Thursday, February 4, 2021

Michigan Thursday: How Did We Finish?

The magic trick that Michigan pulled off with this recruiting class is just amazing.   During the first signing day in December, Jimmy was still flirting with the NFL and Don Brown had a foot out the door.   The defense coaching staff was expected to be over hauled and we weren't 100% sure what the hell was going on with Michigan's head coach.   

Still the class signed, lost a few guys, but also regained Xavier Worthy from an Alabama push and now 5 star RB Donovan Edwards committed.    That was one of the best jobs Jimmy has done as head coach in Ann Arbor.  I'm not sure there are many coaches in America outside of Saban or Meyer that could have pulled that off.  

Still there were glaring holes in the class and specifically at the DT position.   What we know now, is that Don Brown didn't like 300 pound run stoppers in the middle of his defense.  He preferred to take DE's like Carlo Kemp to put some weight and turn them into a defensive tackle.  

Michigan fans mostly disagreed with this approach and has been wanting big men on the Dline to eat double teams and plug holes to stop the run.  Would the 2nd signing day at least give us 1 DT?

It actually delivered 3 DT's: Two 4 stars and one 3 Star with a ton of upside.   Yesterday, could have only gone better if a 4 star CB and OT popped out of nowhere and committed.   That didn't happen and we will be very happy with our DT haul.  

So how did we finish?

24/7:  #10 

Rivals: #9 

ESPN: #14 

Somehow Michigan dropped 3 spots on ESPN yesterday after bring in 3 players that filled a huge hole on the roster.  That is why nobody really considers ESPN's recruiting service worth while.  


Here is how Michigan's top recruiting competitors fared (24/7 rankings):

#2: OSU 

#9: ND 

#15: Wisconsin

#19: Maryland (that is a high ranking for them)

#20: Nebraska 

#21 Penn State (bad recruiting year) 

#23 Iowa 

#43 Michigan State 


OSU continues to bring in 5 stars and Alabama again led the nation in trophies, 5 star talent, and hurricane simulator tours.  

4 comments:

Goblu said...

Terrible year for Penn State!

And still can't figure out why Wisc doesn't recruit better

Unknown said...

Jim Harbaugh was never "flirting with the NFL"...smdh.

MichiganMan said...

please, fire Don Brown...lolollolll...loved saying that...too bad he is fired!!

MikeyM said...

Penn St had a small recruiting class. Avg ranking was 89.07 the good guys 90.30