Tater

May 26th, 2018 at 9:07 AM ^

Look at his list of schools.  Two of the documented dirtiest programs in football and a bunch of SEC teams.  A clean program isn't going to get a kid like this.  It's just the way it goes.  MSU is probably only on the list because of what appears to be a nice little "Belleville pipeline" for MSU.

That is a major reason why I wish the NCAA would just let the kids take money from boosters and endorsements. I would love to see Michigan compete on a level playing field with dirty programs.

HAIL-YEA

May 26th, 2018 at 11:57 AM ^

He isn't just now not relatively interested in us, he never has been. Who the hell cares? This kid is is ranked way too high anyway, but even if he is not there is no such thing as a must have recruit. Lineman are developed, they can't survive on measureables alone like other positions anyway. 

And how is tackle our most needed position in the 2019 class? We are likely breaking in 2 new tackles this year, you are assuming that things will go so badly that in 2019 we will need to start these freshman over the returning starters? Think about it, it will be 2021 by the time these guys are ready to play, what is the point of being bummed out right now?

East German Judge

May 25th, 2018 at 10:04 PM ^

Why would we come late for an in-state kid who appears to be so highly ranked by most services?  If he was a low ranked kid in BF Idaho/Montana/New Mexico (you get the point) I can see that.  For in-state kids who are in the neighboring county, either come early or don't come at all if they do not fit your scheme.  Seems odd to say the least.

Wolverine Devotee

May 25th, 2018 at 8:33 PM ^

I could be wrong but Dobbs seems like he's gonna be a bust anyways so a simple shrug will suffice.

Logan Brown was the one I was bummed out about. 

Gucci Mane

May 25th, 2018 at 11:39 PM ^

One player made you change your view of rankings ? Seems rather insignificant in the grand scheme of rankings. If a team had the top 23 ranked players every year, they would almost never lose. The higher the better, on average. That is a fact.

YoBoMoLoHo

May 25th, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^

That coach HATES HATES HATES Michigan. Look where his D1 kids are committing to; to the Schools that also hate Michigan. Belleville is trying to be like the old Detroit King situation. A Sparty loving, Michigan hating staff that actively steers their kids away from Michigan. Fuck that guy. 

CLion

May 25th, 2018 at 8:39 PM ^

It's not ideal and it's not the end of the world. Quit saying the kid is going to bust though. Y'all sound like MSU fans when we win a recruiting battle (most of them).

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

May 25th, 2018 at 8:43 PM ^

top public universities have offered him — and he includes MSU in his considerationlist but not UM. OSU, USC, Georgia and Clemson are all really good football choices. Good luck to him.

EconClassof14

May 25th, 2018 at 9:10 PM ^

Oh yeah because all of our football players are physics majors. Don’t bash the kid, on the whole there’s very little difference between football players academically at all power 5 schools except the few with specific restrictions like ND and Stanford and even there the football players are nowhere close to the average student.

EconClassof14

May 25th, 2018 at 9:23 PM ^

Sorry I don’t mean to generalize and I know there’s obviously high level academic football players at Michigan and elsewhere.
I just took exception to saying Dobbs is afraid of the academics at a high level school, any level of academic involvement and investment is possible at any school. Plenty of kids have mailed it in academically at high level academic schools and plenty have really worked hard at less selective schools

GarMoe

May 28th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^

You should quit while you're behind. Where did I say Dobbs was "afraid" of academics? Nice concern trolling there. If you don't believe some players choose the easier academic path bc their sole plan is to play pro ball afterward, you're delirious.

ThadMattasagoblin

May 25th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^

I mean if you are going to miss on two instate top 10 players, you've got to get that top talent elsewhere. Dudek has promised us that our 2 and 3 star guys are as good as Ohio State's recruits when he said that players outside of the top 25 are all the same so no excuses in November. 

Navy Wolverine

May 25th, 2018 at 10:26 PM ^

https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/Michigan-Director-of-Recruiting-Matt-Dudek-discusses-star-ranking-argument-117564129

"I (couldn't) care less (about star rankings) and I know everybody just wrecked their cars and threw their radio out of the window," Dudek told The Michigan Insider's Sam Webb in an exclusive interview. "I trust our evaluations. I trust Jim Harbaugh's evaluation. I trust Don Brown's evaluation. I'm not worried about those stars. Obviously, the great players, the Top-25 players in the country, anyone can see how wonderful and great and awesome athletically those guys are, right? My daughter can see that. We want to get those guys. We want to get those guys for sure. After you get out of those Top-25 guys, it's a hodgepodge. Has this kid gone to any camps? Does this kid answer the phone when a reporter calls him? Does he go to a high school that won a state championship in the last 2 years? Is his high school coach out there hyping him up? There's a variety of things of how these stars come through. Again, it's not to say that the five-star guys, the Rashan Gary's are always going to be the Rashan Gary's, everybody loves them. After you get past that, it's a preference. It's a fit, too."

For Dudek, finding that fit is what the recruiting process is all about.

"Michigan is a special, different place," Dudek said. "Not everybody fits here and it needs to be treated that way as a special, different place. The admissions department, they're not accepting someone that is a 2.0, 800 SAT and neither are we. From a standpoint, and not necessarily from grades, just from the below-the-standard of what Michigan is... I love when I read, 'they didn't know about this guy or they're not recruiting this guy hard.' We know who that guy is, we don't want him. There is a level of that. We could've got him, they picked another school over us. Maybe we told him to go to that other school. Again, I'm talking in generalities. There's a lot of guys in the last year, for example, there's a couple of guys that I thought for sure that we were in the mix and we wanted. We loved. We didn't get them at the end.

"It's a two-year recruitment, what we did at year one probably wasn't enough. What we did at year two wasn't enough. We're getting away from that now and, as you can see, we're reaping the benefits of the rewards right now in the 2019 class."

Navy Wolverine

May 26th, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^

I'm sure most of us read Brian's first two articles analyzing our 2018 recruits. He made these remarks at the start of the first article:

Before this series kicks off again, a word about the state of the Recruiting Industry: it's less good than it was. A few years ago there were four distinct sites, each of which put a sizeable effort into scouting and justifying their rankings. They had their idiosyncrasies but for all but the most obscure prospects there was a fairly broad pool of scouting to draw from.

 

In 2018, Scout is obliterated, ESPN's recruiting efforts are mostly aimed at the class of prospect who might have a televised announcement, Rivals doesn't go to Opening regionals, and 24/7… uh… has so many articles that it gets annoying trying to scroll through them for still-relevant information? The Wolverine does do a solid job of getting a few scouting takes when a guy commits, at least.

 

The industry's consolidation means that some guys are not going to have very diverse takes. C'est la vie.

 

So maybe there is something to what Dudek is saying - that star ratings, especially for second tier and lower recruits, may not be the Holy Gospel and the program will continue to trust their own player evaluations (not that they weren't before). 

 

Youngharbaugh4

May 25th, 2018 at 9:16 PM ^

but everyone needs to calm down on Dobbs, I’ve seen him in person and can not understand how he is ranked as high as he is. In all honesty he might be a camp circuit guy for how high he was ranked. Also we wanted him as a DT, that should tell you something about how the staff evaluated him. If he did come here though, he would have to bulk up and move inside at guard, and compared to some other five star guard prospects, he lacks behind. One recruit projected at the same spot (OG) I would be mad about losing is Zach Carpenter, that kids tape and physicals look to be a future All-American. Also, Coach warinner has been turning up the heat on OT recruits lately and Trevor Keegan to be exact. I’d say with the addition of those two and possibly a surprise OT commit or Harrod, if we still in fact want him, our OL class this year could be outstanding. And another point, I know every year we say “wait til next year” but 2020’s OL signing class could be REALLY good too, warinner has begun to put his mark on things already.

ToledoWolverine

May 25th, 2018 at 9:17 PM ^

Fire Jim Harbaugh right now. One of HIS coaches offended a 17 year old and now he doesn’t want to go to UM.....

Who gives a shit? It didn’t go our way, thems the breaks. My confidence in Harbaugh has not wavered one bit. He is the best man for the job. We will survive, there are other OL prospects and I take issue with the idea it’s a position of need. Plenty of underclassmen on the roster.

I’ll be glad when Dobbs enrolls somewhere so you guys can quit bitching about him. I like to devote my energy and attention to those who want to play for Michigan. Those who don’t, good luck I guess, but can’t say I care either way your luck goes.

Jimmyisgod

May 25th, 2018 at 9:28 PM ^

Logan Brown is 10 times more likely to bust than Dobbs. Brown should not be a 4 star much less a 5 star. I’ve seen him live, he’s slow. People like to predict busts without really knowing. Dobbs is a good prospect. Flip Spencer Brown!!! Way better athlete than the other two. By far the best athlete at O Line in the state. Jalen Mayfield will be better than Logan Brown.