Da’Shawn Hand, Damien Harris, Najee Harris, now Daxton Hill. All either committed or thought to be leaning our way.
This isn’t because of our results on the field - or Bama’s. Bama has been Bama for quite some time now, while Michigan has been slowly inching back towards being Michigan again for equally long. It’s not like new information about either program is driving these late changes of heart.
I think a lot of these top recruits know how
to play the game, and committing elsewhere - or telling people you’re leaning elsewhere - is what gets that $3000 monthly stipend funneled through a local church up to $5000.
We can bash OSU’s “win at all costs” mentality all we want, but we’re not losing guys late in the game to OSU. Whatever their extralegal sins may be are penny-ante compared to Bama.
We need to just not bother with recruitments where Bama is involved. Don’t even waste the time. Ultimately Bama will make it worth a kid’s while if it’s someone they really want. It’s the same reason so many recruits flipped late to USC back in the Carroll days. Absent an actual change in the recruiting equation, this is the most obvious thing that would lead to a late change of heart.
This is also why going to the Olympic model
of allowing players to capitalize on their market value while in school will be a great field-leveler for the Big Ten, which has been more reluctant to engage in the black market practices which funnel that market value to recruits illicitly.
I was speaking several years ago to someone who has some deep ties not only to the Michigan program but also to Nick Saban, from his days at MSU. He had been at a dinner with some Saban folks and was pressing one of them on why the SEC seemed to be developing such an edge in recruiting and on the field. Was if the local talent pool? Was there some other secret sauce?
The answer, said this Saban cohort, was that: “In the Big Ten, they still care if the kids get an education. Down here, it’s semipro football that just happens to reside on a college campus.”
This isn’t because of our results on the field - or Bama’s. Bama has been Bama for quite some time now, while Michigan has been slowly inching back towards being Michigan again for equally long. It’s not like new information about either program is driving these late changes of heart.
I think a lot of these top recruits know how
to play the game, and committing elsewhere - or telling people you’re leaning elsewhere - is what gets that $3000 monthly stipend funneled through a local church up to $5000.
We can bash OSU’s “win at all costs” mentality all we want, but we’re not losing guys late in the game to OSU. Whatever their extralegal sins may be are penny-ante compared to Bama.
We need to just not bother with recruitments where Bama is involved. Don’t even waste the time. Ultimately Bama will make it worth a kid’s while if it’s someone they really want. It’s the same reason so many recruits flipped late to USC back in the Carroll days. Absent an actual change in the recruiting equation, this is the most obvious thing that would lead to a late change of heart.
This is also why going to the Olympic model
of allowing players to capitalize on their market value while in school will be a great field-leveler for the Big Ten, which has been more reluctant to engage in the black market practices which funnel that market value to recruits illicitly.
I was speaking several years ago to someone who has some deep ties not only to the Michigan program but also to Nick Saban, from his days at MSU. He had been at a dinner with some Saban folks and was pressing one of them on why the SEC seemed to be developing such an edge in recruiting and on the field. Was if the local talent pool? Was there some other secret sauce?
The answer, said this Saban cohort, was that: “In the Big Ten, they still care if the kids get an education. Down here, it’s semipro football that just happens to reside on a college campus.”
