Hello: Dane Drobocky (PWO)

Submitted by EastCoast Esq. on

Our beloved coaching staff continues to recruit the heck out of PWOs. This time we got a Kentucky TE/OLB named Dane Drobocky.

http://michigan.247sports.com/Bolt/Michigan-Picks-Up-PWO-TE-40939472

 

His Hudl highlights can be found here:

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3022733/dane-drobocky

 

He looks like he has decent hands, so that's good. Otherwise, I trust that he's a hard-nosed, hard working guy.

All-in-all, I love that this coaching staff is working hard to bring as much talent on board as possible.

youn2948

November 9th, 2015 at 11:30 AM ^

If we get a ton of ultra hard working PWO's they can really push and set and example for the 4-5 starts and keep them from allowing entitlement to creep in, not that I'm afraid of Harbaugh letting that occur.

Space Coyote

November 9th, 2015 at 11:45 AM ^

Michigan has been getting approximately the same number of PWOs for a long, long time; it's just that recruiting gets a lot more news now, even from a PWO standpoint. But Harbaugh is getting no more than Hoke or RR or Carr were.

As for Drobocky, hoping he can really bulk up. He has the length and could potentially be a solid in-line TE at some point (a position, along with FB and maybe an interior DL spot) that can often help from a PWO standpoint.

Space Coyote

November 9th, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^

Now, Harbaugh has a larger support staff for recruiting, so that probably helps him put a little more emphasis on it, but PWOs are extremely important to any roster, they are essential for a lot of what happens in practice.

Just looking at from Hoke's time: Bo Dever, Brian Cleary, Matt Thompson, Garrett Moores, Jack Wangler, AJ Pearson, Joe Hewlett, all three Glasgows, Nick Benda, Bobby Henderson, Nick Volk, Dan Liesman, Ben Pliska, Michael Jocz, Jack Dunaway, Brad Anlauf, Kenny Allen, Joe Kerridge.

Almost all those guys are PWOs, if not all of them. They were scouted and recruited because they thought they could help the team in some way. Some did more than that and are actually starters or on the depth chart. Most teams always scout a PWO QB, I like when scouting emphasis is put on interior DL, interior OL, and then FB/TE positions, because you can tend to get athletically limited guys that can really help a team out at those positions.

Rich Rod put a similar focus on it, as did Carr (who often scouted FBs, Kickers, Punters, Long Snappers, TEs, etc.) in this manner.

So yeah, Harbaugh may have more resources to put to it, but coaches have always scouted for guys to be PWOs from all over the place. It just didn't get any buzz because they were PWO and people hardly cared enough about recruiting scholarship players, until recently when people have become so starved now they care about PWOs a lot as well.

Rabbit21

November 9th, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^

Excellent news!  Blocky-Catchy guys can come from darn near anywhere, good to see a wide net getting cast.  Plus he's from an area with a big auto plant so he'll feel right at home.

SlickNick

November 9th, 2015 at 3:01 PM ^

This may be a dumb question but can someone explain to me the difference between a walk on and "preferred walk on"? I've seen it described as being offered the PWO spot so I was a little curious...

Magnus

November 9th, 2015 at 3:58 PM ^

Preferred walk-ons are essentially guaranteed to have spots on the roster. Since you have 85 scholarship players and only 105 players are allowed to begin practice in August, there are only about 20 spots for preferred walk-ons (or student body walk-ons) to participate. So you have to monitor the number of preferred walk-ons you bring in since there are always returning walk-ons you want to be on the roster, too.