I admittedly have not followed much, but is Harbaugh on the trail himself? He's a good recruiter and should be doing that as much as possible. Or is he just the closer now?
he's on the trail, just not as much as the assistants. he is definitely "the closer". The guy they send on the in-home visits to seal the deal.
Most of the leg work is done by the assistants though. Chris Partridge and Wheatley were like their rockstar recruiters, they both landed a lot of highly rated kids and recruits just love them. Mattison and Fisch were really good recruiters as well, not quite at the level of the other two, but both very good. It was kind of a perfect recruiting set up with those 4 guys. They did most of the leg-work and Jim and Don Brown would do the closing. And Partridge and Wheatley- that was just an awesome combo. The work Wheatley did to re-gain foothold in the state of Michigan- just completely went out the window soon as he left. 2019 in-state looks pretty bad for Michigan, and it's going to be a pretty good class of in-state talent. Have a feeling it'd have been a hell of a lot different if Wheatley was still there.
Drevno has long been known as the weakest recruiter on that staff. Until they hired Pep Hamilton that is. Hamilton haaaaaates recruiting. One of the top 247Sports national recruiting analysts Steve Witflong (who is a ND fan, but very plugged into recruiting around the country) basically called out Drevno and Hamilton, said they are two of the weaker recruiters in the entire country and they aren't earning their salaries. And the dude has got a point. Drevno is making over $1 million per year and so is Pep Hamilton. The fact that Jim feels the need to pay those guys that kind of money, absolute insanity to me.
I've got no problem paying coaches that sort of money, if they are worth it. Those guys are nowhere worth it. Let them hit the open market. They'd never in a million years get jobs paying them that kind of dough. Only reason they are making that kind of scratch is....they are favorites of Jim Harbaugh. All that meritocracy talk is just that. Talk. If he's supposedly only going to hire the best coaches then why on earth would he hire those two and pay them that kind of loot? Or hire his son for that matter. If he's only going to play the best players, then why on earth did he stick with J'Oke for so long before pulling the plug and inserting Peters? Or why did he only give Karran Higdon, who is clearly his best pure runner- the bulk of the carries only after Ty Isaac went down with an injury? Don't get me wrong, I love the guy and think he's one of the top 3 or 4 coaches in the sport and he's the best Michigan can get, but he is definitely full of a lot hot air.