Riley vs. Harbaugh Recruiting: A Parent Chimes In

[Guy Chamberlin]

Harbaugh's various recruiting tactics and zanyness makes national waves -- with no shortage of head-shaking.

"No shortage of head-shaking"...........? This piece by Cavanaugh doesn't count as a "lot" of head-shaking.

Teddy Greenstein (might have got the name wrong) from Chicago has commented on Harbaugh's antics, as has national writer Stewart Mandel. I'm sure there are more.

Up to 3......which is about where Harbaugh's recruiting class is ranked.

Are you sure Nebraska is the right school for you?

 

[RedDenver]

Harbaugh's various recruiting tactics and zanyness makes national waves -- with no shortage of head-shaking.

"No shortage of head-shaking"...........? This piece by Cavanaugh doesn't count as a "lot" of head-shaking.

Teddy Greenstein (might have got the name wrong) from Chicago has commented on Harbaugh's antics, as has national writer Stewart Mandel. I'm sure there are more.

Up to 3......which is about where Harbaugh's recruiting class is ranked.

Come on now. Use google to find that there are more. ESPN just put up an article about this topic today: link

 

[Saunders]

Difference is Michigan will be in the College Football Playoff talk next year.

No, no they won't. They'll continue to be Ohio St and Michigan St.'s little brother, and Harbaugh will get sick of it in about 2 years and run back to the NFL.

Wanna take that bet?

 

[StPaulHusker]

Difference is Michigan will be in the College Football Playoff talk next year.

No, no they won't. They'll continue to be Ohio St and Michigan St.'s little brother, and Harbaugh will get sick of it in about 2 years and run back to the NFL.

Wanna take that bet?

I don't know about 2 years but I don't see Harbaugh lasting past 4.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Harbaugh's various recruiting tactics and zanyness makes national waves -- with no shortage of head-shaking.

"No shortage of head-shaking"...........? This piece by Cavanaugh doesn't count as a "lot" of head-shaking.

Teddy Greenstein (might have got the name wrong) from Chicago has commented on Harbaugh's antics, as has national writer Stewart Mandel. I'm sure there are more.

Up to 3......which is about where Harbaugh's recruiting class is ranked.

Come on now. Use google to find that there are more. ESPN just put up an article about this topic today: link

Yeah, but the article concedes that it's hard to tell if Michigan is doing anything different from other top schools, who go through the same thing every year.

If you're a top school with a wealth of options, some guys are invariably going to get hung out to dry. It doesn't exactly hurt Michigan to be so desirable that some top early recruits fall to the bottom of their priorities.

Now if you want to read between the lines, you'd see a pattern of the media making hay out of Jim Harbaugh's weirdness and spinning it into a liability. You can blame the media for unfounded speculation, personal prejudice and click bait, but the people inside the game - including the media - have genuine reasons not to like Jim Harbaugh, a man who doesn't think he should answer to anybody.

 

[cornographic]

A parent chimes in on the difference between Mike Riley and Michigan's Man.

Riley vs. Harbaugh Recruiting: A Parent Chimes In

This article is spot on. Harbaugh's antics are goofy, but I suppose the flash works in some cases. Riley's mature/adult in the room approach is much preferred. It's like having The Donald vs Bernie recruit your kid. Yeah, like that.

When asked about their opinion of him when he stopped by for visits they responded with a question of their own: “Would you want an overgrown child like that putting the ‘finishing touches’ on raising your son?”

Seriously, it's MI, the brand sells itself and NE will not be able to compete on that level in terms of star recruits in most years--or ever--so we might as well get over it and not worry about it too much. I hope Riley can reel in relatively more 4* guys and maybe the occasional 5* guy, but we are not going to match Mi or tOSU. Get over it. We gotta coach 'em up, "add the stars", etc., and that's was one of Riley's selling points(to Husker Nation), so hopefully he gets it done.

 

[cornographic]

Harbaugh is exactly playing the role of an overgrown child. Schools go nuts over recruits, including UNL -- when they send them a hundred letters at once, for example. I'm sure he will impress a lot of people this way; I'm a bit more skeptical of what appears to be a vast gulf in his cuddly treatment of players as recruits, and the icy cold with which he'll release them a couple years later to make room for more.

Harbaugh is over the top and always has been. When he was hired, a lot of people pointed out that for all his success, his act appears to have worn thin at his various stops. He has a good first year -- so did Brady Hoke -- and Nebraska had a bad one, but now we need to admire everything he does?

It's OK to look at this ridiculousness and see it for what it is. Hey, maybe it'll work out great -- but even if it does, I greatly appreciate Riley's more conventional style instead. Riley should be fantastic for good, substantive, honest conversations, and the contrast in style couldn't be more stark. I'm glad Nebraska is on this side of the gradient.

You can dismiss or disagree with the views of a recruit's parents but it was cool to actually hear a take from someone who's gone through the process.

Agree, good post.

 

[cornographic]

Did Tom ever have a recruiting class ranked what Riley's is?

His 1990 class, averaged out across the ranking services as that time, was a 28.33. The only data I'm aware of goes back to 1987, but I also haven't searched that hard for years prior to that.

I don't think OZ ever got very highly ranked recruiting classes. ~20th range on average. Rozier was a community college transfer. We were always 2nd fiddle to Barry in the conference in terms of talent and speed. And then it was The U, and FSU, yada yada. NE is a "coach 'em up" school, always has been, always will be. Of course, if we start winning the division on a regular basis and, heaven forbid, the conference every now and then, well, recruiting can't help but get better.

 

[Mierin]

Difference is Michigan will be in the College Football Playoff talk next year.

Nebraska might get into won't be in that discussion in 2-3 years.

Sorry but I had to fix that one for you. Also can you give this guy his own little thread? If he's going to keep pedaling his blog at least keep it in one place.

Are you omniscient?

 

[Mierin]

I think I am more pissed at the school for letting Harbaugh sit in classes. If I am a parent of a recruited kid, I would be all over the principal, the teacher, and the coaches for allowing a guy to come in and disrupt the day.

I wouldn't as the parent. I would be excited for my kid and the memorable day they're going to have. As the teacher I'd make it a lesson on paying attention even when there are incredibly distracting things going on.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I think I am more pissed at the school for letting Harbaugh sit in classes. If I am a parent of a recruited kid, I would be all over the principal, the teacher, and the coaches for allowing a guy to come in and disrupt the day.

I wouldn't as the parent. I would be excited for my kid and the memorable day they're going to have. As the teacher I'd make it a lesson on paying attention even when there are incredibly distracting things going on.

I'd by more pissed as a parent of another kid in the class.

 

[StPaulHusker]

I think I am more pissed at the school for letting Harbaugh sit in classes. If I am a parent of a recruited kid, I would be all over the principal, the teacher, and the coaches for allowing a guy to come in and disrupt the day.

I wouldn't as the parent. I would be excited for my kid and the memorable day they're going to have. As the teacher I'd make it a lesson on paying attention even when there are incredibly distracting things going on.

Where is the line drawn, then? Will EVERY coach that stops at the school to visit a player get to disrupt the day and sit in on classes and pose for pictures with other kids?

Bad move on the school's part.

 

[Spooky Tooth]

So a guy who does what ever it takes has the #3 recruiting class in the country and thats a bad thing? If a HC at NU did that we'd think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Parents don't like it? I guarantee if Michicken wants them (their kids) other schools do as well.........

Who cares. Winning is the best thing we can do to help recruiting IMO.

Tell me you forgot the sarcasm emoji. Doing whatever it takes to get a high ranking? Well, hell, just break out the cash and chicks and call us SMU.

Whats he done that's illegal? No different than Franklin and his satellite camps. IIRC, Harbaugh is trying to have part of Michigan's spring camp at IMG academy in Florida.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/1/10/10747118/jim-harbaugh-michigan-spring-practice-img-academy-florida-satellite-camps

No different than "McShane owning twitter". No different than Oregon and their different uniforms each week. In this day and age, coaches are doing everything to bridge the gap with the kids (18 year olds) and connect.

He is doing whatever it takes to relate to the kids. I haven't heard anything illegal, immoral or dishonest.

I stand by my original comments that if NU was doing this, and we had a top 3 class, I can't imagine any complaining.

I never mentioned "illegal" and neither did you in the post I responded to. My concern remains with the concept that Nebraska would stoop to the borderline unethical things Harbaugh has done (spending the night at a kid's home so he can wake up there in the morning. Is that one official visit, or it is two? But in the larger sense I would rather lose than adopt this mentality to recruiting at Nebraska: "...So a guy who does what ever it takes has the #3 recruiting class in the country and thats a bad thing?"

Ya, that's a bad thing.

 

[Mierin]

I think I am more pissed at the school for letting Harbaugh sit in classes. If I am a parent of a recruited kid, I would be all over the principal, the teacher, and the coaches for allowing a guy to come in and disrupt the day.

I wouldn't as the parent. I would be excited for my kid and the memorable day they're going to have. As the teacher I'd make it a lesson on paying attention even when there are incredibly distracting things going on.

I'd by more pissed as a parent of another kid in the class.

I don't think one day of excitement in high school for my kid would really bother me but I don't have kids. I just know when Osborne came to my school it was amazing. If he would have sat in on a class I would've died of happiness and it would've been a nice break in the day. Honestly I probably would've tried to impress him by looking studious, heh.

 

[RedDenver]

Harbaugh's various recruiting tactics and zanyness makes national waves -- with no shortage of head-shaking.

"No shortage of head-shaking"...........? This piece by Cavanaugh doesn't count as a "lot" of head-shaking.

Teddy Greenstein (might have got the name wrong) from Chicago has commented on Harbaugh's antics, as has national writer Stewart Mandel. I'm sure there are more.

Up to 3......which is about where Harbaugh's recruiting class is ranked.

Come on now. Use google to find that there are more. ESPN just put up an article about this topic today: link

Yeah, but the article concedes that it's hard to tell if Michigan is doing anything different from other top schools, who go through the same thing every year.

If you're a top school with a wealth of options, some guys are invariably going to get hung out to dry. It doesn't exactly hurt Michigan to be so desirable that some top early recruits fall to the bottom of their priorities.

Now if you want to read between the lines, you'd see a pattern of the media making hay out of Jim Harbaugh's weirdness and spinning it into a liability. You can blame the media for unfounded speculation, personal prejudice and click bait, but the people inside the game - including the media - have genuine reasons not to like Jim Harbaugh, a man who doesn't think he should answer to anybody.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying. I was responding to the implication that only this one article is talking about Harbaugh's antics. Whether you agree or disagree with his methods, a number of articles are written about his antics.