Michigan Football Recruiting: Stealing Dennis Norfleet a Victory for Brady Hoke

The Michigan Wolverines were pretty much all set when the clock struck midnight on Feb. 1, signaling the beginning of National Signing Day. Brady Hoke had been hard at work for months, compiling a deep and stacked recruiting class that ranked among the best in the country.

But he was able to squeeze one more recruit in. Dennis Norfleet, a running back out of Detroit, committed to Michigan Wednesday morning.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Hoke presented Norfleet with an offer last week and the running back made the decision to commit to Ann Arbor on Tuesday night. It was a simple matter of decommitting from Cincinnati and then signing his letter of intent.

Norfleet sounded very pleased with the way things panned out.

“It was a decision that I had been waiting on," he told the Free Press. “I’ve been going to Michigan for four years in a row, and I still hadn’t heard anything. For it to come this way, at this time at the beginning of the signing date, is a really crazy situation.

“Plus, U-M is just 30 minutes from my house, and my family will get to see me play."

As for what Norfleet brings to the table, he is widely recognized as one of the most dangerous open-field runners in the nation. He's got elusiveness to spare, and more than enough speed to get from Point A to Point B in the blink of an eye.

Technically, Norfleet is a running back, but the general consensus is that he will be best used as a sort of utility running back. ESPN says he'll be a great change-of-pace back, and Scout.com recommends using him as a slot receiver.

And so on.

Hoke told ESPNU that he has his own assessment of Norfleet. Here's what he had to say, via the Detroit Free Press:

"

Dennis is a guy that, I think, coming out of Martin Luther King High School in Detroit, is a guy who’s got tremendous speed, vision, great ball skills. Look for him to help us in the return game, because he really does a nice job there, and a guy who's going to add a value to our team when you look at his athleticism

"

He says Michigan's getting "value" in Norfleet. I say Michigan's getting a luxury. The Wolverines are going to use Norfleet, but it's not like they needed him.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Recruiting is a wild and strange game that doesn't really have any rules (except all the rules that must be followed), but the general rule of thumb is to acquire as much talent as possible. Ideally, you acquire more talent than you need.

As stupidly simple as that sounds, you really have to sit back and take a look at how many programs in the country are actually able to acquire more talent than they need. Only a handful manage to do it every year, and these programs typically churn out elite teams.

Michigan is in the discussion this year. The Wolverines got overtaken by Urban Meyer and his blitzkrieg recruiting effort, but they're still in a position to churn out an elite team now and in each of the next couple of seasons. Michigan got "back" in 2011, and Hoke means to keep it back.

In the grand scheme of things, it's possible Norfleet will be nothing more than a footnote. But he will be heard from, make no mistake about that. He's going to contribute to Michigan's success.

A modest role, perhaps. But if a team is going to be elite, it needs contributions from as many players as possible.