December 20th, 2017 at 8:39 AM ^
I see this class as that depth builder. The last two classes were high on talent - which will be on the field for the next couple of years. This class is filled with high upside players that, at the worst, can be a bridge between the '17 and '19 classes. At best, these guys will push the '17 class for PT and hold off the '19 guys.
Coming off an 8-4 season, I don't think its reasonable to expect another top 10 class. Finish with 10-12 wins next year, and the top 10 (or top 5) classes start happening again. We know the roster had holes for this last season, but that only reads as an excuse to a failed season for anyone outside the Michigan family.
December 20th, 2017 at 11:11 AM ^
It suprises me how we can't be honest about what is happening. No program anywhere offers kids out of the blue if you haven't already swung and missed on all your existing targets.
It is not like recruiting has started this week, we have about 200 offers out there. The staff has prioritzed and been recruting those kids, and have getting beat out. These flurry of offers are a result of missing out on our existing targets and we are scrambling to complete a class.
The real question is how did we get to this point. What were we doing or not doing to put ourselves in this position.
December 20th, 2017 at 11:54 AM ^
"how did we get to this point."
hired RR
hired Hoke
still can't beat MSU and OSU.
/end
December 20th, 2017 at 12:09 PM ^
A top 20 class is damage control? Sure, it's not as highly rated as all of us would like. And sure, we've missed on some of the top targets that the staff wanted. But that's going to happen every year - sometimes, a person has a thought about some program that differs from what we want. Players in Harbaugh's America are allowed the freedom to choose to go wherever they want. Sometimes, the staff may have thoughts about a certain player that we don't get.
Personally, this class is lower ranked than I'd prefer. But in the grand scheme of things, I think it's a perfectly fair class for where Harbaugh's program is right now. The shine of his hiring is off, replaced by a dull, dingy 8-4 season highlighted by offensive lowlights and catcalls from talking heads coast to coast.
And that grand scheme view? This far into both Rich Rod and Hoke regimes, we already knew what the end result was going to be. Under Jim MF'ing Harbaugh, we're still looking the highest parts of the vaulted cieling...
December 20th, 2017 at 4:31 PM ^
Regardless of where the class ends up doesn't erase how you got there. Recruiting has always been a marathon and not a sprint. Commitments usually come on the tail end of a long process based on what type of relationship you build with a kid. The fact that you have to scurry and issue offers at this point, indicates we have run out of Plan A, B and even C targets and are going for kids that were way down our list.
Just a simple look at the kid's offer list shows that we didn't really have to compete for these kids (a fact that is confirmed by the haste in which all of them committed).
You can either like the class or not like the class, that is up to each individual fan to decided how happy he or she is with the results.
The issue I have is those that are trying to position this as all part of some Grand Plan, that our class is falling in place exactly as Harbaugh had envisioned it. The evidence would suggest the contrary.
December 20th, 2017 at 9:36 AM ^
Reese - Beast
Muhammad - Beast
Sims - Beast
Milton - Project QB with EXTREME upside
McGrone - Beast
Hutcinson - In-state 4 star, legacy
Mayfield - Best in-state Tackle
Hayes - 2nd best in-state Tackle
Green#1 - Sims clone #1
Turner - His film is pretty damn good, wouldn't say project
Doyle - 2nd QB in the class (22nd on the country) Project I guess but we have time
Faustin - Sims clone #2
VanSumeren - #1 FB in the country
Upshaw - Project DE with NFL genetics (EXTREME upside)
Welschof - Project DE with NFL athletism (EXTREME upside)
Schoonmaker - TE from McKeon area, amazing athletism, more McKeon 2.0 than a project
Haskins - RB, not sure about project, low ranked. Maybe the sites missed or the staff does
Green#2 - Sims clone #3 and held back by ACL injury during peak evaluation season
Bell - Project WR
I count 5 projects, maybe 6 if you think a RB can be a project. Three of them could easily become 1st round NFL picks. The staff thinks all else are PLAYERS.
December 20th, 2017 at 10:21 AM ^
3 first round draft picks?
you know what it takes to go in the 1st round? or the odds of 3 underrated prospects from the same class all going 1st round?
i appreciate your argument but no need to go overboard
December 20th, 2017 at 10:44 AM ^
Worded it wrong. Not claiming all three will, but three of them have the athletic upside to be 1st round picks.
It is not outside the realm of possibility a 6'6" SDE who runs a 4.55 40 turns into a stud, an not really underrated since the only site to give him a fair evaluation has him as a 4 star...
Upshaw just started playing football in the past two years, and his dad was a NFLer. Great upside there.
Milton has all the tools but hasn't put it together yet. He is a project 4 star though, not really underrated.
December 20th, 2017 at 11:59 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
??? What!
No one said it will go down in history. But it damn sure is not half full of project players and it damn sure isn't a failure. Right now it is the 11th ranked class, with the possibility of moving up or down 5 spots.
Great? Nope. Good? You bet! Mix it with the last two top 5 classes, and we will field a team on par or better than our 2016 team, a team that was a poorly-spotted inch away from playing for the B1G and a playoff berth.
December 20th, 2017 at 8:38 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 8:43 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^
PFF had him on their All-SEC team too. The fanbase could be wrong.
December 20th, 2017 at 8:28 AM ^
News flash. Michigan isn't OSU or Bama caliber.
Until people accept that it's just going to be a life of sadness on the recruiting front when it comes to comparisons.
December 20th, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 11:40 AM ^
Enough with the excuses. Coach Harbaugh just needs to say no to all the lower than 4 star recruits and only say yes to all the 5 star recruits that we keep turning away. It is such an easy fix...
December 20th, 2017 at 8:35 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 8:44 AM ^
Yeah, not sure why people want to waste their time playing for the best coach in college football, who wins national titles at least every other year and sends truckloads of players into the first round of the NFL draft. At a school with flexible academic standards. That one's a real headscratcher.....
Harbaugh is a very good coach in his own right, but he doesn't have even a quarter of the accolades in college that Saban has. Whatever hardware Harbaugh took home in the NFL is irrelevant, because this is college. Different game. It's not at all difficult to understand why a kid wants to go to Alabama over Michigan.
If we want to start getting these kids on more than a once every year or two basis, we need to beat OSU and win other games that actually matter on the national landscape. Neither of which has been accomplished recently.
December 20th, 2017 at 10:18 AM ^
I understand your point but to say what Harbaugh accomplished in the NFL is irrelevant to recruiting is dumb also. Most of these players have NFL dreams and Harbaugh knowing what it takes, having recent connections and putting guys in the NFL certainly helps his recruiting, whether he has won a title in college or not.
December 20th, 2017 at 10:02 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 10:08 AM ^
As if freshmen DE's don't all sit on the bench. This kid will also sit on Michigan's bench and wait.
Go be a Bama fan.
December 20th, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
As if freshmen DE's don't all sit on the bench. This kid will also sit on Michigan's bench and wait.
Go be a Bama fan.
December 20th, 2017 at 8:13 AM ^
Wagner has a drinking buddy!! Open the floodgates of international players to the U of M... Would be nice... Ode to Stauskas
December 20th, 2017 at 8:15 AM ^
A Euro Dude last minute. Trust the coaches and the process!!
GO BLUE!!
December 20th, 2017 at 8:18 AM ^
I'm all on board for trust the process. Some of these lesser known recruits are going to be fan favorites in a few years.
December 20th, 2017 at 8:28 AM ^
It would be great to finally have a class materialize. A decade is a long time to not have a recruiting class actually materialize on the college level.
December 20th, 2017 at 8:29 AM ^
First off, captain crunch is an excellent cereal and I don't appreciate the "craptain" crunch. Second, the last two recruiting classes have been pretty dang solid and we have seen a ton of contributors from them.
So to summarize, your comment is real dumb.
December 20th, 2017 at 9:02 AM ^
it is nature's most perfect food. And, there is an art to eating it...
December 20th, 2017 at 8:32 AM ^
Materialize? Last year we had 11 guys get drafted in the NFL and were one of the Top 5 Teams in college football (outside the last 1 minute of games). How much more materialized can you get?
Hell our 2016 class is materialized already!
Gary, Bredeson, Peters, Long, Asiasi, Onwenu, Hill, Bush Jr., Evans, Hudson, Nordin, Metellus, McKeon are all Dudes.
Walker, Crawford, Kemp, Eubanks, McDoom, Uche, Spanellis, Dwumfour and Gil are all guys who are young and have made plays.
December 20th, 2017 at 9:20 AM ^
We were barely top 10. Perhaps you conveniently forgot we lost three of our last four games?
December 20th, 2017 at 11:32 PM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 8:25 AM ^
247 is the only one that seems to have picked up on the kid's size/athleticism combination. Would've been a virtual lock for the top 200 had he gone to an American high school in a populated area.
December 20th, 2017 at 8:36 AM ^
That 4.55 number is going to get some FAKES on the write-up, no? I mean, wow.
December 20th, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 8:50 AM ^
No way man, recruiting rankings, which are a combination of a bunch of sportswriter's (who are paid based on subscriptions sold to the most rabid fans of the most popular fan bases) opinions that are converted into rating numbers and rankings then have arbitrary lines drawn for 5 star at #32 and 4 star at #300 are completly infallibile and statistically perfect!
December 20th, 2017 at 8:43 AM ^
But what about AJ Carter?!?
December 20th, 2017 at 8:53 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 9:22 AM ^
Your sarcasm meter must be broken.
December 20th, 2017 at 9:09 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 8:57 AM ^
German Thunder!!!!
December 20th, 2017 at 9:05 AM ^
Mo loves Michigan and so will Julius.
Go Blue!
December 20th, 2017 at 9:22 AM ^
he's not a DT.
December 20th, 2017 at 9:41 AM ^
Just a little less excited now, just a tiny bit. We need DT’s bad.
December 20th, 2017 at 10:26 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 11:46 AM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 9:08 AM ^
The Washington Post, yes the Washington Post, has a background piece on Welshof's background: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/from-a-german-factory-to…
December 20th, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
So Harbaugh & Co. has signed another under the radar guy. Given the 3 stars and less who have "starred" as All-Americans (such as Hurst) and future NFL stars (Glasgow brothers, etc), that doesn't bother me at all. Seems like this is filling in the roster with players who will redshirt next year rather than expect playing time (thereby possibly transferring if unsuccessful), but possibly affecting recruiting numbers for the next few years. Hopefully, they will have higher upsides than better known, higher-rated guys.
December 20th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
U-M fans are right to celebrate what former walk-on Graham Glasgow has done, but he's a looooonnng way from being an NFL star.
December 20th, 2017 at 1:38 PM ^
December 20th, 2017 at 10:22 AM ^