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Recruitniks and star-gazers weren’t exactly happy when it came to Michigan football’s 2018 recruiting class, once pen was put to paper. But stars don’t matter as much as production, and players can outperform their ranking.
In fact, according to the 247Sports Composite, the 2018 class was the lowest in the Jim Harbaugh era, save for his first, 2015, in which he put together a class after taking over the program on Dec. 30, 2014. Ranked No. 22 overall, it paled compared to 2016 and 2017 — the Wolverines finished eighth and fifth, respectively — while most classes managed to be top 10 units.
The Athletic went back and re-ranked the 2018 recruiting class as a whole and Michigan’s came in at No. 3 overall, given the production. It’s featured two players that have been drafted already in Cam McGrone and Jalen Mayfield, and also has prospective No. 1 overall pick Aidan Hutchinson, along with stars who are still playing, like Ronnie Bell, Jake Moody, and Luke Schoonmaker.
3. Michigan
Adjusted average: 3.07
Class rank in 2018: 22nd
Four-year record: 33-13
Attrition: 27%Top signees: DE Aidan Hutchinson, OL Jalen Mayfield, RB Hassan Haskins, OL Ryan Hayes, K Jake Moody, WR Ronnie Bell, QB Shea Patterson, LB Cameron McGrone, CB Vincent Gray, TE Luke Schoonmaker
This was not a very celebrated class four years ago.
The Wolverines had recruited a top-five class in 2017 after another 10-win season. You might remember all the headlines Jim Harbaugh generated during that cycle or the party his program threw on signing day. There were no festivities for this one, not after missing on top-100 recruits Otis Reese, Nicholas Petit-Frereand Tyler Friday and finishing outside the top 20 nationally.
Matt Dudek, Michigan’s former director of recruiting, can laugh about that now. He understood why top-10 classes are the expectation as well as the perception that you can’t catch up to Ohio State with anything less. But he’s proud of what he, Sean Magee and Cooper Petagna achieved as a recruiting staff by staying focused on fit and “evaluating our butts off.”
“You want the best players you can get,” said Dudek, who’s now Mississippi State’s senior executive director of recruiting. “You don’t necessarily have to out-evaluate. You can out-recruit some people as well. But there’s plenty of great players outside of that top 100 that you can build a Playoff team.”
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And they did just that, developing 10 signees into all-conference players and eight into starters on their 2021 squad that toppled the Buckeyes, won the Big Ten and was the No. 2 seed in the CFP. Hutchinson was the highest-rated signee, having moved up more than 100 spots in the composite rankings to No. 112 following his senior season and U.S. Army All-American Bowl performance. The projected top-five pick did it all in 2021 as a Heisman runner-up, unanimous All-American and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. As an in-state take, he was not a tough evaluation.
But lots of members of this unheralded class, such as Haskins and Bell, came in as three-stars with something to prove, and they stayed and got better. Only six 2018 signees have left the program, and two were grad transfers.
“It was a close-knit group that came to campus together,” Dudek said. “They recruited each other. I think that’s a big thing. They loved ball and wanted to be great. I think that’s what made the big difference.”
So that should tell you something. Stars do matter, this is true. But signing a class that looks just OK on paper compared to some others isn’t the be-all, end-all. If Michigan is going to continue its ascent, it’ll need to keep getting production from classes like these, as well as those that do get ranked more highly.
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