Michigan Recruiting Averages Under Harbaugh-O&D
I only used the 2016 classes to where we currently stand in the 2021 class, so 6 classes. I didnt include punters, kickers or transfers. I used their recruiting rankings according to what position they were ranked, not what they ended up playing here. I used everyone, even if they didn't play a down here to show the pattern of recruiting.
We had classes of 28, 30, 20, 26, 23 and currently 21 for an avg of 24.6 class size. Team rankings of 8, 5, 22, 8, 14, 9 for an average of 11 team rank.
Now, our per player averages over those six classes for offense and defense as to where they were ranked are as follows:
Offense average rank per player: 371
Defense average rank per player: 416
I feel like our class sizes have allowed for the decent recruiting team average of 11 but we should be one of the top 5-7 teams easily based on our resources and history. The per player averages are more of what I believe we are seeing on the field.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:38 PM ^
Can't edit my own post so I will add this in there. We've had 10 top 100 offensive players and 9 top 100 defensive players in 6 years.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:40 PM ^
Just curious, what is our average star rating in that timeframe?
November 14th, 2020 at 6:42 PM ^
90.21
November 14th, 2020 at 6:44 PM ^
Thanks! Is that the 3.5-4 star rating range?
November 14th, 2020 at 6:44 PM ^
What does all this look like against other programs?
Some good ones and the bad. It would be nice to have wins losses of those programs also .
November 14th, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^
That'll take some time but I can put it together. Id be curious as well
November 14th, 2020 at 7:10 PM ^
W/L for the last 5 years. W/L top is each teams wins and losses against the top 4. Ajd losses is what the world would look like of the top 4 formed their own division :(
TL:DR Michigan is at the top of the 2nd division
November 14th, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^
Can’t crut. Can’t win.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:50 PM ^
It would be great if we were rated #11 right now, don't you think?
November 14th, 2020 at 6:55 PM ^
Interesting info. Guys like Ronnie Bell, Hassan Haskins, etc. I would imagine skew the per player ranking pretty significantly.
Not refuting that to the greater point, the talent on the field is not at the level that will compete on the national level. On year 6, that is plain and simple on Jim Harbaugh.
In my mind, DT recruiting has been so terrible it has cratered the entire defense. I would bet the bottom of the barrel in the B1G are getting better production from their tackles than Michigan. And we recruit terribly at that position as well. Simply can't win consistently if you're weak up the middle.
On the offensive-side, it's just stubbornness to me. Also looks like we're lost in the wilderness in the middle of a transition that is not going to work.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:19 PM ^
6 year avg:
DE is 397
DT is 271 (7 recruited in 6 years)
CB is 335
S is 501
November 14th, 2020 at 7:43 PM ^
Interesting, thanks for compiling. Clearly the talent on defense is pretty underwhelming. Adds up to what we're seeing on the field. Paye and Hutchinson outperformed rankings, everyone else has been meh, except for Dax who is playing just like you would expect from a Soph. 5 star
7 DT's in 6 years is the glaring issue in my mind. Not sure how your base defense is supposedly a 4 man front and you have 2 true defensive tackles on the roster. I understand missing on blue chips, but when your recruiting worse than the bottom of the B1G and top of the MAC at that position I'm not really sure how to justify that.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:01 PM ^
Final poll rankings have been 8.5, Unranked, 14, 18.5, currently unranked at 41.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:29 PM ^
The previous unranked was 35 as i recall
November 14th, 2020 at 7:12 PM ^
Nice work.
Does anyone keep track of recruiting rankings of just the players that see the field for a team? A way to look at what kind of recruits actually make it into the two deep?
For example, this year if we took the average recruit ranking of the guys that play tonight against Wisconsin it seems like it would be really low compared to the guys we had playing a few years ago or even last year. It would be interesting to compare those rankings to other teams and to previous years. It would be really interesting this year with all the opt outs and quarantined players to see which teams still have a bunch of highly rated recruits on the field.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:21 PM ^
Hard to do because it's changed over the offseason and also through the season with injuries and Harbaugh is stubborn with roster announcements so its hard to get a two deep.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:42 PM ^
Per position average looks to be with glaring holes. Hopefully some recruits will see the opportunity to get on the field right away
November 14th, 2020 at 7:42 PM ^
You know 247s Team Talent Composite will do this for you, right? They tell you which teams have the most talented rosters. This removes the question of size class vs average player ranking and instead looks at the entire roster talent.
- 2015: #9 (OSU #3) 10-3
- 2016: #8 (OSU #5) 10-3
- 2017: #7 (OSU #2) 8-5
- 2018: #8 (OSU #1) 10-3
- 2019: #11 (OSU #2) 9-4
- 2020: #17 (OSU #3) 1-2
You can see that both our average team talent composite scores have been pretty consistent as have our records up until this year. The worst year with the most talent is odd, but much of that can be traced back to QB issues with Speight getting injured and JOK's struggles. You can also see our closest games with OSU occurred when the difference in team talent was the lowest. As those numbers have pushed past 5 places in the rankings the outcomes became much less close in 2015, 2018, & 2019. I'd guess the same will happen in 2020.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:46 PM ^
Thanks. Didn't know that, learn something new every day.
November 14th, 2020 at 9:32 PM ^
Perhaps your assumption that we should be top 5-7 based on our history is looking a bit too far back. Try the last 15 years or so, might be a much better way to understand how players & recruits see Michigan.
November 14th, 2020 at 11:22 PM ^
Im basing that on what we should be with the resources we have available. You could hire a top notch coach with a young and energetic recruiting staff and they would be in the top 5 or so annually. Hell, Harbaugh finishes around 11 and half his staff sucks at recruiting. Harbaugh hired people that are like himself, old and stuck in their ways.