Recruits In Retrospect: 2011 Offense Comment Count

Ace

Previously: 2008 Offense2008 Defense2009 Defense2009 Quarterbacks2009 Offense2010 Offense, 2010 Defense



Michigan's best offensive recruit of 2011 entered the program as a walk-on. [Barron]

It's that time of the offseason when I go back through the recruiting profiles for the class that just finished its five-year cycle, which brings us to...

Oh no. Ohhhhhhhh no. It's the 2011 hybrid RichRod/Hoke class, an underwhelming group at the time—ranked 26th in the composite—that didn't come close to living up to expectations. I promise this exercise will be less painful next year. Until then, let this serve as a painful reminder of how far the program has come in the last couple years.

This post on the offense will be mercifully short, at least; there were only seven scholarship players on that side of the ball in the class, and two didn't make it through their first fall camp.

Forcier Comparison = Accuracy

Michigan snake-oiled three-star dual-threat quarterback Russell Bellomy from Purdue shortly before signing day. By the time Brian got around to writing up Bellomy's profile, Shane Morris had already committed to the 2013 class, while Devin Gardner was waiting in the wings behind Denard Robinson. Bellomy's profile didn't exactly scream "future starter" regardless of the competition:

So what have they won? A developmental prospect. Bellomy's a bit like Justice Hayes in that he seems like a better fit for the offense Michigan just dumped. That might not be a big deal long term—unlike Hayes, Michigan actually got interested in Bellomy after the transition—but Bellomy is not Chad Henne. He's described as an "efficient spread offense QB" and completed only 58% of his passes on a run-heavy team. He rarely broke the 20 attempt barrier. Opposing coaches($) say stuff like "he was much more effective in the pocket than we expected" and "you have to respect his passing ability as well." He needs work.

Bellomy's YMRMFSPA was "pick a Forcier" due to his mobility and reputation as a "riverboat gambler." The comparison worked in that Bellomy flamed out of the program. You know the story well: Bellomy entered the 2012 Nebraska game over Devin Gardner, then moonlighting at receiver, when Denard Robinson hurt his elbow, had a disastrous three-interception performance, and never saw meaningful time again. He transferred to UT-San Antonio for his senior season, attempted ten passes as their backup quarterback, and left the program only a month into the 2015 season.

[Hit THE JUMP for, well, more pain.]

Two Backs, No Fits

The lone NFL player on offense to come out of this class fielded favorable comparisons to Mark Ingram from Fred Jackson (no surprise) and Scout's Allen Trieu (surprise). A skeptical Brian saw a three-star with a meh offer sheet and went with Kevin Grady, hoping the MANBALL offense would provide a better opportunity for success. Thomas Rawls indeed had a Michigan career that mirrored Grady's—high initial expectations followed by disappointing results.

Rawls thrived, however, after transferring to Central Michigan for his final year of eligibility, breaking the 1000-yard barrier as a senior before landing with the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent. An injury to Marshawn Lynch provided Rawls the chance to make an impact as a rookie; he rushed for 830 yards on only 147 carries before fracturing his ankle and looks like a star in the making. Fred Jackson should get credit for identifying Rawls' talent when few others saw his potential; he loses all that credit for failing to extract that potential from Rawls while he was still in Ann Arbor.

The back expected to make the biggest splash was four-star Justice Hayes, a 7-on-7 superstar who elicited comparisons to two different Michigan receivers on the strength of his athleticism and hands:

Breaston, like Hayes, entered Michigan a rail-thin consensus four star who needed to gain weight. Hayes would have to scrape the very top of his potential be as elusive as Breaston but he does have one major advantage: hands. Breaston's hands were underrated by a pack of perfectionists who saw every dropped slant as a hanging offense but they weren't much better than okay. Hayes sounds like he's got Jason Avant's hands in a tailback's body.

The fear that Hayes wouldn't find a fit in Al Borges' offense unfortunately came to fruition. Hayes never rose higher than third or fourth in the running back pecking order before grad-transferring to Southern Miss, where he finished out his career as... their third running back. His career may have been much different if he'd moved to the slot from the outset or stuck with his initial commitment to Notre Dame—his skill-set was much better suited for Brian Kelly's offense.

The O-Line Class: Better Than 2010!

After Rich Rodriguez took only one offensive lineman in the 2010 class, Hoke brought in three in 2011, an alarmingly low number given the state of the depth chart.

That only got more alarming when guard Tony Posada, who entered the program in the 6'4", 340-pound range and got the requisite Alex Mitchell YMRMFSPA, proved unable to make it through his first fall camp. Fellow 340-pound behemoth Chris Bryant also got the Alex Mitchell comp, and while he at least saw the field—even starting a game as Michigan tried anything to fix the 2013 O-line—recurring injuries ended his career after his junior season.

The most impactful scholarship offensive recruit in the class ended up being three-star Jack Miller, who was listed as a nondescript defensive lineman by Rivals and ESPN. Brian labeled him a "generic non-Molk C," and that held true; Miller started 16 games, including 12 in 2014, when he won the team's offensive lineman of the year award essentially by default. Miller chose to forego his final year of eligibility in 2015 due to concussion concerns.

Gone Before The Profile

Touted Oklahoma tight end Chris Barnett had one of the most unusual recruitments in recent memory:

But while Flenory refused to reveal that advice, Barnett has transferred high schools five times, attended four different high schools and twice broke commitments to colleges. The bizarre recruiting odyssey of the 6-foot-6, 245-pounder is a window into Flenory’s influence among top recruits whom he befriended while working as a Dallas-based recruiting analyst for Scout.com.

“It all makes sense if you understand how dysfunctional (expletive) is,” Elzie Barnett said of his son’s recruitment. “But it doesn’t make sense to a layman. He’d be like, ‘What the hell?’”

Like Posada, he didn't make it through fall camp, and the rumblings of his departure began early enough that he didn't even get a recruiting profile here. I can't find anything on the internets that indicate he landed at another program.

The Good: The Walk-Ons

There's a bright spot here, albeit one that highlights the failures of this class. Michigan added a couple excellent walk-on prospects to this group in 2011. Graham Glasgow was the first of the Glasgow clan to come to Ann Arbor; he was M's steadiest lineman over the last few seasons and was chosen by Detroit in the third round of this year's draft. Joe Kerridge signed with Washington after a solid career at fullback. Glasgow easily had the biggest impact of any offensive recruit in this class, and Kerridge could very well be second—Miller is the only other player with a real argument.

Coming soon, I'll go over the 2011 defensive recruits. Try to contain your excitement.

Comments

schreibee

June 2nd, 2016 at 2:22 PM ^

And how could a RR-to-Hoke transition have possibly gone any differently, in retrospect?!

Actually, not in retrospect - it was very much predicted and anticipated by many...

But whoever gets credit for securing those walk ons, let's give that person proper respect!

Avon Barksdale

June 1st, 2016 at 4:34 PM ^

What an absolute clusterfuck of a transition class. Compare that transition to Urban Meyer's transition where he landed 9, count them, 9 four or five stars in six weeks and kept what turned out to be the #4 class in the nation together -- including: Washington, Cardale, Michael Thomas, Noah Spence, and Taylor Decker among others.

 

Wolverine In Iowa 68

June 1st, 2016 at 4:36 PM ^

Urban was a name coach from his time at Florida.  Like him, hate him, or REALLY hate him, you have to give him credit for winning a lot.

Hoke was not a big name when he came in, and when you look at the clusterfuck mess our team had become under RichRod....ugh....

Rabbit21

June 1st, 2016 at 4:41 PM ^

He also had the entire month of December to recruit and pretty much only recruit, was able to crook his finger and summon pretty much any Ohio player he wanted to come back into the fold, and was Urban Mayer.

Contrast this with a late start to recruiting, a home state that had mostly turned against Michigan, and a coach whose name recognition pretty much amounted to "Who's that?" and you can pretty easily account for the contrast.

kevin holt

June 1st, 2016 at 4:50 PM ^

Better comparison would in fact be Jim Harbaugh's first class (if Hoke had been immensely successful but barred by the NCAA for wrongdoing). Even with the difference between Michigan and OSU before the transitions, it's a fairly close comparison right?

Also, fuck them so much for getting sanctioned for cheating and coming out ahead of where they were before. They should have had at least a couple years of rebuilding but the perfect candidate fell straight into their laps and made them even better immediately, no delay at all. Fuck the NCAA for slappin their wrists with a feather and fuck them for being lucky as fuck.

Gentleman Squirrels

June 1st, 2016 at 7:30 PM ^

Not to mention the possibility of a solid future safety and guard in Kinnel and Runyan Jr. if spring practice reports are true. I'm also a fan of Ulizio, Washington, and one of Reuben Jones/Shelton Johnson. I know that's like half the class but I guess I'm just hoping Harbaugh works his magic on these players.

Farnn

June 2nd, 2016 at 9:32 AM ^

It's unfair to compare anyone to what Meyer did in that first class of recruits at OSU because it was a culmination of several effects that rarely happen especially not all at once.  The biggest power in a neighboring state had one of the biggest scandals in NCAA history forcing a legendary coach to resign, OSU had been a perennial top 10 team until the year before when the coach resigned, and Meyer was already a well known D1 coach with 2 NCs who was out of the game for just 1 year.  Plus he was hired and allowed to build a staff in December while Fickell was coaching the bowl game so he could dedicate his entire time to fixing the recruiting class.

Those all combined to allow Meyer to pillage PSU's class, bring Ohio players back who would have committed under Tressell anyway, and use his connections from recruiting for years at Florida to hit the ground running.

It's like giving him credit for taking a 6-7 team and going 12-0 when that 6-7 team was easily a 10 win team with any competent head coach. 

 

schreibee

June 2nd, 2016 at 3:30 PM ^

Hey Mr. - Urban Meyer/Brady Hoke - what a ridiculous, lame brained comparison. Seriously, it's the proverbial life you be needin'

And it's not like Urbz was taking over for a coach who'd been fired after going 3-8 while losing to Toledo or giving up 52 pts to Miss St in some lower tier bowl.

No, he took over for a coach who ran an outlaw program, with the promise they'd continue to do the same, but smarter! And he walked in with a NCAA title ring on each hand - NOT a tough sell...

stephenrjking

June 1st, 2016 at 4:57 PM ^

I was about to say "but Drew Brees." However, during the career of Drew Brees, Michigan won a national title with Brian Griese, fielded two years of Tom Brady, and received an excellent season from Drew Henson. So, not even Drew Brees.

JOHNNAVARREISMYHERO

June 1st, 2016 at 5:04 PM ^

Bellomy looked completely clueless in the 2014 Penn State game as well.

A valiant defensive effort (considering the spots they were put in that day against Nebraska in 2012) totally wasted by a coach and QB that never belonged at Michigan.

 

What a complete fucking joke.

 

 

 

 

 

Sopwith

June 1st, 2016 at 6:30 PM ^

It was the coaching staff that completely failed to prepare a backup QB and threw a kid with zero chance to the wolves that night in Lincoln. The pick-six was probably his best pass all night and it went through the receivers hands and ends up getting knocked up in the air to the DB on the sideline.

 

PopeLando

June 1st, 2016 at 6:59 PM ^

I just read every.single.one of the previous installments. Currently in desperate need of a drink. Many drinks. Possibly all the drinks.

Seriously, if I don't post tomorrow, call the police, because it means I died.

MadMatt

June 1st, 2016 at 10:19 PM ^

Man, what a rich and chewey cluster of ____ that was!  I read them in backwards chronological order, and kept thinking it couldn't possibly get worse.  Except it did.

1VaBlue1

June 1st, 2016 at 11:20 PM ^

Holy hell.  I knew the class was bad, but reading about all of it?  In one spot?  With big, bright lights?  That was soul-eating.  This was my happy place, now I have to worry about coming across some other sucktasticness.  The defense is next, Ace says.  Go fuck yourself, Ace!  Why you gotta be so brutal?

I really hope history doesn't repeat itself in this instance...