Michigan's 2018 Recruiting Class Re-Ranked #3
The Athletic has an article up re-ranking the recruiting classes of 2018. Michigan vaults from 22nd overall to 3rd (ahead of Alabama and way ahead of OSU), although it should be noted that Shea Patterson's transfer was included in this re-rank. Still, I don't think anyone believes Patterson was the straw that stirred the drink in this class.
Yes, it's true that Aiden Hutchinson positively warps the rest of this class. But we also got very little out of Cam McGrone because of injuries and the pandemic and Ronnie Bell just lost what looked like a star making season to injury as well. Bottom line, this class vastly outperformed expectations and that's before we get to see the final seasons from guys like Bell, Hayes, Barrett, Schoonmaker, etc.
This gives me hope for our future moving forward. Personally, I feel like the 2021 and 2022 classes are especially underrated compared to industry rankings.
https://theathletic.com/3128181/2022/02/14/recruiting-revisited-ranking…
February 14th, 2022 at 11:05 AM ^
Lookin' good.
February 14th, 2022 at 11:26 AM ^
After a (what at the time seemed like) strong 2016 and 2017 classes, it always felt like Michigan spent 2018 going after a bunch of high ceiling / low floor guys that were under scouted by other schools. It appears that strategy paid off.
February 14th, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
But we need Matt Campbell! He takes high school boys and molds them into P5 warrior-poets.
February 14th, 2022 at 1:42 PM ^
The problem with this class isn't what was in it, it's what wasn't in it. Fast cornerbacks (it was the year of 4 x 6' 2" hopeful Stribling clones) and defensive tackles (none). So yes, you can re-rank on production and it looks good, but you can't rank on production that didn't have a chance I guess? Not putting any bullets in the chamber at DT and going all tall/lanky at CB left huge holes in the team in both 2019 and 2020.
February 14th, 2022 at 2:40 PM ^
I can see your position on CBs, but it's uncommon for DT's to "hit" early. As well, in 2018 it was still too early to know that the epic D-line haul of 2017 was going to go down in history (in a very bad way).
February 14th, 2022 at 2:43 PM ^
man, complaining about holes in a recruiting class that produced ten (TEN) all-conference players is...well, it's something.
February 14th, 2022 at 3:46 PM ^
I'm not complaining about the players in it at all.
Roster management/composition matters. Did it help OSU in The Game that they had another 5 top 100 receivers on the bench with Olave, Wilson and JSN on the field? Might have helped if they had some functional LB's instead of a converted RB don't you think?
If you want to argue that DT's in the 2018 class wouldn't have been in time to help for 2019, I'll partially concede...partially. We had Ben Mason out there playing significant snaps and Jordan Glasgow trying to cover the A gap against Wisconsin, I'm pretty sure a 300lb sophomore would have been better.
February 14th, 2022 at 7:43 PM ^
jesus, read what i wrote, specifically the part about “complaining about HOLES IN A RECRUITING CLASS.” i mean, it wasn’t that long of a post, but maybe you lost track.
on the other hand, you did precisely prove my point, to a remarkable degree. so thanks, i guess.
February 14th, 2022 at 3:06 PM ^
I think it's a feather in the cap for the staff's ability to ID talent that may not be as highly valued by scouting services overall, which is worth something.
February 14th, 2022 at 3:34 PM ^
I don't think your criticism about the key positions that were missed on is entirely unwarranted. Our coaching staff legitimately missed out on prospects at both DT and CB who would have boosted this class. But considering we failed to land a true star at QB, it's unbelievable the 2018 recruiting class so thoroughly crushed its ranking (and again, we still haven't seen the best from a number of recruits in this class). I never got the feeling 2019 or 2020 were necessarily similar to 2018 but the last two recruiting classes both feel like they were wildly underrated IMHO.