas) is taught and preached a completely different way. It's more intense and there is more demand form the coaches, parents, and fans. Population accounts for the larger amounts of prospects, sure, but the talent level is much higher in southern states. Put a .500 Florida high school team against a team like Cass Tech and Cass gets blown out. The south is a different beast when it comes to football. Anyone with a clue would tell you the south has the "real talent". Especially speed.

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Tax_Season

January 9th, 2016 at 11:19 PM ^

Being from West Michigan(GR), its hard for me to understand how we hardly ever have a "TOP" (MI)recruit. We have some of the highest enrollments per school in the state, great in-state powerhouses, and the population. What needs to be done for this to change?

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Coldwater

January 9th, 2016 at 11:38 PM ^

Grand Rapids is a mystery to me in football too. It's a huge population, with outstanding, state champion TEAMS, but not many D1 prospects ever. The resources are there, facilities are there...I can't pinpoint why the lack of individual studs.

Drake Harris has been the best player out of GR in the last decade, and he's been a huge bust at Michigan.

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