Re-visiting the 2010 Recruiting Class

I'm guessing people are in no mood for excuses, so I hope you'll take this as simply information relevant to the current state of the team. In the past I've seen people discuss the problem of the disastrous 2010 recruiting class, but haven't seen it brought up lately. The 2010 class was RRs last full class, but at a time when he was already under heavy fire. The players from that class are now red-shirt junior or true seniors, in other words, they're supposed to be the heart and soul of the team, along with the red-shirt seniors. Here's what's left of that class in terms of significant contributors:

Gardner
Black
Avery
Dileo
Ryan

So you have the QB, a defensive line starter and the nickel back. You also have the starting slot receiver who's been hurt for the last month and last year's best defensive player, who tore his ACL seven months ago and is slowly returning, but is no where near the force he was last year.

The other four guys who see the field at all are Ash, Furman, Paskorz and Jeremy Jackson. I think we'd all agree that their contributions are minimal at best.

So at the moment you basically have 3 healthy guys contributing to the team. Dileo is supposed to be back this week, and I think everyone will agree that Ryan is (understandably) playing at a much lower level than last season. Obviously, there are other issues on the team, but this situation certainly has contributed to this disaster.

Good point JJ. Further indication that this team is very young. Still we as fans live and die for the team. We swallow huge ticket price increases and anything else the AD sells us, which is everything these days. If the team wins it is all worth while. If they lose its hard to swallow. Deep down I know we need a year, maybe two. This is why I have not come out saying fire Hoke. Still, the losses are tough to take. Hence the frustration seen on here.

MgoBlue wrote:

Good point JJ.  Further indication that this team is very young.  Still we as fans live and die for the team.  We swallow huge ticket price increases and anything else the AD sells us, which is everything these days.  If the team wins it is all worth while.  If they lose its hard to swallow.  Deep down I know we need a year, maybe two.  This is why I have not come out saying fire Hoke.  Still, the losses are tough to take.  Hence the frustration seen on here.

Then act like it instead of throwing a middle-school-girl hissy fit.

You make it hard to give an inch with responses like that. Who the hell would ever want to agree with you? You're just going to dig it up at a later date to rub their face in it. Grow up man. Keep living up to your punk reputation Hail it is getting you all sorts of credibility here.

The losses would  be a lot easier to take if the "offensive" line demonstrated at least a minimal level of competence. BTW, I was stunned to hear Hoke said that Fitz is our best blocking back. How bad must the others be? Scary.

dwoody wrote:

The losses would  be a lot easier to take if the "offensive" line demonstrated at least a minimal level of competence. BTW, I was stunned to hear Hoke said that Fitz is our best blocking back. How bad must the others be? Scary.

Agree with everything you said here. The other thing I'm not sure people realize is that we have one of the worst core of tight-ends in the country (Funchess is a WR in my book), so that doesn't help the blocking situation either. Butt is a true freshman, I still have hope for him. Overall, blocking is inadequate from both guard positions, tight-ends and running backs. It's probably a debate whether the center position is adequate also. I don't think youth even comes close to fully justifying the problem at the guard position. Coaching is definitely a factor there.

It's only 2 years (19 year-old vs. a 21 year-old) but that is huge in terms of strength, agility, and confidence. The entire inner line (LG, C, RG) is young, very young. The ends are very good with Lewan and Scholfield (Both Seniors) but next year presents another issue. Young tackles, the interior of the line will still be young (but at least have a little experience). In a nut-shell get used to this Mgo, it isn't changing until at earliest 2015. You can stop supporting Michigan if you like but won't necessarily be welcome back (your money will though). You don't get it, it is not just about Football.

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

It's only 2 years (19 year-old vs. a 21 year-old) but that is huge in terms of strength, agility, and confidence.  The entire inner line (LG, C, RG) is young, very young.  The ends are very good with Lewan and Scholfield (Both Seniors) but next year presents another issue.  Young tackles, the interior of the line will still be young (but at least have a little experience).  In a nut-shell get used to this Mgo, it isn't changing until at earliest 2015.  You can stop supporting Michigan if you like but won't necessarily be welcome back (your money will though).  You don't get it, it is not just about Football.

That's the depressing thing. We'll be worse at both tackle positions next year. I guess the hope is if we get better everywhere else, including TEs and RBs, maybe the blocking as a whole will improve a little. Not so sure. Bottom line is, these last two recruiting classes that were supposed to be loaded with stud offensive linemen, better actually be loaded with stud offensive linemen.

Unfortunately maturity takes time and stars do not matter...