Michigan Wolverine Wednesday: Big Ten Recruiting for 2011

As you know, we usually focus on Michigan recruiting here at the BHB, but today we venture into the world of Big 10 11 Ten recruiting to check in on how other teams are doing to rebuild or reload for next year.  (Yes, I know we are just under two weeks away from the 2010 season and I am already thinking about kids who might not play in the Big Ten for a couple of years—so shoot me!)

Tim, over at Mgoblog, does a great job of ranking each Big Ten class which also now includes Nebraska.  He also includes Notre Dame, which makes sense because they fish from the same pond that most of the other Big Ten schools do.  For this exercise, we will just focus on The Big Ten official schools (including soon to be Nebraska).

Who has the most recruits verbally committed so far?

  Surprise, it's Indiana at 21! They are all 2-star or 3-star prospects, but that is an impressive haul for August 25th.

Who has the lowest amount?

Surprise, it's Penn State with four!  Are you kidding me?  Two of the four commitments are 4-star prospects, but I guess JoPa and staff are planning to finish strong.  It's only August.

How many 5-star recruits have the Big Ten teams been able to reel in so far? 

There have been three total, with two at Ohio State and one at Michigan State.  This is not surprising since most 5-star guys like the recruiting process and delay their decisions until after the season or signing day. 

How many 4-stars are there?

There are 24 and OSU leads with 10 (I know it makes me sick too).  Newcomer Nebraska has six.

Who has the surprise class so far? 

Indiana gets a vote, but just on the sheer number of recruits before September 1.  I have to give the surprise award, at this point, to the Michigan State Spartans, who have landed 13 commits with one 5-star player headlining the class.

Where is the most disappointing class?

It would, of course, be PSU, after having the top Big Ten class in 2010, although they now only have four committed players.  Watch out for Pitt, they are starting to "mow JoPa's lawn" for in-state recruits.

What does this mean for Michigan? 

Michigan will have a pretty small class, which was estimated at 17 before Austin White and JT Turner decided to jump ship.  So it might be closer to 20 now, which would mean they are half way home.  

I am hearing that many recruits want to see how Michigan will do on the field this year. If they make a bowl game, I think a number of high profile players will have serious interest in the Wolverines. 

RR and Staff are being very careful on who they offer because they don't want another Demar Dorsey situation, and they have a limited number of spots this year. 

Michigan is a team that wants/needs to finish strong with these last 10 spots if they want a top 10-15 class nationally. 

Michigan is in a similar situation to Penn State, where there is enough concern on how long the head coach will be there to make recruits wait to see how it all plays out.

What to expect from here on out? 

OSU probably only has a handful of spots left in this class, so you will see some other programs reaping the rewards. 

Penn State will start recruiting hard after the season is complete and after the JoPa situation clears for 2011. 

MSU will continue recruiting Michigan hard and land a few more in-state 3-star players. 

The rest of the schools will do what they always do, recruit the best talent they can.  Ron Zook and Danny Hope need to hit the recruiting trail pretty hard. 

Keep an eye on Nebraska

They are putting together a very nice class with lots of 4-star recruits in class of just 13 players so far.  They also are strong nationally with recruits already committed from Florida, California, and Ohio. 

* Star ranking were taken from Scouts recruiting service