After a much too long hiatus, the Detroit Sports Daily returns to discuss the day where 17- and 18-year-old kids are sometimes treated like nothing more than a piece to a crazed fan’s puzzle, otherwise known as college football’s National Signing Day.
According to Rivals.com, to the surprise of no one, Alabama had the best overall class for 2012, as that program continues to roll under Nick Saban. After them, Texas, Florida, Ohio State, Stanford, Michigan, Southern California, Florida State, Miami, and Oklahoma rounded out the top ten, in that order. Michigan State came in at a somewhat disappointing 39th, especially when you consider that this is a program that’s won eleven games in each of the last two seasons.
The Wolverines fairing this much better on the recruiting trail than the Spartans at a time in which Michigan State should seemingly be taking full advantage of their recent success against Michigan must certainly mean that the Spartans run will inevitably be over very shortly, right? The days of dominance and Michigan State only winning once in a blue moon are surely on the horizon now, correct?
Not so fast. Although there’s some Wolverine fans out there that consider this to be entirely true, recruiting rankings are not the be-all-end-all.
Start with Michigan State. Many of the key components of the teams from the last two years were not very highly rated prospects coming out of high school. B.J. Cunningham? Three star. Kirk Cousins? A three star, who’s only other BCS offer came from Colorado. It doesn’t end there. Stud safety Trenton Robinson was a 2 star, future first round pick Jerel Worthy was a 3 star, star running back Le’Veon Bell was a 2 star, as was starting cornerback Darqueze Dennard. At some point you have to factor in Mark Dantonio and his ability to evaluate and develop talent, rather than just suggesting Michigan State had an average class based on ranking.
This isn’t to say rankings don’t matter at all, because in many cases, they do. The Alabama Crimson Tide have had the number one rated class an astonishing four of the last five years. That has surely been an integral part of them winning two out of the last three BCS Championships.
However, take a look at Notre Dame. In 2008, they were able to recruit a class good enough to be ranked number two by Rivals, just behind Alabama. A huge part of that class? Dayne Crist, a 5 star who three years later lost his job to three star Tommy Rees. Granted, the other two five stars in that class were future NFLer’s Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph, but they didn’t exactly help their team win anything of significance.
To look at it from the other end of the spectrum, how about the Wisconsin Badgers? In 2008 their class came in at 41, 2009 wasn’t much better with a ranking of 43, and in 2010 they didn’t even manage to get ranked in The Rivals Top 50. This is a program that’s been to two straight Rose Bowl’s, won back to back Big Ten titles, and have won 10 games in the last three seasons. Much more than you can say for recruiting powerhouses like Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, and Florida State.
I’m not arguing that there’s no correlation between recruiting success and wins, because there is, and it’s a pretty strong one. But you have to be able to string together multiple solid classes and build depth with talented players that fit what you’re trying to do, precisely what Michigan State’s done. Of course, the biggest thing is good coaching. Michigan is coming off an impressive season and there’s plenty reason to be excited about a highly rated recruiting class but if this is the new definition of success for Michigan then things have changed dramatically.
I don’t doubt Brady Hoke’s ability to sustain success over the next four to five years at UofM. Winning
eleven games in his first season without any of his players proved he can coach, regardless of what anyone wants to say about the schedule. Hiring Greg Mattison as his defensive coordinator may have been his best move as Michigan coach. That dividends that hire has paid on the recruiting trail as well as on the field is perhaps the biggest reason Michigan’s football program is viewed as being “back”.
However, things aren’t changing in East Lansing. Regardless of all the hype currently going on in Ann Arbor, Mark Dantonio continues to do the things he’s done since he’s arrived. He will continue to put an emphasis on Michigan, recruit efficiently, and develop a good portion of his players to their fullest potential. Michigan State beating a Georgia team stocked with four and five stars was no fluke.
Michigan should be competing for the B1G title in the coming seasons, but just don’t expect that to come at the expense of the Michigan State program.