Looking at the roster, the short answer is not going to make most Michigan fans happy. It is "yes," but it may take until 2022 or longer.
From the 2017 roster, at the start of the 2020 year (their senior year, if they played as true freshmen), the following guys had either left early for the NFL or transferred: Nico, Solomon, Martin, Singleton, Anthony, DIB, Ruiz, DPJ, Black, Thomas, JKP, Hudson, Samuels, Paea, Woods, McCaffrey, Hall, Taylor, and St. Juste.
That's 19 guys - 13 of whom were either four or five star recruits.
The only contributors left from that class were the following:
Strong contributors: Paye.
Guys who played, but did not stand out (IMO): Jeter, Filiaga (which my autocorrect wants to change to "Foliage," LOL), Vilain, Ross, Mason, Hawkins, Stueber.
The 2018 class (true juniors this year) was not loaded with elite talent:
Four stars: McGrone (people are saying he's gone), Mayfield (gone), Gemon Green, Aidan, Myles Sims (gone), Muhammad (gone), Milton (likely gone).
Guys who were rated 3-star or less, but who are strong contributors: Haskins, Bell, and Hayes.
The vast majority of the talent on this squad comes from the 2019-2021 classes. Most of these guys, however, have played very sparingly.
The following guys were all ranked four stars or higher:
RB: Charbonnet, Corum, Edwards
QB: McNamara, McCarthy
OL: Keegan, Barnhart, Trente Jones, Rumler, Persi, Zinter, Bounds, Anderson, Chippen, El-Hadi.
WR: C. Johnson, G. Jackson, Henning, Worthy, Dixon
TE: All, Hansen
DL: M. Morris, M. Smith, Hinton, McGregor, Bennett
LB: Mullings, Mohan, Wheeler, Hood, Colson
DB: Hill, Perry, C. Johnson, DGW, Paige, Morant, Seldon
That's 39 four star or better players in three classes. We're not matching OSU on paper, but it should be more than enough to field a really good team.
And here are 9 further 3-star guys who seemingly might be really strong future contributors, or at least have the talent to possibly do so: Ojabo, DJ Turner, Jenkins, Wilson, Attebury, Anthony, McBurrows, Rod Moore, TJ Guy.
There is talent, but most of it consists of young, unproven guys who are going to need great coaching, especially if we want them to gel into a really good team by 2021 or, more likely, 2022.
I'm not taking a stand here, either way, or whether Harbaugh is the right guy to coach that talent, I'm just suggesting that on paper, this program is far from talentless.
And I'd also say this - when you have a terrible season like the one we did, it always feels like the talent sucks. 2014 felt the same way. What Wisconsin did to us this year - that's what MSU did to us in 2014 (and 2013 too, for that matter) - physically dominated us at the line of scrimmage. But as it turns out, that 2014 squad was very talented, it just needed better coaching and more experience. I think this squad is the same way. And for sure, if Jim is going to stick around, the coaching has to be much better. No argument there.
Next year's schedule is pretty brutal. I'm going to focus far less on overall record, and far more on two things: (1) are we playing tougher, more physically, and how does our effort look?; and (2) by the end of the year, how are things trending? Is there real hope for 2022 and beyond, or does the team look listless like it did this year, in which case I don't see how you can go on with Jim, since it seems likely we will have turned over most of the staff before next year begins.
From the 2017 roster, at the start of the 2020 year (their senior year, if they played as true freshmen), the following guys had either left early for the NFL or transferred: Nico, Solomon, Martin, Singleton, Anthony, DIB, Ruiz, DPJ, Black, Thomas, JKP, Hudson, Samuels, Paea, Woods, McCaffrey, Hall, Taylor, and St. Juste.
That's 19 guys - 13 of whom were either four or five star recruits.
The only contributors left from that class were the following:
Strong contributors: Paye.
Guys who played, but did not stand out (IMO): Jeter, Filiaga (which my autocorrect wants to change to "Foliage," LOL), Vilain, Ross, Mason, Hawkins, Stueber.
The 2018 class (true juniors this year) was not loaded with elite talent:
Four stars: McGrone (people are saying he's gone), Mayfield (gone), Gemon Green, Aidan, Myles Sims (gone), Muhammad (gone), Milton (likely gone).
Guys who were rated 3-star or less, but who are strong contributors: Haskins, Bell, and Hayes.
The vast majority of the talent on this squad comes from the 2019-2021 classes. Most of these guys, however, have played very sparingly.
The following guys were all ranked four stars or higher:
RB: Charbonnet, Corum, Edwards
QB: McNamara, McCarthy
OL: Keegan, Barnhart, Trente Jones, Rumler, Persi, Zinter, Bounds, Anderson, Chippen, El-Hadi.
WR: C. Johnson, G. Jackson, Henning, Worthy, Dixon
TE: All, Hansen
DL: M. Morris, M. Smith, Hinton, McGregor, Bennett
LB: Mullings, Mohan, Wheeler, Hood, Colson
DB: Hill, Perry, C. Johnson, DGW, Paige, Morant, Seldon
That's 39 four star or better players in three classes. We're not matching OSU on paper, but it should be more than enough to field a really good team.
And here are 9 further 3-star guys who seemingly might be really strong future contributors, or at least have the talent to possibly do so: Ojabo, DJ Turner, Jenkins, Wilson, Attebury, Anthony, McBurrows, Rod Moore, TJ Guy.
There is talent, but most of it consists of young, unproven guys who are going to need great coaching, especially if we want them to gel into a really good team by 2021 or, more likely, 2022.
I'm not taking a stand here, either way, or whether Harbaugh is the right guy to coach that talent, I'm just suggesting that on paper, this program is far from talentless.
And I'd also say this - when you have a terrible season like the one we did, it always feels like the talent sucks. 2014 felt the same way. What Wisconsin did to us this year - that's what MSU did to us in 2014 (and 2013 too, for that matter) - physically dominated us at the line of scrimmage. But as it turns out, that 2014 squad was very talented, it just needed better coaching and more experience. I think this squad is the same way. And for sure, if Jim is going to stick around, the coaching has to be much better. No argument there.
Next year's schedule is pretty brutal. I'm going to focus far less on overall record, and far more on two things: (1) are we playing tougher, more physically, and how does our effort look?; and (2) by the end of the year, how are things trending? Is there real hope for 2022 and beyond, or does the team look listless like it did this year, in which case I don't see how you can go on with Jim, since it seems likely we will have turned over most of the staff before next year begins.
