Will Michigan Now Own N.J. Recruiting?
With the recent hiring of Anthony Campanile, Michigan now has two elite N.J. recruiters on staff. In case you forgot, this is his bio per MLive:
"Campanile, of Fair Lawn, N.J., also spent the previous four seasons on staff at Rutgers, his alma mater, where he coached wide receivers and tight ends and served as a defensive assistant. He played four seasons for the Scarlet Knights, from 2001 to 2004, at linebacker and safety.
His recruiting prowess -- 247Sports ranks him as the 19th best recruiter in the ACC -- would give Michigan an added boost in the state of New Jersey and northeast."
Prior to coming to Michigan, Campanile's Wikipedia page says his coaching career looks like this:
- 2006 Fair Lawn High School (LB)
- 2007-2009 Don Bosco Prep (DC)
- 2010-2011 Don Bosco Prep (OC)
- 2012-2013 Rutgers (Defensive Assistant)
- 2013-2015 Rutgers (WR/TE)
- 2016-2017 Boston College (DB)
- 2018 Boston College (Co-DC/DB)
So. Here's a guy who played 4 years of college football in N.J. and then coached there for 9 years afterwards, with 5 of those years at one of the best high school programs in the country, Don Bosco Prep.
Since he's been coaching in college he's had the impressive challenge of trying to recruit kids to Rutgers and Boston College. I'm sure he's excited to recruit for Michigan. Oh, and did I mention that Chris Partridge--arguably Michigan's best recruiter--is also on the staff? The guy who used to coach at Paramus Catholic? Yup.
Currently there are ten four stars in the 2020 class from New Jersey.
January 14th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
Honestly I thought we were already getting the picks of the litter in New Jersey...nice breakdown by the way thanks Dizzy
January 14th, 2019 at 3:13 PM ^
"Owning NJ in recruiting"? I don't know if that is something you want to hang your hat on.
Go "own" Texas, CA, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, etc. Now that is an accomplishment that will change the # of W's or L's in a season. I don't know think "owning NJ" is gonna change the talent level of our team.
January 14th, 2019 at 4:22 PM ^
I mean, Jabrill Peppers and Rashan Gary were pretty fucking good.
January 14th, 2019 at 7:45 PM ^
They were good...and yet we are still 1-15 against OSU and 1-9 against teams in the top 10. All that NJ talent is really making an impact.
You can keep the NJ talent, give me CA, FL, GA, LA, AL and the Carolina's.
January 16th, 2019 at 9:07 AM ^
We want the Jonathan Taylors of New Jersey and not the Ahmir Mitchells and Drew Singletons of NJ.
January 14th, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
Honest question, doesn't the state of Michigan produce more 4 and 5 star football players than Jersey?
January 14th, 2019 at 1:57 PM ^
NJ tends to have more elite level talent (at least 247 rating wise), but Michigan has more 4 stars in general.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
NJ and Michigan produce the about the same amount of 5-stars. Michigan produces a few more 4 stars on average.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:26 PM ^
Personally, I have no idea, but "producing" talent seems hard to pin down when kids sometimes play high school ball in 3 different states, none of them in the state they grew up in their whole life.
January 14th, 2019 at 1:57 PM ^
Maybe it will help get a foot in the door at N.J. high schools, but I doubt if he has any direct bearing if a kid actually picks Michigan.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
Do you know something about him as a recruiter or is this just some BPONE?
January 14th, 2019 at 3:36 PM ^
User name checks out
January 14th, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
Id rather dominate in state recruiting as opposed to New Jersey. New Jersey has one 5 star for 2019 which went to Bama. No 5 stars for 2020 and nobody currently ranked for 2021
In state Michigan has
2019: Two 5 stars. #18 overall recruit OT. #28 overall recruit OG. #62 overall recruit CB
2020: One 5 Star. #14 overall recruit OG. #95 overall recruit ATH
2021: Three 5 stars. #2 overall recruit OT. #10 overall recruit DT. #26 overall recruit OG. #69 overall recruit RB
In state talent is on the rise. New Jersey talent seems to be on the decline.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:05 PM ^
Id rather dominate in state recruiting as opposed to New Jersey
Fortunately it's not an either/or. UM is always going to be a popular destination for in-state kids. Out-of-state is the bigger variable and that's the point of having coaches with ties to certain states.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:42 PM ^
To add to your thoughts: How many of those 2019 and 2020 kids do we lead for? How many in 2018 did we grab?
It sure would be nice to start retaining those 5*'s in-state.
January 14th, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^
The 2019 kids have already signed.
January 14th, 2019 at 7:25 PM ^
I heard we still have a chance with Dobbs and Brown. Anybody know the story there?
/ ducks
January 14th, 2019 at 3:33 PM ^
According to this, Michigan has 46 NFL Players in 2016 and NJ had 50, so they are about the same in terms of talent level (Ohio was at 80!).
January 14th, 2019 at 4:35 PM ^
Exactly!! MI and NJ put us in better position to contend with Ohio.
January 14th, 2019 at 4:43 PM ^
Why not dominate both states...and Georgia?
January 14th, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
Getting Campanile helps a lot. But PSU has made major headway into that state and is the biggest Power 5 school that's close to the state. Even OSU has gotten their fair share in the last couple years, though I'm not sure if that is due to Schiano or not. I think PSU will be the team to beat in NJ, with some elite level talent looking at Clemson, Bama, OSU as well. ND also has a decent number of recruits to come from NJ.
January 14th, 2019 at 3:16 PM ^
Yeah - New Jersey is one of those states where I don't think any singular school can "own" the state. Certainly not "own" it to the same degree that OSU owns Ohio.
There will always be a number of schools that will be players in recruiting elite NJ talent. You mentioned most of them. But Michigan has done very well in terms of positioning themselves amongst those schools. About all one can ask for (from the U-M POV).
January 14th, 2019 at 6:56 PM ^
Actually there is a school that could "own" it and that would be Rutgers. I'd be curious if they did "own" it during the tail end of the Schiano era when they were winning 8 and 9 games every year.
I think Penn State actually did a great job in the 70s and 80s in the state when Rutgers was a complete non-factor and nobody else was really getting into the state.
January 14th, 2019 at 7:20 PM ^
Rutgers could - but (1) I think it would take nearly a generation for "Rutgers is legit at football" to get embedded with local kids, and (2) I feel its tougher sledding vs. the Schiano era.
The B1G wasn't as high-profile in NJ as it is now that Rutgers has joined. Michigan and OSU weren't sniffing around as much. Michigan and OSU will be permanent players for NJ recruits in the foreseeable future.
Out of curiosity, I looked up a couple years from Rutgers' mid-2000s hey-day:
2006: 2 5-star recruits in NJ, and 6 4-star recruits. Rutgers got 2 of the 4-star recruits.
2007: 1 5-star recruit in NJ, and 5 4-star recruits. Rutgers got 2 of the 4-star recruits.
That's decent. But it's nowhere close to a "OSU in Ohio" situation either.
https://247sports.com/Season/2006-Football/CompositeRecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=highschool&State=NJ
https://247sports.com/Season/2007-Football/CompositeRecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=highschool&State=NJ
January 14th, 2019 at 3:32 PM ^
I think PSU collapses on the field this coming year. With no McSorely, Barkley, Sanders, etc. they will be exposed. Ton of kids transferring out, including a top 50 CB/S just this week. Their new QB is awful and they are in the market for a transfer because they have no confidence in him. Did you see how bad he, and their entire offense, was against us this past year?
I feel like the general mood of the program is bad right now. Franklin's entire legacy is built on one extremely lucky win against OSU, after getting spanked by Michgan that year, with a generational talent in Barkley. Another Barkley isn't walking thru PSU'sdoors any time soon. They have another sub-par year, lose to us/MSU/OSU as usual, and the PSU bandwagon will be calling for Franklin's head again. This makes it a little easier to recruit against them.
Also think part of the reason their offense, and in particular their WRs, sucked this past year was not having Gattis, who left for Bama and is now with the good guys.
January 14th, 2019 at 3:48 PM ^
A decline is certainly possible/probable but I think you are overstating the whole "collapse" thing. Franklin is still a good recruiter, has some decent coaches and they still have some talent. Yes I think they might take a step back but they will still recruit well and attract talent.
We had our our top 50 guy decide to transfer, lost some coaches and have some talent going pro. I have more confidence in Harbaugh but Michigan's situation isn't too far away from PSU's.
January 14th, 2019 at 5:39 PM ^
In my biased opinion, Franklin had 1 good season due to McSorely and Barkley. They are gone now. Their offensive talent coming back is not good, so their defense will have to carry them. Their defense got fucking bullied by us and gave up.
Luckily for them, their OOC is incredibly weak. They play @ Iowa, @ MSU, @ OSU, and home vs Michigan and Purdue. Could see them losing all of those games.
January 14th, 2019 at 7:02 PM ^
They were Big Ten champions in 2016 and arguably the best team in the league in 2017. They had two 11 win seasons in those years. I don't know how you can argue he has only had 1 good season.
Even last year he had 3 losses by a combined 8 points!! Michigan blew them out. Fuck, it happens.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:01 PM ^
Let's hope.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:12 PM ^
Yes, yes we will.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:23 PM ^
Also doesn't hurt that Gattis has experience recruiting the state as well having just landed a 5* DE for Bama from North Jersey. I know it doesn't mean the state becomes a sure fire slam dunk from a recruiting standpoint but I would be pretty shocked if we don't start gaining some serious clout in that state once again. A North Jersey to AA pipeline would be a beautiful thing, Go Blue!!
January 14th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
New Jersey kids grow up watching Michigan players. Got to keep that talent flowing.
January 14th, 2019 at 3:49 PM ^
And once we have conquered NJ, Delaware will be ours.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:23 PM ^
As Partridge has moved up the coaching ranks at Michigan, he seems to have drifted away from his NJ roots - which makes sense since he's now more of a national guy. We're no longer getting the Rashan type players out of NJ. I expect this hire to greatly improve NJ recruiting.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:31 PM ^
A great point. Michigan can now allow CP to spend more time as the primary recruiter on national players, while being a secondary recruiter for N.J. with Campanile.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:38 PM ^
Michigan splits it’s recruiting up regionally, with Partridge focusing on Georgia he’s had a big hand setting up a pretty nice pipeline there recently.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:36 PM ^
The NINETEENTH best recruiter in the ACC???
Is that good? How many recruiters are there?
January 14th, 2019 at 2:44 PM ^
140.
Plus BC is a much harder place to pull in good recruits, as opposed to Clemson, FSU, Miami. So yeah, 19th is pretty damn good, maybe even justifies your ALL CAPS.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:57 PM ^
Mr Miggle dropping numbers over here.
January 14th, 2019 at 3:03 PM ^
Go look at where some of our coaches rank in the B1G. Hint, they're not in the top 50 (or rather FIFTY, as you seem to prefer).
January 14th, 2019 at 3:35 PM ^
WHY ARE YOU TYPING IN CAPS AND USING MULTIPLE QUESTION MARKS???
January 14th, 2019 at 2:37 PM ^
Oh hell yeah, son.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:37 PM ^
We were already doing pretty well in N.J., so I’m not sure how much better it will really get.
What I’m really hoping is that now that Meyer is out at OSU, we can start making some further inroads into Ohio. Like it or not, we need to be able to recruit that state. Doesn’t need to be our primary source by by any stretch, and we’ll probably never outrecruit OSU in its own state, but still need to establish a decent footing in there.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^
We signed the #7 recruit from NJ in 2019 and no one in 2018. Quite a drop off from 2016 and 2017.
Ohio was a better state to target when Meyer was there. Day has already said he's going to focus more on Ohio than Urban did and he's hired our best Ohio recruiter.
I'd like to see us make more inroads in PA. We used to do much better there and Gattis should help.
January 14th, 2019 at 2:49 PM ^
They could barbwire fence the garden and we'd still pull them out!
January 14th, 2019 at 2:50 PM ^
If Michigan had really owned NJ in 2014 (when Jabrill committed) and since, they could have had the 6th and 11th overall picks in the 2018 draft (Quenton Nelson and Minkah Fitzpatrick). Add players like Johnathan Taylor, Mike Gesicki, Jordan Fuller and Saeed Blacknell and, well, that might have led to a few more wins.
January 14th, 2019 at 3:06 PM ^
This conversation reminds me of the blind men touching the elephant.
January 14th, 2019 at 3:19 PM ^
Is the 19th best recruiter in the ACC really that high? He's 30th in the ACC for 2018. ...and his national rank is 143. Guy seems like a solid hire, and I'm honestly not 100% on how these rankings are compiled, but touting his recruiting seems like an oversell. Maybe he's got some skills and he'll get a Michigan bump now that he's not trying to get people to BC or Rutgers.
January 14th, 2019 at 3:29 PM ^
Jay, who people seem to think should be on this staff partially due to his great recruiting, is ... 22nd in the B1G and 112th nationally. For reference, Brown is 70th nationally, while Warinner is 60th, and Partridge is 35th.
This guy is basically on Jay's level while recruiting for a middling program. He's adding a lot of recruiting firepower to the staff.