East German Judge

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:48 AM ^

If Harbaugh had yanked it during the summer when he refused to come to Michigan, he would still have been made the villain as the kid's side would have claimed a legitimate excuse like summer job, etc.  My take is Harbaugh was being NICE and understanding about the summer refusal and said ok we will evaluate your season performance.  

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jmdblue

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^

The media representation of this kid has gone from All American baller to victimized kid and now in at least one outlet to soft, underachieving p****.  It looks for all the world like Swenson and his "camp" saw the risk of this as his original response was all High Road, but it seems they couldn't resist getting their counterpunches in when remaining on the High Road would have been best for him.  

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Blue Know It

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:38 AM ^

I was so happy this was made available to the public. Now if only larger media sources would get this information in the rotation. Sick of people bashin' JH.

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AA2Denver

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^

Teddy might want to rethink using "Belichick of College Football" as a dig. 

Homerism aside, after reading this article I completely side with the Michigan coaching staff on this issue. This is something I have oftern wondered: 

"But here’s the thing. No one objects when a school drops a recruit because he’s not a good citizen in his community or if he fails to perform in the classroom, so why is it thus completely unacceptable to drop a prospect if he doesn’t meet expectations on the football field too?"

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Victor Valiant

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:10 PM ^

When I get the chance I'm going to compile a list from the Swenson threads of everyone here that shit all over Harbaugh and staff without having all the information. I will then kill the proper number of crows and serve them to each one.

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lilpenny1316

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:42 PM ^

A non-committable offer is what some of the kids in our current class had and it shows that there's still interest and a chance that you may be able to earn a scholarship or grayshirt if things break the right way.

What I'm saying is that I would've told him and his helicopter dad that we will not be extending any scholarship offers to this kid in the near or forever future.  Erase all doubt.

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Trader Jack

January 22nd, 2016 at 3:55 PM ^

Here's the problem with your line of thinking: after Harbaugh was hired, Swenson was already committed. At that point, Harbaugh had no way of knowing that he didn't actually want to take the kid. So he was asked to go to the summer camps and workout in front of the coaches. He refused, so Harbaugh still hadn't seen him play live. Swenson's senior season was evaluated, then this decision was made.

If Swenson had done what the coaches asked and gone to a camp his offer might've been pulled a long time ago.



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westwardwolverine

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:57 PM ^

Oh look, Bo did something similar. And we still have people on here pretending like we should concerned about this as if its some horrible Harbaugh trait that just recently infected Michigan's pristine, perfect program. 

 

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Dubs

January 22nd, 2016 at 1:13 PM ^

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but if you receive an academic scholarship, and the university lays out a path for success for you, and then you proceed to "get by" senior year, and not meet their expectations, don't they have every right to cancel that full ride? If so, I really don't see this type of process being any different from what this is.

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Reader71

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:01 PM ^

Michigan also generally doesn't accept kids without having a transcript. Harbaugh seems to have offered him without having completely evaluated him. And if what Harbaugh wanted was improvement, that would be like Michigan accepting a B student but demanding that he got straight A's as a senior. That doesn't happen. Also, Michigan puts kids who are borderline on a waiting list. Harbaugh probably should have done that, ie not offered a scholarship but continued to recruit him. Your analogy is really perfect to explain why Harbaugh did not act like Admissions would.

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MacMarauder

January 22nd, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^

There are always two (or more) sides to a story, this recruiting period has been chaotic but that's the type of environment that Harbaugh creates and thrives in.  

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Mr. Yost

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:34 PM ^

I said I wasn't going to post on recruiting until Signing Day. I lied. I was going to hold these thoughts and this post until then...but basically I can personally back much of what Spath has written and I was going to share some very similar thoughts next week.

I don't claim to be an insider, nor do I have 1/100th of the sources guys like Lorenz and Spath have. I have zero sources. I knew a few guys back in the mid-00s, but they're mostly gone by now. Now, just friends who are sometimes close to things we care about.

In working in athletics, I know a good amount of the admin in the athletics department, some of which work very closely with football. 

Here's what I was planning on sharing - copied straight from my GMail (drafts) box so some of this may be redundant. My apologies...however, the first two lines are pretty funny.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I said I wasn't going to post/pay attention to anything recruiting related until Signing Day. I didn't.

Honestly, it was a great decision. However, reading some of the reaction, comments and "hot takes" has left me disappointed.
 
Not that anyone cares, you shouldn't...you don't know me, I don't know you and we don't owe anything to each other. However, I do kind of consider this an MGoFamily in a non-creepy kind of way (hence why it's often called a community). Disappointed appropriately displays how I felt reading some of this stuff.
 
Mostly, it was upsetting to read some of the commentary and not have enough level-headed folks go apeshit and negbomb that person spewing nonsense. Every family, errr board has a few bad apples. I'm not one to take one troll and apply it to the group. But with the Swenson deal, the fact that people were allowed to make fun of, degrade, and be COMPLETELY insensitive to the kid without anyone saying or doing anything was disheartening. Doesn't matter which side you're on.
 
Pause for my take: The whole situation sucks. I don't see why Swenson was lead to believe he'd be in the class when one name I haven't heard ANYONE mention is Dele Harding. Somehow we made it perfect clear with him, but Erik was strung along until January? My point is...even if Swenson didn't want to acknowledge it, how did no one else know? We knew about Harding WAAAAY before he finally decommited and it wasn't Harding that said anything. It was just common knowledge. We knew about Enis, Weaver and others now. So don't give me the bullshit about maybe he didn't want to acknowledge it. Coaches were visiting him and he was taking unofficials to campus and there was never any mention of this...it'll always be weird if you ask me.
 
So my take? Which one? The first is this reaction stuff...it's bullshit. And for those that want to blindly follow the coach, whatever man, that's you and I can't control you or let what you do bother me. I'm a grown ass man who can make grown ass man decisions and I'm not agreeing with everything a football coach does even if I love him the way I love Jim Harbaugh.
 
I don't have to give you my blind faith and agree with everything you do. Same with Beilein...I can be critical of him if I feel a need to. People who immediately jump to defend these guys as if they literally cannot make a mistake is CRAZY.
 
In this instance, I sought out the other side to the story - however, those who wanted to blindly defend Harbaugh scare me. Do you think Penn State fans didn't love Paterno the way we love Harbaugh? Is it the same? No. Not even close. I realize that, but what's the harm in letting the details come out before picking a side? You're just as bad as the people saying being critical of Harbaugh without anyone knowing the truth.
 
But the more important take. What happened? I reached out to a friend and colleague to see what was going on. I said I was going to stay away from recruiting, but this story got so huge...I had to know. It was eating at me. I did the same thing last year with the Mike Weber ordeal, I'm not tooting my horn on that...but it was proven to be 100% accurate.
 
I'm hearing that in this case, like most things, it's not nearly as bad as it seems. However, the communication could've been handled differently.
 
  1. Swenson has known since the late summer when he decided not to camp at Michigan that he was under an evaluation period. Which makes sense, Harbaugh didn't recruit the kid. Michigan was still honoring his committment, but he was going to be looked at closely.
  2. Swenson was told after the season that they'd continue to recruit the position. NOTE: If you recall, this lines up timeline wise on when they STOPPED recruiting the OG who went to Maryland and STARTED looking for OTs. Now we know why.
  3. Swenson was still being recruited by the staff - this caused some potential confusion. In the Dele Harding case (and a few others), communication just stopped. Alum talks about this in his "Swim Lanes" each week. That wasn't necessarily the case with Swenson. If you notice, he tweeted in early January that he was ready to sign with Michigan in a month. That was right after talking with the coaches.
  4. The timing on when the coaches made it clear to Swenson that he was no longer a commit is admittedly bad. The writing was on the wall, and they'd told him to visit other places well in advance...but they (according to this person) never explicitly said "you can't come here." He never wanted to take visits because he's always wanted to come to Michigan and he believes in honoring a committment. He was never going to waiver.
  5. When that message was made clear, Swenson was offered a PWO spot. It's unclear whether or not he could've greyshirted. (my opinion with college debt the way it is today, you people saying "SEE! HE DIDN'T LOVE MICHIGAN...HE HAD HIS CHANCE TO STILL COME AND HE'S LOOKING ELSEWHERE" should smack yourselves. That's fucking ridiculous and you know it). Unless you're LOADED, you're not going to turn down a free ride to Northwestern to pay to go to school at Michigan. 
  6. I asked if the coaches would reach back out to Swenson to "clear the air." I got a "I don't know..." but I did ask. I'm not sure if they can once he signs.
  7. Coaches were not planning to leak anything to the media - but I bet by the time you read this, they will have done so. The media and the FREEP will latch onto this story and it'll overshadow signing day. Negative recruiting is the worst this time of year too. Fuck Drew Sharp...because I know by the time you read this, he will have earned it yet again.
  8. Swenson, by all accounts is a VERY good kid. This person hadn't met him, but says he seemed like a typical Brady Hoke recruit. High character, a nice guy, good student.
  9. In unreleated, but more important news. Gary announces for Michigan today unless something unbelievably shady happened. It's happening.
 

 

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Mr. Yost

January 22nd, 2016 at 3:32 PM ^

I left out #10 when I copied and pasted from GMail. #10 was something I found the most interesting. Go back and look at the timeline of events, what huge event happened the second week of January? The national championship game. And what a game it was. I'm told Harbaugh was inspired, motivated, etc. like no other after that game. "CHARGED UP" was the phrase used. It was played at such a high level and despite Bo's influence the goal went from B1G championships...to "THAT." Whatever it was that we watched, it was beautiful. It was something Harbaugh decided he HAD to have and be part of... I was told literally that night Harbaugh and some coaches wrote the names of every recruit and commit on their board and every player on this team and made a determination on whether or not each could play at that level at some point in their career. That game now the barometer for what Michigan football is expected to be. I ran though a wall when I heard this, which is why I saved it for last! This is a big reason for some of the recent news. The writing was on the wall for many of them. That national championship game was the nail in the coffin. Either you could play at the level of Bama/Clemson in that game, you had the potential to get there, or you could not.

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Blue Durham

January 22nd, 2016 at 8:42 PM ^

I really think you need to combine, enhance with other information that I am sure you will remember, add any timelines and polish this up for a diary (in the abundant spare time that I am sure you have!). This is a very even-handed, relatively inside-look at what goes on in recruiting. As with everything, there is good and bad. As with what you wrote, and what I have observed and inferred, there really isn't any clear black and white good guy, bad guy, but things did get screwed up, and that both parties, given the opportunity, would probably do things differently.

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GoBlueNorth

January 22nd, 2016 at 3:17 PM ^

Has anybody seen Greenstein's 9 more thoughts on Harbaugh's recruiting article.....his rebuttal?   Just want to see what else this guy has to say. 

 

Edit: Forget it.  I found it.  More trash and slamming.  If you want to see it you can access it on his Twitter account.  Not worth the read!!

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