HS Coaching perspective on Hoke
When it comes to recruiting, other than the recruit, who is most important to keep positive relations with? ... High School coaches. The kids look to their coaches for advice on schools.
This brief article gives a sense of what the in-state coaches are thinking, so far, about the Hoke hire, and what they thought of RR. Should be a big recruiting positive.
http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/article/7287880265125948872/area…
January 19th, 2011 at 11:48 PM ^
No MLive articles please.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:13 AM ^
Anyone who bring's up the "not my kind of crowd" type comments about RR should go stuff themselves. This Conklin kid included.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:19 AM ^
This reminded me of the Kurt Wermers comment "not my kind of crowd" bull crap too. And you know they're right...when was the last time a kid from Portage Northern and Plainwell ever played for Michigan? Maybe they aren't our kind of crowd.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:38 AM ^
when was the last time a kid from Portage Northern and Plainwell ever played for Michigan?
You're kidding, right? I can think of several players that have come from Portage Northern, just off of top of my head: Eric Mayes, Joey Sarantos, Paul Sarantos, and Kelly Baraka, just to name a few. Obviously, we all know that Baraka didn't pan out, but Mayes and both Sarantos brothers were key defensive starters on good teams. The program had a good relationship in the pre-Rodriguez era and sent a number of players to Michigan that turned out successfully on the defensive side of the ball.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:43 AM ^
My apologies. Were there any in the past 5 recruiting classes? Past 10 recruiting classes? Those guys came to Michigan a decade ago...almost two decades with Mayes.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:53 AM ^
Last 5 recruiting classes? No. They all, except for Mayes, were in the past 10 recruiting classes, though (Baraka and Joey Sarantos were in the 2001 recruiting class and Paul Sarantos was in the 2004 recruiting class). It's been a few years since they've had a player end up at Michigan, but that's Schermerhorn's point. Before the Rodriguez era they were sending players every few years. It's been six years now, and apparently that had to do with the lack of contact from the staff during the Rodriguez era. It's not like the school wasn't producing FBS players during that time span; they just weren't being recruited...
January 20th, 2011 at 12:58 AM ^
Portage Northern sent a super-awesome stud to that football powerhouse Georgetown back in 2008.
Other than that, their last FBS guy went to WMU back in 2005.
I don't think Michigan is missing out on any kind of talent pipeline coming out of Portage Northern.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:03 AM ^
Nice of your to omit this year's class from your analysis. Also, to be fair, they've had a few kids go in directions other than football in recent years who would have been FBS players (Jack Livingston comes to mind first and foremost).
January 20th, 2011 at 1:07 AM ^
Rivals might be defying me, but my search query shows zero Class of 2011 kids with FBS offers from Portage Northern. There is a 5'8", 150 lb. linebacker who sounds quite beastly, though.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:11 AM ^
If I were 4-5 years younger, I could walk on to their squad today (I'm 5'10 190 lb.)!
January 20th, 2011 at 1:13 AM ^
Not sure where you're looking on Rivals, but Chris Laneaux will end up somewhere at the FBS level. He's not the most highly regarded kid in the world (understatement), but he'll be an FBS contributor by the time he's done.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:17 AM ^
He's a 2-star to Scout, a 0-star to Rivals, and has no offers listed on either site.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:26 AM ^
I know, but he'll play. I didn't say that he had an offers, just that he'd end up somewhere. He's rumored to be going to Central, last I heard.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:29 AM ^
And after all of that, what does this have to do with Rodriguez not maintaining "the same" contact Lloyd did with the PN coaches? Not to denigrate any kid that's barely FBS caliber (we're starting former walk-ons), but these are kids we'd consider preferred walk-ons.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:36 AM ^
Again, contact with a particular high school program is not just about the players that play for that team.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:33 AM ^
Not to be of typical Michigan arrogance, but we don't just recruit FBS players...we recruit B10 caliber, Michigan-caliber players. *Also correction on the years: Joey Sarantos was in the PNHS class of 2001 and Paul Sarantos was in the PNHS class of 2002, not 2004.
Furthermore, Rodriguez had an opportunity to recruit for a full two classes, three if you include this 2011 class. You want to blame the lack of Portage players brought in since 2002 because of poor contact from Rodriguez? If Portage had been producing B10 level players, I'm sure contact would have been made. It's not like there was some steady stream of Portage guys that 1) were UM caliber and 2) that Lloyd was even recruiting.
Portage Northern can blame Portage Northern for not sending guys to UM. Not Rodriguez.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:35 AM ^
A couple of things:
(1) I don't think Portage Northern is blaming anyone for Portage Northern not sending guys to UM. I'm virtually certain that wasn't his point.
(2) Keeping contact with high school coaches isn't all about learning about that coach's players, so it's not really all that relevant that the particular school didn't have a ton (or much) FBS talent on it, because the teams on their schedule did and by cutting off that channel of communication you lose a source of information on certain players. This is a conference, after all, that has produced a fair number of very high level players.
(3) Paul Sarantos graduated high school in 2002, but he wasn't in the 2002 recruiting class.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:45 AM ^
1) The article seems as though the coach of PN was a little bitter about Rodriguez not making more contact with him. I could be reading too much into that.
2) Good point. Although, it doesn't automatically mean he didn't make good connections with other coaches in that conference. We probably will never know this.
3) Paul's listed on the Bentley website as a Fr in 2002. on the 2002 UM Football roster. Unless he's a super genius and was actually a dual-enrolled H.S. kid, he was a part of the 2002 recruiting class. http://141.211.39.65/allroster/FMPro
EDIT: That link doesn't work so just type his name in to the database here if you desire: http://141.211.39.65/allroster/fbsearch.htm
January 20th, 2011 at 1:49 AM ^
(1) I'd be shocked if that were the case, but it could be.
(2) True, but I doubt it. I'm not aware of one kid that came out of that conference during Rodriguez's tenure that Michigan had a serious chance with. You're right, we'll probably never know, but my feeling is that there was little or no attention paid to that conference. I could be wrong, though. It seems to me, and again I was a Rodriguez supporter to the end, that Rodriguez's instate strategy was to develop relationships with programs that had top recruits, rather than developing relationships with programs to eventually land top recruits that materialize. If that's the case, it's not necessarily bad, just different.
(3) I think the confusion is in our terminology. I think, technically, he wasn't part of the 2002 class because he wasn't on scholarship until 2003 (i.e. was in the 2003 class, not the 2002 class - I was still wrong when I said 2004 earlier, though).
January 20th, 2011 at 12:47 AM ^
Paul Sarantos had 1 career tackle.
Joey's best season included 18 tackles.
Key starters? Really?
January 20th, 2011 at 12:50 AM ^
Baraka got kicked off the team. ZOMG CARR RECRUIT THUGZ!!!!!!!
January 20th, 2011 at 1:00 AM ^
Yeah, for some reason I thought Paul Sarantos had contributed more, not sure why. Sorry about that. As for Joey Sarantos, your representation of isn't accurate, though (and mine wasn't either). He played in 35 games in three years. I wasn't really speaking about stats, but rather the fact that they actually saw the field. So "key" was the wrong word, at least in terms of how you took what I meant. Sorry.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:03 AM ^
How is my representation of Joey Sarantos inaccurate? I said that his best season included 18 tackles. That is true, backed up by statistics on the official site.
You said that he was a key starter.
Hmmmm...which one of those things is inaccurate, and which one is completely accurate...?
January 20th, 2011 at 1:06 AM ^
Thanks for ignoring my clarification and apology. But hey, carry on... Also, a piece of advice that I need to remember myself quite often: you don't always have to try to be a jerk in order to make a point.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:09 AM ^
Good point. I'm in a bad mood tonight. Haven't been able to sleep lately.
I should have accepted your apology and not attacked you.
I apologize.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:22 AM ^
No worries. Same here. I understand. I should have made my point in a different manner, that would have made more sense. The number of players that Schermerhorn sent to Michigan may not seem huge, and their impact wasn't all that great, but four players in four years is more than the vast majority of instate programs sent to Michigan over that same time period. I believe his point was that because of that past relationship there had been a chain of communication that existed between his program and Michigan, and then when Rodriguez came in it ended. I don't think that's meant as a belly ache on his part, but rather as a manner of saying "if this has happened with my program, it's surely happened to a lot of other similarly situated programs, as well." The fact that Hoke has already reached out to him indicates to me that Hoke is make a concerted effort to reestablish the relationships with these types of instate programs. That type of contact isn't just important because of the players coming out of the particular program, but also to get information on players that these programs play. For example, if one of the primary Carr-era contact in that conference was Schermerhorn, and Rodriguez ended that without someone else to replace him, he would have lost out on a lot of information on some pretty key recruits (e.g. Larry Caper, for one). Some of that is just speculation, some of it I know, but the bigger point (i.e. losing a point of contact with a program and within a conference) is the larger takeaway, in my opinion. I hope that makes sense; I'm tired...
January 20th, 2011 at 1:00 AM ^
Double post. Sorry...
January 20th, 2011 at 1:27 AM ^
No offense to the M guy in this article, but it is trash. Quit dragging RR in the mud because he is from WV. These people sound like townies who have never left the state.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:38 AM ^
As a big Rodriguez supporter right to the end, I didn't read that article as "dragging RR in the mud" at all. Commenting that things were different before and after Rodriguez isn't dragging him through the mud, it's just commenting that things were different.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:14 AM ^
Perception. Rodriguez fought a perception that he wanted to get all his players from Florida. He fought the perception that he was insensitive to midwestern "values."
And for some reason, this whole swearing thing was blown up, quite hypocrittically, way, WAY out of proportion. For crying out loud, I had TEACHERS swearing in the classroom at some of us more rowdy, uncontrollable bastards when I was growing up.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^
That is an awful article, and when is the last time Michigan recruited Climax-Scotts or Portage Northern.
January 20th, 2011 at 2:25 PM ^
Not that long ago, actually, but as stated before, it's not necessarily just about scouting those programs, themselves, but rather about having a network of coaches they can reach out to for information on players on that team and on the teams that that team plays.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:04 PM ^
Good point. I could see them doing that with Portage Northern (I think they have high enrollment), but Climax-Scotts is D7 football whose conference probably produces Big Ten talent once every decade or two.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:35 PM ^
Yeah, I was talking about Portage Northern, not Climax-Scotts. Portage Northern is D2 now (they were A, back in the days when that system was used), but they play all of the bigger schools in the southwest part of the state. Schools like Battle Creek Central and Marshall (both in the conference) pretty regularly put out good players.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:54 AM ^
I would think it would be important to have really good relationships with the parents.