Take Two: Do Wolverines need a good season to keep early momentum?

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

MORE TAKE TWO: Can Ole Miss keep up its hot start in recruiting?

Michigan finished a disappointing No. 24 in the Rivals.com Team Recruiting Rankings last cycle. The Wolverines had no five-star signees and only seven four-stars in the class. The group was not all that memorable.

But coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff - even after another average season - are off to a fantastic recruiting start this cycle as Michigan is ranked fourth nationally behind only Miami, Ole Miss and Georgia, which means the Wolverines currently have the top-ranked class in the Big Ten.

With seven commitments, Michigan has a five-star in Norcross (Ga.) Greater Atlanta Christian’s Christopher Hinton, and the staff has dipped into Kentucky, Ohio and Nevada for four-star prospects in Stephen Herron, Nolan Rumler and Cade McNamara, respectively.

There seems to be a more focused and aggressive approach to Michigan’s recruiting strategy and its paying off.

Does Michigan need a run at the Big Ten championship to keep loading up with top-end talent or can the Wolverines keep recruiting really well even if things don’t immediately turn around in Harbaugh’s fourth season? And why has Michigan found such early success after an average 2018 class?

“We’re a long way from National Signing Day for the 2019 class but Michigan is off to a hotter start than some might expect after the average season on the field in 2017 and a less-than-stellar recruiting cycle with the 2018 group. There are a few reasons why U-M is doing so well already in 2019.

“First, Jim Harbaugh is still Jim Harbaugh. Kids are still intrigued by him and even though last year wasn’t Harbaugh’s best, he’s still won 28 games in three years. He hasn’t forgotten how to coach and kids know that.

“Sometimes things just work out on the recruiting trail. Michigan was able to pick up commitments from five-star Chris Hinton and four-star Stephen Herron almost a year ago because a lot of things just added up. Hinton has Midwest ties and Herron is in somewhat of a recruiting neutral zone in Kentucky. Both kids are extremely academically focused and Michigan can legitimately sell that better than most schools. It was just a good match all the way around. In four-star Nolan Rumler’s case, he grew up a die-hard Michigan fan with tons of family roots there. All of those things gave U-M the opportunity to grab three highly-rated kids early.

“Lastly, there’s been some turnover on Michigan’s recruiting staff over the last year and the guys that are in there now barely got to work on the 2018 group. On the flip side, they’ve been grinding hard in order to bond with the kids in the 2019 group and it’s clearly paying off.

“Michigan was extremely young in 2017 and returns just about everyone this year. That will give Harbaugh a chance to succeed on the field in 2018 and could really keep the momentum rolling in an already solid 2019 class.”

“They could put together a really good class but it depends on how they do in the Southeast. Hinton should stay. His dad has ties to the Big Ten and seems to want him there. He’ll get a lot of push from the Southeast teams especially with his brother (2020 five-star OL Myles Hinton) and they don’t want to lose both.

“Last year, nothing seemed to go right. The Southeast is going to be key for them. They already have a few guys from that area, from Georgia especially, so that’s a good start and it will help momentum recruiting Georgia and into Florida this year. I expect them to finish much higher this year.”