In-State OT Caleb Tiernan commits to Northwestern
This is a loss for the staff, given he was a priority for them. He was a generic 3*, the #32 offensive tackle in 2021 in the 247 composite. In their most recent re-rank, 247 dropped him to the #53 offensive tackle. So star gazers should display no alarm.
Michigan is the crystal ball leader for David Davidkov, with 100% of picks for #19 OT and #144 player overall. And of course they already have a commitment from #10 OT and #71 player overall Giovanni El-Hadi. They continue to recruit 5* Nolan Rucci, and Sam Webb believes they have a chance, but all crystals balls there are either for PSU or Clemson.
March 28th, 2020 at 12:26 PM ^
Hopefully we cooled on him, but given what’s going on this doesn’t seem very important.
March 28th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
Yep pretty much, no on gives a F about some kids college choice right now! I’m worried about keeping my job and keeping my health care working wife healthy!
A lot of people do. His parents, the coaches whose job it was to recruit him, the writers who write about this for their livings, and yeah, some people on a blog who need a little distraction.
I hope you and your wife stay happy and healthy in this time. It's a time to care about each other, not for negativity. All the best.
Why are you reading and posting about this then?
Cut him some slack. He came into this thread only to get directions on how to get away from this thread.
Maybe a sports blog isn’t the healthiest place for you in these trying times then bud.
March 28th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
Steve Lorenz at 247 is and has been adamant that he was a priority for the staff, they absolutely did not cool on him.
Re. importance, of course, you could post this in every thread. This is some escapism/distraction - it's a sports blog, and people here are choosing to continue to discuss and contribute. A reminder of its relative importance vs. the pandemic isn't necessary.
March 28th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
According to some, sports are gone for good. So nope, none of this matters at all. Who knows maybe this is a good thing, place our focus on more important stuff. Maybe pay our healthcare workers millions, instead of some athlete?
This maybe isnt the blog you are looking for right now.
1. Sports are not gone for good.
2. If they were, that would have nothing to do with how much healthcare workers are paid.
Your post was bad, you should feel shame.
Good luck Blue. We are all under extra stress right now to varying degrees.
I worry about my daughter who has been reassigned to be a “hot boss” in her hospital where she works. I had to use my connections to get her a mask. They would not give her one in her role. Her role is stand outside Covid rooms and orchestrate traffic. God bless the healthcare workers right now.
I enjoy the distraction and look forward to the day we play sports again. It’s good for the soul.
What’s a hot boss?
The nurses in charge of overseeing the protective gear is put on and taken off correctly.
It’s like being a hallway monitor in a dangerous and chaotic setting. Making sure people understand which rooms are infected and who and what comes and goes.
They are shutting down certain departments. Cardiac rehab, pulmonary, physical therapy for example and redirecting those human resources towards the workflow needs.
March 28th, 2020 at 10:05 PM ^
and how do we get these millions to pay these healthcare workers? Make health insurance even more expensive?
Healthcare workers aren’t paid by insurance companies. Insurance rates are high in part because of the insurance industry’s desire to make mega profits.
Theoretically, though not how capitalism would work, you could just replace insurance companies with a non-profit option and the excess cash go towards paying healthcare workers.
The money is there. The money is there in EVERY industry. You just have to look at who is taking the profits in and how much it is.
Didn’t have the grades and had to settle for a school with less stringent academic standards?
March 28th, 2020 at 12:31 PM ^
This is not good. This is the shit that makes me really wonder how Harbaugh is viewed on the recruiting trail. Losing priority (in State) 3 stars to Northwestern is not a good look. If Michigan can't keep these kids at home, there will be no progress made.
March 28th, 2020 at 12:42 PM ^
We get a 3-star: "Why the fuck are we, MICHIGAN, going after 3-stars. Terrible look. This kid is going to suck. HArbaugh TRASH!"
We don't get a 3-star: "WTf?! We are MICHIGAN fergodsakes! Can't believe we aren't getting these 3-stars! HaRBaWW TRASH!"
I hate our fanbase.
You can hate them if you want but I certainly understand the collective disappointment in our recruiting. I don't think anyone, Harbaugh included, expected us to lag this far behind OSU on the field and in recruitment 5 years into his tenure.
Yesterday OSU landed the #1 RB in the country and today we lost out on in state OL target to Northwestern.
I definitely get why people are unhappy with recruiting and definitely don't hate them for being disappointed.
At this point it's just become about how deeply you want to lash yourself. All this "we never would have expected this 5 years in" stuff is nonsense. It's a way of over-dramatizing. I was hoping Harbaugh would be a Meyer-level coach here, and he has not yet been. That was probably a silly expectation though, that he'd be one of what is probably a Top 5 coach all time in CFB.
Michigan isn't at OSU's level. They had Tressel then Meyer and in terms of football they've been getting better and better since 2006. They're Alabama level now, and Alabama is the best program in college football history for this stretch they've been on. So yeah, Ohio State is better than they've ever been. Harbaugh had to dig out of the worst period in Michigan football history. And for my money, he's had some bad luck.
But lashing yourself because Michigan isn't as good as Ohio State at its best level ever is a choice you continue to make in self-immolation. Yeah I know in your youth they were. But then a bunch of people made shit decisions for about a decade and it takes a little while to get out of that. Harbaugh's taken the team from dogshit to respectable. Getting to Top5 level is going to take a little longer.
Common now let's be honest with ourselves. If on the day he was hired in 2014 I posted a thread predicting that in the next 5 years we will not beat OSU once and that we'll allow over 60 points in back to back to back years, won't make the B1G title game once and will be 1-4 in bowl games you don't think I'd have gotten absolutely HAMMERED with down votes? Really?
I don't disagree with your overall assessment BTW on the state of things and why we're here. And I definitely am not calling for him to be replaced.
I just said I get why people are disappointed. And if I give you truth serum I think you do too.
You don't post because you get why people are disappointed. You post shit on the program and Harbaugh because you believe making other people feel bad will make you feel better.
You NEVER jump in on posts that are good news in terms of recruiting or football updates. You ALWAYS jump in on posts that are bad news. That's how I know the above.
You don't apply any context. Michigan was the better team in Columbus in 2016, and that's the first time we've been able to say that in this series in 20 years. They were also the better team in Ann Arbor in 2017, at every position except the disastrous 3rd string QB. In terms of coaching, Harbaugh deserved wins in both games. I can look at that, understand context, apply it, and judge accordingly. You'll say something like "the final score is all that matters" and I tune unreasonable people like that out. The weird kick off against FSU to end the game was horribly bad luck. Getting matched up against Alabama this year in a bowl game was terribly bad luck - I think we beat Auburn, which is a team on Michigan's level. If Maryland completes a pass to a wide open WR against Ohio State, Michigan would have had a B1G title last year. Yeah, it's a couple of plays away from 2 B1G titles in 5 years.
Yeah, you don't want him to be replaced, right. You just want to dance on Michigan's football grave at every opportunity. Probably half of your upvotes over the last few years have come from OSU trolls on this site. Think about that for a moment.
Wow you're really angry over this one. But I couldn't help but notice you never answered my rhetorical question about program expectations being met or falling short so I'll ask a different question (and I don't expect you'll want to answer this one either).
Is the gap between the two programs shrinking or getting wider right now? We have a "top 5 college HC" and Meyer is gone, replaced by a guy whose never been a HC at any level prior to last year.
So are we closer to them right now than we were at the end of the 2018 season when Meyer left or further away? I'm genuinely curious how you see things right now.
More over-dramatizing nonsense. You could have coached OSU last year and gone 11-1.
Already answered expectations in the first post, "I was hoping Harbaugh would be a Meyer-level coach here, and he has not yet been. That was probably a silly expectation though, that he'd be one of what is probably a Top 5 coach all time in CFB."
Your case is that 3-4 years ago Harbaugh couldn’t beat OSU with more talented teams? I don’t understand what point your trying to make.
Focusing on the present, are we better now than we were in 2016? Recruiting better? Winning more division titles? To ignore that we are in a lull and/or backsliding, and at the very best, do not have an upward trajectory is just not being honest.
*you're
You don't care about arguments, you just want to be angry. Don't care if you choose to be this unhappy about a sport that you should watch for fun.
You’re soo pedantic, you really got me there. There was nothing angry in my post at all but I see you didn’t answer the question.
We were the better team in 2016 and 2017? That's the most homer opinion I've ever heard, especially 2017 when Dwayne Haskins tore our defense to shreds. Games aren't won in halves.
Also we were better than them in 2003, 2004, 2011.
Plus if you think we were the better team in 2016 how can you say "it's going to take him a while to dig out of that"? That contradicts itself.
You haven't heard many homer opinions. The view that Michigan was the better team in 2016 and had the game stolen by refs is very common. The team being everywhere on the field except for the 3rd string QB - which is what I said - is also quite common. Harbaugh outcoached Meyer that day, had a brilliant game plan. Most people know that. If either of the top two QBs play, that's a win. Read the game summaries on this very site.
No contradiction unless you're arguing just to argue. 2016 would have been one of the greatest coaching jobs in college football history of Harbaugh had taken Michigan to the playoff in just his second year (after the disasters of Richrod and Hoke). That would have been incredible. But you don't dig out of the worst period of a program's history that quickly. "It takes a long time to put quality into a program, and it takes a long time to take quality out of a program," is a football saying that's been around forever. That's what I mean.
O rly? Everywhere on the field except QB huh? How about the awesome defense that could do nothing in the second half against a backup QB? Or is that not on Harbaugh even though he's the head coach? Also seeing how Brandon Peters played in the Outback Bowl against South Carolina what makes you think he would have led us to a win against OSU?
Also why have multiple coaches in the 21th century dug their program out of their worst stretches in history but Harbaugh can't? Pete Carroll did it, Bob Stoops did it, Nick Saban did it x2. There is really more evidence against your argument than for. The only coaches to not win the NC in their first four years in the 21st century are Mack Brown and Dabo Swinney. And we sure as hell don't have a Vince Young or Deshaun Watson here.
And if we're "digging out" and supposedly getting better why have Harbaugh's best teams been with Brady Hoke's recruits?
I'm not concerned with convincing you.
The best you can say is they almost didn't lose one game and got their underpants shredded by a (future first round) backup in the second half of another. They're just better, top down..period. It sucks and I hate it, but it's real. They have NFL talent at every position. They recruit as well as anyone. They are easily a top 5 progrummm. We're not
Nobody has argued that Michigan is a Top 5 program.
Putting the team down won't make you feel better about yourself. This is a general life rule - you need better coping skills. Use the relative unimportance of sports to develop them. (Repeat for several posters above)
Who put the team down? The question was about the widening gap between OSU and UM over the last five years
I'm still waiting for his response to that one. If it comes, and I'll bet it won't, it will probably include lots of insults, ad-honim arguments over statements I've never made and multiple straw man hypotheticals and counter-factual historical revisions.
Seems easy enough to me though. Are we closing the gap or is it getting bigger?
March 29th, 2020 at 10:08 AM ^
Comparing Michigan 5 years after its worst period in history to OSU which is in its best period in history is foolish. I've covered that above. Michigan is both massively improved from 5 years ago thanks to Harbaugh, and further behind Ohio State. This means... 1) Michigan started 2015 about a decade behind OSU, and 2) OSU's improvement curve has been steeper than Michigan's. They've been incredible in terms of football. But that's all obvious, and you've found a couple of fellow angry boys to join you in crapping on the program. Several Michigan fans crapping on the program, on a Michigan blog, attacking another Michigan fan who's positive about the program. This would never happen on an OSU site. Maybe you're part of the problem? I don't think fans affect win/loss records but the negativity you bring can't help.
I think Harbaugh will prove you wrong. When he does, guys like you and the posters above will say something like "they finally did *random generic white guy football comment* that I've been saying they should for years!!!". It's a silly exercise in ego , and how yours has been bruised by these years of losing, and how putting the team down helps you reclaim some (it actually doesnt, but it's a lowest common denominator coping skill to stress).
March 29th, 2020 at 12:51 PM ^
Except we cannot both be "a decade behind OSU" but "the better team in 2016 and 2017" according to you. That's literally like saying 2+2=5.
If we were comparable to them in 2016 in terms of talent and now we are not...that is not improving.
I’m with you on this one. I was ready to type out a response about possibly missing the sarcastic nature of the post before reading further down the comments.
I know I tend to be an optimist.
I read the OP and thought “Good for the kid”, since although the staff really liked him but there also seem to be higher-ranked priorities on the OL - Spindler, Rucci, Davidkov, and (maybe) Dellinger. Plus this is the type of kid you might regret losing to Franklin at PSU or the “new hope” at MSU but can be truly happy for him and Fitz at NW.
PS - I am not willing to put in the effort but suspect that one could pinpoint the exact date when all hope died for MGrowOld based on his posting history. I believe it was late in the Hoke era. (I guess I miss the rag-tag band of hopeful idiots that I remember this place to be during the RichRod years....)
I can pinpoint the exact date and it was way before you think. It was in the 90s back when mgrowold was “recruiting” for Michigan. Once he left, he knew nobody would ever do better than him so it would be all downhill. He is the best at everything after all. He was recruiting for Michigan back when there winning percentage was below .700 and Harbaugh is above .700 against better competition. But don’t let those facts guide you. Just understand that mgrowold is better than Harbaugh and knows more about recruiting.
Of all the things I've said through the years stating that I don't hate our fan base and I understand why they're frustrated may be the funniest thing that enraged my haters.
March 29th, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^
He is absolutely spot on though. I didn't even read his comment until now, but it dovetails nicely with what I wrote above. It's all about who for Michigan fans like you, the bitter, angry ones who crap on the program at every opportunity - while never showing up when things go right.
And yes, your wounded ego fan totem says "Michigan isn't recruiting Ohio like I said they should, that's why they're losing."
I mean it’s not that difficult. The fact that the staff is relegated to going after 3 stars because they can’t get elite guys is bad. The fact they are also missing out on some of those 3 stars they do want to programs like northwestern is also bad
Yes if you ignore the 4* Top100 player they already have committed at the position, and the other 4* Top100 player they lead for in crystal balls at the position.
In terms of OL, they have a top 5 center (Crippen is rated as a guard, but would be a top 5 center as Ace noted in the Hello: post) committed, and a top 10 tackle committed. This is really, really good.
I didn't say that we shouldn't be going after 3 stars. I said it's bad that we can't get in state 3 stars to stay and that we lose them to the likes of Northwestern.
The only thing worse than your reading comprehension is your ability to use logic and possibly your anger issues.
Now, go beat off to your life-sized Jim Harbaugh cutout while wearing the Michigan sweatshirt that you got on clearance from Walmart.
So this makes it look like kids don't like Harbaugh?
I can see a kid looking at the rest of Michigan's commits/targets and wondering if that's the best depth chart for him. Michigan may have wanted him, but he's probably Northwestern's top target and that resonates with some kids. He could do a lot worse than NW, both for football and life after football.
Here's a really radical idea: maybe Northwestern had a program that was the best fit for his goals in ideal non-football career. It does happen. It is also possible that there were factors that we will never know.
Nor so fast Eunice.... can't make it look like we processed him, when he didn't develop as hoped...
March 28th, 2020 at 12:36 PM ^
This isn't a great development, BUT Michigan can still have a very good O-line class without him. IMO (and I said this a week or two ago, before Tiernan committed to Northwestern), the other guys on Michigan's board are all more talented, like Rucci, Davidkov, Spindler, etc. I still think Tiernan is a good prospect, but there are better ones still on the table.
There's been a lot of talk about Michigan taking 4-5 linemen in this class. With two already committed (Crippen, El-Hadi), getting Davidkov and Spindler could very well wrap up the class.