turd ferguson

May 15th, 2012 at 12:13 PM ^

I've said this before, but I think the lesson is that it's wildly valuable to be an historic powerhouse in college football. USC, Penn State, and OSU all have seen little/no drop-off in recruiting after major scandals, but I seriously doubt that the MSUs, Arizona States, and NC States of the world would have that kind of resilience.

lhglrkwg

May 15th, 2012 at 12:58 PM ^

If you really want to punish USC you'd have to move their campus out to Albuquerque, make them change their primary colors to orange and brown, and then prohibit attractive females from attending. Other than that, kids are always going to want to play for USC.

They have LANE KIFFIN as their coach and they still pull in just about anyone they want, clearly the coach just needs to babysit to have success there

Sinsemillaplease

May 15th, 2012 at 10:49 AM ^

following the recruitment of players who didn't grow up loving the maize and blue. That would be much easier on my cardiovascular system, I think. Commence scouring the state for the next in-state blue chip rb...

Blue in Yarmouth

May 15th, 2012 at 10:55 AM ^

I understand it's a bit disappointing, but let's put it into context: We have Fitz for likely 2 more years, Rawls (who has been showing promise) for 3 more years, Smith (who looks like he could do some serious damage behind the incoming o-line class) for 4 or 5 more years, Shallman the same situation as Smith and Justice Hayes is there as well. We will be fine with the depth we have there for this season and have a chance to go get another top flight rb next recruiting class and be just fine. Let's not get too upset by this.

Sinsemillaplease

May 15th, 2012 at 1:38 PM ^

See my other comment. I'm not upset about missing an RB. I'd rather have DL. I'm upset that I keep closely following really high profie out of state guys in general. The recruitments of Kozan, Garnett, Levenberry, Diamond, Payton and Dunn were highly stressful. I'd rather stick to following guys like Malik and Morris... the cream of the crop from Michigan... high percentage "shots".

Hannibal.

May 15th, 2012 at 10:50 AM ^

Big time disappointment.  And it continues to be a mystery why we can't land a blue chipper at running back even with two incredible line classes in a row, a meh depth chart, and a coach committed to running the football. 

ChuckieWoodson

May 15th, 2012 at 11:13 AM ^

But I'm not sure why it's a "mystery" to you.  And by this I mean there's only been 2 Elite RB's we've gone after, Dunn and Issac.  The one that I thought we had a chance at was Issac, so that makes one.  Dunn was always an OSU lean so I don't think he even really qualifies.  So I think saying it's a mystery is a bit grandiose, considering we have a sample size of two one of which I don't think we had a chance at anyway.

If this happens next year and the year after, I'll start to be concerned. 

Hannibal.

May 15th, 2012 at 11:26 AM ^

I guess I'm kind of rolling the last couple of years of the RichRod era into the losing streak as well.  We ultimately lost Hart to a non-spread offense and I don't even remember being in on any studs for the '10 class.  I'm kinda leaving Justice Hayes out of the mix since he is sort of a slot/RB/KR type who came in with an uncertain future.  When was the last time that Michigan landed a guy who the Michigan nation was really excited about and thought could make an immediate impact?  Kelly Baraka?

ChuckieWoodson

May 15th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^

and agree.  It'd be silly to say I wasn't bummed out too.  But, something to consider is that a lot of these guys we've already gotten to commit, guys like LTT & J. Butt I remember reading about "how they weren't ready to make a decision" until this time or that time... but we roped them in even before they got to a 50/50 situation. 

So while I'm in total agreement that some of these blue chip guys aren't seeming to go our way as of late, we're getting a bunch of guys early even before it gets to that point and thats huge, IMO. 

He seems like a nice kid and I hope he does well @ USC - but this will make it even better when Pee Wee & Bolden hold him to 65 total yards in the Rose Bowl in a few years.

UMaD

May 15th, 2012 at 3:31 PM ^

but it's beside it.

McGuffie was pretty highly ranked and had offers from ND, USC and others.  We don't win those battles for RB all that often.

redhousewolverine

May 15th, 2012 at 8:06 PM ^

I believe he was a 4 star but the 9 ranked all-purpose back in the class, to Rivals. That would put him around 18-22 RB in the class, which is still pretty good. Shaw was around there too. I think the idea with elite is a 5 star or near consensus 5 star-not that they all work out as Darrell Scott busted, Bryce Brown didn't come close to expectations (headcase), and Leseachne Trunk or whatever his name was hasn't done anything yet. 

MGoStrength

May 15th, 2012 at 10:52 AM ^

Can't imagine any scenario where someone would chose to go play under Lane Kiffin over Brady Hoke.  He must be thinking "I'd really like to play for a selfish, egotistical, cheating, coach with no loyalty over a guy that lives the principles he preaches, puts his program first, is loyal beyond reason, is honest, and cares more about principles than results."  Good decision Ty...but good luck to you none the less....seriously.  Maybe it was the Cali weather.

MichiganExile

May 15th, 2012 at 11:02 AM ^

You don't commit to a coach you commit to a program. I can tell you this the recruiting advantages built in at USC can be tough to overcome. The coach has less to do with a recruit choosing USC than you think.

BiSB

May 15th, 2012 at 10:52 AM ^

I'm often reminded of when people predict whether a baby is going to be a boy or a girl. Some people are like, "I KNEW it. I told you it would be a boy. Didn't I tell you? I told you." Yep, you did. You told me so, But it isn't like you guessed the name or the weight. You had a 50/50 shot, and you got it right.

It's like winning the "will the coin toss be heads or tails" prop bet at the Super Bowl. You can celebrate your win, but it's tough to brag about your awesome predicting abilities.

goblueritzy92

May 15th, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^

He spurned our Spring Game to go to theirs. That quote about Michigan being hard to turn down was made with about 5 other teams. Guys on the Scout boards saying we would have a lot of ground to make up for him because we went all out on Isaac. That will be very hard to do as he is many other team's #1 piriority at RB. Just a few reasons...

Rabbit21

May 15th, 2012 at 10:56 AM ^

I've had this one written down as a loss for a long time now.  He was 50/50 and wavering and since when has that gones UM's way in the past two years.  The coaches do a great job with recruiting, but it seems like they can't fend off the late push.  

Regardless, I still think between Smith, Shallman, Norfleet, and Johnson there's enough variety of talent in the backfield to have a good running game. 

No panic here.

Action

May 15th, 2012 at 11:00 AM ^

I'm not sure the kids committing have considered what the team will be like in a couple years once the scholarship reductions have started.  Even if they get 15 "5/4 star" kids, a number of them won't pan out and they will not be deep at all.  They will struggle.