Smith wants to 'build a wall' around in-state recruiting

Newly minted Michigan baseball coach Tracy Smith met with media members in a roundtable setting on Tuesday afternoon. Multiple stories are coming to Maize & Blue Review from the hour-long meeting throughout the week.

When Erik Bakich left Michigan for Clemson, he took a handful of players and incoming recruits.

Before the University hired Tracy Smith as his replacement, a dozen players and recruits either went to Clemson or committed elsewhere. On top of that, the transfer portal closed a day before his hire became official.

Given the obstacles already laid out, it's hard to believe any coach would've come into Ann Arbor and done a better job on the trail than Smith.

The former Arizona State & Indiana head coach emphasized the importance of establishing strong recruiting classes upon his arrival. Knowing how difficult it would be to retain the many departures, Smith wasn't trying to build Rome in a day.

During his first month as head coach, he didn't meet with the media. He was hitting ballparks around the country recruiting for the Wolverines.

"(Recruiting) was the immediate priority for us just given the timing. Across college baseball in general, while I've been out of it for a year, I think everybody is still trying to figure out the portal and how that impacts recruiting at a baseline level. You know, do you go early on guys, like the traditional way, in high school? So, it's just one more thing to manage," Smith said. "This job, in particular, had its challenges ... the timing of admissions, the timing of the portal, all of those, we were faced with a bit of a challenge."

Despite the welcomed news that catcher Jimmy Obertop will return to Michigan after entering the transfer portal, the roster still has a handful of empty slots. Michigan can add up to 35, but Smith expects his final number to be between 31-to-33.

Additionally, the recruiting classes remain an issue despite regaining a couple of commitments so far.

While juggling a transition from sabbatical to Big Ten head coach, Smith had to guide a ship that needed and still needs more crew members, namely pitching and an infielder to replace departed captain Riley Bertram, who is at Clemson.

How did he approach re-patching the depleted roster and multiple recruiting classes?

"Our immediate thing was let's stabilize what we currently have going on, which was let's see what our roster is. The second was, OK, what do we have left coming in the 2022 class? Because, God-loving, my friend Erik Bakich got us a little bit on the way out, and I joke with him all the time, so there are no hard feelings on that," Smith said. "It's just the situation. Kids choose to go to a school, and they choose people. So I don't begrudge any kids who exited the 2022 class. We just have to fill it up now."

Filling it up is a lot easier said than done. Michigan could act quickly by making offers on the trail, but the risk of offering out of desparation to fill numbers sooner than later is too great.

Rather than feeling rushed into making a splash that will help short-term but hurt long-term, Smith wants the program focused on sustainability both in rebuilding the current roster and shaping future ones.

"We want to get in here and assess what we have because we talked about sustainable success," Smith said. "Let's not make quick decisions and try to fill this thing and not be what aligns with not only what we want on the field but the University at large. We're going to get after it in recruiting, which we have, but the timing has been a bit problematic but not something we can't overcome."

One underlying advantage of recruiting at Michigan is the state's homegrown talent.

Over the last several years, the state has risen from a middle-of-the-pack baseball state to an unequivocally premier showcase of the sport. Orchard Lake St. Mary's is the first-ever in-state high school program to win back-to-back national championships.

Of the 14 Division I commitments on OLSM's 44-0 roster from 2022, only one is committed to Michigan. Logan Wood (2020) and Jake Keaser (2021), two pitchers, are the only St. Mary's alumni at U-M.

A historic 2022 class for the Eaglets included two Michigan commitments at the time of their third consecutive state championship in June.

Following Bakich's exit, both are gone.

The best high school baseball team in state history didn't send a single senior to Ann Arbor, albeit not all of them were good enough to play at U-M. Plus, Porter was going to the MLB Draft regardless, and Smith couldn't do anything about retaining them given his hire occurred after the portal deadline, which forced Crighton & Schubart to make a decision.

But it goes beyond St. Mary's.

Detroit Edison's Greg Pace was a projected fifth-round pick who decommitted from Michigan in June and signed with the Blue Jays as a 20th-round draft pick in July. A strong couple of seasons in college might have elevated him to his top-five ceiling.

Another former commit, Essexville Garber's Tommy Szczepanski, didn't sign with the Royals, who drafted him in the 19h round. He announced Tuesday that he signed with Virginia Tech.

Perfect Game's top-15 players in Michigan in 2022 include zero Michigan enrollees. Only two are going to an in-state school. No. 9 Jake Dresselhouse is going to Michigan State, and No. 15 Cole Prout will play at Central Michigan.

In the 2023 class, only three of the state's 10-best prospects are committed to an in-state school: Jasen Oliver (Michigan), Alfredo Velazquez (Michigan), and Ryan McKay (Michigan State).

Alabama, Clemson, Cincinnati, Louisville, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Tennessee, and West Virginia landed the others. Alabama and Clemson have as many top-10 Michigan recruits as the Wolverines (two).

It's more than just a University of Michigan problem. It's a statewide issue and continues to be a relevant conversation because of the high transfer rates out of the Power Five programs plucking kids from the state.

Smith wants to flip the script.

"There's a lot of good guys leaving the state. Our goal is to build a wall around the state and make sure guys who want to talk about weather and jersey colors know that that stuff isn't important. What's important is the people you're going to be dealing with on a daily basis. And I love being able to say, oh, you want to compete for a National Championship? Well, look what happened in 2019, as recently as that. All of those factors lead into making (this program) a great option close by," Smith said. "Trust me when I say that we're going to be communicating that message loud and clear. Our job as a staff over the next month or two, and we have, is identifying the key people in this state that can help us."

With a community of alumni backing his efforts to re-establishing Michigan's recruiting efforts, Smith believes in the approach.

"The response from the alumni, and not just baseball alumni, has been unbelievable because as upset as we are about good players leaving the state, so are they," he said. "It's not just going to be our staff. It's going to be everybody contributing to this."

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