College Football

Jim Harbaugh's culture at Michigan is beginning to pay off on recruiting trail

Updated May. 8, 2023 11:12 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

On Feb. 16, Mason Curtis was unhappy.

The four-star linebacker from Nashville, Tennessee, had been the first player to commit to Michigan in the 2024 recruiting cycle, pledging himself to the Wolverines on June 27, 2022, roughly 18 months before the early signing period will open next winter. But on that Thursday evening in February, at 5:56 p.m. EST, the position coach Curtis hoped to play for announced his departure from Ann Arbor.

"Thank you Coach Harbaugh, Warde Manuel, the coaching staff and administration," linebackers coach George Helow wrote on his Twitter account. "I want to especially thank the players who made coming to work every day special! You are truly amazing young men. We accomplished great things together, making the CFP twice and winning back-to-back Big Ten titles. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the University of Michigan. These past two seasons have been an honor and an amazing experience, but it is time to explore new opportunities in my career. Thanks to everyone who supports Michigan. God bless and Go Blue!"

A week prior, Michigan announced the return of former special teams coordinator and defensive position coach Chris Partridge to head coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff, though the nature of his role wasn’t specified at the time. Helow’s eventual departure made clear what most around the program expected: that Partridge, who spent the last three years as the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Ole Miss, would take over the linebacking corps while reestablishing himself as one of the Wolverines’ best recruiters. 

"Coach Partridge did recruit me at Ole Miss," Curtis said in an interview with FOX Sports, "and he’s the one that offered me at Ole Miss. When I saw that Coach Helow was leaving, I wasn’t happy at all. But I’m glad that somebody stepped in that I already had a really good relationship with so I could just pick up and continue to go on."

That Curtis never wavered from his commitment amid the personnel change at his position, not to mention another offseason rich with NFL rumors that engulfed not only Harbaugh, who twice met with the Denver Broncos about their coaching vacancy, but also defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles, highlighted two of the pillars from Michigan’s renaissance.

By infusing his coaching staff with high-level tacticians from the NFL and pavement-pounding recruiters known for reeling in blue-chip prospects, Harbaugh has found the sweet spot between player acquisition and player development. Few programs in college football can lay claim to a better-defined ethos than Michigan’s run-heavy offense and schematically-sound defense from the last two seasons. The end result is a culture appealing enough to draw elite recruits to Ann Arbor and strong enough to withstand the coaching movement that permeates the sport. As programs around the country prepare for a summer’s worth of official visits, it’s Michigan that holds the No. 1 recruiting class in the country ahead of Ohio State, Georgia and Notre Dame in the 247Sports Composite rankings after finishing 19th overall and third in the Big Ten last year.

"I don’t think it’s fair to call anything that Michigan does on the recruiting trail disappointing," said Steve Wiltfong, the director of recruiting for 247Sports, in an interview with FOX Sports.

"Because it’s obvious that when you look at their football program right now, they know what they’re looking for on the recruiting trail and their track record of player development and scheming their players into the right spots is as good as anybody in college football.

"They just had nine more players drafted. So to sit here like we know more than them is hysterical. But obviously, the success that Michigan has had on the field the last two years in particular — making it to two College Football Playoffs — and what they’ve done in the draft is very exciting to prospects. And in this cycle, this is a year where we like their prospects as much as they do."

The numbers are impressive no matter how they’re sliced. Michigan’s total of 16 commitments is tied with Wake Forest for the most in college football. The Wolverines are tied with LSU for the most four-star prospects in the country with 10. Their total of 11 blue-chip recruits some eight months before National Signing Day is already greater than, or equal to, Harbaugh’s final tally in four of the last nine years.

Even when sorted by average prospect score — a metric that measures the caliber of each individual rather than the overall class — Michigan’s 16-man crew still ranks sixth (91.65) behind Alabama (95.42), Georgia (94.44), Florida (94.04), Ohio State (93.07) and South Carolina (92.04) among schools with at least eight commitments as of Sunday afternoon. While that number is subject to change in the coming months, none of Harbaugh’s previous classes finished with an average prospect score higher than 91.20, a high-water mark achieved by signing 21 four- and five-star prospects in 2017. The jewel of that class was No. 1 overall recruit Rashan Gary, a New Jersey native who played for the same Paramus Catholic High School team that Partridge once coached.

"These past few years we’ve been seeing Michigan do better and keep doing better," said four-star safety Jacob Oden, an in-state prospect from the Detroit suburbs, during an interview with FOX Sports. "So recruiting these big-time guys can only make us go up in the future, make us contenders to win that College Football Playoff every year. National champs and a Big Ten championship every year."

Some of Michigan’s commits have identified Oden as a critical figure in the class. Rated the No. 168 overall prospect and the No. 15 safety in the country, Oden spearheaded the group’s supplementary recruiting efforts by encouraging his future teammates to contact some of the uncommitted players being pursued by the Wolverines. Oden, who in February became the program’s seventh commitment, has been known to share the contact information of other prospects in the group chat, so everyone can reach out simultaneously with their pitches.

Their current list of targets includes four-star athlete Boo Carter (No. 237 overall, No. 20 ATH); four-star cornerback Aaron Scott (No. 60 overall, No. 7 CB); four-star linebacker Aaron Chiles (No. 75 overall, No. 6 LB); four-star defensive lineman Brandon Davis-Swain (No. 182 overall, No. 22 DL); four-star linebacker Jeremiah Beasley (No. 265 overall, No. 25 LB); three-star wideout Channing Goodwin (No. 511 overall, No. 72 WR); and four-star edge rusher Jacob Smith (No. 204 overall, No. 18 edge), whose twin brother, four-star edge rusher Jerod Smith, committed to the Wolverines last month.

"Michigan has had other great classes," Curtis said. "I think the recent success has really pushed Michigan’s recruiting higher."

Added Jerod Smith: "I feel like it can be the best one in history."

As currently constructed, the class is headlined by two prospects whose commitments generated waves of headlines for contrasting reasons earlier this spring. Securing five-star quarterback Jadyn Davis (No. 27 overall, No. 4 QB) of Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina, solidified a position group with questionable depth behind starter J.J. McCarthy, who would be eligible to enter the NFL Draft following the 2023 season. Neither of the quarterbacks Michigan signed in its 2022 recruiting class — three-star prospects Jayden Denegal and Alex Orji — ranked among the top 25 players at the position. 

Receiving a commitment from Davis even after the dismissal of co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss, whom the Davis family had grown fond of, underscored how strongly recruits believe in what Harbaugh is building. New quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell, who was promoted from the offensive analyst role he held last season, quickly fostered a relationship with Davis to ensure the recruitment never soured. 

Campbell, 37, is one of several young or recently-hired assistants making strong impressions on the recruiting trail. Joining him in that category are second-year tight ends coach Grant Newsome (two four-star commits in 2024), newly-promoted offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore (three four-star offensive linemen in 2024) and co-defensive coordinator Steve Clinkscale (spearheading fresh recruiting efforts in Ohio).

"That’s big time," Oden said of Davis’ commitment on March 31, a decision celebrated by the Michigan coaching staff in videos shared on social media. "When you’ve got a five-star in your recruiting class, everybody’s eyes are on y’all."

Just as everybody’s eyes were on four-star tailback Jordan Marshall (No. 80 overall, No. 6 RB) ahead of his decision on March 21. A standout at Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati, where he ran for 1,961 yards and 30 touchdowns in 2022, Marshall committed to Michigan over Ohio State and Tennessee, among others, to further sting a rival fan base still reeling from consecutive losses to the Wolverines for the first time this century.

A day later, three-star offensive tackle Ben Roebuck (No. 455 overall, No. 32 OT) became the fourth Ohioan in Michigan’s 2024 recruiting class alongside four-star interior offensive lineman Luke Hamilton (No. 342 overall, No. 21 IOL), four-star defensive lineman Ted Hammond (No. 386 overall, No. 38 DL) and Marshall. It’s important to note that neither Roebuck, Hamilton nor Hammond hold scholarship offers from Ohio State. But Marshall, a player the Buckeyes actively pursued, became the first four- or five-star running back from Ohio to commit to Michigan since De’Veon Smith (No. 218 overall, No. 16 RB) in 2013.

"When Michigan was going head-to-head on the trail with Ohio State for so many years of the Harbaugh era, they were bringing a knife to the gunfight because they couldn’t win that game," Wiltfong said in reference to Harbaugh’s five consecutive losses against the Buckeyes from 2015-19. "They’re well-armed when they recruit against the Buckeyes on the trail now, and they also offer a tremendous package off the field that not many powerhouse programs can offer with everything Michigan boasts as an academic university.

"So it’s a very exciting time around that program, and to win a recruiting battle like they did with Jordan Marshall, that wasn’t happening a couple years ago. I think that we’ve seen an uptick in Michigan’s recruiting overall."

And that makes Curtis quite happy.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

share

Get more from College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

College Football

Michigan Wolverines

Big Ten

Michael Cohen