Michigan Recruiting History Question

Over the last couple of years I have found myself in arguments that I'm sure many of you have with friends, neighbors, family and co workers.    A complaint or argument I have heard from many of the old guard was 

1.  We need more size on defense, you need to stop the run like Bo and Mo and Lloyd for the Big Ten.

2. We need better recruits, Michigan should have their pick of All Americans like we used to.  We used to have All-Americans playing 3rd string.(Most were smart enough to realize times are different with scholly limits and it's just a different time). 

I'm not claiming to know the answer here just my observation and I'd like to hear from the Michigan family on their perceptions or actual knowlege as I think both are kinda myths.

1.  As I go thru my Michigan history in my head, I was too young for the early 70's but I recall in Bo's book about the walk on D. Werner playing nose guard at 190lbs and using his quickness to disrupt the offense.   When he talked about this Orange Bowl team they talked about how big Oklahoma was and all the 1st rd draft picks and how they had to fight to overcome this.  When they played Auburn in the Sugar Bowl they tell the story about how Bo Jackson laughed at how small we were until he was beat to a pulp from a thousand bee stings.  The most iconic players from the 80's were probably Messner and Hammerstein who were tiny for dlineman.  I can't really recall a giant beef eater on defense until we got G. Watson.   I'm sure we had some decent size guys on the line over time, but they never stood out that much to me.  So have we really always been an undersized defense based on speed and toughness?

2.  When people talk about Bo and maybe downgrade him a little bit or they are nostalgic for the old days of 10-1.  I hear how Michigan just out talented and out executed other teams and Bo was not that much a "schemes" guy.   I started thinking in my head of all the #1 picks and All Americans Michigan had and you know I it felt like we were a little low in that department compared to other high profile teams.  I looked at our draft history and http://www.drafthistory.com/colleges/m.html#Michigan and we didn't have many players with outstanding pro careers.  See if you think the same looking at our list.  Many of Bo's high profile pro guys like Dierdorf and Mckenzie weren't his recruits.  In his books he often talked about how he hated the "me" 1st studs like George(right) and Spielman (wrong).  So I know recruiting sites weren't around, but was Bo the king of the "3 stars" and just coached the fuck out of them with the mantra The Team The Team The Team really being true?   Or is this just my perception and it was just a different time?  Was there any buzz that Bo had to land this Leach kid?   How did Bo snake oil AC out of Florida?

I look forward to your thoughts.

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