I will update this post throughout the day with players who have sent in their official paperwork, as well as commitments elsewhere:
SIGNED LETTERS OF INTENT
- QB Tommy Carr
- QB Brady Smigiel
- RB Jonathan Brown
- WR Travis Johnson
- WR Jaylen Pile
- TE Mason Bonner
- TE Matt Ludwig
- OL Tommy Fraumann
- OL Adrian Hamilton
- OL Malakai Lee
- OL Bear McWhorter
- DE McHale Blade
- DE Tariq Boney
- DE Carter Meadows
- DT Titan Davis
- DT Alister Vallejo
- LB Kaden Catchings
- LB Markel Dabney
- LB Aden Reeder
- CB Andre Clarke
- CB Jamarion Vincent
- S Jordan Deck
- K Micah Drescher
- LS Colton Dermer
COMMITMENTS ELSEWHERE
- S Blake Stewart - Georgia
- OT Sam Utu - SMU
Acceptable- Barely. In the era of NIL UM should target top 5ish as a good class and top 10 being average to expectations. And with these coaches we need a decisive talent advantage to compete at the high end B10 teams.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this shows our recruiting is anything but average for what we offer in NIL and the brand.
From my seat, OSU/Oregon have a decisive talent advantage coupled with a decisive coaching advantage.
And probably a decisive available money advantage as well. Both those schools -- Oregon and Ohio State -- are unabashedly about their football programs, and feel no shame in being associated with being a football factory where players "play school," provided they win on the field.
DeleteMichigan has a long history of trying to have it both ways: success on the football field while preserving their prestige as an elite educational institution. The issue of transferring credits in is well known. Former UM president Mark Schlissel held his nose in disgust when having to acknowledge the football program. Many of the faculty feel the same way. There's a reason why it took so long for Michigan to come around to the new NIL paradigm: it didn't fit with the utopian vision of Michigan being first and foremost about academics, and athletics a distant second.
Things are changing, but slowly. Oregon and OSU are out front because they're about athletics first.
Another case -- far less lofty than Oregon or OSU -- and that's Michigan State. They don't have the donor base to really throw the money around, but they have no problem whatsoever in taking in as a "student" a player that has no business being in college.
DeleteI went to MSU back in the late 1970s, and there were several basketball players on my floor. One, I'm pretty sure, *never* went to class. I doubt very much he could read or write, based on what I could discern. It didn't matter. I had some interaction with some on the football field, and they were little different. Nothing has changed there in the intervening 40 years.
Any concern about Hiter not yet signed? Any rumors out there?
ReplyDeleteAccording to one post on MGoBlog, they're just in final contract negotiations, and should be signed on Thursday.
DeletePer AI, estimated expense (note, not publicly published!?)
ReplyDeleteOSU
$22-25M
Oregon
$23-28M
Michigan
$18-22M
I wonder how much money (and money-in-kind) was shoveled out by SEC teams (and others) during the peak of the "bag man" mode of college football recruiting? I have to believe these numbers dwarf those.
Delete