Cocoa (FL) Coca quarterback Brady Hart, a 2026 prospect, committed to Michigan on Tuesday. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Clemson, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, and lots of others.
Hart is listed at 6'4" and 180 lbs. after his sophomore year. As a sophomore in 2023, he completed 288/437 passes (65.9%) for 41 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
RANKINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 82 grade, #8 QB, #120 overall
On3: 4-star, 90 grade, #10 QB, #170 overall
Rivals: 4-star, 5.9 grade, #3 pro-style QB, #42 overall
247 Sports: 4-star, 90 grade, #9 QB, #144 overall
Hit the jump for more.
Hart was offered by quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell in late April 2024. He visited Michigan unofficially (2026 recruits can't take official visits yet) and loved it. He recently visited Ohio State and earned an offer while in Columbus, but he immediately committed to Michigan afterward.
Hart is a high-quality passing quarterback with a good arm and solid mechanics. I like his quick decision-making and he seems to have a very good command of the offense for being a first-year starting quarterback and just a sophomore. His coaches seem to scheme up open receivers with some regularity, but he finds them and delivers the ball with accuracy (65.9% completions) and touch. His stature and passing mechanics remind me a little bit of former Clemson and current Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who was the #1 quarterback in his class.
Where Lawrence and Hart diverge most significantly is when it comes to running ability. While Lawrence is a plus athlete who's never been afraid to run the ball, Hart appears to be just so-so on the run. I think he might be okay on an occasional draw, but he's probably not going to get outside on some of the sweeps that J.J. McCarthy ran. Hart is also rather thin-waisted at this point and needs to keep adding bulk to his frame to protect himself.
Overall, Hart looks the part of a top-100 quarterback - he's #92 overall in the 247 Composite - and looks like a future Big Ten-level starter. While he probably won't blow people away with his speed or arm strength, his accuracy, touch, and decision-making are all in positive territory.
Hart is the first member of Michigan's 2026 class. If he indeed ends up at Michigan in two years, he would be the first player from Cocoa to play for the Wolverines. Michigan signed one Florida prospect in the class of 2024 in the form of offensive lineman Jake Guarnera.
Three straight recruiting classes with a quality QB commit ... hopefully we're past the days of sandwiching a guy with either no QB or big question marks
ReplyDeleteThunder, what does your gut -- not your eyes and brain, but your gut -- say about the holistic state of Michigan football, what with the big changes that happened? You're a coach and you know things about staff dynamics and chemistry, coach leadership, and other such qualitative things. What's your gut sense right now?
ReplyDeleteMy gut tells me that Michigan is in a little bit of trouble. Not dropping to the bottom of the Big Ten type of trouble, just that there's going to be a drop-off. Jim Harbaugh had star power and a keen eye for coaching talent. He also had NFL cache and a lot of contacts for motivation, to bounce ideas off of, to bring in for clinics, evaluations, etc.
DeleteIt's hard to find a Michigan staff move that didn't pay dividends, and those who didn't (Bob Shoop, for example) were quickly shed. There were poor recruiters who paid off with their coaching chops, for example, so not everyone was a superstar in every category, but almost every hire was a home run. I know people like to take shots at Don Brown, but even Brown had LOTS of good moments, not only on the field with some top defenses (before tailing off) but by creating some star players in his defense (Winovich, Peppers, etc.).
I have a hard time believing Sherrone Moore is going to have the same eye for both playing and coaching talent that Harbaugh had. So my gut tells me that Michigan is going to fade a little bit from where they've been the past few years.
No doubt Harbaugh's shoes are big ones to fill, just like Kalen DeBoer has huge shoes to fill following Nick Saban's retirement. What I'm curious about is to what degree Sherrone Moore will trust elder mentors, and who those mentors might be. Jim Harbaugh had the benefit of his father and brother to mentor and advise, and I think the influence of John Harbaugh in Jim's success at Michigan shouldn't be understated. But who is Moore's equivalent? Is it Jim Harbaugh? Or is Jim Harbaugh off on his own journey now, without time or interest in Moore at Michigan?
DeleteYoung coaches can blaze their own trail, though in today's college football environment I think it is more challenging than it was when coaches like Saban and Meyer were cutting their teeth. But there are hopeful signs, and it does look like Moore acknowledges the challenging landscape. The degree to which he understands it and masters it is to be seen.
A drop-off in 2024 is almost certain, for a lot of reasons. Another test of Moore's coaching character will be how he handles a 9-3 or 8-4 season, and how well he keeps his players focused.
All that said, I do think Moore's elevation to HC was the right move.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Moore has a notable advantage of taking over a national championship caliber squad. Even with big turnover, there's tons of returning talent and an established culture to lean into. It's easier to ride momentum than build up.
DeleteSo Moore doesn't have to be as good as Harbaugh to produce similar results (10 win seasons and top 20 finishes, more often than not) for years.
But yeah a back slide from the last 3 seasons (12, 13, 15 wins) is pretty much inevitable and would be even if Harbaugh was here IMO.
I hope his middle name is Leach, then he would be perfect.
ReplyDeleteI will take the opposite side of the augment in respects to Thunder.
ReplyDeleteOverall, we had good coaches BUT, we had Drevno as the OL coach that directly lead to numerous loses and a chance at a natty in 2016. . It took too long to get rid of him and Pep Hamilton.
I think the Offensive play calling can use a little tuning up.
Not getting a quality QB for YEARS will not be happened again.
We somehow won with Cade in 2021, which is a damn miracle to be honest. We won a lot of close games. Cade would be 4th string on this team. ( no offense)
1- We will have better QB play going forward.
2- Coaches will be better recruiters.
3- The offense will show better imagination. (getting people open, misdirection)
4- have a recruiting plan vs no plan.
5- The BS of every year begging an NFL team to take him.
I am positive about our future.