Michigan Football Recruiting: Plan In Place, Wolverines Go On A Tear
Michigan has secured commitments from 14 prospects since March 23, many of them highly rated four stars. The Wolverines are up to No. 4 nationally in team recruiting rankings and still in on several of the nation's top recruits.
The secret to their success? Good, old-fashioned hard work, along with getting creative in the time of pandemic. Recruiting coordinator Matt Dudek and the staff have figured out the virtual recruiting game — but that's only part of the equation, running backs coach and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh said.
"A lot of it goes back to the beginning of this whole deal,” Harbaugh said. “Coach [Jim] Harbaugh and Matt Dudek really had an awesome vision for how long might this last — how is it going to impact recruiting and how are we going to separate ourselves and be different, do a great job ... what’s the plan, the day-to-day plan?
"So it all started with that, and they presented an awesome vision. We all bought into it and then stuck to it day in and day out."
Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown said recently he was involved with all of the defensive recruits, but he noted that new addition and safeties coach Bob Shoop had hit the ground running, while his other defensive assistants had done a phenomenal job with recruits at their positions.
The same is true for the offensive staff.
“All these coaches, they do such an awesome job connecting with players, connecting with coaches, finding ways to keep things interesting,” Harbaugh said. “I think as time goes on, some of these players, they are getting a little bored of being recruited the same way. They can’t go on campus, and there are certain things they aren’t able to do, so the staffs that have been able to keep things engaging are kind of feeling the benefits there.”
Michigan's is one. They sell the academic aspect in addition to football, and that's paid off. One early enrollee, running back Blake Corum, recently pulled a 4.0 GPA in his first semester, a selling point for the program.
But it's about football, too. Kids want to win and get to the NFL. Harbaugh noted that over 93 percent of starters had made it to the NFL under Jim Harbaugh since he arrived in Ann Arbor.
“I think it’s a mixture of things,” Jay Harbaugh said. “I think some of these guys have been on campus before, so there’s a comfort level there. Some of the guys haven’t spent as much time on campus with us. That’s the beauty of technology is they’re able to do the virtual tours. They’re able to see things on Google Maps and Street View. They’re able to reach out to the players and talk about things ... ‘Hey, what’s it like day to day?’ So, I think these recruits, they’re going through this whole thing like everybody else. They’re having to adapt.
“I think that’s kind of the way recruiting is right now. “You have to go off, gather all the information you can, talk to the people you need to talk to from each school ... the players, the staffs. You go on the virtual tour, whatever it is, virtual visits ... and you make the best decision that you can."
It's paid off in a big way. The Wolverines are on a roll, having added a pair of four-stars in end Kechaun Bennett and linebacker Junior Colson recently, and are poised for more.
“What I think that it really speaks to is the quality of the product that we have here,” Harbaugh said. “I think high school guys that we are recruiting, they feel the family atmosphere, the fact that our coaches care about the players and really the fact that you can have everything here. You can get an elite degree with tremendous earning potential in pretty much any field you want to.”
Along with some pretty good football, as well.
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