The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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M Michigan became the first school to reach the 20-recruit mark from the class of 2013 when Maryland four-star defensive lineman Henry Poggi (6-4, 260, Rivals.com's No. 52 player nationally and No. 2 defensive line prospect) pledged to the Wolverines June 4. The U-M coaches were so far ahead that they had already extended offers to 30-plus rising juniors (class of 2014), offering earlier than any previous staff. Early success with the 2013 class afforded them the luxury, recruiting coordinator Jeff Hecklinski said. Hours of film study and abil- ity to project how a prospect will improve eliminate much of the potential risk in offering a kid too soon, he said. "If I said it was a crapshoot, I wouldn't be doing my job," Hecklinski said. "It's research, research and more research. You watch as much as you can, identify as many as you can, and eventually when you look at as much film as we do on so many kids around the nation you get a pretty good idea what the market is." WR 21 Roy Roundtree 83 Jerald Robinson Pos. no. Player LT 77 Taylor Lewan 57 Elliott Mealer LG 56 Joey Burzynski or 57 Elliott Mealer C 56 Ricky Barnum 60 Jack Miller or 56 Joey Burzynski 6-8 302 R-Jr. 6-5 310 5th-Sr. 6-1 284 R-So. 6-5 310 5th-Sr. Ht. Wt. Yr. 6-0 177 5th-Sr. 6-1 206 R-So. WOLVERINES RECRUITING A CLASS AHEAD Recruiting is nothing more than a market value system, he continued. "The high schools around the country are going to provide certain positions every year," he said. "We have a positional demand. Sometimes market drives demand; sometimes demand drives market. It's a balance. What we're doing now in younger ages is trying to project what the market is going to be with what the demand is. "If you have demand at a position that's going to be great, you're going to accelerate the market. You have to. If there's a position where there isn't a demand, you slow the mar- ket down. It's no different than the supply and demand that the people in the business world do every day, and it's all based on projection." Hecklinski said the staff would continue to be aggressive, relying on hard work and experience to ensure the recruiting efforts con- tinued to be top notch. Nobody's perfect, he added. "Sometimes you're going to be right and Michigan Football Projected Post-Spring Depth Chart Offense Pos. no. Player SDE 88 Craig Roh Defense NT 73 Will Campbell 54 Richard Ash RG 65 Patrick Omameh 6-4 300 5th-Sr. 56 Joey Burzynski 6-3 292 5th-Sr. 6-4 263 R-Fr. 6-1 284 R-So. RT 75 Michael Schofield 57 Elliott Mealer or — Devin Funchess WR 26 Drew Dileo or 17 Jeremy Jackson or 80 Ricardo Miller WR 10 Jeremy Gallon — Jehu Chesson or — Amara Darboh QB 16 Denard Robinson 7 Devin Gardner 3 Russell Bellomy FB 33 Stephen Hopkins 36 Joe Kerridge or 38 Thomas Rawls Pos. no. Player LS 54 Jareth Glanda HLD 26 Drew Dileo P 43 Will Hagerup or 45 Matt Wile TE 88 Brandon Moore or 81 Mike Kwiatkowski — A.J. Williams TB 28 Fitzgerald Toussaint 5-10 195 R-Jr. 2 Vincent Smith 5-6 172 Sr. 5-10 219 Fr. PK 34 Brendan Gibbons 45 Matt Wile Ht. Wt. Yr. 6-1 227 R-Jr. 6-2 208 So. 6-3 255 R-Jr. 5-10 172 Jr. 6-4 210 Jr. 6-2 208 So. sPecialists PR 10 Jeremy Gallon 26 Drew Dileo Pos. no. Player KR 10 Jeremy Gallon or or — Dennis Norfleet 2 Vincent Smith Ht. Wt. Yr. 5-8 185 R-Jr. 5-10 172 Jr. 5-8 185 R-Jr. 5-6 172 Sr. 5-7 170 Fr. This is a projected depth chart by The Wolverine based on conversations with position coaches for the Football Preview. 30 s THE WOLVERINE 2012 FOOTBALL PREVIEW 6-1 284 R-So. 6-7 299 R-Jr. 6-5 310 5th-Sr. 6-5 250 5th-Sr. 6-5 257 5th-Sr. 6-6 275 Fr. 6-4 205 Fr. 5-10 172 Jr. 6-3 198 Jr. 6-4 234 Jr. 5-8 185 R-Jr. 6-3 175 Fr. 6-2 200 Fr. 6-0 193 Sr. 6-4 210 Jr. 6-3 189 R-Fr. 6-0 228 Jr. 6-0 231 R-Fr. or 58 Frank Clark 35 Joe Bolden or 67 Nathan Brink 92 Keith Heitzman DT 55 Jibreel Black WDE 97 Brennen Beyer MLB 25 Kenny Demens or 27 Mike Jones SLB 37 Jake Ryan Ht. Wt. Yr. 6-5 269 Sr. 6-5 262 R-Jr. 6-3 251 R-Fr. WLB 44 Desmond Morgan 6-1 220 So. 40 Antonio Poole LCB 18 Blake Countess 5 Courtney Avery 76 Quinton Washington 6-4 302 R-So. 6-3 225 So. 6-2 228 So. 6-1 250 5th-Sr. 6-3 230 Fr. 6-2 224 R-Jr. 6-2 260 Jr. 7 Brandin Hawthorne 6-0 214 Sr. 6-3 230 R-So. 6-2 212 R-Fr. SS 32 Jordan Kovacs 3 Marvin Robinson FS 15 Thomas Gordon 22 Jarrod Wilson RCB 12 J.T. Floyd 6 Raymon Taylor 4 Cameron Gordon 6-3 222 R-Jr. 5-10 176 So. 5-11 167 Jr. 6-0 197 5th-Sr. 6-2 200 Jr. 5-11 208 R-Jr. 6-2 190 Fr. 6-0 185 5th-Sr. 5-10 169 So. Linebackers coach Mark Smith said of Michi - gan's recruiting efforts, " Right now, we're probably competing as well as anyone in the country." PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL 6-5 322 Jr. 6-3 301 R-So. sometimes you're going to be wrong," he said. "At the end of the day you do enough research that you're dealing with the 90-percent rule. Let's be right 90 percent of the time, and if we do that, you can overcome the 10 percent where you were wrong." It's a tough but necessary balance, Michi- gan's assistants on the recruiting trail gener- ally agreed. "Everything is sped up, so when you speed things up, things happen quicker," running backs coach Fred Jackson said. "We've tar- geted people a lot quicker than we've targeted them in the past, and that's good. Sometimes people might say it's not, but that's the ap- proach we're taking and everybody's buying in to it. We're going full speed ahead, and we'll see how these guys pan out when we get them here." "Some of it's good and some of it's bad," linebackers coach Mark Smith added. "It's gotten so accelerated that sometimes you don't give a kid a chance to have a good senior year and develop. We're trying to make deci- sions based on junior film or what they did as sophomores, and that's sometimes not fair to the kid, sometimes not fair to us. If you make a mistake, you might miss a kid that could have been a very important part of the program. "It's the nature of the beast right now. You've got to keep up with the Smiths and Joneses to compete at that level. Right now, we're probably competing as well as anyone in the country."