247 National Recruiting Director Calls Out Michigan

Steve Wiltfong says Michigan's recruiting process is one reason why it's behind Ohio State, and not as effective as what Penn State does.

Speaking on the "Notorious BIG" podcast, the national recruiting director for 247 Sports said the following in response to question about the impact of recruiting maestro, Chris Partridge, leaving Michigan for Ole Miss:

They haven’t filled the role, and we’ll see who they fill it with because Michigan is one of those schools where assistant coach recruiters are incredibly important, because they don’t recruit in the same traditional way that almost every other program that we cover does. There’s not recruiting meetings. There’s just a lot on the assistant coaches’ plates to go out in their territories or in their position rooms and find guys they think are good enough to help Michigan win championships.

Chris Partridge was a guy that wasn’t afraid to go into SEC country with his winged helmet logo on his golf shirt and go toe-to-toe for big-time guys and try to get them to come to Michigan. He had some big wins. He also had some close losses. I mean, Willie Gay was a guy who had Michigan in his top two. Otis Reese is a guy who had Michigan in his top two. He really got after it and worked.

I just don’t think, collectively, this staff is recruiting at a level to win a national championship across the board. It’s a blow losing a guy in Partridge, who I feel like is one of your best recruiters when the emphasis on recruiting at Michigan isn’t the same as it is at Ohio State and Penn State right now. We’re starting to see it on the field.

Wiltfong has since added some context to these comments on the premium message board at The Michigan Insider, but since that is proprietary information we won't share it here. A fair summary is this: Wiltfong believes Michigan's recruiting practices fall short of what Ohio State and Penn State (to a lesser degree) are doing, and that is reflected in the Wolverines falling short of their potential on the gridiron.

Wiltfong believes if Michigan emulated the recruiting passion and processes at those two schools, especially Ohio State, Jim Harbaugh would be more likely to finally achieve something significant as head coach of his alma mater.

What do you think? Are these comments fair or foul? Let us know in the comments section.

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