Comparing UM and MSU Recruiting Classes
Looking at 247sports composite ratings for M and MSU 2017 commits to date, I cannot recall ever seeing such a disparity in class quality between these two schools. For example,
MSU's highest ranked recruit, OG Kevin Jarvis, has a composite ranking of.9039. Michigan currently has 11 COMMITS with a higher composite ranking than MSU's top commit.
Michigan also has 19 COMMITS with a higher composite than all but MSU's top two recruits.
Finally, our recruiting AVERAGE of 91.02 is substantially higher than the ranking for MSU's top recruit. That seems incredible.
Questions: (1) Does anyone remember any year with a higher disparity between the recruiting classes, in either direction?
(2) Does anyone have any information that would suggest that MSU might be able to narrow the gap at all between now and signing day with some quality late recruits?
January 9th, 2017 at 12:03 PM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 11:54 AM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 12:08 PM ^
Sorry to be so immature, but on one level I feel we owe them eight years of bullshit to make up for 2008-2016. They have been even worse as a fanbase than OSU fans. I revel in Sparty Schadendreude and feel these comparisons are much more fun when Michigan is the superior team.
Sparty could end up being even worse than the 7-5 or 8-4 team I thought they would be. I would love seeing them struggle at 3-9 to 5-7 for the next few years.
January 9th, 2017 at 12:33 PM ^
I would enjoy that for the next few dozen years
January 9th, 2017 at 1:17 PM ^
those programs are Bama and OSU, you may not like the comparison.
January 9th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
I thought we were supposed to BUY recruits??
- Merk D'Agnostico
January 9th, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
"Comparing McDonald's to Ruth's Chris"
and
"Comparing Mabel Pines to Jennifer Aniston"
January 9th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
Mable Pines no contest...
January 9th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
Oh yeah. I have a feeling Jennifer Aniston would be SUPER high maintenance. Mabel, on the other hand, is the type of gal that let's you do pretty much whatever you want! :-D
January 9th, 2017 at 11:07 AM ^
I'm a 2 star pushover! It's true.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:17 AM ^
Only a 2-star? Must be a placeholder or a long snapper... :-DDDD
January 9th, 2017 at 11:24 AM ^
Then I vote Mabel every time.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:53 AM ^
is elbows on the table. Sit up straight Mabel.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
I shouldn't objectify two cartoon women?
January 9th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
rainbow emoji and the poop emoji
January 9th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
LOL State in on a high-level recruit? File not found. Antjuan Simmons would be the highest rated recruit remaining on their possible gets board. Jaylen Harris will go to OSU and Oliver Martin will go to Iowa (maybe ND).
State's once-every-thirty-years flash in the pan is officially done.
January 9th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
Are you really surprised? The last thing MSU wanted to happen for Michigan was the hiring of Jim Harbaugh. At the time, of course, they were claiming his hiring was not a big deal. Clearly they were in denial. We all know what happened in the 2015 version of the MSU/UM game, but Harbaugh coached well enough to win that game. Obviously his official record is 1-1, but as far as I'm concerned, he is 2-0 against MSU. We lost because of a dropped snap and that had nothing to do with Harbaugh's coaching. MSU had their fun for seven or eight years, but it's over. I doubt they have accepted that yet, but it will eventually sink in.
January 9th, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^
Of course they haven't accepted it yet. They still feel like playoff's are the norm for them, and this last season was the abberation. I have talked to some who legitimately think that Michigan has hit their ceiling with 10 wins, and that sparty is about to be back in 2017 to "reclaim what's theirs."
Since they no longer require math for an MSU degree, I wouldn't expect them to understand regression toward the mean.
January 9th, 2017 at 2:03 PM ^
I read on RCMB, a few people think Michigan will win no more than seven games next season, which is laughable. There is no chance in hell a Harbaugh-led Michigan team will ever win only seven or less games.
January 10th, 2017 at 6:55 AM ^
...PJ Fleck out-recruit MSU in the B1G rankings in his first month on the job! I would honestly prefer to see games with sparty as close with a favorable outcome, but I guess seeing them get curb-stomped will have to suffice if this keeps up.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:00 AM ^
I'm old school so I don't put a lot of stock in these so-called recruiting rankings (aka opinions). Many players are overlooked and just as many overrated.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^
Both of your claims are true to some extent, but it's been demonstrated time and time again that recruiting rankings do matter and there is a strong correlation to recruiting rankings and success with relevtively few outliers. Not to mention the two bigggest outliers, MSU and Oregon, both stunk it up this year, which just further supports the claim that long-term sustained success isn't possible without having highly ranked recruiting classes.
If I'm remembering right, no team has won a national title in the last 15 years without having at least one top 5 recruiting class in the 4 years prior to winning the title.
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/174883892/predicting-best-nfl-draft-prospects-talent
http://athlonsports.com/college-football/dont-deny-climate-change-recruiting-rankings-matter
January 9th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^
Auburn in 2010.
They had a class rank of 6th in 2010, the year they won it.
Previous ranks were:
2007: 10th
2008: 24th
2009: 23rd
January 9th, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^
Good catch, still a top 10 class that were the seniors/RS Jr's that year. PLUS, Cam Newton, who probably raises it to a top 5 class by himself!! Ok maybe not... but maybe.
January 9th, 2017 at 1:54 PM ^
That year's Auburn team is definitely the exception, though, not the rule. Every other NC winner of the past 15 years had a top five class within a four year window before they won.
January 9th, 2017 at 12:56 PM ^
Oregon ran a system that worked in a conference that's light on good athletic defenses, hence their success once Pete Carroll left USC (the only Pac-12 program that played rugged D).
Sparty ran a defensive system that took advantage of referees that didn't know how to properly flag downfield muggings. Once Oregon and OSU figured out how to beat Sparty's D, they started descending back to where they've historically been...in the middle of the pack.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:20 AM ^
IF not s/ , look at Alabama having the top classe the past 7 years and on field success. Of course it's cyclical... recruiting = on field success = more recruiting success = more on field success, etc
Point is, however, they are analyzing / rating an entire group of players - of course you can "miss" in either direction on a few, but statistically speaking there will be an undeniable talent difference between an entire classe ranked in the top 5 and a class ranked at #40.
Any competent coach knows there is only so much you can do with the X's and O's if you don't have the Jimmy and Joes.
January 9th, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^
they want and landing players their peers want. Is Dantonio succeeding at this in this class? It looks like he landed three recruits with decent offers, one a legacy. He may have snagged a few more that he thinks are way underrated. Otherwise, he's lost a bunch of recruiting battles and settling for recruits with lesser offer sheets.
I find it interesting that Dantonio's only added one commit since the season began. He's really struck out at improving this class. Makes him look smart for locking up all those middling 3* players early.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:01 AM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 11:25 AM ^
Let's not fuel their disrespekt meme. It's Mork D'Anantorini.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^
but regardless of who michigan's coaches have been,
he's still been beating OSU and winning big ten championships with 2 & 3 star players.
Dantollio is a complete douchbag, but his results are obvious.
January 9th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^
Watching the Steelers win on the weekend, I remembered that Leveon Bell was a 2* recruit whose only offers besides MSU were from MAC schools.
January 9th, 2017 at 1:35 PM ^
Yes, Bell was an absolute steal given his ranking, but he also developed a great amount in college and especially the pros. He was primarily viewed as a power back coming out of HS. His progress from that (and as a younger Spartan) has been impressive. He's very fun to watch in the NFL (despite being a Spartan).
MSU is very good at IDing backs that fit well into its system, which is very pro-friendly in terms of transition.
January 9th, 2017 at 12:20 PM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 5:11 PM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
After all that success. Saying they've already arrived, have to beat the best, etc... I honestly think his team and especially the seniors took on that mentality and assumed they could show up to work and the other team would roll over.
MSU can still be a very good program under Dantonio. They have proven it, they've won on some of the biggest stages. But you can't maintain high levels unless you start plucking some talent. They had some pretty solid recruiting classes that led into their success.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:33 AM ^
They also lost Narduzzi, their D has been increasingly worse since he left, and got lucky they hit on a couple NFL caliber QB's who were diamonds in the rough. As we've seen this year when they don't have a QB who can bail the offense out like Cook did over and over, bad things happen. LJ Scott is the truth, but hard to win games when teams load 8-9+ in the box because you can't hit a downfield pass.
January 9th, 2017 at 7:48 PM ^
This ^^^^^^^^^^ - Absolutely. Dantonio and the chip on the shoulder mentality plus Narduzzi plus some fantastic QB recruits was a perfect storm at MSU. Any one of those legs of the stool go away and MSU is back to historical norms.
I hated not looking forward to the annual MSU-UM matchup and I am really looking forward to going back to the MSU game being the game where MSU falls apart for the rest of the year.
January 9th, 2017 at 12:08 PM ^
Agreed. MSU became all the things Dantonio railed against early in his tenure. That and his "2, 3 star" posse from 2013/2014 is nowhere near as talented as the 2010-2012 era.
MSU will always be a tough out - except for some home games vs the Bobby Williams of the world they play us tough and this is their Super Bowl, always and forever. They have a very competent coach and until he retires and is replaced by their next JLS UM better bring their all because MSU will. They also have a very good eye for talent - they just whiffed 2 years in a row on the "under the rock types", after a lot of success at that.
And all that said their 2016 class probably was their best in history on paper. 2017 is going to be a dud.
Longer term, Narduzzi at Pitt hurts D'gornio and Fickell at Cincy probably will to in keeping OSU and western PA guys home rather than going to MSU and being butt hurt about being overlooked. Also lets not overlook PSU being down helping MSU as well; now with recent success PSU is going to keep more of those kids that 4 years ago would be looking at MSU.
The Kentucky - Michigan State battle for fourth tier Ohio recruits should be great the next half decade.
January 9th, 2017 at 1:08 PM ^
Sparty's schedule also had some luck involved before the recent realignment from the Legends/Leaders divisions. OSU, PSU and Wisconsin were in the other division. So they had a bunch of teams that they've historically fare okay against and our historically bad teams.
In fact, there's only one year where they had the best winning percentage in the conference (2013). And I still believe they lose to OSU that year if we don't expose all the holes in their defense the week before.
January 9th, 2017 at 5:15 PM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 11:07 AM ^
Actually, Lithuanian guards are great. Trouble is, they all play basketball.
January 9th, 2017 at 11:12 AM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 3:51 PM ^
ny moment now we'll begin hearing about the Tongan nose tackles,Hey, Bryan Mone is a Tongan DT...
January 9th, 2017 at 11:18 AM ^
January 9th, 2017 at 11:50 AM ^
Hudson I think was interested in State as was Honigford. Basically anyone out of the Ohio-Michigan-Indiana-Illinois area is someone we are still going to go toe-to-toe with State for. I just expect it to go the way State doesn't like very much.
January 9th, 2017 at 12:35 PM ^