ESPN 150 Released
Commits:
Shane Morris 37
All those coaches CAN be wrong. ESPN was very down on Will Campbell and they proved to be the correct voice.
What people SHOULD do is make their own decisions about what evidence they choose to weigh.
Will Campbell is a nice cherry pick example, but I bet you can find just as many 3* guys that were recruited that are big time contributors. Just because they got one right doesn't mean anything more than a broken clock being right twice in a day.
Now if you want to show some data that on the majority of recruit rankings they're not only right, but more correct than most major coaching staffs, that might prove something. One player doesn't.
Every site is going to have their share of hits and misses, and so are coaches. My point was to counter the idea that 'the coaches like him so you should do' assertion.
As I don't have evidence for sites over coaches, you don't have any for coaches over sites. I happen to side with the coaches argument, in general, but that is beside the point.
Mattison puts players in the NFL,not Tom Lugehnbil or whatever the espn scout guy is. Trust the coaches not espn,rivals,scout or 24/7.
Watch Levenberry's highlights and see for yourself if he's overrated by Rivals. The kid is a beast!! He's gonna shoot up the other polls after next season when he crushes everything he touches in the state of Virginia!!
I have...and he's overrated by Rivals.
Ok Magnus, but can you at least say he's underrated by the others. It's a no-brainer. The kid is good. Maybe not Terrell Suggs, but good.
Our coaches factor in a kids character to their internal evaluation. That's why kids like Gedeon and Levenberry get a bump and others kids get dropped. Also Gedeon and Levenberry both have raw scores of #80 from Espn which puts them at the same level at the Espn #119 recruit who is also rated at 80.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:18 PM ^
April 17th, 2012 at 12:07 PM ^
April 17th, 2012 at 12:46 PM ^
Next time get your mommy or daddy to help you put a real take together.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:09 PM ^
Additional 4 stars:
Butt, Dukes, Gedeon, Smith
Shallman and Hill get 3 stars.
So ESPN gives us:
11 ESPN 150
15 4-stars
2 3-stars
April 17th, 2012 at 12:34 PM ^
So every commit we have is a 4* on at least one service except for Khalid Hill who is being brought in for a bit of a unique position (U-back..right?). Most excellent
April 17th, 2012 at 12:10 PM ^
number of ESPN 150 prospects committed to each school:
- michigan: 11
- texas: 7
- alabama: 6
- florida: 6
- osu: 5
- georgia: 5
- A&M: 5
- auburn: 4
- USC: 3
- FSU: 3
- OU: 3
- penn st.: 3
April 17th, 2012 at 12:27 PM ^
MSU in that list. Oh... wait.
Never mind.
Not sure if you intentionally left off Notre Dame with 2.
all of them with 2.
This is still quite early for 2013, but when you put it like this, holy cow. Michigan has nearly as many as Alabama and Florida combined! Michigan, Texas and Ohio are leading the charge to cure this SEC fever the country has.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:10 PM ^
I don't know why some of you guys are sulking... 11 out of 150 so far is amazing. Look at the past years... nothing like this and we won the sugar bowl. This class is pure potential!!!
we only have the #4 QB in the entire country
/kicks dirt
April 17th, 2012 at 12:12 PM ^
15 of out of the 17 recruits received at least a 4-star rating. The only recruits below that are Hill and Shallman. Hill is the #6 TE/H-Back, while Shallman is the #1 FB, so a nice showing for them even as 3-stars.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:38 PM ^
The TE above him was a 79 and 4* so Ill consider Hill a 4* as well
April 17th, 2012 at 12:12 PM ^
no poggi??
One thing to remember more generally, though, is that this list is much smaller than the Rivals 250, Scout 300, and 247, uh, 247.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:16 PM ^
They've got several top guys. Moving to the SEC maybe benefitting recruiting?
April 17th, 2012 at 12:32 PM ^
There's no question its benefitting recruting.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:52 PM ^
who rated you "trolling," and mine above as well. I meant that the SEC is the most prominent football conference (to the national media) in the country so a team moving to that conferfence might get a bump in attention from top recruits. But even if I meant that the SEC cheats in recruiting, that wouldn't be trolling either. I just don't get some people....
and they brought up an interesting discussion point about the lack of African-American Head Coaches. Ryan Clark of the Pittsburgh Steelers was a guest host and he brought up a very interesting point that at many top schools, the Recruitting Coordinator is African-American since they are able to relate to potential prospects from impoverished much better. Skip Bayless (surprisingly) brought up a good case example of Vanderbilt, which hired James Franklin, previously the Recruiting Coordinator at Maryland, and the success it brought Vanderbilt in the past year both in recruiting and on the field results.
Perhaps Texas A&M is experiencing something of this affect as well with Kevin Sumlin as their Head Coach.
That certain parties were worried about certainly have had a tough time relating to recruits and getting them to commit to Michigan...
I said at many, not all. And Michigan is one of the select few programs that will rarely have trouble recruiting, no matter who is here. The traditional and facilities Michigan has to sell makes it very easy for us.
Now for programs on a secondary tier, like Vanderbilt (usually doormat to the SEC) and Texas A&M (little brother to Texas), it gives them an advantage over their peers as well as a joker in their hand to compete for some elite recruits with the big boys.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:16 PM ^
This is amazing considering we only had 4 in the top 150 last year.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:16 PM ^
Last years final overall rankings according to ESPN: (ESPN 150/Total # of recruits)
#1 Alabama 13/26
#2 Flordia State 10/19
#3 Texas 12/28
April 17th, 2012 at 12:17 PM ^
who on earth is Christian Hackenburg? You'd think after hours of pouring over recruiting nonsense one would at least know the name of the apparent best pocket passer in the nation. I guess it's a result of having the QB scholarship taken care of so early.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:18 PM ^
ESPN is way down on Elmer, wow....#22 OT, and a 79 grade.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:19 PM ^
He's the best OL prospect IMO of the commits we have. Congrats to Gareon Conley. Rivals has Levenberry @ 15 I believe. And ESPN doesn't consider him top 150?? Thats a large gap.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
Levenberry is a good player, but he's not as super awesome as a lot of Michigan fans want to believe. He's got plenty of time to grow and improve, though.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:21 PM ^
If you look at the 4 stars ESPN handed out, it means SIXTEEN of our 17 recruits have four stars on at least one service. That is nuts.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:22 PM ^
I think that makes ESPN the highest on our class of all the services. Amazing to have 15 four stars, including 11 in the 150. I'm sure someone will find some reason to complain, but I can't see any. Love seeing them so high on Conley. He and Lewis are a quality pair of corners in this class. Also amazing to have all five of our Oline recruits in the top 150. That's a virtually unheard of Oline haul.
Looking at our rivals, OSU will certainly have a quality class and MSU seems unlikely to have any 150 players. But their three best recruits (Powell, Reschke, and Jones) don't seem to have been rated yet. I don't think they'll be in the 150, but any of the three could be a four star and it wouldn't surprise me.
Love this class.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:59 PM ^
The level of weight given to recruiting rankings is getting out of control. It's one thing if it's a bunch of recruiting junkies commenting, but when actual recruits are celebrating their class ratings in spring - It's gone too far, to the point of being a potential detriment.
I follow recruiting. I know the rankings, in aggregate, are relevant. I want high quality kids and recruiting rankings are decent indicators. But once they commit...they're coming to Michigan and our coaches want them...who cares how recruitniks rank them after the fact?
For my taste, there's way too much self-congratulating and back-slapping going on for high school kids. These kids (and many fans) are treating recruiting rankings like they're meaningful titles. They're celebrating, and I think it might be dangerous.
I'd rather our commits get ranked lower by high profile services like ESPN. I'd rather they get a chip on their shoulder and come in with something to prove. I think that's part of why schools like Boise and Wisconsin have had success lately, and to some extent MSU as well. The 'little brother' thing was funny, but - it's dangerou to put on airs (even if deserved).
By no means am I saying these recruits doomed to fail. I think they'll do great, but that's independant of ESPN's opinion. I will say that it makes the coaches job much harder if the players are coming in feeling like they don't have to prove themselves.
I will say that we have the right set of coaches and the right environment at Michigan to prevent that from happening. The only message they will recieve from the coaches as incoming freshmen is that if they want a spot they have to earn it. Nothing is given to these kids. They know that and it is what they are signing up for when they commit to Michigan.
I agree that our coaches have done almost everything right, and I'm very happy with that.
But some guys come in with attitude and motivation issues that no coach can fix - and we've already seen some guys depart who aren't willing to put in what it takes (Barnett and Posada come to mind.) I suspect recruiting hype can play a role in these situations.
Nothing is given, but some kids expectations don't always reflect that.
is to intentionally recruit lower rated kids. That doesn't make sense
At some point, people that are good are going to be told they are good.
Im pretty sure Nick Saban would disagree with you. Seeing that they have finished in the top 3 for recruiting classes for the last 6 years, and won 2 MNCs, I think a team full of elite level recruits do just fine.
but they're not elite because ESPN says so, they're elite because they play football.
Pissed off with talent > complacent with talent > pissed off without talent
Recruiting rankings don't affect talent. They can affect attitudes.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:27 PM ^
Kugler's ranking is a little surprising
April 17th, 2012 at 12:34 PM ^
Big to me...Having a hard time seeing who's nastier Kugler or Kalis. No biggy. Kugler will move up the rankings. I am looking forward to Bosa committing to OSU. Like to see Kalis/Kugler mauling him to the ground. All are nasty, physically specimen.
It's Kalis.
April 17th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^
Wow... did anyone have any money down on Conley being our second highest recruit on this list after Shane? Did not see that one coming...
April 17th, 2012 at 12:50 PM ^
I view that as a big positive for this class. The fact that the order of our commits in the rankings is so different for every service, along with the fact that the services obviously don't want to put out the same rankings as each other, tells me our class is very solid across the board. Once you're in the top 150 things become a whole lot more subjective because there's not a whole lot separating those guys. With all the hype Lewis got during the Adidas Invitational, I thought he was going to get a huge bump, and the fact that Conley is ahead of him just makes me even more excited about this DB haul. Same goes for the OL.