Jim Harbaugh and Michigan Football have done a bad job recruiting

Things haven’t been going well for Michigan football on the recruiting trail and things need to get better in a hurry.

Fans might get tired of reading all of these negative articles. I don’t try to be a Negative Nancy on this site, but sometimes, you have to call out what you notice.

A bunch of Michigan insiders think the same and sometimes say the same things, so it’s not like this is coming out of left field.

Despite Michigan football finally getting some commitments recently, the product during the off-season has still been subpar.

I will give credit where credit is due and say the commitments of Frederick Moore, and Semaj Bridgeman were really clutch, and Michigan needed them (badly) and hopefully, the tides will start to turn soon.

Knowing what we know right now though, I am not super confident in that happening for a bunch of other recruits (class is still ranked #49 in the nation with the two commitments).

As if you needed any more reason to be disappointed with the level of recruiting that is happening behind the scenes, look no further than one of Michigan’s former recruiting targets, five-star WR Johntay Cook II calling out Michigan’s recruiting efforts.

If you think some of these athletes have no right to ridicule and critique Michigan’s recruiting efforts, you’d be dead wrong.

These guys work their butts off every year to get to the level of national prominence that they’ve gotten to, and to not be treated as such by Michigan’s staff is really sad.

What am I really talking about here, you may ask? Well, here’s a video that explains exactly what I’m talking about (if it’s still up).

https://twitter.com/michiganinside5/status/1542297587503464448?s=21&t=0Hq6agGuTHJwClKGwflw6w

Michigan was right there with those other programs recruiting Johntay Cook II for the longest time, but Michigan football was unwilling to bend a little and make Johntay feel special and appreciated with NIL and the recruiting pitch, so he chose to commit to Texas instead.

Do you want to know whether Jim Harbaugh cares or not? Look no further than this video:

https://twitter.com/cfbonfox/status/1542168163068018688?s=21&t=I146BdGyPqMh-L0HO6Nl_g

Now, I don’t have a problem with Jim wanting to take a vacation with his family. Everybody knows that recruiting is exhausting and can burn people out.

Harbaugh should get to spend quality time with his family, just like everybody else. Admittedly, the video is funny, and I like seeing Harbaugh loose and happy and having fun.

The issue we should have with this vacation is the time it takes place, which was right around the time of Frederick’s, Semaj’s, and a few other prospects’ commitment dates.

Why couldn’t Jim Harbaugh schedule a vacation much earlier in the off-season than this, like late May, or the beginning of June?

Jim could’ve taken his vacation right after spring practices ended, or he could take it right before fall camps begins.

It just gives off bad vibes to recruits. Things like this matter. Timing matters. Recruiting pitch matters.

People will say, “oh well we don’t know when a recruit could commit, Jim Harbaugh could’ve had that vacation planned for a long time.”

To that, I would say, that’s true, but it’s on the staff to read the room. Jim Harbaugh and his staff have been doing this long enough to know how a prospect feels, and/or around the time when he might commit.

June and July are always the biggest recruiting months every year (aside from December, near Signing Day), so this just really seems like Harbaugh is shrugging it off.

Showing you care about a recruit, instead of going off on vacation, and it is almost like a nonchalant, care-free, “I will do what I want, when I want, no matter how it may look” attitude.

I know Harbaugh isn’t a bad guy. I’m not trying to say that he is. From what I’ve heard and seen, he is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He’s proven that on multiple occasions.

Michigan football recruiting isn’t working

But you can’t deny that a lot of Harbaugh and his staff’s recruiting tactics just aren’t working.

It has a lot to do with him almost leaving for the NFL, with other schools using that to their advantage, and it has to do with NIL (why should a prospect have to “earn” their money at Michigan when they could just get it right then and there at another program?).

Every little thing in recruiting matters. Put yourself in a recruit’s shoes for a minute.

Jim Harbaugh and his staff are missing on recruits left and right, the class isn’t looking too hot, but instead of digging in even deeper and recruiting even harder, Harbaugh goes on vacation while his staff is stuck picking up the slack and doing the dirty work?

Why would a recruit want to join a terrible class, much less feel like they want to commit to a program that doesn’t even recruit them properly?

If anything, to win these recruits, Harbaugh should be the MAIN recruiter right now, not his staff.

Lastly, for fans to excuse this disappointing class as a one-year thing isn’t good either.

I’m not trying to tell fans what to do, but Harbaugh is paid millions of dollars to recruit and compile top-ranked classes. Anything less than that is a failure, plain and simple.

Now, in a few years, USC and UCLA will be joining the Big Ten (and more to follow) so if there wasn’t an urgency now, the urgency needs to be upped one hundred times.

Michigan football can’t afford to miss with this recruiting class with the news of mega expansion coming to the Big Ten. They will fall behind. I guarantee it.

We can’t look ahead to 2024 and hope for the best, because 2024 isn’t here yet, and there’s no promise that 2024 will be any better, so hold your horses on that.

Harbaugh is in Year 8. There shouldn’t be any excuses for him anymore. Great coaches are supposed to adjust to the times and adapt, no matter how much it changes.

Yes, NIL has played a huge factor, but every coach can say that, and other schools aren’t struggling as Harbaugh has struggled, so the point is moot.

Nick Saban complains about NIL, but he still puts his money where his mouth is and gets his guys, no excuses.

Yeah, boosters pay for some of those recruits to come to the school, but I bet the majority of them come to Alabama because ‘Bama just knows how to win. They don’t need to prove anything to these recruits like Michigan still does.

There is nothing rival schools can say about Alabama that can be perceived as negative, maybe aside from the education, but, as we’ve seen with Michigan, the education factor is overrated with most of these recruits.

These recruits aren’t mentioning the institution when calling out Michigan’s lack of recruiting. No, they are calling out Harbaugh and his staff. So, it falls on the coach and his staff members.

It honestly just feels like Harbaugh has gotten complacent, and thinks he can just sit back and relax more now that he won ONE Big Ten title in SEVEN years. That’s not the right mindset to have at all. It reeks of arrogance.

Like I said, hopefully, with the recent string of commitments Michigan has received, things will start to turn around and get better (still got a season to play, so there’s a strong possibility it could) but right now, it is still a tremendously disappointing class, and to even have a major one-year dip is inexcusable with the season Michigan football just had last year.