The Jim Harbaugh era at Michigan continued its fast start on National Signing Day earlier this month, when the Wolverines signed the fifth-best group of high school recruits in the nation, according to 247Sports. But Michigan also made another signing they will pay off down the road.
Harbaugh brought Prattville High School assistant coach Antonio “Bam” Richards on board as an “offensive analyst.” It’s not often that a high school assistant coach can make the jump to a college position—that’s even an improbable jump for a high school head coach. But Richards won’t actually be a coach.
Videos by VICE
Instead, he largely will be performing administrative duties and won’t be allowed to work with players on the field or recruit prospects, per NCAA rules. This is a completely legitimate job—at least, as legitimate as an “offensive analyst” can be in a self-styled amateur sports system that claims it doesn’t have enough money to pay players.
But ultimately, this is a recruiting move.
Prattville High is an Alabama powerhouse that already has helped Harbaugh. In two years, he has successfully recruited three players from Prattville, and doing well there opens the gate to other players from the area. Because of his relationship with Prattville’s coaches, Harbaugh was able to hold a satellite camp at the school last summer to extend his recruiting reach.
What do you do when the NCAA won’t let you pay players to come to your school? You essentially pay their parents and high school coaches instead, especially if they can help your program in other ways. It’s a strategy as old as college sports—Memphis basketball recently hired a high school coach who just happens to be the father of three top recruits—and given Harbaugh’s relentless desire to win football games, it’s hardly surprising that he’s taken this (perfectly legal!) tactic to the next level.
Jim Harbaugh’s celebrity golf tournament caddies aren’t related to his high school recruiting targets-not yet, at least. -Photo by Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
To wit: Michigan has reportedly offered the father of one 2016 recruit, Devin Bush Jr., a spot on staff. Bush Sr. coached three 2016 Michigan signees at Flanagan High School in Florida, and he’s the coach of 2017 Wolverines recruiting target Stanford Samuels.
Harbaugh also has hired Chris Partridge, the high school coach of No. 1 overall 2016 recruit Rashan Gary at Paramus Catholic in New Jersey, to be Michigan’s director of player personnel. Theoretically, Partridge figured to boost the Wolverines’ presence in New Jersey. He also figured to help land Gary, who ultimately committed to Michigan. In this case, the hire worked out in more ways than one—Partridge was promoted to linebackers/special teams coach.
One of Harbaugh’s hires looks a bit stranger: last year, Michigan landed graduate transfer Wayne Lyons from Stanford, and also brought in Lyons’ mom. She makes $106,000 per year as director of player development (yes, another position that exists at many programs). The position is, as she puts it, Team Mom:
Rival universities and fans might cry foul, but there’s no evidence that Harbaugh’s hires have been illegitimate. By any measure, Partridge was an outstanding pickup, as he was named Scout.com’s recruiter of the year. Besides, someone needs to fill all the random administrative positions colleges create—like team mom—in order to pretend they don’t have the money to pay athletes.
At the same time, the moves carry a whiff of the inefficient spending that is rampant in big-time college sports: jet-hangar weight rooms, Taj Mahal study halls, bloated staffs, and all the other shiny baubles schools buy in order to attract recruits, all because NCAA rules won’t let players receive money directly. Why should Michigan pay an “offensive analyst” to attract top prospects, when it could just pay those prospects the money they’d be worth in a free market?
When the system requires endless—and, to Harbaugh’s credit, endlessly creative—workarounds in order to get things done, perhaps those workarounds aren’t the real problem.
