Defensive tackle Richard Ash commits to Michigan

Now this is a good story and I expect to hear many more such stories. I hope Ash works out but you never know at least not by stars and numerical rankings. Only time will tell if RR and staff have the golden touch I expect so we'll see right boys and girls.

I've personally seen a bit on Rivals about this kid and he's pretty balanced. He's an DE in my book but after a year of lifting, the skies the limit.

Pretty good pick-up RR!

This is good news, their fifth four-star recruit. But what's upsetting is we're getting hammered on offensive linemen. You'd think, with Jake Long so recently going number one in the entire draft, we'd have some natural inroads there.

But the top linemen have no interest in RichRod's gimmick offense. This class is shaping up to be a total zero on the offensive line, and that could be disastrous.

well i think part of the idea of a gimmicky offense is it allows you to forgo some areas to recruit other areas. a spread doesn't need top o-line prospects to succeed. everything is shotgun anyway. if your for rich rod's offense your going to have to live with um not producing the nfl players it used to. there won't be any o-linemen, qbs, or wrs going in the draft the first day as long as rich rod is there. doesn't mean you can't win though. um's offense was fairly successful this year i'd say for having a true freshmen qb and 2nd year in. defense needs help.

O-Line isn't in that bad of shape considering Rodriguez signed 4 OL commits in 2008, 3 in 2009, and one lined up to sign for 2010 class. Hopefully the lack of recruiting O-line in 2010 is just the coaches silently saying that the players who haven't played yet are all showing great potential . . .
However, Rich Rod will have to mine some O-line talent in the 2011 class for sure. I'd hope for at least 4 or 5 O-line recruits. I'd also hope that they continue to heavily recruit on the defensive side to help out with the depth issue the past couple of seasons.

that leaves us with what 5 more open slots? The key with any of these recruits is going to be development. Hopefully we are recruiting guys with high football i.qs and strong work ethics. I'm more skeptical on the Barwis effect (as so far it's proven nothing positive on the field) than I am on Rich's ability.

The kids from Pahokee are can't miss. Good Job RR.

Some real good comments here. As we can all see RR's scheme of things is evolving and what I like about today's comments are that there is some interesting analysis and projective views rather than just hopeless, degrading, misguided, mindless comments not that those analogies are always pointless it's just that often they serve no point in that hey boys and girls we all might not be on that field on game day or coaching but our hearts and minds are with this team and come hell or high water they, maize and blue belong to each and everyone of us. I've bled Wolverine since the 50's and I've been well entertained over the years we didn't always get the W but hell for sure I was on the edge of my seat win or lose and I'm not going to let this speed bump deter my loyalty. As we can see we're evolving and I think for the good of the team although it's shaky at times. If we had had any kind of defense last year who knows what might have been?? I have a good feeling about the direction RR is taking this team and I'm sure RR is working hard to get us there and RR knows the importance of defense don't you think?

RichRod isn't done on the offensive line. There's still a chance U-M gets offensive guard Torrian Wilson out of Florida. All reports early on were he was very, very high on Michigan, especially after his visit, but then out of the blue he committed to Stanford. But a few weeks ago Rivals reported that Wilson was still looking at Michigan and Tennessee. He is a four-star on Rivals and ranked the #2 offensive guard prospect, and he plans on visiting Michigan on January 22, according to Rivals. Time to get out the snake oil!

I agree that this class is weak on the O-line. Given that you want to have 10 good solid players most of the time (to have 2-deep at each position), plus 4-5 red-shirt guys, each year's recruiting class should AVERAGE around 4 guys. If you have career ending injuries or transfers, that may bump it up a bit. So, signing only 2 OL guys this year is probably too low. The running backs we got seemed a little average - no one jumps out at you as being a guy who can help out right away. But, picking up Ash is a big step. Hopefully, he will hit the strength program here and add 30 lbs. or so over the next few years. Otherwise, he'll need to play more on the outside depending on his speed. Hopefully, we'll be able to pick up a few really good players by February.

Were allrdy in the top 15 befor Ash and the suckeyes not even in the top 25 yet..we allrdy have a slew of young linemen so there being picky on who they pick up.RR knows D was brutial last year so hes making a good push aslong as u have a top 20 recruit class every year ur going to have good talent and RR and his boys can recruit even the trolls cant cry to much for how RR has recruited latley Ash Cullen finding Carvin who know is a 3 star befor he wasent even ranked by rivals..it sucks that brandon smith is leaving you have that..but i think we can all agree RR is for the most part gettin it done on the recruiting trail..GJ boys keep up the good work..

Sparky79, I'm with you. I'd feel better about this class on the OL if we could get Wilson. As you said, time to order another case of snake oil.

A comment was removed because of a personal comment directed at another commenter.

Offensive line is NOT the major focus of this years recruiting class! We have received several good offensive lineman the last couple of years and are still very young there. We have a few redshirt offensive lineman who will be making their presence know this coming year as well. "D" is the big need this year. Next year, I am sure they will get a few more offensive lineman.

fresh...where do u get your info? the buckeyes are in the top 25 in every review. scout has them at 22 Rivals has them at 24, but they grade out higher than UM just 8 fewer recruits, but are still in the thick of things for Jordan Hicks, Seantrel Henderson, and 2 more top prospects on the Oline.
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/classrankings?classyear=2010&classmonth=12&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncf%2frecruiting%2fclassrankings%3fclassyear%3d2010%26classmonth%3d12

fresh if you look at that link it takes you to espn and they have the buckeyes ranked 12th. They are basing it on quality and not quantity. Ohio State is having a max class of 20 this year. But if you look at who they redshirted this year it is more impressive than recruiting. We don't have the luxury here of redshirting 2 top 5 lbs, top 5 rb, or 2 top 10 olinemen like they did.

Great to see this draft focusing on defense for the remaining spots. The OL is stocked quite well from thte last two classes, and the WR, slot, RB, TE/FB/H-back, and QB positions are fine, too. RR is doing an excellent job of shoring up the defense, especially the DB's (Witty and Turner will help, too) and DL's. If GERG stays, they will actually have the same DC for two years in a row; that will help immensely.
The only position I see as being a little thin is LB, but that can change very quickly considering the amount of athleticism RR is stockpiling. All they need is a little bit of age and experience, and they will be great on both sides of the ball.
The future is looking extremely bright at UM.