Michigan Football Recruiting: Hoke's Days at Ball State Paying off in Ohio

One by one, recruits from Ohio are lining up to play football at Michigan. 

Deveon Smith, a 4-star running back from Warren (OH) Howland, was the latest to verbally commit to the Wolverines.

What's equally important for Michigan is that Hoke and his staff are building relationships with high school coaches throughout Ohio, who are known to produce some of the best talent in the nation.

Hoke, who's originally from Dayton (Ohio), worked the state as an assistant at Michigan and then as the head coach at Ball State. He apparently worked it very well, since his final squad at Ball State had 29 Ohioans on the roster.

Michigan's staff is obviously working the same schools where it had previous success. For example, former Wolverine Shawn Crable played at Massillon Washington, where 2013 commit Gareon Conway also prepped. Former TE Kevin Koger played at Toledo Whitmer, where 2013 commit Chris Wormley prepped. 

The Wolverines have even returned to Pickerington North, the school which sent Justin Boren to the Wolverines—albeit temporarily. Boren was the lightly-recruited offensive lineman who eventually transferred to the Buckeyes.

Of course, the head coach can't visit every school. To solve that, Hoke retained long-time assistant Fred Jackson from Rich Rodriguez's staff to continue coaching running backs and handle a variety of requiting duties.

Like Hoke, Rodriguez retained Jackson from Lloyd Carr's staff. The chain follows back to when Jackson joined head coach Gary Moeller in 1992.

Jackson's been instrumental in recruiting several current Wolverines, including 5-star quarterback Shane Morris, running back Wyatt Shallman and, of course, Howland High's Smith.

“Man, (Coach Jackson) is a phenomenal guy,” Smith told scout.com. “He was just down to earth. I felt like he was telling me the truth. It was a really good time and he is a good guy. We’re definitely going to get along. Like he said, I spend more time with him than the head coach.”

Jackson, whose son Jeremy is a junior wide receiver for Michigan, has built similar relationships with former Michigan stars like Tyrone Wheatley, Troy Woolfolk and Anthony Thomas.

Hoke's hiring of Greg Mattison was also quite a coup, too. Mattison was Ohio State coach Urban Meyer's defensive coordinator at Florida, and the two know each other very well.

In fact, Meyer has called Mattison the best recruiter in the country.

The results are already in. Michigan is already taking its share of players from Meyer, both in Ohio and around the country. Smith is the seventh Ohio player to join Michigan's 2013 class.

True, only Smith and safety Dymonte Thomas have been offered by Meyer, but Hoke had success with his 2012 class, too. He landed nine Ohioans, including three who were offered by the Buckeyes. The biggest catch was 5-star offensive lineman Kyle Kalis, who decommitted from Ohio State to join the Wolverines.

Elsewhere, Michigan has outfought Meyer for 4-star OG Chris Fox (Parker CO), Scout's top-rated OG Patrick Kugler (Wexford, PA), and 4-star OT Logan Tuley-Tillman (Peoria, IL).

Perhaps the final advantage Hoke has over Meyer is Michigan's new offensive approach. The Wolverines are transitioning away from Rodriguez's spread-option attack to the pro-style offense they ran under Carr and Moeller. The keyword here is "pro," since many of the Wolverines who were a part of that style eventually played in NFL. Meyer, on the other hand, will be running a variation of the spread option offense.