Top Recruits are Loving the South Africa Trip
Nothing too Earth-shattering here, but Steve Lorenz caught up with some of our top 2020 and 2021 recruits and asked them for their take on Michigan's spring trips. Lots of love for the fact that they'll get to take trips like this in the future.
As noted in the last string, it seems that this is an especially lure for 2020 5-star QB JJ McCarthy. LINK.
Traveling the world and not having to pay a dime. How could they not be estatic?
I believe this is a fantastic recruiting pitch.
These trips are fantastic and anyone who thinks they are dumb is mentally unstable.
"Harbaugh should take them to Columbus instead!"
Like scUM, we can expect Sparties of poor taste and little imagination (i.e., many of them) to overuse that joke.
There are at least a dozen posters on this board able to log in/create new accounts just to type that comment.
Nah, that joke would be that Harbaugh should take them to Indianapolis because they sure won't see it due to their play on the field.
We all know what SWILL is ...
After our next football loss (hopefully not for awhile), you know we'll see some awesome "Maybe they should have PREPARED FOR THE SEASON instead of going on VACATION!!!" takes.
I find you mentally unstable.
I find my stable very mental!!!
So you're unstably mental? Or Stably unmental?
Kenny Stabler liked metal?
Sure. He had a fondness for Whitesnake.
Big Hair Band... not to be confused with metal... or Big House.
I am mentally unstable and I think these trips are smart
Warning, Freep link.
Most of the people we hated at the Freep are gone, so I think it's safe to post those links again.
I hear you and I like Nick B's stuff most of the time, but they never apologized for the '09 atrocity and even today they're more sensationalistic and click-baity than other papers (like the DetNews).
Yep, sorry, I don't read or click on Freep links, and I know a lot of people who feel the same way. They inappropriately attacked our university and never owned it.
Do you have a link to the freep article that turned everyone against them?
It's probably pretty hard to find now. The article in question ran in late August, 2009.
Apply that logic to everything you read and pretty soon there will be nothing left to read.
I've always been an easy-going guy, so like, its very easy for me to forgive/forget stupid stuff that I have no impact over. And its probably healthier too (mentally, spiritually, and physically).
That said, it *is* impressive the amount of dedication some people can muster. Like when chicks literally don't talk to each other for YEARS over things. Like, "damn, that's bad for you, and you should probably reconcile. . . But i admire the dedication."
@tasnyder01 I think the fact that I have gone this long without reading any of their crap is a pretty good indication that they really don't have anything worth reading anyway, or that I can't find somewhere else. In other words, I've found them very easy to ignore. If the WSJ ever pissed me off like the Freep did, I don't think I could hold out.
I am right there with you. In addition, the same is true with WJR. After they pulled the rug out from under U-M, I never went back. They don't want me, then I don't want them. WWJ is much more useful for the morning drive anyway (important when schlepping up and down 75 between Flint area and Troy everyday).
Holding strong with you Autostocks.
The writer is also Steve Lorenz. Probably one of the most trusted UM writers out there.
I agree with Jasper on the sensationalistic angle. But what really frustrates me with the Freep is how it has become a shell of itself. For decades it was one of the biggest and most respected papers in the country. Now it's "USA Today: Detroit Edition." Also, they just raised the price (where I live anyway) to $2.50 PER DAY!! Who the hell is going to pay that much for a paper containing so little?
Could you please tell me what decades the Detroit papers were any good?? It’s been a pile of dong for as long as I can remember(upper 30s). When the Toledo Blade blows out the Detroit papers for some time that’s say something about those two.
Nope
#neverforget
This is a tremendous lifetime experience for these Student - Athletes. As parent of a student athlete, these kids sacrifice a great deal to train and compete in their sport and miss out on some experiences. PO'd though! At her upcoming graduation, students who had the opportunity to study abroad are provided a sash, athletes get nothing. Kids are very upset.
I think these are brilliant trips. Yes, I'm sure they don't hurt recruiting. But what do we really want for college kids? It's not like they are taking a road trip to Vegas for girls and gambling. They're going to historical and culturally relevant places. A late teen/early 20 something going to Robben Island? Fantastic.
Not only do I think Michigan should keep doing them I think it would be better if other schools picked up the practice.
I would love it they do head to Vegas for girls and gambling. It shows they have initiative, drive for achieving what they want. And some hard life lessons down the road as well :D
The problem might arise if I am asked to fund that. (Admitted my little ones are still little, so.)
Sounds like an SEC, Clemson or OSU "educational" trip.
I agree, and I wish more programs would start doing this. I had the opportunity to study abroad during my time at MSU (didn't get a sash for it though unfortunately) and it was an amazing experience. I would definitely recommend studying abroad to any student who has the opportunity, and it would be really cool if athletes got the opportunity given how much time they put into their sport.
In case anybody thinks that international travel is a ridiculous waste of time for athletes that nobody else at UM does, this is from the Stamps School of Art curriculum overview:
"Students are required to participate in a Stamps School approved international experience during their undergraduate study. The experience need not be credit bearing, but must occur after the student has matriculated."
I suspect Stamps isn't the only school or program at UM with this requirement.
I'm an art school grad (many centuries before the Stamps name was barnacled to the school) and there were no such requirements when I was in school. It's a very different academic world now, and Harbaugh should be congratulated for giving his players this opportunity.
I think an even bigger congratulations, and thanks, should be given to the donors who are paying for these trips. I believe both the France and Italy trips were (to my knowledge) funded entirely by private donors. I imagine the South Africa trip is funded the same way.
Harbaugh may have had the idea, but he didn't write the check. Without these donors, these trips don't happen unless Harbaugh decides to cut the check himself.
"BuT HarBaUgH Is DoiNg ThiS fOR AtTenTIon"
I don’t understand the caps/no caps thing? What’s the scoop?
It's a way of mocking the phrase you're typing.
How about bottom recruits?
Their reactions are coming in pretty muffled for some reason.
To show how beaten down I've been feeling about our FB recruiting "successes" of late, my initial quick scan of the thread title registered in my pea brain as "Top Recruits are Leaving the South Africa Trip." I figured WTF else can go wrong! Thank goodness I re-read the post.
Yes, I remember the bad headlines from last December as well:
*Michigan signs Big Ten's top recruiting class
*Michigan signs Big Ten's top class for the first time since 2005
*Michigan Adds Big Ten's Top Recruiting Class During Early Signing Period
You're going to draw in Maizen to remind you about all the 3 and 4 star recruits that make up the class...
No problem whatsoever with these trips, and I know they'd be a huge selling point for me if I was a recruit. I don't really understand the bitching at this point.
-They don't cut into practice time. If they did then I'd understand. But they're already done with spring ball. Are they not entitled to a little down time after months of practice and preparation?
-Harbaugh's not out there begging the AD to pay for these excursions, or siphoning the funds from some other sport. From my understanding, these trips are funded entirely by volunteering, extremely generous, very well-to-do alums. If they don't want to pay for the trips anymore, they're entirely within their rights to stop cutting checks.
-These are experiences that many players on this team, and future teams, would otherwise never have had the chance to take, whether it was for financial reasons or whatever it was. Get to see parts of the world they may otherwise never get to see, experience things they may otherwise never even knew existed. I consider myself relatively traveled, but even I'm pretty jealous of these guys.
-This is a teaching experience. Yes, its also a vacation, but don't pretend you can't learn shit about yourself and the world around you on a vacation.
Yeah I wish we'd beat OSU too, but let's not pretend these vacations are in any way correlated to our success, or lack thereof, against OSU. They can mock Michigan all they want for taking these trips (why they would, I don't know), but you know if Meyer organized one of these, they'd be gargling all over his ballsack for it, telling the world how much he's changed since his days at Florida, how much he cares about the "Student" in student-athlete, blah blah blah.
Yup. And going international is a huge thing. I firmly believe that it grows you as an individual.
France. Rome. Now South Africa. All excellent. It makes me excited over where they will go next.
I believe next three are - Rio, Sydney, London. But I'm not positive.
I think these trips are brilliant. And not from a recruiting standpoint. From a 19-22 years old getting to see a part of the world they may never have. There's just no way any of these guys come back worse off because of it.
I think most people would be blown away at the schedule the guys on the football team maintain. Yeah for the most part they aren't taking a grueling course load. But I can't think of another sport where if you aren't - *required - to spend 3 hours a day in the gym - you are strongly encouraged to do so. That is year round. From mid August to mid December I would imagine their day involves 12 hours of time minimum between school, practice, video study, and training. This travel reward is warranted.
Did this thread get edited or something? I see people talking about others bitching about the trip but none of the said bitching? Mods clean it up?
They're referring to criticism in other times and places, not here.