As if they need more ammo, critics of Jim Harbaugh took to social media this week amid news that another quarterback he recruited to Michigan was transferring.
Joe Milton, who plans to graduate from the school this spring, announced plans Thursday to enter his name into the NCAA’s transfer portal and play elsewhere next year.
He’s hardly the first starting quarterback to leave —the portal and practice of transferring is becoming commonplace in the sport nowadays — but the latest in a string of quarterbacks to depart Michigan under Harbaugh, whose track record of developing players at the position is mixed at best in his first six seasons in Ann Arbor.
He’s had some success with transfers (more on that in a moment), but missed on many of his high-profile quarterback recruits out of high school. And it starts from the very beginning.
Harbaugh’s first recruited quarterback out of high school, Zach Gentry, a four-star prospect in the 2015 class from Albuquerque, New Mexico, never played a game at the position. He was converted to tight end soon after arriving at Michigan after Harbaugh sensed the big-bodied Gentry would have a difficult time breaking through in a packed and competitive quarterback room.
More: Michigan’s QB race takes new twist: Joe Milton to transfer
It worked out for Gentry, who twice earned all-Big Ten honors at tight end and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. But that hasn’t been the case with each of Harbaugh’s subsequent recruits.
With a full year to recruit the 2016 class, Harbaugh landed another high-profile quarterback at the time — four-star prospect Brandon Peters from Avon, Ind., whose strong arm and athleticism made him one of the top quarterbacks in the class. But four starts and three years later, Peters (680 passing yards on 55% completion, 4 TDs, 3 INTs) found himself buried on the depth chart and transferred to Illinois, where he won the starting job and found success.
Meanwhile, the results with Harbaugh’s 2017 and 2018 quarterback recruits, both four-star prospects out of high school, have been similar. Dylan McCaffrey opted out of the 2020 season and elected to transfer after four years and 13 appearances. And now Milton, who began the 2020 season as Michigan’s starter only to lose the job five gams in. Milton’s regression as the season went on was stunning, and the latest indictment on Harbaugh’s spotty track record of identifying and developing quarterbacks.
Harbaugh has had much better success in the transfer market, plucking quarterbacks with years under their belt at the college level and inserting them in at Michigan. Jake Rudock, a graduate transfer from Iowa, earned all-Big Ten honorable mention for his 2015 season with the Wolverines in which he threw for 3,017 yards and 20 touchdowns while leading the team to a 10-3 season.
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Then there’s Shea Patterson, the transfer from the University of Mississippi who started two seasons at Michigan and threw for more than 5,600 yards and 45 touchdowns. Still, Patterson’s prolific passing numbers weren’t enough to get Michigan over the hump — Harbaugh’s teams posted a 10-3 record in 2018 and 9-4 record in 2019.
Harbaugh also relied on another transfer, John O’Korn from Houston, to help plug the gap at quarterback in 2016 and 2017. But Wilton Speight won the starting job both seasons, edging O’Korn, who would only start six games in his two seasons of eligibility. By the time the 2017 season was over, O’Korn’s eligibility clock had expired and Speight, rehabbing from a broken bone in his spine, elected to transfer to UCLA.
Which brings us back to Milton, the third straight high school quarterback recruited to Michigan under Harbaugh to transfer. It was not going to be a slam dunk this offseason for Milton, who was going to have to beat out Harbaugh’s 2019 quarterback, Cade McNamara, and recently enrolled J.J. McCarthy, whose five-star status makes him the highest-rated quarterback recruit under Harbaugh. But as Milton makes a decision for himself (and I don’t think anyone blames him for that), the move once again magnifies Harbaugh’s inability to recruit, foster and develop high school quarterbacks at the college level.
Could McNamara or McCarthy eventually be the quarterback that helps get Michigan over the top? Sure. All it takes is one player, a capable coaching staff and the right pieces around him to do it. Harbaugh seems intent on making it happen — he made wholesale changes to his coaching staff this winter, including the decision to take the reins as quarterbacks coach.
Will it work? It’s too early to tell. But a big reason for Harbaugh’s struggles at Michigan — while he’s 49-22 in six seasons, but without a trip to the Big Ten championship or berth in the College Football Playoff — was once again brought to light this week.
Now he must do everything he can to change that narrative.
Read more on Michigan football:
Mike Macdonald: Michigan defense ‘going to be multiple, get after people’
U-M’s young receivers made progress (and got their feet wet) in 2020
Another NFL mock draft has two Michigan players in the first round
