The Blue Board

I am not really sure i agree that the class isn't balanced. Defensively we have like 4 DBs, 4 LBs, 5 DL so far. Offensively, 5 OL, 1 fb, 2 Te, were looking for 2 wrs. The coaches have said they want a RB and QB for this class so not taking one is a lot of speculation from us fans. Right now we have 5 or 6 spots left. From what the coaches are telling recruits its 1 DT, 2 WRS and then its up in th air for the other 2 or 3 positions depending on who commits. I mean we will take another OL if its Diamond, Garnett, Banner, Bisnowaty. Running back if its Dunn, Garmon, Marshall. They would of loved Kiel and are recruiting Devin Fuller for QB. I think the WR,RB,QB thing so far is just they haven't landed the guys they want for those postions.

Shaw - senior
Cox - rs junior
Smith - junior
Touissant - rs sophomore
Hopkins - sophomore
Hayes - freshman
Rawls - freshman

McColgan FB - rs senior
Kerridge FB - freshman

Houma FB - 2012 commit

All but Shaw will return next year and IF there's no other 2012 RB taken, we'll have Touissant, Hopkins, Hayes, and Rawls along with Houma and Kerridge the following year. It's not Sparty-stacked, but it's not a bare cupboard.

I completely understand people wanting to take a QB every year, but I personally do not want one this year, unless it's Fuller, who can play any position under the sun. It sounds like that's gonna happen, and we can focus on WR, DT, and maybe RB/OL.

I'm assuming you mean a balanced class between skill players and linemen, because our class is very balanced defensively to offensively. And in that case, I do agree with you. However, I'm not worried about our outlook at RB or QB. You can argue that Gardner and Robinson may not be the pro-style type we need, as I've seen a lot over on tRCMB, but that's just something the coaches will deal with in their play calling. I'm very confident in Bellomy, who I feel will surprise people, and hopefully Morris lives up to the hype to be a 2-3 year starter.

The only skill position that we really need to fix depth at is WR, and we're adressing that with 2 this class and probably (hopefully) a couple more next year.

So personally, I think our class is very well rounded in terms of our needs.

BTW, this has been an eerily calm and informative discussion for this thread.. So.. uhh MSU sucks?

Assuming they land 2 WR's, the class will be balanced just fine. No QB isn't ideal, but no reason to take a mediocre kid just to take him.

QBs in 2011 - Robinson, Gardner, Bellomy
QBs in 2012 - Robinson, Gardner, Bellomy
QBs in 2013 - Gardner, Bellomy, Morris
QBs in 2014 - Gardner, Bellomy, Morris, and presumably a kid who is currently a sophomore in HS.

I don't see anything alarming.

Without Bellomy we would only have 2 scholarship QBs on the roster. Thats a bad idea especially with as much as Denard was banged up last year.

MSU only has 5 RBs on scholarship. And is only taking 1 this class after taking 0 last year. I love our backs, but I wish we were taking another.

Yea, that's a way too obvious troll attempt. Poor guy blew his load; the best trolls are the ones that seem like they're serious, but never respond rationally, baiting you into taking time and effort to debate with him. Now we know not to take him seriously . . . oh well, this is a good discussion still, so I'll ignore the trolling.

That's the same situation we had with Hoyer in 2008; Cousins was the only back-up as a RS frosh because Foles transferred and Nichol was sitting out. Difference between us is that MSU doesn't try to run it's QB, so our injury chances are lower (still takes 1 play to hurt a guy, I know, but if we're not running our guy 10 + times in addition to 30 drop-backs, we reduce the # of chances that he gets injured).

I don't know if we will have a stud RB emerge this year but i am pretty confident with the group we have that we will find at least a pretty good back.

Honestly, i don't think the way recruiting is going is actually the way the coaches laid out the plan. I mean they went after Zeke Pike and Kiel and missed on both. They only planned on taking 3 LBs but with Ross Biggs being the 4th to commit would you turn him away? I don't think they planned on landing Brown, Strobel and Wormley all from Ohio to add to Godin and Mario, but with our DL depth i don't think they can say no to any of those guys either. We have 5 OL committed already but do you say no to Diamond, Garnett, etc....?

And Gardner is trying to get a medical redshirt. He got hurt pretty early, and that's one of the main reasons Denard stayed in for the whole Capital One Bowl. The consensus for Michigan fans was that Gardner playing in the bowl game would ruin his chances of getting it.

We won't find out until his senior year IIRC, but I'm pretty sure he'll get it.

6 is ideal, but we were pretty solid last year, despite Caper's development/participation being hindered greatly by injury. You could probably run any of our top 3 20 times a game and be fine for the year.

I think we'll take 2 in 2013. I'm much more worried about our OL depth. We need to take 4 this year, if not 5, and we only have 2. Bisnowaty is pretty much our last chance for a legit 4-star OT.