The Izzo Recruiting Philosophy - Football Style
Nick Hill is in. Paul Jorgensen is out. You win some you lose some.
This isn't exactly news but I find it interesting that Coach D. seems to be adhering to the Coach Izzo recruiting philosophy. Control your state. Work the border states hard and if a kid here or there from Texas, Florida or other southern states is interested, go for it. And like Izzo, Coach D is trying to build a fence around the Midwest and the state of Michigan.
The question is, long-term, will this strategy work?
And it depends on what your goals are as a coach.
We know it works in basketball. Theoretically Izzo can get 2 of the top 3 recruits in Michigan and then a third guy from another Midwestern state during any given year and MSU can be a ig Ten contender and top 10-20 team. Will they be a North Carolina, a Kansas or a Kentucky (under Shady Cal)? Probably not. Coach Izzo isn't going to get a John Wall, and that's okay. We can still go to Final Fours and NCAAs.
But football is different. The average size class may be at or above 20 players. Again speaking theoretically, getting 50, or even 75 percent of the top in-state players any given year is great, but is it enough if you want to go to the Rose Bowl? Probably not. The BCS national title game? Not with largely just Michigan-based players.
However Coach D, in my opinion, has a long-term plan. And it is working. Lock up the state and get some of the top-tier guys from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Make your presence known in the other Big Ten states. Coach the hell out of them, improve the talent and become a team that consistently plays on or just before New Year's Day. Win a Big Ten title or two. Then you can expand your reach nationally, always honing in on your regional base.
If that's the plan then I'm on board. So I'm not worried that all 7 commitments so far from the 2010 class are from Michigan. We'll get our share of out-state players. At least there is a recruiting plan in place, something that didn't appear to be the case under the previous two coaching regimes.
Besides, as Joe likes to say, all these rankings are subjective anyway. After all, let's look at the high school recruiting review of Louis Delmas, the 2nd round (33rd overall) pick in the most recent NFL Draft by your Detroit Lions. This ranking of Delmas was published by Rivals.com in 2005. A "2-star" player.
By the way 4.9 is defined by Rivals.com as the following: "Sleeper; no Rivals.com expert knew much, if anything, about this player; a prospect that only a college coach really knew about."
Hmm. That 2-star recruit seemed to work out.
In Coach D we trust. What do you think about this recruiting philosophy and do you agree with my suppositions?
