Posted at 4:00pm — 2/2/2011
Michigan Football: The Dreaded 3 Star Debate
All day long, on television recruiting shows, on the radio, and on the internet, “experts,” and frankly distance experts, armed only with a list of names and star rankings will comment on Michigan’s recruiting class. The Michigan mention may be in passing and in brevity with monster star totals built up by current powerhouses. So herein is a small discussion. One month ago our staff figured UM would end up around 30th, that is probably pretty accurate.
Stars do count and the next giant leap for Michigan is to get in on the elites of 2012, starting tomorrow, or even today. So what to say about the “Michigan 3-star class of 2011?”
Some will praise the effort of the new coaching staff. What these guys pulled off was not a miracle, but downright impressive none the less. Some will continue to rail on Brandon for the “process.” The process could be blamed for the loss of Fisher and Dee Hart. The Fisher recruiting effort is not finished but on life support.
Brandon’s process put the long-term goals over the short-term gains. Only time will tell the success of his choices and actions. But the sky did not fall. It caught on fire a little like the great Irwin Allen sci-fi movie “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.”
Sometimes the pragmatist must make an appearance. And from that position, that of the pragmatist, disaster was avoided. But, the yellow brick road is still far from Oz City and this staff knows that. They will say nice things today about this class, probably predictable things like character, good grades, upside, etc.
And I believe if such statements are made, the content is correct. There are a bunch of good students that came on board late, joined by some early in the process. There are recruits who are one or two years behind in development compared to the four and five star brethren. But they have enough upside to make up some ground. The key is to have enough players ahead to provide the time to get the strength and experience, no secret in that statement, obvious.
So, some of the new three stars were really under the radar and will be referred to as steals or as evidence Michigan cannot recruit. The verdict will be tendered by development. My take is this group will be good to very good when all is said and done.
Bryant and Poole were very nice late additions, Carter and Taylor are athletic enough to play somewhere. I have made no secret in that I really like Bellomy’s arm swing and believe in two years he can compete in a WCO system. He is efficient and that is a great plus in a quarterback.
Will the Wile one be a great kicker? Stay tuned the next few years, but his mental make-up appears good. College and pro kickers have no room for mental insecurity.
And so, Michigan has signed a class of the dreaded 3 stars. But most want to play for Michigan, they may bleed the ever-powerful blue blood. Most seem set for academic success. There should be success; few schools provide better help than Michigan in the area of academic support. Many of the latecomers are team leaders, a team cannot have enough talent in this area.
There are some four stars of course- some consensus and some not: Blake Countess, Antonio Poole, Kellen Jones, Justic Hayes, Brennen Beyer, Chris Bryant, and as an athlete Raymon Taylor.
Five stars can bust, so can four stars, and so can three stars. The odds just go down a little with five stars. But I will take a program that finds good 3 and 4 star talent, develops it to the max, and show you a winner. Iowa is famous for such achievement, the downside is only occasionally do the Hawkeyes beat a true top five team. But they end up after two or three years with difference makers, especially on the lines.
So, here is wishing what appears to be a good group of guys, proud to come to Michigan, the best of luck.
Written by GBMWolverine Staff
Go Blue — Wear Maize!