First the Good:
• Devin Gardner was the best dual-threat QB in the nation and the top guy on RR’s board. I don’t give two shits that Rivals ranked him out of their Top 100; our staff thought he was the very best available and they got him.
• Demar Dorsey (at either CB or S) is the kind of athlete that, historically, only commits to UM twice a decade or so. The sky’s the limit for this kid.
• Richard Ash (DT), Cullen Christian (CB), Ricardo Miller (WR), Marvin Robinson (LB), and Ken Wilkins (DE) all have “elite” potential. These guys look (right now) like they could be legit multi-year starters at UM, as well as All B10 or even potential All Americans somewhere down the road.
• Courtney Avery (CB), Jibreel Black (DT), Josh Furman (LB), Carvin Johnson (S/OLB), Conelious Jones (QB) and Jake Ryan (LB/DE) all appear to be ridiculous athletes that—either due to injury or to playing out of position—were highly underrated.
• DB and DT got an infusion of bodies and the LB position got an infusion of speed. If RR is still around two years from now, he will have a deep and fast defense to coach.
• In addition to the scholarship kids, our preferred walkons this year include an all-state kicker (Jeremy Ross 5'5 145 Ann Arbor, MI Pioneer), a wideout that was rated a 3* player by Scout (Baquer Sayed 6'1 175 4.78 Dearborn, MI Fordson), two nimble-footed OL (Kristian Mateus 6'8 285 Grand Rapids, MI Forest Hills Central and Dylan Esterline 6'6 215 Blissfield, MI) , as well as two very athletic utility players (Quintin Tucker LB/DL 6'1 230 San Diego, CA Scripps Ranch and Antonio Lewis DB/LB/RB 5'11 190 Detroit, MI Central)
Now the Bad:
• We still didn’t land a true NT. This is a vital component to GERG’s 4-3 Hybrid defense. After Graves and Jones decommitted last year at NSD, that leaves us with only Big Will Campbell and Sagesse to play NT this year. (That is, of course, assuming the coaches move beastly Mike Martin back to his 3-tech DT position to cry havoc and let slip the wolverines of war in 2010.) Furthermore, it means that in 2011, BWC will either be backed up by a RS frosh/true soph or Martin will be forced to move back to NT.
• We only landed one scholarship OL this year. What this means, given the current scholarship situation, is that—barring a walkon somehow starting—UM will be forced to play at least one redshirt sophomore on the offensive line in 2012.
Now let's peep the NSD Consensus Rankings. These are brought to you by my buddy StinkyP1nky and combine all four of the national recruiting services, weighted equally.
What does it all mean? Well, with the exception of a few cases where the rich got richer (U$C, Florida) and the Red River Rivalry continuing in the Big 12, it means one thing: PARITY.
• Sure, Florida was at the top, but there were four SEC teams in the Top 10.
• And yes, U$C’s class was ridiculous, but there were four Pac10 teams in the Top 15 and five in the Top 20; this is a far cry from the last decade of the Pac10 being a conference with a “Big One and Little Nine.” Even barring Impending NCAA Sanction Doom, it’s difficult to imagine U$C* continuing to run roughshod over the Pac10 for years to come if this continues.
• In the Big Ten, Ohio State totally shat the bed. Seriously, OSU is the only major football program in the nation's 4th best state for football talent, yet they somehow let the three best players in their state (Latwan Anderson, Jordan Hicks and Spencer Ware) get away to out-of-state schools. PSU easily had the best class in the conference, yet somehow UM came in second(!) with what has been considered the consensus “worst” recruiting class since 2000.
The way I see it, parity sucks when you’re one of the big dogs and great when you’re one of the little guys trying to catch up. Like it or not, Michigan is currently facing a crisis of ego and perception as a program. We have the history, tradition, facilities and money to be among the elite of the CFB universe, but two years of suckitude, shitty public relations (thanks, in the most part to our own Dickhead Benedict Arnold Local Michigan Media) and playing in a conference that has a reputation as staid, stodgy and outdated (thank you Jim Delany, you arrogant fuck) have conspired to drop UM down to one of those middle-tier BCS schools in the minds of many recruits. Luckily, high school kids have short memories. A year or two of winning and Michigan will go back to being “Michigan.” I just hope it happens sooner than later.
Cheers, friends.
*A small tangential aside: I generally feel bad for kids that end up suffering the consequences of coaches' actions when a school goes on probation. In the soon to be case of U$C, that's just not true at all. Yes, I realize these are 17 and 18 year-old kids, but this investigation has been ongoing in one extent or another since Reggie Bush got called out for cheating in 2006. Sorry new Trojans, I hope you never play in a bowl game and I hope your family never gets to watch a single game of you playing on television. That is all.
