Champeen

June 24th, 2020 at 3:43 PM ^

About a year ago, i viewed him as one of the most overrated prospects (he was either 5 star or very close to it).  Spindler is the one who i really wanted Michigan to land.

How a year changes things.  Kid developed quite significantly.  Definitely changed my tune - i view this as a loss now.  However, i am also very satisfied with what Michigan has on the OL.

 

Jack Be Nimble

June 24th, 2020 at 12:41 PM ^

Dellinger is technically an in-state prospect but very different from most. As I understand it, he's from a military family that moved around a lot and settled in Michigan quite late. I'm not sure how much of an advantage Michigan actually had here as the in-state school.

East German Judge

June 24th, 2020 at 12:50 PM ^

This is amazing all the excuses people bring up when harbaugh can't keep in-state talent:

  1. the state of Michigan does not produce top talent...."we need to focus elsewhere"
  2. and when the state does produce top talent...."he is overrated"
  3. and when he is not overrated...."he spent his whole life in the state, wants to leave home"
  4. and when he has not spent his whole life here...."from a military family that moved a lot and settled in Michigan quite late"

Quailman

June 24th, 2020 at 1:00 PM ^

I mean, I'm not going to tell you you can't be mad, but I think you have to realize the nuance here. 

Yeah, he's "in-state" because he goes to a MI HS now, but its not like he's been here his whole life and grew up a UM fan. UM didnt lose a kid they really had any advantage with, they just lost a highly rated player. 

Biaka yomama

June 24th, 2020 at 1:31 PM ^

OL is humming so I wont do the 'sky is falling' thing, but it's....odd how we havent locked down the state.  I have the biggest problem with point #1.  As if Michigan can't get 5-7 top in state prospects AND focus elsewhere. 

Hell, the point is Michigan shouldn't have to focus in-state to get these guys.  They should be 5 or so freebies.

JonnyHintz

June 24th, 2020 at 3:53 PM ^

When teams like LSU, OSU, Bama and Penn State can come in and offer the same things you can, if not more, then there’s no such thing as a freebie. 
 

It’s not “odd” at all. These kids have no memory of our last conference title. They’ve never seen us in the CFP and not even a trip to Indy. It’s not odd at all once you remove your bias and look at things objectively. 
 

A kid who spent most of his childhood out of state decided he wanted to go play for the team that just won a national title. It’s really not odd when you stop and realize not every high school kid in the state of Michigan has this lifelong dream to play here.

Casanova

June 24th, 2020 at 2:14 PM ^

Facts can be excuses. They aren’t mutually exclusive. 
 

Michigan needed to lock down the state THIS year and we aren’t doing that. 
 

I don’t like the fact that OSU is sniffing for more OL, just like us. I got a bad feeling about Rocco. (I have no sources) 

Friendly Neigh…

June 24th, 2020 at 5:00 PM ^

The belief in OSU recruiting circles is that the Buckeyes will take 1 more OL in the 2021 cycle. After losing out on JC Latham, the top targets are Tristan Leigh, Jager Burton, Rocco, and Rayshaun Benny (while keeping the door open for a guy like Nolan Rucci, but not expecting much momentum). I think if any one of those guys pulls the trigger, the OL class will be done. Most of the recruiting industry thinks OSU is running no better than 3rd for Spindler right now, and while him pushing back his commitment will give OSU more time to try to move up that list, it could also end up removing OSU from the list if they get a commitment from one of the other guys first.

Tl:dr, OSU wants Spindler, but has an extremely small chance of landing him.

ldevon1

June 24th, 2020 at 2:17 PM ^

This is such a stupid argument. Talent is talent. Get the best person you can for each position regardless of where they are from. How many instate guys have we missed on since Harbaugh has been here that has gone on and been a major contributor at another school that we didn't have a comparable kid in that same class? If you take the top 10 of each class in the state each year and take the kid we got instead and stack them up, you would see he isn't missing much. 2 guys come to mind, Hamler and Weber, and Hamlers class we got 4 higher rated guys. 

ldevon1

June 24th, 2020 at 2:52 PM ^

How much more context do you need? Since Harbaugh has been here, anything he has missed in state he has replaced with comparable or better talent from another state. The year we missed on Weber he got Higdon. You say it's a banner year because of stars. All these guys won't become starters at whatever school they pick. That's just a fact. That's what makes previous years more than relevant. 

Biaka yomama

June 24th, 2020 at 3:12 PM ^

You say it's a banner year because of stars. 

Yes. The kids this year in-state are ranked much higher.  Higher star rankings directly correlate to on field success.  This year was a tremendous opportunity for a record class.

bdneely4

June 24th, 2020 at 3:40 PM ^

Agree with your sentiment here. Amazing how Ohio keeps all their top instate talent and are gaining fans of high school players from states all over. Fact is 2021 was a really good instate year for Michigan football recruiting and we may be lucky to get the top 2 out of 5 players. 

oriental andrew

June 24th, 2020 at 4:35 PM ^

"harbaugh can't keep in-state talent"

Magnus actually did your research on that:

https://touch-the-banner.com/the-fence-the-mitten-project-mitten-complete/

His conclusion?

Nobody has suggested that Michigan should only recruit within the state. It’s an absurd premise, and I understood that from the beginning.

But when people suggest that Michigan needs to recruit more within its borders, I have never really bought that. Michigan is offering the right guys within the state, and I think there’s an argument to be made that they’re already offering too many.

...

With the understanding that Michigan – like any school from any state – will have to deal with invasions from out-of-state schools, and will have to face off with Michigan State, the Wolverines simply have to dig into states with more talent or states where there’s no major pull from within state lines. 

Now go read the rest of the series, by position group. It's a lot of fun. 

UMxWolverines

June 24th, 2020 at 6:04 PM ^

Amazing that now that there are more talented players being poached by other big time schools the last couple years we're now offering "too many" in state players. 

Also amazing that OSU generally keeps the best in Ohio and also finds talented players elsewhere. 

How can you build anything when you can't even lockdown your own state? 

Magnus

June 24th, 2020 at 9:05 PM ^

I don't think you read the post(s), or if you did, you missed the point.

Michigan is offering a significant number of players who go to other schools and do very little, in addition to the ones who come to Michigan and do very little. It's one thing to bomb out at Michigan (high academics, tough football competition, etc.), but it's quite another to be a ho-hum player at Louisville or Marshall or the University of Ohio or Miami-OH or CMU.

UMxWolverines

June 25th, 2020 at 6:11 AM ^

The main issue is they're losing out on the best players to OSU, Wisconsin, Georgia, LSU, and Penn State. 

Offering too many in state guys is a different discussion and not even really relevant to this. I understand that the state of Michigan doesn't produce large amounts of talent past the top ten and that we shouldn't just be taking in state guys just to say they're in state, but we're not even getting the key guys. 

JoeMama11

June 24th, 2020 at 12:41 PM ^

Not a surprise. At one point I thought Michigan had a chance to add Dellinger to the class but that thought abruptly ended when he said he wasn’t gonna take any visits and commit early. 

njvictor

June 24th, 2020 at 12:46 PM ^

Curious where we go from here. Us making a late push for Thomas Cole and Dellinger makes me think the staff definitely wants a tackle to finish off the class. Not sure where that leaves Spindler and Kendall though