Part Two: Matt Dudek Talks About Recruiting Rankings

Do recruiting rankings truly matter? Michigan director of recruiting Matt Dudek answers that question.

As part of a regular segment on The Michigan Insider podcast, Sam Webb interviews a different member of the Michigan football community to provide an additional look into the Wolverines sports landscape.

During the Wednesday conversation, Webb and Michigan director of recruiting Matt Dudek covered topics ranging from recent recruiting trends across the nation to specific strategies that are emerging from the Michigan coaching staff as it pertains to remaining effective through the dead period without the benefit of in-person visits. Dudek also shares his personal opinion on what role rankings play in the U-M staff’s recruiting activity.

Click here to read part one of this series.

Sam Webb: “That’s another really interesting thing, kids committing to schools before they have visited that school. That is happening everywhere in the country, Matt. So how about that, how do you as a director of recruiting, how do you guys as a staff kind of approach that topic? Is ha something that before this you guys ever really pursued? Even the thought of a kid committing before visiting seems kind of foreign, but it’s obviously more normal now.”

Matt Dudek: “Yeah, it’s part of the new normal now. I think that that’s the cliché word right now, the new normal, and I think that’s part of it. It’s not that he doesn’t want to come. It’s that he can’t come. I think looking at that, and I think our creative team— Dave Ablauf, Aaron Bills, Ryan Wise, Chad Sheppard, all these guys, the Michigan TV station— did I say that right? I totally blanked there. But it’s one of those things that we are doing a great job of virtually giving them these experiences. I guess it’s not too weird to hear. It’s 2020. You virtually experience everything. Everyone is virtually experiencing through their phones and through their computers and iPads and TVs, so it’s not surprising that recruiting has gone to that. Kids are watching videos and they’re seeing our tours and taking virtual campus tours and academic building tours, so you have that general feeling that you’ve touched it, but maybe when you get here it will seem bigger and you can really walk through the building. But they’ve seen that for the most part. I think our creative team has done an incredible job of presenting that virtual Michigan.”

Sam Webb: “Another thing that we’ve been watching, tracking so to speak, is as kids commit, is it the case that it’s kids committing to schools closer to home? Or is it the case that kids are committing to farther away places? Looking at our datebase, there is a piece on this. The analysis determined that 60% of the prospects that have made their decisions on or before that March 11 date, which was the date where sports generally shut down, over 60% of those, they chose schools within 300 miles of their hometown. But more than half of the recruits since the shutdown have selected colleges over 300 miles away. You might think with the shutdown, more kids might choose to stay closer to home, but with the shutdown more kids have chosen to go farther away. Was that something that you had noticed before? Was that something that you think it’s product of this shutdown and more people down what you’re doing with the virtual visits?”

Matt Dudek: “I think it’s a product of people not wanting to be around their families. No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. I think it’s one of those situations that, I haven’t read a whole lot into that. I think the general nature of things is people are doing a really good job of virtually touring and doing that. Again, a guy that was scheduled to come, I don’t know, May 15, it’s March 1 and May 15 they’re coming on a visit. I don’t know that we’re going to do a whole virtual campus tour and a whole virtual academic presentation and a full one all in March because I know he’s coming in May. So, I don’t think we would have done that. Maybe in that two month period while we waited for him to come, maybe he got a little more comfortable being at home or whatever the case may be. So, now you’re seeing again that people are pushing these virtual tours and I think that it’s certainly going to be a part of our recruiting moving forward. Whatever the new normal ends up, we are tapping the things we used to do in 2008, tapping into stuff like that, and these new normal. I think maybe the longer you see this dead period and pandemic go, you might see a trend of kids staying closer to home because they physically can’t get out and family pressures and thing like that. You may start seeing that, but as you said, there is really nothing right now to have you believe that it would be the case. We will just have to wait and see.”

Sam Webb: “What from this experience that you guys are having as recruiters in this pandemic, this shutdown process and how you guys have to operate, what are you guys going to take out of this moving forward? Like, hey, this is working really, really well. We are going to do this moving forward, even once this shutdown is lifted. Is there anything, any new sort of practices that you guys have adopted or you guys are doing more where you say we are going to do more of this moving forward?”

Matt Dudek: “Yeah, I think the FaceTime calls, the Zoom calls, again, you get caught up in the texting and you get caught up in the phone calls while you’re driving or whatever the case may be. I think the FaceTime and Zoom calls will be incorporated more with Michigan and with everyone. I think you are going to see that be the case. I think you are going to see, like I said, the virtual tours and building that excitement to see things. Maybe they will be abbreviated. Maybe it won’t be a 30 minute campus tour that they’re watching. Maybe it will be a four minute tour. And you see those videos already out there. We have already used those things, but more directed and more targeted. You will see building a little more of that, ‘hey, you’ll see that when you get here,’ as opposed to ‘yeah, we’re going to show you campus when you get here.’ I think seeing that a little but more, and really it’s to be determined. Things that are working right now might not work a week from now when a kid gets sick of them. Things that we haven’t thought of that are going to pop up and we are going to take those moving forward. It’s going to be very, very interesting to see what this thing turns into, but I am super proud to be part of this staff with Coach Harbaugh and the coaches because they have attacked it, and I really feel like that has put us in a really good position with the class we currently have committed and the guys we are recruiting moving forward.”

Sam Webb: “So Matt, going to ask you a question about ranking because I get them all the time. I want you to be honest understanding that I come from a company that does rankings. I don’t participate in rankings, but my company does, and I think our guys do collectively a really good job of coming together and being really, really diligent and thorough with their process. I want your honest opinion, your honest take on rankings, on whether or not you pay attention to them at all. Do they play any role whatsoever in your eval process? Just your general take on the ranking, whether you want to get into any particular ranking service or not, but just your take on the rankings.”

Matt Dudek: “Sure. I think I am well documented in saying we don’t look at stars. Stars don’t matter, so to speak. I’m well documented in that, so to speak, and I think that is misinterpreted a lot of the time. I’m not saying that a five-star player doesn’t matter or he’s not good or any of those things or every market has gotten that guy wrong. That’s not the case. What I would say is as we are doing the evaluations, we are evaluating the player based on what our needs are, what we want and what we see. We watch every guy in the country and stack those guys in how we like them. We don’t look at, oh, he’s a three-star, so let’s go get this four-star ahead of him. That’s just not something that is in the process and in the evaluation process. But the one thing that doesn’t get talked about often is these rankings change pretty dramatically throughout the course of their recruitment. So, we are taking a snapshot in May of what this kid is ranked, three-star this, that, whatever for whatever reason. I think it’s about the end ranking. I think it’s way more accurate when you see their end ranking. And ironically, I pulled this up and you didn’t even know this, but just in case, I was ready for ya. Joe Burrow, number one pick in the draft. He’s incredible. One of the best season ever. Heisman trophy winner. Can’t say a bad word about Joe Burrow. This day today back when he was a junior, he was ranked the 440 player in the country and he was a three-star. By the time he signed, he was the 222 player and he was a four-star. So, to say that, is Joe Burrow a bad player because he was the 440 player his junior year, May 13 of whatever year that was? No, he wasn’t a bad player. He was still a good player. It’s just his ranking wasn’t evaluated among all the other quarterbacks yet or his senior film wasn’t evaluated yet or his camps weren’t evaluated yet or the guys who ranked him didn’t see him throw live yet. Obviously, he was a great player this past year. He has developed into a great player. Obviously, he is a great player. Cesar Ruiz, I will just speak about one of our guys, the number one center taken in the draft. He was a four-star guy his entire rankings. He was the 251 player this time as a junior, and he finished as the 56 best player. Is he the 56 best player? Yeah, we love Cesar. Cesar is a great player. The New Orleans Saints thought so too, but it’s one of those deals where these rankings evolve. They change, so looking at a snapshot in May, even looking at a snapshot in the end, you don’t know what’s going to happen in that time period and what went into that full ranking. So, that’s why we don’t look at the evaluation. We don’t look at, oh, he’s a three-star. We can’t take him because maybe he ends up as a five-star. Maybe he ends up as a four-star for that perspective, but we aren’t looking and counting stars or evaluations or anything like that. But again, great players are great players regardless of whatever their star ranking is, and that’s what we are trying to do— get the greatest players to come here that fit Michigan to come here.”

Note: This is part two of a three-part series that takes a look into the day-to-day process of Michigan football recruiting through the eyes of Matt Dudek. What intrigues you the most about the current recruiting cycle? Let us know!