Take a Break from Recruiting News

Submitted by Ziff72 on

I think we need to take a break from recruiting news.  I'm not giving up on A. Walls, D. Cooper, S. Watkins etc. because of a negative report,  verbal commitment or "trimmed list".

In RR's 3 years he has proven he can close strong and if he's retained and we have a good bowl performance the mojo can turn quickly.

So stop jumping off the ledge with every piece of news, these kids are being blasted with negative recruiting against Michigan and I think reacting accordingly.  This thing has a long way to go and no matter who the coach is we will flip some guys late.

aaamichfan

December 14th, 2010 at 11:11 PM ^

How can I take a break from recruiting when Dave Brandon keeps me up all night worrying!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

WE'RE LOSING RECRUITS AND HE DOESN'T CARE!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!1

expatriate

December 14th, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^

Any commitment at this point has to come with a grain of salt.  Each one of them is suspect to change depending on if RR is retained.  If he is, then great.  If not, we will have tracked all of this for nothing, and have to switch our focus to which players the team is able to hold onto. 

I don't think any of us can help giving a read to some recruiting news, but one can't get anything close to invested in it at this stage.  Things are even more up in the air than they usually are at this point in the year.  There is even a chance that if RR is retained, that some players who went elsewhere because they were uncertain about his future could come back into the fold.  

Umich4Life

December 15th, 2010 at 1:14 AM ^

 Quite a refreshing perspective to things but you have to admit we're at about Defcon 3 with the program.  I just don't see how changing coaches in Jan is gonna help things.  Gotta push through, get the players healthy, and bring our redshirts onto special teams and backup roles.  Let's pray RR has formulated a batch of extra-strength snake oil, he always seems to pull some signing day wizardry.   

AnthonyThomas

December 15th, 2010 at 1:19 AM ^

My theory on why we risk our livelihoods upon good recruiting news is that recruiting is the only part of college football that fans can look at and quantify and decide what the future of their program looks like based on the commit list. This is a ludicrous phenomenon, for a number of reasons, considering Mike Hart was a 3* recruit and Kevin Grady was a 5*. Also, if Zettel commits, we have three DE. Jack Miller is a DE who we've recruited as an OL. Add Zettel and we'll have six linemen committed. Not one of them could be converted to play DT? Ezeh was recruited as a RB, Cam Gordon was a 4* WR, Quinton Washington was an OL, William Campbell was a DL, etc. Players switch positions all of the time.

The paranoia surrounding recruitment is like predicting a national champion based on preseason polls. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have had Auburn and Oregon in the title game and I'm pretty sure we can't predict how recruiting classes will turn out.

Bluestreak

December 15th, 2010 at 1:34 AM ^

People switch positions all the time - but how much of that is attributed to there being not enough talent in the position of need compared to genuine interest in playing a new position.

Recruiting true position players over converts is a good idea in general.

Also - Obi Ezeh is a really good example of why we should recruit natural position players than make them switch posiitons at this level.

burtcomma

December 15th, 2010 at 10:13 AM ^

We have more talent at their recruited position and have a need elsewhere or the two guys in front of them on the depth chart means they are not going to get much playing time but they are good kids and good athletes that we want to get on the field or .......

Evaluating talent from high school that is 17-18 years old and then knowing exactly what that talent is going to look like at the college D-1 level at 21-23 years old  is an art, not a science.

As a thought, take a look at the professional teams for the NFL that have a ton more money, a much larger body of accomplishment to look at (3-4 years of college football) and still strike out on draft day or draft a back-up at a major college (Cassel) and the guy turns into gold.  Some organizations do a much better job at evaluating talent and players than others.  True in the NFL and in college as well.

Lots of complicated and non-scientifically measureable things go into the total make-up of complex humans who play football, and thus all the ranking and what not in the world represent only what a group of people think, and boy have many groups of people been wrong both at the college and pro level many a time.

Tater

December 15th, 2010 at 1:33 AM ^

No matter whether you folllow it casually or are into it like Tom VH, following recruiting gives little "shots" of hope for the future.  Sometimes those shots turn out to be cheap rotgut and sometimes they age into a fine Napoleon Brandy, but they are always intoxicating.

LB

December 15th, 2010 at 7:59 AM ^

get worked up about it. On the other hand, it might matter, so I am thankful for those people that spend the majority of their waking hours worrying.

NYCJHGoblue

December 15th, 2010 at 1:44 PM ^

there are two options:

1) Ignore the recruiting process entirely and just find out who actually signs on signing day

OR

2) Follow recruiting during the entire process and ride the roller coaster!