The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1222671
APRIL 2020 THE WOLVERINE 13 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS "The football recruiting issue! Yes! I've been waiting for this! Today is gonna be great!" — Well-known Michigan football fan and 106-time surgery survivor Larry Prout Jr. on Twitter Feb. 28, after posting a picture of the March recruiting issue of The Wolverine magazine THEY SAID IT "The [Arizona State] Sun Dev- ils are still heavily involved and while the [UCLA] Bru- ins and Missouri remain in the picture, sources around [Lakewood (Calif.) Mayfair five-star shooting guard JOSH CHRISTOPHER] and his recruit- ment think it is only a matter of when and not if he commits to Michigan. If that is the case, [U-M head coach Juwan] Howard would have put together a stellar 2020 class. We saw a similar effort with Penny Hardaway last year as a first-time college head coach, where the [Memphis] Tigers landed the nation's top class. However, Howard has done most of his work outside of the school's locale unlike Hardaway, which might make Michigan's recruiting efforts one of the more impressive runs in recent memory by a first-year head coach." — Rivals.com college basketball recruiting analyst Corey Evans in a Feb. 20 article, discussing Michigan's chances with Christopher 18th Is where U-M head coach JIM HAR- BAUGH checked in on the ranking of college football's top 25 head coaches done by The Athletic's Bruce Feld- man, which was fourth among Big Ten coaches. His co-worker Stewart Man- del did not include Harbaugh among his top 25, which included four Big Ten leaders. Feldman noted Harbaugh was "the most polarizing figure on this list," and said the coach's 47-18 record in his first five years "feels like a disappointment because of the massive expectations that came when he arrived, and be- cause he hasn't been able to beat his archrival Ohio State, which has blown out the Wolverines the past two years. Overall, he's 10-14 against top-25 teams since coming home. It doesn't feel like Michigan has closed any ground on the Buckeyes, but he's still done a lot better overall than what the Wolverines had over the previous decade or so." However, in the end Feldman admit- ted Harbaugh made the cut more for his work turning around Stanford and the NFL's San Francisco 49ers than what he has done in Ann Arbor so far. J.J. McCarthy (@jjmccarthy09) of Nazareth Academy is the best quarterback to come out of the state of Illinois since [current San Francisco 49ers signal- caller] Jimmy Garoppolo. McCarthy is a much bigger recruit, but the talent level is there. [U-M head coach] Jim Harbaugh & the Michigan Wolverines got a GREAT one." — Prep Football Magazine editor Tom Lemming in a Feb. 25 tweet, discussing La Grange Park (Ill.) Nazareth Academy four-star quarterback and U-M commit J.J. McCarthy PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM