Ross Taylor-Douglas??

I hate that we keep beating that dead horse, but borderline 5* skill position recruits are getting promises they'll play as freshmen. Not just at Michigan, but nearly everywhere. That's how recruiting goes. He was good enough to get playing time on special teams. He was expected to do the same at DB.

Shane Morris

Justin Turner

Marques Slocum

Demar Dorsey

Kelly Baraka

This is not the type of crap that anyone wants to see. If the man wants more carries, he's gonna have to show JH that he's worthy of them. Publicly, indirectly criticizing the staff's play calling/personnel decisions is no way to see more game action. Probably just solidified his status as third string. Just delete the twitter account for the season...

You don't go public like that...ever.  Better to learn that lesson now rather later when it's an employer.

It is hard to believe but some guys just don't pan out. 

http://umgoblog.com/football/191-2/

There's a list of what happened with some guys from the 1999 recruiting class. Michigan was just 1 year and some change removed from a National Championship when most of these guys were recruited. Unfortunately some guys don't pan out, it's just how college football works. 

Richardson was always considered too small, and he just never grew into a Big Ten player. Green, Magnus among others tried to warn fans about, saying he would need an elite o-line to become a factor. Bosch left for personal reasons after getting put in too early in his career. Even then he showed some promise. Morris, looks like he won't pan out but he missed almost his entire senior year and had questions about accuracy and touch coming in. 

Thomas was a guy who moved positions and is still trying to figure it out. He should have been redshirted, no matter what his ranking said. Honestly Strobel is not a guy who I would have considered a "top" recruit. Not to say he wasn't highly thought of, but many believed he would be solid for Michigan, not a star. Again, some guys just don't pan out. Kalis is still putting in time and could become an All-Big Ten lineman. 

Anyways for comparison sake, let's look at the 1999 class(a class brought in right after a National Championship) to a much better situation. And then let's compare them to the class of 2012 so far. 

The 1999 class had 23 commits, one transferred quickly. So we'll count it as 22 and compare 22 to 22. 

7 players from that 1999 class made it to the NFL. 15 total were starters from that class. 20 total contributed in some way. 1 transferred almost immediately(the 23rd one). 1 left after 2 years because of injuries. 1 left because of grade issues.

So far from the 2012 class. 1 is already in the NFL. 17 have been starters, I didn't count Pipkins. 19 have contributed in some way. Bars hasn't done anything yet per se, but he's right there as a two deep guy who could jump in. 2 guys have transferred because of injury(Pipkins, Ringer). I guy because of grade issues(Norfleet).

This is before they have even finished their careers. If you had to guess how many of these guys make it to the NFL, what would you say? Kalis? Bolden? Magnuson? Wormley? Darboh? Chesson? Wilson? Johnson? Henry?

Navarre was drafted 7th rd, Orr signed with the Packers, Lesueur was drafted 4th rd, Williams played for a few teams as an undrafted free agent, Pearson played a few NFL games, Askew was drafted 3rd round, and Bellamy played in a few games in the NFL.  

A lot of the guys from the 2012 class have a lot of potential. If I had to make a guess on how many of these guys play at least a few NFL games or get drafted, I would venture to guess 8 when you include Funchess who was already drafted. Funchess also was drafted higher than any player from that 1999 class. 

I'm not saying that they have been great or even very good. But sometimes I think people expect a ton out of a whole class. Most of a class is going to be contributors or rotation players. Sometimes injuries hit guys who look like they could make a true impact(Pipkins). A lot of lineman just end up on the 2 deep. QBs only play at one time and unfortunately more don't pan out than do. 

I understand that the team as a whole has underachieved, but with good coaching we should see some marked improvement. I think people sometimes think that players will all have some massive impact, when that just isn't the case. Again most guys just turn into rotation guys and become solid contributors. Some guys don't even do that. Again Richardson, Morris, Green, Thomas had question marks coming in. People just like to overlook stuff like that sometimes. 

And a lot of these guys were forced into roles too early, but that's a complete different topic for conversation. If guys who were being put onto a winning team with a set system and depth back in 1999 weren't panning out, what makes people think the classes now would fare better by throwing some of these guys out there earlier than they should be because of lack of depth/talent/etc.