Recruiting Staff
With Dudek leaving for Mississippi State, it seems like there's been a ton of additions on the recruiting staff department. Did Dudeks job just get split into a few jobs, did we get a recruiting department with many positions, or is it more that other positions got renamed to be more in line with recruiting?
From the staff directory, this is what I see as recruiting positions:
DeRuyter, Christina - Director of On-Campus Recruiting & Operations
Jones, Tony - Recruiting Operations Coordinator
McElwain, Jerret - Assistant Recruiting Coordinator
Morgan, Courtney - Director of Player Personnel
Hopefully now we don't misspell anyone's name :/
That was a blessing in disguise and we still got screwed
Aashon Larkins was promoted to Director of Recruiting.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/aashon-larkins-promoted-director-recruiting
So another. They still have him listed as Special Teams Analyst in the mgoblue staff directory so that's why I didn't list.
I don't believe Michigan has made that move official yet. He changed his twitter bio though.
Per Freep.com
The Wolverines have promoted Aashon Larkins to director of recruiting, a program spokesperson confirmed. Larkins recently changed his social media accounts to include his new title.
If it's in the freep I don't believe it.
Sorry Aashon!
Is that pronounced "A-ashon"???
Haha-awesome Key & Peele reference. I work with an A-aron and we always laugh about this.
Hey pokemon friend. Would love to exchange info with ya so we can coordinate raids and maybe attempt our lucky trades.
989-430-9279
Brandon Stevenson
Interesting strategy.
Basically the setup is this:
Courtney Morgan (DPP): handles all roster management and oversees recruiting department; in a corporate sense he's the SrVP / ExecVP for Roster Management; he sets strategy and overall goals, establishes and maintains VIP relationships with certain High Schools and hotbeds
Aashon Larkins (DirRec): Manages offers, preliminary scouting for ass't coaches, ensures "target boards" are established for each position & region, assists with ass't coaches hosting players on campus (personal connections); primary person in charge of watching / managing transfer portal
Tony Jones & Jerret McElwain: help ass't coaches & Dir Rec break down film and do "grunt work" of assembling target boards and evaluating recruiting profiles, etc.
Christina DeRuyter: Handles all logistics and planning for on-campus visits; faculty interactions, coaching meetings, parent wrangling, student hosts, etc.; maybe responsible for interacting with academics / admissions (trying to get that confirmed)
Thank you, this helps a ton. Did we have these positions before, or are we just now reading about them since there are new names?
Morgan's position is new. Interestingly, OSU has had someone like him for a while. Someone who can recruit but also can help current students plan for their post-football life (at least those who are not drafted).
Michigan has had an entire staff of people help post-football. They pair players up with professionals who are already in their field to allow them to see what life is like in their chosen major. But their involvement in recruiting was passive, typically only presenting to parents/recruits on campus.
Thats great to know...we need to copy exactly what OSU is doing, since we have fallen so far back from them in the rivalry. Historically when either power slipped, the other held it back up in a fashion.
The only way for us to copy them is to win B1G championships, get into the playoffs and win a NC. Our only hope is that the NCAA expands the playoffs to 8 to 16 teams and we can get rid of these super programs like Alabama, Clemson and OSU.
Did we have these positions before, or are we just now reading about them since there are new names?
I also have this question. Seemed like Dudek was in charge of most of those things unless I'm misinformed
Thats what sparked me to make this post. Based on all social media and stuff that I knew about recruiting, it was always just Dudek
“Did we have these positions before” is kind of difficult to answer.
Dudek oversaw the entire recruiting department. He had people who worked under him that performed a variety of tasks that are similar to these positions. These were all things that we were doing already, there just wasn’t necessarily a job title for it. It was just up to Dudek to divide duties up amongst his subordinates and manage the whole process. So it’s important to note that while Dudek was responsible for all of this getting done, he wasn’t the only one doing it.
What these moves essentially do is separates each of the tasks into its own “department” with its own department head that oversees that specific task instead of one guy overseeing EVERYTHING.
A much more organized and streamlined process this way. Each department has its own focus that all ties in together in the end.
Makes sense. I think it's nice that everything will be organized. I'm sure it didn't fall on Dudek for any recruiting issues we had in the past, but it sure seemed like it was all him with his name being the only one thrown around.
Great breakdown. +1
Isn’t Morgan also meant to head up the Name and Likeness stuff when that all starts to happen?
Who's responsible for processing recruits or non-committable offers? #Crootin
Thanks for the clarification. It’s a big job and not unlike having an HR department on steroids. I worked for a company of around 200 people, not unlike a football team, and we had an HR department of about 1.5 people. We didn’t have 100% turnover of core staff every 4-5 years and we certainly didn’t scour the nation (along with all the other player in our market space) for the best talent.
You should get all the points.
New Defensive coaching staff, overhaul of the Recruiting Dept., new pieces on the Offensive coaching staff.
Harbaugh and the Football program as a whole are trying to improve. They're trying.
You can argue whether or not you feel JH is the answer at HC. Maybe he's not. His record in the games that matter isn't great, obviously.
But he and the program are trying. I, for one, am behind that. And I'm riding until the wheels fall off. But they haven't yet. Go Blue.
I'm with you... I wasn't a fan of his continuing on as coach, but I'm greatly relieved to see the changes and effort put into improving the program. I was worried that he'd stand still to the extent possible, but it's been everything BUT that! There are real changes in defense and recruiting, and it appears that some change to the offensive structure was executed, as well.
What happens on the field this Fall will determine his fate. Any success will keep him here, but that won't necessarily be enough to bring naysayers (I must include myself in this category) to his side. I'm not setting a won-loss expectation for myself, I'll be content to see the team play hard, play aggressive, and play to fucking win. There's a brand new defense with young players - lets see what it looks like. While I think it'll be okay, we'll (probably) be able to tell if it can be good later on if it's not early. The real tell to me will be offense. Can't speak for everyone, but I need to see meaningful change in the way the offense plays football. If the offense looks like what we've expected the last few years (aggressive use of playmakers across the field), I'll be okay with poor results. But if it looks like the last 7 years of Harbaugh offense, I'm done.
There's a good start with the staff and management structural changes, lets hope it translates to better football on the field.
I have hopes, but they are tempered by recent history. I expect them to play with desire and look like they are prepared. I’ve been following Michigan football since 1945 but became so disheartened by the debacle in Madison in 2019 that I’ve not watched a complete game since.
I think the argument to make is why are they just now trying. We couldn't get our recruiting department in line with OSU 7 years ago.
I hear you, but maybe Harbaugh thought he was just a few plays and players away from OSU twice.
Maybe it took until the disaster of last year for him to understand that he's light years behind and is bringing in a modern recruiting department, with talented, young, hungry coaches.
I'm sure there's a lot that goes into it. Did him taking the pay cut this year allow for more of these recruiting positions to be made? I doubt there was a money issue with UM, but....could there have been?
Whether or not these changes will achieve the desired results remains to be seen, but what Harbaugh has done this off-season is light years from the "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" cliché that some people pull out.
The wheels absolutely fell off last season. Watch highlights of even the 2019 OSU game, then watch highlights (lowlights?) of last year's Wisconsin game. An incredibly embarrassing show of effort and desire. 2008 Rich Rod 3-9 season was ugly, but at least they played hard and for each other.
I forget where I read it, but someone nicely put it this way: Michigan fired Jim Harbaugh and replaced him with Jim Harbaugh.
We are post 8-6 Hoke season
or
We are post 7-5 Hoke season
Offensive coaching is broken until they prove otherwise. I dont want this but our offense is a mess and has been a mess. Glad for the bump in recruiting and itll really help 2023 and beyond.
Who’s in charge of the cash payments to the recruits’ family members?
Ronald McDonald.
The employers of said family members.
My long term question is who is going to replace Greg Harden, the everything counselor, “dad” with an office, career coach, sounding board, etc. He’s got to be nearing retirement age.
He did retire.
It's hard to recruit against a school that has this exciting activity going on in its elevators:
I’m not tall but thank God I’m long or I’d never reach the penthouse floor.
I could click those buttons while standing in the back of the elevator.
I can type my phone number from the atrium.
I don’t have an answer to your question but i think this is harbaugh’s way of a last ditch effort to save the recruiting. The early sheen has worn off so now it’s time to apply more resource.
Couple that with the Weiss hire and it’s easy to root for Jim knowing he’s made changes every step of the way in order to try and fix Michigan. Now we just need admissions to mimic this behavior.
I think Harbaugh got depressed after the 2017 season and has been coasting, thinking he could pick up an NFL gig. Well, those NFL gig days are over for him. Now it is time to bring back the 2015-2016 Harbaugh!
Did anyone else click this thread to see if it should have been tagged as Meta?
I believe there was an unwritten agreement with Harbaugh taking less money that there would be more money invested into recruiting.