Caden Kolesar Takes a Grey Shirt At Michigan

Submitted by CincyBlue on December 11th, 2018 at 9:12 AM

Yes, this is John's son.  He played Safety at St. Edwards in Ohio.  1st team All-Oho   24/7 lists him as a 3 star.

northernmich

December 11th, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^

As a person who generally does care about stars and recruiting rankings, these are the type of lower recruits that I can accept taking. Son of a former player who obviously grew up loving Michigan. If you’re gonna take a lower guy, I like to see it filled with guys like Caden.

Gulogulo37

December 11th, 2018 at 9:47 AM ^

It being a grayshirt is a pretty important point you omitted. I think it's pretty well accepted that sons of players and coaches tend to be knowledgeable about the game even if they're not terrible talented, which is a nice thing to have and better than nepotism. Is it even nepotism? Doesn't seem so.

Magnus

December 11th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^

Totally unqualified? He was a quality control guy for three years in the NFL, and he was brought in to coach college tight ends, not coordinate the offense or defense.

Meanwhile, Caden Kolesar has offers from a few MAC programs and that's it.

One guy was on the fringe level of the most elite football league in the country, and another guy was on the FBS/FCS fringes and is moving up.

Mr Miggle

December 11th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^

There seems to be a lot of confusion about what a greyshirt means.

They don't work their way onto the team. They are being offered a full scholarship. They will count as one of the 85 scholarship players on the roster. They are just being asked to wait a semester to enroll and won't count until the next season.

They are kind of the inverse of an EE. EEs show up a semester early, can count as a member of the previous recruiting class as a way to work around the 25 per class limit. Greyshirts typically show up a semester late and are counted towards the following class.

JPC

December 11th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^

I realize that you like to argue, but you need to be honest.

He was a QC guy on his uncle's NFL team after being a GA at a middling college program. He wasn't anywhere near qualified to be an on-field coach at Michigan, and he absolutely wouldn't have been, had he not been Harbaugh's son. 

Even today, including the temp WR coach, Jay is currently the least qualified coach on the staff. Michigan shouldn't be on the job training for anyone, regardless of their last name. He seems to be adequate at his job, and a pretty decent recruiter, which is good. 

However, Wheatley Sr >>>>>>>>> Harbaugh's son. Also if he's so great why hasn't anyone attempted to poach him? 

MadMatt

December 11th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^

Out of respect, I chose to respond to this better articulated post than your first one. However, I disagree. You have a point about Jay's qualifications when he was hired in 2015. Since then, he has coached several different position groups, and they have all performed well. In 2015 he coached the TEs, and the depth behind Jake Butt was a revelation. In 2016, he coached STs the season after the ST guru left for USC, and they maintained the high level of play from the prior season. In 2017 he coached the RBs, and three different players showed they were good enough to be the feature back in a run heavy offense. Any one of them would have gained 1000 yards in they each hadn't been injured just as they settled into the role. This season he coaches the RBs again, and we got that 1000 yard rusher.

Has he had opportunities that a similar coach not named Harbaugh would have never received? Absolutely, a similar coach would be learning his craft as a position coach at the FCS level. Is Michigan suffering any consequences from having him here? Absolutely not! Right now Jay Harbaugh is not even on the list of Michigan coaching issues.

Magnus

December 11th, 2018 at 1:00 PM ^

How do you know nobody has attempted to poach him?

And I don't want to be redundant, but there's absolutely zero proof that Jay Harbaugh is a worse coach than Tyrone Wheatley, Sr. In fact, there might be evidence that the opposite is true.

ST3

December 11th, 2018 at 11:32 AM ^

Kolesar was the second fastest receiver I remember behind only AC. Get out of here with that “wasn’t incredibly talented” nonsense.

Arb lover

December 11th, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^

It seems like his son is bigger and faster than he was. There's also a decent rivals article on him from 18 months ago. Obviously he has continued to improve. Offers from Wisconsin and smaller schools.

Caden Kolesar, a sophomore, started at free safety for Lakewood St. Edward, an elite program in Ohio. His improvement over the past year has turned him into a Big Ten prospect.
“He’s bigger, stronger, faster and smarter than I ever was,” John Kolesar said. “He’s been raised with the teachings of Bennie Oosterbaan, Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes and Lee Tressel, my dad’s high school coach before my dad went to Michigan, every day of his life.”
He’s also blood related on his mother’s side to Ed Franco, one of the ‘seven blocks of granite’ with the legendary Vince Lombardi and Alex Wojciechowicz from the great Fordham teams of the 1930s.

Diagonal Blue

December 11th, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^

Here's what I know, 5'9 safeties with no other power 5 offers aren't beating OSU or Bama or UGA or Clemson or OU anytime soon.

That's really what it boils down to every time Michigan takes a commit like this. The sunshine pumpers will defend it, then we go another year without beating OSU or winning the B1G and people bitch. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

He's ranked #2201 for a reason. But hey glad a former players son gets a free ride when he would have walked on.

MCalibur

December 11th, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^

"Grey shirting is a recruiting term that is not as commonly used as the term redshirting. A grey shirt is an incoming college freshman who postpones his enrollment in classes until the second term of his freshman year. This means they don’t take classes until the winter term. The NCAA allows college athletes five years to complete four years of eligibility after initial enrollment.

When a grayshirt puts off his enrollment, he’s extending his eligibility past his senior year for another term. Grayshirting is most commonly used in football. By delaying enrollment until the winter after his senior year of high school, a football player can play the fall season one year after his graduation date."

https://www.athleticscholarships.net/question/what-is-grey-shirting

JPC

December 11th, 2018 at 9:27 AM ^

That's the real value of the grey shirt. It's not like an extra year of college for the kid, it's a way to shift numbers between classes. 

I'm glad Michigan/Harbaugh is starting to do this. 

1VaBlue1

December 11th, 2018 at 9:48 AM ^

"I'm glad Michigan/Harbaugh is starting to do this."

To a degree...  So long as Harbaugh (staff) had the conversation about grey shirting before the kid committed, thus making it part of (or a condition to) the commitment, I'm good with it.  I sincerely hope they did not pull a Saban and spring it on him after committing.  

However, seeing that the kid hasn't even signed yet, I suspect it was all discussed before hand.  Saban has been known to pull in recruits, and then - after they sign - tell them they get to greyshirt or take a medical redshirt.  It leave the kid with no option but to play along.  Fuck Saban...

jblaze

December 11th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^

But he could take a semester's worth of credits at a community college and transfer those credits into Michigan (obviously working with Michigan to make sure they all transfer in accordingly) so he wouldn't be "behind" and could also get a 5th year grad degree.

I mean, my local community college is $150/ credit (16 credits @ $150) = $2,400.

If I had the choice (and skills and height and motivation...) I'd rather go to a big time program like Michigan as a greyshirt than maybe be a starter for 1 year at a random MAC School.

OwenGoBlue

December 11th, 2018 at 11:44 AM ^

To your point grayshirts have a great opportunity to graduate with two years of eligibility remaining.

Hope this Kolesar is here for a very successful 5 year career but if it doesn't go that way he can effectively do both the big time program thing and the MAC starter thing, AND get a grad degree in the process. 

Waiting to enroll probably isn't ideal to a HS kid but there's upside to the choice. 

Boner Stabone

December 11th, 2018 at 9:31 AM ^

Is this the player we are taking to fill the void left from Dax Hill's de-commit?

I will say, the Kolesar family is probably 100 times more ethical than the Hill family is.

M-Dog

December 11th, 2018 at 10:03 AM ^

I hate Alabama as much as the next guy.  But neither they nor Hill did anything unethical.

Michigan has done this very thing to other teams many times, we just choose not to focus on that.

That's why they have a signing day.  Until then, everything else is just expressions of interest.

Bodogblog

December 11th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^

I think he's implying a bagman.  I hope no one is under the impression that flipping a commitment is an ethical breach by either athlete or school. 

Still not sure whether I'd question the kid if he was getting paid.  The school, yes, they should be punished for subverting the rules.  For the kid and his family, not so sure.  I realize there's an imbalance there. 

Marvin

December 11th, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^

I disagree about the ethics of reneging on a commitment. If you tell a coaching staff that you're committed, you should stay with it unless there is a significant coaching change. I realize Michigan tries to flip kids all the time and I'm happy when they do, but that doesn't make it altogether right. This is obviously just my view -- I'm not trying to be preachy. 

JPC

December 11th, 2018 at 10:21 AM ^

There's nothing unethical about seeing Michigan's defense looking completely unprepared and lost in the OSU game and thinking "fuck that, I'm going somewhere that the coaches know what they're doing". 

Saban is scum and Alabama is a shit hole state, but Alabama the football team NEVER looks clueless. Harbaugh and his staff fucked that game up so badly.