***Updated*** Michigan 2012 Recruiting Map
This is going to be a test run......but I am a recently laid-off geospatial analyst, and when I saw that Nebraska map posted earlier today I got the itch to make one myself. So this map is pretty rough.....I am going to grab my xternal HD tomorrow, and I have a lot more data to make it more aesthetically pleasing as this evolves. Just want to see how all the fonts read (ie to big/to small) and how the composition looks when its posted on the web.
Anyways, all the data you see posted I pulled from “Touch the Banner”
***edit: I can't embed the map w/o it being ridiculous in size.....however...
***edit2: Thanks for the feedback...I incorporated some of the suggestions I recieved. The next map will come out when there are some new recruits to add....thanks for the responses.
Revision....Michigan Recruiting Map 2.0
February 15th, 2011 at 3:10 AM ^
Awesome.
Next we need all the features of the ncaa football video game recruiting interface. (joak)
February 15th, 2011 at 5:34 AM ^
I noticed that most of the defensive recruits are close to home, and all the farthest out recruits are on offense. Interesting post.
February 15th, 2011 at 5:57 AM ^
I'm guessing we will begin to see more offers go out to OL when the staff evaluates more recruits. OL take more time to evaluate and the coaches are probably waiting to see them at camps.
February 15th, 2011 at 7:18 AM ^
I think this would be a nice addition to the Usefull Stuff tab/2011 recruits.
February 15th, 2011 at 7:27 AM ^
I noticed there weren't any recruits in Texas yet. That is a little surprising, but i'm sure it will take care of itself.
As for the offensive players being from elsewhere in the USA, from what I have heard, this is a bad year from OL in the midwest (except for the Chicago area).
Thanks for the map, I agree this should be on the "useful stuff" tab.
February 15th, 2011 at 7:28 AM ^
As the class evolves, I hope you get to put a few of those dots in Texas and a few more in the Florida/Georgia area.
February 15th, 2011 at 8:16 AM ^
like it keep it up.
February 15th, 2011 at 8:26 AM ^
This could be a very helpful tool and can evolve once guys start making commitments.
February 15th, 2011 at 8:43 AM ^
Your boss should have fired your lazy ass years ago so we could get this kind of excellent work to brighten our days...great stuff.
February 15th, 2011 at 8:48 AM ^
This is great. Reading about where the recruits are from is one thing, but a visual map like this helps out even more, IMO.
February 15th, 2011 at 8:50 AM ^
Really cool thank you sir!
February 15th, 2011 at 9:08 AM ^
While I like the heavy concentration on the Midwest, and agree with the coaching staff that we have to win recruiting battles and there and dominate the state, it still concerns me to see how sparse the offers are in other hotbeds of the country.
I don't necessarily want UM to be an offer whore, but elite programs recruit the entire country with success, and that's where UM should be. It's early, of course, and that list will likely double in the next month or two, but the comment about little action in Texas, and noting there's nothing in Missouri, Iowa, etc, is bad since that's still Big Ten country (or borderline).
February 15th, 2011 at 10:06 AM ^
I hear your concern, but it is so early and keep in mind that this staff has been employed for around 6-7 weeks. During this time, they were frantically scrambling to (1) keep the current talent, (2) fill out the staff, and (3) salvage something from this past recruiting class.
They are just turning to 2012 now, and I think that it is a good strategy to lock down the local schools first. Why? Because if you lose out on a kid in Florida, he probably goes to an SEC school, and you don't see him unless it is in a bowl. If you lose out on an in-state kid, chances are he goes to MSU, ND, OSU or one of the other B10 schools that we play every season. So, not only do you lose out on the recruit, but that recruit directly helps one of our rivals have be a better teram and have a better shot at beating us. (This is part of the reason for OSU's dominance and MSU's rise up over the past years - OSU has owned midwest recruiting, whereas in the past we used to split the top recruits about 50/50, and MSU has managed to get the instate 4* talent which used to end up at UM).
I am sure that once Hoke has managed to make his presence known with the bountiful crop of midwest talent, he will branch out to the other areas of the country that are considered "hotbeds."
February 15th, 2011 at 9:25 AM ^
Excellent.
February 15th, 2011 at 9:32 AM ^
isn't your fault. I don't like to see the state of Texas absolutely blank. Unbelievable pipeline there if we can get into that scene, especially for QB's.
February 15th, 2011 at 9:35 AM ^
Nice job.
42 offers already? Looks like me might be over 100 offers again this year. That's to be expected, I guess, since we haven't played a single down under the new regime. I hypothesize that once we start winning with regularity again, recruits will be more apt to committing with little hesitation.
February 15th, 2011 at 9:39 AM ^
Told me that we got a 5 star RB from Texas. I woke up all excited and went to check my computer to make sure it was real. Are you calling my dream a liar? Or saying it can't predict the future? Go ahead and just mark down an offer for Johnathan Gray (Aldedo, TX) or Trey Williams (Spring, TX) because I'm pretty sure we're getting one of those two. My brain has never been wrong before, so I'm pretty sure you can Raback this one.
February 15th, 2011 at 9:40 AM ^
Here is something interesting.... the other day I was watching the Michigan-Ohio State replay game one of the years Nick Mangold was their center, and early in the telecast, they show the mugshots of the players and their hometowns, and was very interesting that the entire starting offensive line for OSU (including Lions Rob Sims) was from the state of Ohio.
And now looking at your map.... interesting to note, not one player so far we offered on the OL, is from either the state of Michigan OR from Ohio. So far, two from Illinois, one from S.Car, and I hear from Tom that we may soon offer one from Az and another from Texas. Am not making any implications, but thought I'd mention it.
February 15th, 2011 at 10:02 AM ^
Thank you. Color coding Off / Def was a great idea.
February 15th, 2011 at 10:02 AM ^
This is really nice. One suggestion though, and you might have thought of it already and I would have no idea.
When a player comitts you should mark them as a star or something. Maybe we'll have players recruiting for us again this cycle.
February 15th, 2011 at 10:17 AM ^
I was thinking the same thing.....may experiment with the size of each circle as well (bigger circles/stars for higher ranked recruits) once rankings come out. It may be getting a little to clustered/busy at that point though.....we'll see.
Thanks for the feedback.
February 15th, 2011 at 10:33 AM ^
Yea, that would be really cool. Or you could alter colors for comitts/prospects, like maize for comitted players and blue for prospects with offers. Good work all around.
February 15th, 2011 at 12:14 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing, since recruits such as Avery Johnson and Connor Brewer are already committed else where. Also not sure how many people hear about this, but Matt Jones committed to Florida either today or tomorrow. Saw it on Toms twitter and on Scout.
February 15th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^
........I'll go ahead and take those off......thanks!
February 15th, 2011 at 10:44 AM ^
Team logos for committed prospects would be better. Michigan block M for our commits, but I'd also like to see where other guys we offer commit to.
February 15th, 2011 at 12:31 PM ^
Yea that's a cool idea. The only thing is that there are a couple places that are going to look really crowded. The entire states of Ohio and PA, the Chicago area, a few of the Detroit suburbs.
Speaking of which, Dan Voltz went to high school in the town next to me. His HS hockey team was a big rival of ours. No idea what this has to do with your comment but I thought it was cool.
February 15th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
the school logos could be placed beside the player's name instead of replacing the dot.
To the OP, geat idea and I look forward to seeing how this evolves.
February 15th, 2011 at 10:15 AM ^
I do not have a new job in the field of geospatial analysis to offer you, but I can give you a +1 for your excellent work.
February 15th, 2011 at 10:48 AM ^
that is very cool. one suggestion: any chance you could add state lines? you don't need ot idenfity which states they are because that would add too much noise. awesome stuff though.
February 15th, 2011 at 11:04 AM ^
I wonder if you can add star rankings to the names ...
... and if you're already sick of the multitude of suggestions that we're loading up.
Well done.
February 15th, 2011 at 11:54 AM ^
well done sir
February 15th, 2011 at 11:55 AM ^
Me likey - lots.
February 15th, 2011 at 12:34 PM ^
Awesome...This is exactly what we have needed as recruit junkies. When guys start to commit just put whichever logo they commit to...I agree with the person above who said I'd like to see where people we offered commit even if its not Michigan so don't just take them off the map. Also, when Rivals and scouts get into ranking each prospect youmay want to lose the blue/maize for offense and defense and make it for their stars.
nevermind the maize/blue comment for the stars...i like the idea above way more to add their stars to their names. you may even make a R4/S3 for a rivals 4 star and scout 3 star or something along those lines
February 15th, 2011 at 12:47 PM ^
This map is really interesting. And I know that beggars can't be choosers but when it's all said and done I'd love to see how this compares to a Rich Rod era map to see if there's any basis to the RR lack of midwest recruiting claim.
February 15th, 2011 at 1:01 PM ^
...know of a good source where I can find it....I am all ears. I have to throw the info. in a excel table with name/city/state/etc....so if someone has a user friendly list (I am not copying/pasting 1000 x's) please let me know.
February 15th, 2011 at 5:21 PM ^
Touch the Banner has a 2010 and 2011 offer board too right? I think you could get all the data from there just like for this chart. 2010 might be more representative because it doesn't have any of the late Hoke offers from 2011 (but they were relatively few I suppose anyway).
Is the problem touch the banner's isn't in an excel table? If so you could also use the rivals recruit search (they have an option to "view results on map" but the map is pretty unwieldy and not as useful as yours). http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/recruit-search
February 15th, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^
.......thanks for the leads......yeah it should be fairly easy based of your suggestions. My previous experience with recruiting was just watching for Tom VH posts ,,,,so this is pretty new for myself. Thanks for the info.
February 16th, 2011 at 12:54 AM ^
I'm just getting into it myself. The confluence of the coaching search and national signing day sort of got me hooked.
February 15th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^
2nd version is far superior to the first, but both were really cool and helpful regardless. Hoke is definitely trying to own the Midwest.
February 15th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^
Awesome work. This definitely belongs in the Useful Stuff tab.
February 15th, 2011 at 1:37 PM ^
Wonderful post and great resource. I wish we needed a geospatial analyst. We would hire you, but we're not in a business that needs one.