UM Football Recruiting - by WM Wolverine

[Jamie H]

And I'm talking about flakes. When someone says he wants to silently committ, fine. But when that guy backs up at the slightest hint that you are still recruiting DB's (when it was pretty much known that Michigan needs a TON of help in the secondary) that starts to get into potential flake territory to me. That's all I'm saying. I can understand decommitting immediately, or decommitting if a significantly better offer comes along. But why commit and then decommit within a two-week period, especially this early? If you are that undecided, then just don't commit to ANYONE.

[Jamie H]

And I'm talking about flakes. When someone says he wants to silently committ, fine. But when that guy backs up at the slightest hint that you are still recruiting DB's (when it was pretty much known that Michigan needs a TON of help in the secondary) that starts to get into potential flake territory to me. That's all I'm saying. I can understand decommitting immediately, or decommitting if a significantly better offer comes along. But why commit and then decommit within a two-week period, especially this early? If you are that undecided, then just don't commit to ANYONE.

[hack]

Waffling doesn't necessarily make you a flake either, but for me the guy that doesn't want to see others recruited at his position is a red flag.

[Jamie H]

Yeah, its not any one thing, its the entire situation. Committing, but refusing to make it public. Backing out almost immediately because you don't want competition. It just puts up a big red flag on him, and I think if we have other DB targets we should just focus on them.

Look, I'm not saying the kid is a bad seed, I'm just saying that there is no point in holding a slot for him at this point or expecting him to end up in AA even if we did.

[hack]

Sure; makes sense to me. We've just all got our own litmus tests...

[WM Wolverine]

Gunner Kiel QB (#1 QB) suppose to decide in the next couple weeks. We've been told not to get optimistic, considered an Oklahoma vs Alabama battle.

[Chuck Mallory]

No big deal in my opinion with Morris on board.

[Hannibal]

I'm not ready to annoint Morris as a 5* guy yet. I'd still like to have a QB in this class. We don't have a blue-chipper pro style guy and we've only got three scholarship QBs as of now.

The name that keeps coming up is Appleby.

[Jamie H]

I will be shocked if Morris isn't a 4-star and with him winning camps already as a Sophomore 5-star doesn't seem unreasonable if he progresses at all.

[Hannibal]

I hear ya, but people said the same thing about Ricardo Miller, Marvin Robinson, and Chris Wormley, and Wormley's not even a 4* on rivals.

[Jamie H]

I would agree with you if Morris hadn't just dominated at the camps he was in. He's competing against Juniors and Seniors and beating them out. That bodes pretty well.

[WM Wolverine]

Competing just against current juniors, which are about to be seniors. He's about to be a junior...

Devin Gardner and Shane Morris will be separated by two full recruiting classes, with only Russell Bellomy in-between. Whatever you think of Bellomy, you still need competition for Morris when he arrives on campus and you need more than just Bellomy for him to compete against when Gardner graduates. It would be nice to get someone like Kiel but it doesn't look like that'll happen. You've got to take a QB in this class, even if you expect him to eventually be Morris' backup as even that holds a lot of value.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Rivals is reporting that Armani Reeves (Nationally 187, Rivals 5.8, 4*) has told Michigan they can move on in their planning without him.

Seems M wanted him to commit now and he wasn't ready. PSU is on top of Reeve's remaining programs.

Hoke may be hitting a wall with his approach to the higher ranked players who have multiple offers. Too early to say for sure and will have to see how it all plays out but its worth considering.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Great post at Rivals regarding the debate about Hoke's strategy (get em' to commit early):

I think recruiting is about Momemtum. The best coaches in the world can't sell a bad product. I remember the year after Michigan won the national title they pulled in the #1 recruiting class in the nation. Kids just wanted to play for Michigan. If they think the product is good and the program has a bright future kids are drawn to it.

Michigan is a great place, a great education and Ann Arbor is a wonderful town, but If we are winning 3, 5, 7 games a year and getting blown out by 2nd tier SEC teams, then Hey, Syracuse is a wonderful town just like Ann Arbor but they won't pull in recruits if they suck.

HOKE HONEYMOON
The excitement, the buzz, about Michigan is back even though we have not won a single game under Hoke. The Michigan of old has returned....Right? High School coaches feel it. Hoke and Mattison are great recruiters and they have a bright future to sell. Excitement is back!!!! This program will be back on top, but not in year 1. Hoke knows this.
Mattison knows this

TOUGH SEASON AHEAD
They also know that this team is going to really struggle with the back half of this schedule. The luster will come off the bright shiny future if only for a while. This team is in transition. The reality will not be as good as the vision.

Rodriguez (09) and Weiss (06) got the bulk of a great class committed before they ever coached a single game at their new schools. So even if the first year tanked they would still get some great kids off of the hype.

PUNCHLINE: Get em verbally committed early just in case (JUST IN CASE) we we get our butts beat by Wisconsin OSU, Nebraska and MSU.

[lineygoblue]

I don't think the idea of getting a kid to commit early is such a bad thing. At least in this instance, Reeves can't string Michigan out until signing day, and make them hold a spot open for him, when in the meantime, they may have had 2-3 kids of equal talent who were willing to verbally commit. If he wants to play the recruiting game, thats fine. He can do so without Michigan in the mix.

I think a question Hoke may have asked him is, "What is it about Michigan that will change between now and signing day?" Reeves probably didn't have a very good answer for that.

I'll trust Hoke and Mattison until they prove that their methods don't work.