Recruiting: Harbaugh saw chance to mold small U-M class

When Jim Harbaugh was introduced as the Michigan coach Dec. 30, there were only six committed recruits remaining in the 2015 class.

Though that was a major concern, it might have helped Harbaugh.

"I think he sees that as a positive, an opportunity," Rivals.com Midwest recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt said. "You have needs that need to be addressed when you have a coaching change. You have holes on the roster … The more guys that he can get in this class that are Harbaugh-picked guys is going to be positive."

Harbaugh has spent the contact period since Jan. 15 all over the country, occasionally in multiple states, not to mention multiple schools, in the same day. The class could now reach 16 prospects by Wednesday's National Signing Day.

Harbaugh's desire was apparent last week when he was in four states seeing prospects in a four-day span crossing the country. He visited elite 2016 quarterbacks in southern California (Monday) and Washington state (Tuesday night), followed by a recruit meeting Wednesday afternoon in Michigan and culminating in a home visit Wednesday night in Connecticut.

And, though U-M only expects to have 10 spots or so, the coaches needed to cast a wide net to make sure they could fill most of them.

Because Harbaugh could not go on the road for more than two weeks after his hiring, U-M formulated a plan for which players they would target.

Some of them, such as UCLA commit and five-star defensive end Keisean Lucier-South plus former commits Mike Weber and Chris Clark, already were on U-M's list.

But many of the new offers were not previous Michigan targets, with Harbaugh and his staff getting into areas such as south Florida, where U-M had not focused as much before.

That is what this final frenzy is about, getting in front of many players who had no previous consideration.

While there were four-star prospects who remained in the class, including quarterback Alex Malzone (Birminghan Brother Rice) and receiver Brian Cole (Saginaw Heritage) who are already enrolled, the class' focus has shifted onto the new names.

That is why the flurry of Harbaugh's first three commits from last weekend, mostly notably the nation's No. 4 pro-style quarterback Zach Gentry (Albuquerque, N.M., Eldorado), was so intriguing, getting the class to nine commitments.

Harbaugh has attacked one of the many misleading rumors about him from those who thought he wouldn't take the U-M job: That he wasn't interested in recruiting.

"When the guy was at Stanford, he loved recruiting," said Scout.com national analyst Brandon Huffman. "He loved the challenge in recruiting. It's almost like, because the class was so small, he almost got a full year's worth of recruiting in three-four weeks. He's potentially starting from scratch. But he also didn't have to tell a lot of (committed kids), you have to go elsewhere.

"He was like, I have a wide-open recruiting board and I have to fill those spots. He can almost treat this like March, right after a class signs and there's 50 guys on the board. I think he likes that challenge."

The Michigan class is so difficult to evaluate at this point because there's so much room for movement in the final days, either with some of the top prospects going down to the wire or lower-level targets who could shift if they get a U-M offer in the final days.

Normally, there are only a few prospects in the class who will wait until signing day for the announcement.

But the Wolverines have at least two elite prospects — Long Beach (Calif.) five-star cornerback Iman Marshall and four-star Clark — who plan to announce Wednesday. And more, including Gainesville (Ga.) four-star cornerback Chris Williamson, are planning to announce sometime next week, as well.

"They've done a good job getting themselves in on prospects that maybe people didn't think were gettable," Helmholdt said. "They done well on that and missed on other guys, like Reagan Williams, the Stanford commit. That would have been a tough one to turn, but still. They're not setting the recruiting world on fire, but they're still in the ballgame to finish out with a solid class."

Helmholdt added that getting to 15 or 16 is important for U-M — if only to have a number of players who were "Harbaugh handpicked to fill the needs that are going to arise anytime you go through a coaching change."

Contact Mark Snyder: msnyder@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @mark__snyder.