Stay Classy Harbaugh

"The next interaction between Penn State football coach James Franklin and Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh could be a bit awkward.

Because for all the recruiting momentum at U-M recently, much of it has been at Penn State's expense."

Harbaugh has not only told a commit, Erik Swenson, he has receded his offer 2 weeks before signing day leaving a kid to possibly not commit to the best school for him but now he is also going after Penn State commits, 3 have been mentioned in the article above. Now he has even told a commit, as signing day approaches, that he is a Plan B option, causing the recruit to rethink his decision and decommit from the school.

Plan B

"The 3-star, 255 lb defensive end from Cooper City, Florida went on Twitter and explained his reasoning. “After being committed for about 7 months. And receiving little to no contact from staff. I was informed by coach Harbaugh that there is a 50/50 chance that he would or would not have room for me NSD. So I was basically a plan B. And I know within myself I am not a plan B player,” Weaver said on his Twitter account."

Now I understand not being a fan of commits from a previous coaching team but to be telling recruits these things just a few weeks before signing day is beyond pitiful and sad, this is the Big Ten, not the SEC.

And I can only imagine the uproar from Michigan fans if this were happening the other way around.

Also, Michigan only has one commit from Michigan and 0 from Ohio currently.

Based on what he has done to Swenson, Harbaugh is going to have a tough time recruiting in Illinois in the future which may not bother him but Michigan has recruiting Illinois hard in the past and Michigan State is working Illinois hard now.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Michigan has always focused on recruiting Michigan, Ohio and Illinois? I know they've always come after players from Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania even before either Rutgers or Penn State were members of the Big Ten, but those were something of secondary sources. Does this signal the beginning of a recruiting strategy change for Harbaugh towards a more national recruiting profile? I know Harbaugh and Meyer have both always recruited NJ's top 15 hard at virtually every stop they've made.