Inside Jim Harbaugh's Recruiting Surge at Michigan
Jim Harbaugh found himself four points shy of a Super Bowl XLVII victory on Feb. 3, 2013 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Exactly three years from the day his San Francisco 49ers fell to the Baltimore Ravens and older brother John Harbaugh, the 52-year-old has an opportunity to claim college football's recruiting crown.
National signing day takes center stage Wednesday, Feb. 3, capping off the first full recruiting cycle for Harbaugh at Michigan. The former Wolverines quarterback, who returned to Ann Arbor as head coach in December 2014, has entered the final stages of an immensely impressive and routinely bizarre campaign with America's premier prospects.
When folks look back at this cycle for Harbaugh, they will undoubtedly remember a myriad headline-grabbing high jinks.
The high school class he attended alongside defensive tackle Boss Tagaloa. The tree he climbed during an in-home visit with cornerback David Long. A sleepover at the house of top-ranked kicker Quinn Nordin.
“We stayed up until 1:15, 2 o’clock. When I woke up in the morning, my mom made pancakes and waffles for Coach, and there we were, chowing down breakfast," Nordin told Steve Kaminski of MLive.com.
The kicker was a Penn State commit when Harbaugh arrived at his door that January night. Days shy of signing day, Nordin is no longer pledged to the Nittany Lions, and Michigan is the favorite to land him.
Yes, fans and detractors alike will recall the wacky tactics for years to come, though Harbaugh's out-of-the-box recruiting approach should hardly be a surprise considering his previous efforts at Stanford. But don't let these stunts overshadow the overarching theme of Michigan's 2016 recruiting trail.
Remember the rebound.
"2016 is just the beginning," Georgia linebacker and Wolverines commit Elysee Mbem-Bosse told Bleacher Report.
Harbaugh and his staff currently carry 26 commitments in a recruiting class rated No. 3 nationally in composite rankings. This success makes it easy to forget Michigan failed to secure a single 2016 pledge through the first three full months of a new regime.
In retrospect, that lull essentially served as the silence before the storm.
"It was crazy. It felt like really good players were joining our class almost every day for a while there," Indiana quarterback Brandon Peters said.
Peters, a U.S. Army All-American Player of the Year finalist, who enrolled early at Michigan in January, provided Harbaugh with his first verbal pledge from a 2016 recruit. It occurred during an early April gathering in an Ann Arbor restaurant that included Peters' parents and Jack Harbaugh, who spent four decades coaching college football while serving as a mentor to sons John and Jim.
"We were just sitting at dinner, talking about Michigan football, and [Jim Harbaugh] brought up my recruitment. He asked, 'How'd you like to come play for us?' I told him I'd love to," the prized passer recalled.
Of course, the conversation included a little flair.
"He compared me to Andrew Luck," Peters said, referring to Harbaugh's former Stanford pupil and eventual No. 1 NFL draft pick.
From that point, Michigan gradually gained momentum. By the end of spring, Peters was joined by several standouts, including Indianapolis running back Chris Evans, Detroit offensive lineman Michael Onwenu and Florida defensive back Josh Metellus, in an expanding talent haul.
"This class will be the No. 1 recruiting class by national signing day," Metellus said one week shy of the annual event.
The group currently sits ahead of Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida State and Notre Dame in composite class rankings. Those are programs that each participated in at least one national championship game since 2013.
Michigan didn't come close to knocking on the door as a title contender in the seasons preceding Harbaugh's arrival. While he led San Francisco to three conference championship games between 2011 and 2014, the Wolverines' struggles mounted under former head coach Brady Hoke.
Hoke led Michigan to 11 wins, including a Sugar Bowl victory, during his debut 2011 campaign. His win total dropped to eight in 2012, then seven in 2013, and he failed to survive a 2014 season that saw the Wolverines finish below .500 for the third time since 2008, the first year of Rich Rodriguez's brief tenure in Ann Arbor.
That's three losing seasons in seven years. Michigan hadn't previously suffered one since 1967. The Wolverines slumped to a 24-32 record against Big Ten Conference opponents during this span.
Harbaugh, moving on from a messy situation of his own in San Francisco, returned to a program that looked like damaged goods. University administration, and arguably the Big Ten as a whole, needed him to emerge as the knight on a white charger depicted by Michigan fans across America.
Months shy of his first game as the Wolverines' leader, Harbaugh already commanded attention from elite high school stars. Though they grew up during a rough era for Michigan, many prospects anticipated a fresh start for one of the country's most recognizable college football brands.
"Michigan is going to do great things in a couple years. You may not see it this season, but Michigan will be an up-and-rising program soon," No. 1 overall 2016 recruit Rashan Gary said in April.
Harbaugh managed to serve up immediate evidence of the program's ascension despite working with a roster comprised predominately of Hoke-era holdovers. The Wolverines won 10 games for just the third time since 2004, finishing the season with an emphatic 41-7 victory over Florida in the Citrus Bowl.
“They definitely exceeded expectations. They surprised me," Peters admitted. "I didn’t really know how much talent Michigan had, but it just shows how good of a coach Harbaugh is. He can develop players; he can change their mindset and the way guys think about the game.”
Prospects like Peters are drawn to Harbaugh's perceived ability to prepare college players for a professional career. When you're discussing future aspirations with top-tier recruits, an eventual NFL payday is routinely part of the long-term plan.
"You're going to get coached on an NFL level, and your football IQ will be high, if not the highest, coming out of college," Mbem-Bosse said.
It's not just Harbaugh who is compelling prospects from this standpoint. His group of assistants is loaded with cumulative NFL experience, including former San Francisco 49ers offensive line coach Tim Drevno, former Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch, former Philadelphia Eagles safeties coach Mike Zordich and former Buffalo Bills running backs coach Tyrone Wheatley.
"Coach Harbaugh and his staff set themselves apart with me by installing a pro-like system," defensive end commit Ron Johnson said.
Added Peters, "You’re learning from the best with that entire staff. Why would you not want to play for Harbaugh?"
Even recruits who escaped Michigan's grasp during this cycle expressed respect for the resumes of the Wolverines' leadership.
"There's a lot to like about a head coach that has had success in the NFL. He got his team to the Super Bowl. That's as big as it gets," said 5-star linebacker Ben Davis, who is likely to land in the SEC.
Of course, his 44-19-1 record against NFL competition also provides a statement.
"Coach Harbaugh's system is a true pro system that gets you prepared for the NFL," top-ranked tight end Isaac Nauta said.
Nauta chose his home state Georgia Bulldogs over Michigan during the U.S. Army All-American Bowl on Jan. 9, but the Wolverines countered that day by collecting a commitment from 4-star California wide receiver Dylan Crawford. Harbaugh and company continued to gain recruiting steam in the final full month of this cycle, securing a collection of January commitments that included Long (whose tree was scaled by Harbaugh), Florida wide receiver Eddie McDoom and New Jersey defensive tackle Michael Dwumfour.
Dwumfour became the fifth Garden State prospect to pick Michigan, joining DePaul Catholic High School teammate and early Wolverines enrollee Kareem Walker. Both are considered very close friends of Gary, who received his first scholarship offer in eighth grade and won't announce collegiate intentions until signing day.
"[Walker, Gary and I] are like brothers," Dwumfour told Brandon Justice of Maize n Brew. "We spoke about [playing together] when we were young, and Kareem brings it up a lot now. It would be great if we could."
Gary, a 6'5", 293-pound defensive tackle and the consensus No. 1 overall recruit, previously played for Michigan assistant Chris Partridge at Paramus Catholic High School. That relationship helped Harbaugh build a strong bridge between northern New Jersey and Ann Arbor, where the coveted lineman has spent significant time.
“They treat us like family. Coach Partridge knows how my mom is and knows how I am," Gary said following an unofficial summer visit. "He showed us everything we needed to see.”
Along with Dwumfour and Walker, a 4-star running back who ended his 10-month Ohio State commitment in November, the Wolverines landed fellow New Jersey teammates Ron Johnson and Brad Hawkins (Camden High School), and Atlantic City-area athlete Ahmir Mitchell, who is already on campus.
"They call us the Jersey Boys," Johnson said. "Whenever we all took visits to any school, it's something we would talk about. We wondered if there would be a right school for all of us, and we found the perfect one with Michigan."
It wasn't just Partridge who made an impact on the group. Naturally, Harbaugh was a driving force.
“He’s a great recruiter. He’s very hands-on and doesn’t like other people doing things for him. He was with us the entire visit," Mitchell said following a trip to Michigan last March.
Gary, who is also considering Clemson, Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss and USC, is projected to sign with the Wolverines by 79 percent of experts' predictions in his 247Sports crystal ball.
"The Jersey Boys [are going to] bring that swag to Michigan, and there's gonna be lots of playing time between all of us," Johnson said. "I believe Rashan would top off this class and would add a little to the Jersey swag."
There's also an impressive contingent of Sunshine State products in the class, headlined by a trio of Flanagan High School standouts. Metellus, fellow defensive back Devin Gil and linebacker Devin Bush Jr. are each on board, bringing the Florida pledge total to six players.
"We will come in early and play," Metellus said.
Though this Michigan class features athletes from 13 different states, the grouping of longtime friends and teammates is a common theme. The Wolverines have landed multiple commitments from three high schools (Camden, New Jersey; DePaul Catholic, New Jersey; Flanagan, Florida) and may manage an identical feat on signing day.
Tight end Devin Asiasi and the aforementioned Tagaloa, teammates at California powerhouse De La Salle High School, took an official visit to Ann Arbor together in January. It wouldn't be a shock if both spurned an array of Pac-12 opportunities in favor of Michigan.
"One person is not going to win a championship, so I want as many dogs on our side as we can get," Johnson said.
Using the past 11 months and three weeks as a sample size of Harbaugh's effectiveness on the recruiting trail, expect fireworks Feb. 3. He continues to leave an underwhelming, and oftentimes embarrassing, era of Michigan football fading in the rearview mirror.
Harbaugh won 10 games in 2015 with an abundance of players hand-picked by another staff. His second Wolverines recruiting class, one that will challenge for the top spot in signing-day rankings and could include America's most coveted prospect, represents the next step in Michigan's sudden surge.
“If the No. 1 player wants to come to Michigan, then we’re going to be on top soon," Peters said. "Something big is coming."
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