As if they needed more ammunition, critics of Jim Harbaugh appeared on social media this week amid news that another quarterback he recruited is transferring to Michigan.
Joe Milton, who plans to attend this school on Thursday, planned to enter his name on the NCAA’s transfer portal on Thursday and play elsewhere next year.
He’s hardly the first starting quarterback to leave – the portal and transfer practice are becoming commonplace in the sport these days – but the youngest in a series of quarterbacks leaving Michigan under Harbaugh, whose track record of developing players in the position at best mixed. in his first six seasons in Ann Arbor.
He achieved success with transfers (in a moment more about that), but he missed many of his sensational quarterback recruits outside of high school. And it starts from the beginning.
Harbaugh’s first designated quarterback in high school, Zach Gentry, a four-star prospect in the 2015 class of Albuquerque, New Mexico, never played a game on the position. He was converted to a tighthead prop shortly after arriving in Michigan, after Harbaugh realized that big body Gentry would have a hard time breaking through into a compact and competitive quarterback room.
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It worked out for Gentry, who won twice at the end of the first ten awards and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL draft. But that has not yet been the case with each of Harbaugh’s next recruits.
With a full year to recruit the 2016 class, Harbaugh unleashed another sensational full-back at the time – the four-star prospect Brandon Peters of Avon, Ind., Whose strong arm and athleticism made him one of the best full-backs in made the class. But four starts and three years later, Peters (680 passing yards with 55% completion, 4 TDs, 3 INTs) was buried on the depth chart and transferred to Illinois, where he conquered the starting lane and achieved success.
Meanwhile, the results were similar with Harbaugh’s quarterback recruits for 2017 and 2018, both four-star high school prospects. Dylan McCaffrey has opted for the 2020 season and opted to switch to four years and 13 appearances. And now Milton, who started the 2020 season as Michigan’s starter, has lost just five players. Milton’s regression over the course of the season was incredible, and the latest accusation from Harbaugh’s flashy history of identifying and developing quarterbacks.
Harbaugh achieved much better success in the transfer market, by picking quarterbacks with years under their belt at the university level and inserting in Michigan. Iowa graduate Jake Rudock earned the Big Ten honorable mention for his 2015 season at the Wolverines in which he threw for 3,017 yards and 20 touchdowns while leading the team to a 10-3 season.
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Then there’s Shea Patterson, the University of Mississippi transfer, who started two seasons in Michigan and threw over 5,600 yards and 45 touchdowns. However, Patterson’s productive pass rates were not enough to get Michigan over the hill – Harbaugh’s teams set a 10-3 record in 2018 and 9-4 in 2019.
Harbaugh also relied on another transfer, Houston’s John O’Korn, to help close the gap in quarterbacks in 2016 and 2017. But Wilton Speight won the starting lineup both seasons, with O’Korn starting just six games in his two. seasons of eligibility. By the end of the 2017 season, O’Korn’s fitness clock had expired and Speight, who was stabbed with a broken leg in his spine, was selected to switch to UCLA.
This brings us back to Milton, the third consecutive high school recruited by Harbaugh to Michigan. It was not a slam dunk during the off-season for Milton, who had to knock out Harbaugh’s 2019 quarterback, Cade McNamara, and recently entered JJ McCarthy, whose five-star status makes him the highest-rated quarterback recruiter among Harbaugh. . But because Milton makes a decision for himself (and I don’t think anyone blames him for that), the move again increases Harbaugh’s inability to recruit, promote, and develop high school principals.
Could McNamara or McCarthy finally be the quarterback who helps top Michigan? Certainly. All that is needed is one player, a capable coaching staff and the right pieces to do for him. It looks like Harbaugh is planning to make that happen – he has made major changes to his coaching staff this winter, including the decision to take over as quarterback.
Will it work? It’s too early to tell. But a big reason for Harbaugh’s struggles in Michigan – while he’s 49-22 in six seasons, but without a trip to the Big Ten Championship or spot in the College Football Playoff – was revealed again this week.
Now he must do everything in his power to change that narrative.
Read more about Michigan football:
Mike Macdonald: Michigan’s defense is going to be multiple, ‘people beware’
UM’s young recipients made progress in 2020 (and wet their feet)
Another NFL spot has two players in Michigan in the first round
Michigan linebacker Adam Shibley enters the transfer portal
Stiff points, characterized by drops, has a new leader, coach