Oregon now favored to land top-100 WR Gatlin Bair
https://saturdayblitz.com/posts/oregon-football-trending-for-elite-2024-wr-gatlin-bair-01hnbt8mq6zj
Originally, he was favoring Michigan. This seems to be an indication that Michigan's NIL is not where it needs to be. Bair has a 3.93 GPA and will be going on a mormon mission for two years. Losing this kind of guy shows how stupid our NIL policy is.
January 29th, 2024 at 11:01 PM ^
Okay.
Edit: My low level comment is in response to a post that I don't think is currently relevant. 1 recruit that isn't a can't miss QB 2 yrs down the line that is "trending" away after we've lost a bunch of coaches is just not worth it.
January 29th, 2024 at 11:11 PM ^
Bair is a receiver. The rest earns my upvote.
January 29th, 2024 at 11:28 PM ^
Yeah? So he's not a can't-miss-QB. Which is what he said.
January 29th, 2024 at 11:29 PM ^
Ah, yes, I see that now. Very good.
January 29th, 2024 at 11:44 PM ^
That was my point and, honestly, it's hard to name 1 of those that did it. JJ for us wasn't that high. And are were a bunch that bust. Bair could fill a current need but just not worth a post here. Oregon fans probably get a little excited, tho.
January 30th, 2024 at 4:58 AM ^
So what are we drinking tonight?
January 30th, 2024 at 8:49 AM ^
Blue Bunny Friday. Jack Daniels Monday.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:42 AM ^
Trying hard but struggling to follow this
January 30th, 2024 at 12:15 AM ^
A lot can happen two years. I think we popped on his radar because we made the playoffs and were a headline CFB program not because he really knows anything about us or would have even considered us given the geography and the type of offense that we run. It’s kind of like recruits putting Bama or Georgia on their lists of top schools. The question really is who doesn’t have Bama or Georgia on their lists. Of course Bair would have had us listed, but not for any good reason other than he can see from the last three years that we are a name brand program. It’s more surprising that we don’t have more hypothetical interest from top notch recruits and Bair isn’t even a solid 5-star.
January 30th, 2024 at 2:03 AM ^
Do you follow recruiting at all???
We didn't "pop" on his radar he visited here several times & was down to Michigan or hometown Boise State and ultimately chose them before decommiting when the coach was fired.
I'm sure there is more that I don't know because I don't follow recruiting that closely but Bair's name has been around for a long time
January 30th, 2024 at 2:42 AM ^
Not really following this particular guy after I saw that he was taking a two year mission. Anything can happen in two years. And if he visited twice then I am wrong about his level of interest but I am still willing to bet that we would not have even popped on his radar if we weren’t having the year that we were having. Then he got serious and set up visits, but not because he had initial interest because he already followed our program.
January 30th, 2024 at 5:03 AM ^
Yeah you’re way off. He took his official visit back in June, obviously well before we had the year we were having. He’s from Idaho and Michigan was really pushing the Colston Loveland connection. That’s what piqued his interest.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:13 AM ^
You, sir, get a thumbs up for the proper use of piqued instead of peaked or peeked. Bravo.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:09 AM ^
But what if his interest peaked? Or he peeked at his interest?
January 30th, 2024 at 11:11 AM ^
Michigan also had an in with him because Gentry also had a mission and then came here and had a good experience.
January 30th, 2024 at 12:05 PM ^
Also we got Gentry I want to say the OL who took a 2 year Mormon trip and committed to Michigan which helped have him talk to another Mormon who went on a trip and came to Michigan after 2 years he could look to him for advice.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:25 PM ^
This information is 100% post worthy. Losing out on a 5 star WR is definitely message board discussion material no matter what the gatekeeping posters on here try to say.
Gatlin was coming. He would've been 20 when he got here. He would've aligned perfectly with our future QB situation. This is a major recruiting loss.
January 29th, 2024 at 11:04 PM ^
Or maybe he really liked Harbaugh and since, ya know, he’s no longer here, changed his mind. The lack of an offensive coordinator and quarterback right now probably doesn’t help either. We aren’t going to compete with Knight, so if that’s why he isn’t coming, so be it.
January 30th, 2024 at 12:57 AM ^
or he doesnt like the offense. oregon had 2 guys with 80 catches, threw for over 4k.
plenty of reasons why prospects dont choose michigan.
harbaugh built a unique team these past few years, at least given michigans constraints like admin/alum culture, weather, regional recruiting, etc. the future big ten will be a battle, particularly in this wild west environment. curious to see how it plays out
January 30th, 2024 at 6:45 AM ^
When you consider that Roman Wilson has 107 catches/1707 yards for his career and Braylon had 97 catches/1330 yards his senior year, it's not hard to see why we don't attract top receiver talent in this offense.
Having said that, as a fan I prefer winning.
January 30th, 2024 at 7:00 AM ^
Here’s the problem. For everything JH did great, and that was a lot, obviously. His passing game was awful. Especially as an ex qb. If Sherrone can increase the air raid by 50%, then receivers will take notice. As of now I don’t blame any elite high school, or transfer wideout to not wanna come here. Now if you’re a RB, this is your school. Sherrone s young and will adapt to the landscape….hopefully.
January 30th, 2024 at 7:02 AM ^
Same goes for TEs and OLs
January 30th, 2024 at 8:18 AM ^
It's like people forget that the number of offensive snaps is fundamentally limited. If you "increase the air raid by 50%," you reduce the running game, or the TE passing game, by....50%. If it's true that our lack of WR usage reduces our WR recruiting (and I think it is), it is ALSO true that our emphasis on the run and TE game helps our recruiting in those areas (and I think it does).
I really don't think it will be possible to have it all. Teams can no longer simply stockpile talent at positions they underutilize (a la 2010s Saban). That model is dead with NIL and the portal.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:59 AM ^
True but if you up pace of play, you can increase the number of plays you run on offense overall, and thus not experience quite the same drop off. No idea if it’s a winning strategy but it’s certainly possible.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:32 AM ^
Which, again, comes with a trade off. Saban specifically mentioned the fact that Michigan huddled and didn't leave them much time before the snap to make adjustments as a significant factor in the game.
January 30th, 2024 at 11:37 AM ^
"It's like people forget that the number of offensive snaps is fundamentally limited."
It isn't as limited as Michigan chooses to make it.
Michigan offensive plays per game: 62.7 (#124 in college football)
Wisconsin average 10 more plays per game.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:16 AM ^
I don't care if Sherrone runs the ball every play of every game, as long as he's winning. I don't get this fascination with increasing the passing game when we're winning B1G and national championships with our current offensive philosophy.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:15 AM ^
Like I said, as a fan, I care about winning more. If we run the wing-T with Orji/Edwards/Mullings this year and kick everyones ass, sign me up.
My answer was pertaining to a thread discussing why a top rated WR would be considering another school instead of Michigan because in their offense, they throw to their receivers.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:45 AM ^
I get it but still have to question the logic. A receiver at Michigan will get the same attention from the NFL as one from Oregon who has twice as many catches. Why not win as much or more, and take fewer hits?
January 30th, 2024 at 11:10 AM ^
You really don't see how a WR would see a pass heavy offense as a better way to market himself for NIL opportunities?
January 30th, 2024 at 11:38 AM ^
"A receiver at Michigan will get the same attention from the NFL as one from Oregon who has twice as many catches."
No, he won't.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:22 AM ^
Air raid? You realize that's an entire scheme, right? I get what you're saying, but I don't agree with it. The only thing Harbaugh's offense was missing was a better designed route scheme, not more passing for the sake of passing. Yes, he was conservative and chose to run on 50/50 downs more often than not. But the offense still averaged 36 ppg.
What I hope for moving forward is not more passing for the sake of passing. I hope they improve the route schemes for a variety of plays so the whole thing is somewhat less predictable. Lets face it - when Bredeson lined up over the LG, we knew Corum was getting the rock and looking left. That's not rocket science...
January 30th, 2024 at 11:16 AM ^
a major part of Michigan's success was that it didn't go to a pass heavy offence and stayed with it's roots as a tough, physical running team. No way should they get away from their character and change to a common passing team.
January 30th, 2024 at 11:29 AM ^
Two of our most dynamic passing games the last 3 years were losses to TCU and MSU. Strange but true. I really think our coaches set the standard at 4 tds were needed and the best way to get there every game. We were almost playing defense on offense. It worked so I cant second guess the results.
January 30th, 2024 at 10:51 AM ^
Sure, but we didn’t prioritize the passing game during Harbaugh’s entire tenure and Gatlin was still interested.
January 29th, 2024 at 11:04 PM ^
Shocking.
We win a national title and it's like recruits think we went 6-6. Coaching change has really ruined the momentum, and I'm sure NIL sucks too.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:18 AM ^
Jim recruited one nfl qb during his 9 year tenure. QBs dont really want to play in his system (Obviously)
January 30th, 2024 at 6:14 AM ^
How much does it matter? The meta game is moving away from QB-centric football. The last 3 national championship teams (UGA x2 and Michigan) have been defined by their line play and defense more than QBs slinging it around.
We may not get the kind of QBs and WRs that Oregon does, but I bet they wish they had our DL or RBs or TEs. They will struggle to recruit THOSE positions because they don't showcase them the way we do. If they had half the DL we do, they'd probably have beaten UW at least once and made the CFP.
I just think it's 6 of 1, half dozen of the other. The era of teams like Bama stockpiling NFL talent at every position (whether they use the players or not) is probably over. Teams will recruit well at the positions they showcase, and they'll struggle at the positions that are secondary within their respective system.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:08 AM ^
Stetson Bennett threw for 4100 yards and 27 TDs his final season at UGA. Thats not slinging it?
Carsen Beck just threw for 3900 and 24 TD his first year starting.
Michigan had a healthy Corum and Edwards though.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:23 AM ^
A ton of those yards would have been to Bowers. Much like us, UGA makes TEs an over-represented portion of their offense. That is to the detriment of WRs getting showcased. There's only so many snaps to go around.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:02 AM ^
Yea but he was talking about recruiting QBs, not WRs, and responding to a post suggesting pass-heavy offenses won’t win championships. Georgia passed for plenty of yards the last few years. Bowers accounted for maybe 25% of that but they also had good WRs, like Pickens.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:38 AM ^
100% Agree!
January 30th, 2024 at 6:29 AM ^
It definitely does feel like even when we take 2 steps forward, somehow we always take at least 1 step back
January 29th, 2024 at 11:05 PM ^
Not sure how much more good news I can take
January 29th, 2024 at 11:48 PM ^
FWIW, we just won the national championship and still haven't lost yet.
January 30th, 2024 at 12:55 AM ^
Michigan fans are acting like our entire program is ruined today because the strength coach is leaving. God damn, we are soft.
January 30th, 2024 at 8:38 AM ^
Just a vocal segment.
January 30th, 2024 at 9:04 AM ^
This.
It’s important to remember the loudest segment, of any group, is usually the dumbest.
January 29th, 2024 at 11:06 PM ^
Not NIL, Herbert was a factor in his recruitment.
January 30th, 2024 at 12:05 AM ^
Seems like a lot of the players and recruits are more broken up about Herbert leaving than even harbaugh.