Damien Harris Drops Michigan
Guess it was a mere formality at this point, but Damien Harris just released a top 5 that didn't include Michigan. Happy trails.
Both your skepticism and the kid's interest in other schools are understandable. I am a life-long Michigan fan too, but I considered MSU when they showed a little bit of interest in me as a baseball player in high school. Fandom means less to kids.
Do we blame this on ThadMattasagoblin too?
(I kid ThadMattasagoblin - I never fully got the disdain for him around here.)
August 1st, 2014 at 10:27 PM ^
so, yes.
I hear Dee Hart.
Life will go on.
Too many good players available to worry about losing one.
We have Green, Smith & Ty in the stable with Mikey Weber on the way.
Happy trails & good luck to Mr Harris. I do hope he is smarter than to sign with Urbs.
Now onto worrying about the rest of the kids none of us knows lol. I get your point though. All-in on Weber, which it seems like that's what they've been doing more and more recently.
On the chance the kid goes to Ohio and becomes anything resembling Barry Sanders then I think you might hear his name and Borges' name thrown around a few times in the future around these parts.
If Damien Harris goes to Ohio and plays for Urban, and proceeds to rush for 2,600+ yards in a Heisman Trophy-winning junior year and then goes on to be among the top 3 RBs ever in the NFL, I will eat my hat.
I hope he never sniffs the playoff and regrets this decision for 4 years. Neg away ya bunch of namby pambys.
Unless you end up at OSU. In which case I hope you do well, but have the 3-4 worst games of your career against Michigan.
(I'm thinking that's a phrase not a lot of MGoBloggers have heard) Anyway, I don't care much about this development as it's been in the cards for months now. Time to move on everyone. The good news is we already have a lot of stud running backs in the house for the next 3 years.
This has more to do with Borgas being fired than anything else.
Now back to our regularly scheduled thread.
Well this really sucks, I really hoped he recommit been a big fan of his since I saw his freshman highlight tape.
I thought he was headed to OSU but I though we'd remain in the top 3. Falling completely out of the top 5 is pretty interesting considering this was his childhood dream school.
Anyhow I am not concerned about any 1 player. Unless he is TJ Yeldon or Fournette I think running game success is 80% line and 20% RB. Under Carr we had a good running game every year without having guys who were super high end NFL RBs - but we had high end OL players constantly. If you have the right OL the RB is more or less plug in play if you get just about any group of four star RBs in the backfield. All my eyes remain on this OL - if that develops correctly, with the type of RBs we recruit we will be more than fine. If not, than it wont matter who the RBs are.
Supposing Mr. Harris choses Ohio I hope he recalls they had an 80% senior OL last season. While I don't expect a tire fire this year, I also don't expect a repeat performance.
Meanwhile Michigan's OL is on the rise. Things can only get better, and will. 29 for 29 is a thing of the past. We also now have official tight ends too who can block, no offense to TEs who were amazing receivers but less than amazing blockers.
Despite the complete lack of hype my gut feeling is Mr. Isaac is going to tear up the field at Stadium and Main one day soon, making him a completely greater replacement.
No hard feelings to Harris, but its completely weird he was a recruit who wanted to play for Borges above all others.
Let me preface this by saying UM's line should be a lot better in 2015, 2016 unless we truly have a tire fire coaching staff.
But (a) saying it's on the rise is not saying much considering it was probably the worst OL in the country last year and (b) we have no idea if the OL will just be average in 2015-2016. It could be. Or it could be above average. Or great. Who knows - you don't, I don't. Just going by HS Starz and plugging and playing and saying "wow great things you are missing out on" is not a helpful exercise. Name me one established elite OL we have. The answer is none.
As for OSU losing players, they are recruiting just like we are at OL so to project our OL to be great down the road and not OSU's is wearing massive maize shades. In fact OSU has the advantage as their OL coach produced one of the best OLs in the nation and is getting talent on par with Michigan's to coach now. Meanwhile UM's OL coach has major questions over his head.
Last point, I dont think kids are as analytical as you. Most look at recent results and the relationships and go from there. Projecting the 2017 OL is not what a RB is going to do.
August 1st, 2014 at 11:30 PM ^