USA Today: Michigan One of the "Losers" on Signing Day; WTH?

Submitted by BursleyHall82 on

What the hell am I missing here? It seems like everybody is punishing us simply because we had a small class.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/recruiting/2015/02/04/colleg…

In three weeks, Harbaugh flipped guys from Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, UConn and whatever else I'm missing. He flipped the No. 4 QB in the class. He got four-stars that Florida, Alabama, FSU, Arkansas and ND wanted. How does that make us a "loser"?

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BIG-WEEN-HER

February 5th, 2015 at 11:23 AM ^

Nationally that is the perception.  When an average Joe blow looks at the recruiting rankings and Michigan is ranked #37 it is what it is.  They don't care if we had a small class or hired a new coaching staff.   I noticed Arizona was ranked #42.  I would have thought that he would be getting some blue chippers by now.

Joined: 01/22/2015

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SDCran

February 5th, 2015 at 11:28 AM ^

It is a nationally fluff piece on recruiting. Those guys are all lazy and draw bad conclusions off of other people's dumb rankings.

They talk about the big name schools only because Their job is to get clicks, which worked.

Joined: 01/27/2010

MGoPoints: 4675

SDCran

February 5th, 2015 at 11:34 AM ^

(Also lazy and based off dumb data points)

UM lost no committed guys (2015, at least) since JH was hired
Pulled in a highly ranked QB
Probably found 1-3 other long term starters in the last couple of weeks

They are one solid 4-star from changing my ranking from solid to good.

Joined: 01/27/2010

MGoPoints: 4675

BIG-WEEN-HER

February 5th, 2015 at 11:37 AM ^

I find it interesting that most of the users on this blog think that every media outlet and sports writer is garbage except for Sam Webb and MGOBLOG.  The truth is that most of you can't handle the truth so you lash out at people that report reality.  Michigan could go 0-12 for the next five seasons and Sam Webb would try to paint a pretty picture.  Please stop being jerks just because you can't handle the truth.  It gives us intelligent Michigan fans a bad image.

Joined: 01/22/2015

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CorkyCole

February 5th, 2015 at 12:02 PM ^

Half agree half not. The part I don't agree to is that Harbaughs staff was on the "loser" end of the recruiting gig. I do think there's a bit if an ego issue with the standard mgoblogger's perspective regarding certain media outlets, and while opinions are voiced quite strongly on this one as well, I definitely think Harbaugh's staff did a great job flipping some guys we had (probably) never even heard of prior to a few weeks ago. We lost out on some guys, but that has to be expected with a minimal timeframe to recruit with a new staff (even with Harbaugh's reputation). OTHER THAN THAT... I hear you, man.

Joined: 06/13/2011

MGoPoints: 4498

saveferris

February 5th, 2015 at 12:51 PM ^

Users here are just calling out lazy journalism that is transparently created for the sole purpose of garnering page clicks.  According to USA Today Harbaugh has had just under 2 months to put a class together (when it's actually more like one month), and Harbaugh allowed Mike Weber to flip to OSU (when Weber was decommitted from MIchigan and committed to OSU long before Harbaugh was hired); that's pretty much their whole basis for giving Michigan a failing grade this year.  So yeah, when a newspaper so thoroughly misrepresents the facts to support a position, folks might get pissed.

I find it interesting when posters want to malign other posters for not being able to "handle the truth" without actually specifying to what "truth" they're referring.  Here's some truth about Michigan's recruiting class from Wednesday, on an average ranking basis, Michigan's class is virtually identical to Michigan State's.  Yet in USA Today, MSU is rated a "Winner" and Michigan is a "Loser".  Reason, because guy at USA Today who wrote the article took 30 seconds to look over the overall rankings and drew a lazy conclusion, which is why nobody around here respects that periodical.

Now do I think Michigan should be singled out as a "Winner" in this context?  No, they finished with a good class, but nothing that could be regarded as elite, but I don't think they're "Losers" in this regard either.

Joined: 07/02/2009

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CompleteLunacy

February 5th, 2015 at 1:20 PM ^

So when they all said Harbaugh was never going to Michigan, OF COURSE they were right, and we were STUPID and ARROGANT to think that MGoBlog and Michigan insiders knew better. We were total jerks for calling them out. They were, after all, just telling the truth!

Joined: 11/13/2010

MGoPoints: 12910

UofM Die Hard …

February 5th, 2015 at 11:48 AM ^

We all know JH is a proven leader and knows talent when he sees it.  Who cares about stars and all that shit.  To Brian's point in a post a couple weeks ago, JH has put 2 star guys in the NFL...which are starting.  Our coaching staff is top in the nation.

 

Throw this shit to the side

 

Hail!

Joined: 03/10/2011

MGoPoints: 18329

FrankMurphy

February 5th, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^

In fairness, we did strike out on most of the players who had shortlisted us against other blueblood schools and announced on signing day. I think Shelton Johnson was the only signing day pickup whom we managed to snatch away from another power program (FSU). This was to be expected, though. Harbaugh had two and a half weeks to build relationships with kids who other coaches had been recruiting for months, if not years. And he had to do it while assembling and finalizing his coaching staff, many members of which were coming straight from the NFL and had to acclimate themselves to the recruiting scene. Also, given the last seven seasons, the deck is still stacked against us in terms of on-field success being a factor in a program's recruiting cache. A rockstar coach only gets you so far.

Joined: 08/19/2008

MGoPoints: 31946

turtleboy

February 5th, 2015 at 12:18 PM ^

The USA Today article only raised one of my eyebrows, not my blood pressure. I was surprised that they were surprised this class wasn't 25+ in number loaded with 5star talent. Every reasonable estimate of this years class for months now predicted it would be: fewer than 16 kids, thrown together at the last minute. I actually thought the class Harbaugh put together deserves credit for what he achieved, so the writers obvious disappointment in it makes him look pretty strange. No matter, pretty soon Michigan's success under Harbaugh will be grabbing headlines.

Joined: 04/22/2011

MGoPoints: 35131

saveferris

February 5th, 2015 at 12:24 PM ^

Objective facts to take away from this recruiting class:

  • Harbaugh took a gutted recruiting class, ranked in the mid-80's, and moved it up about 40 spots in a month
  • Small recruiting class turned out to be small
  • Depth issues addressed at almost every position of concern.
  • Average star ranking of class puts Michigan at 21, on par with MSU, Stanford, and Florida which took them 365 days to achieve, as opposed to 30.

Of course those kinds of insights doesn't garner you any page-clicks, so whatever.

Joined: 07/02/2009

MGoPoints: 24841

Gofor2

February 5th, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^

I'm really disappointed in the class results. But find it pathetic we are trying to convince ourselves that this recruiting season was anything short of a failure. For Christ Sake, a MAN UP.

Joined: 12/13/2014

MGoPoints: 549

Gofor2

February 5th, 2015 at 1:03 PM ^

Everybody can see past our excuses and smoke screens about our class size, you know the shit we are telling ourselves so we feel like we are somehow equal to schools like OSU and Bama. Problem is that people who are not UM fans actually see the truth. That truth being that we are a 5-7 team that very few top kids would even consider. The fact that we have four years of recruiting classes that have all been bullshitted and mislead about what was in their future. We only have 12 kids cause that is all we could get, and of that 12 maybe 3-4 are of UM historical quality. As much as we might of hoped that JH in 5 weeks could have done what Urban Meyer did in 8 it just isn't going to happen. It does not have anything to do with time, and everything to do with WINNING. Unfortunately that isn't something we can bullshit anyone about, except ourselves of course.

Joined: 12/13/2014

MGoPoints: 549

Gofor2

February 5th, 2015 at 1:13 PM ^

What are we just signing day losers?? I think we have worked very very hard to show that Michigan Football is a Everyday Loser, not just a signing day loser. I hate to see people fail to recognize what we have earned fair and square. Everyday Losers!! Get it right man!

Joined: 12/13/2014

MGoPoints: 549

kgh10

February 5th, 2015 at 1:24 PM ^

This article is silly and superficial. Part of recruiting as a new coach is recruiting high school players but another factor is convincing and motivating current players to stick with the program even if the depth charts are shaken up a bit. So far he's done a good job recruiting our current players for the most part, so he gets a lot of credit there too at this point.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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chatster

February 5th, 2015 at 2:07 PM ^

I hate the tag “loser” when it’s applied broadly to the day-after analysis of a college team’s new recruiting class or a pro team’s draft selections.  The term “loser” has no place in the discussion of Michigan’s latest recruiting class.
 
From the looks and sounds in interviews of the young men taken in Michigan’s 2015 recruiting class, and from their bios on the Michigan Athletics website, they already appear to be “winners.” Besides, they chose MICHIGAN, fergodsakes!

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