HAIL-YEA

March 28th, 2022 at 9:48 PM ^

Call me a pessimist but this reeks of a guy who had a connection throw some money around to try and make a name for himself as an NIL agent.

Joined: 07/15/2009

MGoPoints: 10809

KRK

March 29th, 2022 at 11:04 AM ^

I could be wrong on the process but I think the owner could basically pay Will whatever he wants from the business and it counts as "marketing" for the business's expenses.  The owner could take his own money, put it into the company as "owner's equity" and get Will the money that way.  I'd heard what A&M was doing was essentially the same minus restaurant. They had boosters set up LLC's and put money into it as a business then pay the recruits that money.  

A lot of people who own restaurants, car dealerships, construction companies, etc. have a ton of cash and can use it to pay the recruits.  This is how the Michigan Money Cannon should work.  The bigger national deals, like Chobani or some other big companies are more about the athlete actually having a viable name, image, or likeness that is good for them to partner with from a business sense.  When you see a deal with a local business it's more of a booster getting a kid money and it has nothing to do with helping the business so much as the program.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 5691

Don

March 29th, 2022 at 9:09 AM ^

I don't think this warrants a separate post so I’ll threadjack with Sam Webb’s update on Josh Conerly in the wake of his official to USC: Sam’s going to put in a crystal ball for USC. Brandon Huffman has already done so. Not surprising as it was clear from Webb’s recent updates that things were trending in USC's direction.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148505

Don

March 29th, 2022 at 11:07 AM ^

If you were one of the ones "getting excited," that's on you.

At no point during Conerly's recruitment did Webb ever give an outright prediction that Michigan was going to land Conerly. Last September he put in a medium-strength crystal ball for Michigan, but that was in the immediate wake of Conerly's official to Michigan for the Washington game, which was also when Courtney Morgan was on staff. A medium-confidence crystal ball issued seven months before the signing date is only a snapshot in time, and even at that point Webb was always careful to stress that Conerly's recruitment was far from over and was going to go down to the wire. He consistently noted that Conerly was going to take other official visits to USC and Oregon, and that was even before Lincoln Riley left OK for USC.

The fact that Webb did not issue any subsequent crystal balls in Michigan's favor since September 2021 should have been an obvious sign to anybody paying attention that he was far from convinced that Michigan was going to land Conerly. He would say Michigan was doing a great job recruiting him, and up until very late in the process he consistently said we had a very good chance, which was an entirely reasonable assessment.

For some reason, when Webb says Michigan has a good chance to land somebody, more than a few people appear to believe he's saying Michigan is a lock. 

Webb has been clear in his updates since Riley took over the Trojans that he believed USC was a growing threat, and anybody who's been listening to Webb as long as I have would understand that the trend was not in our favor.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148505

KRK

March 29th, 2022 at 4:02 PM ^

Sam is one of the few recruiting guys who doesn't seem to try to get clicks by overstepping his optimism but any time a recruit doesn't come to Michigan people act like it's his fault for misleading them.  An 18 year old was very publicly interested in Michigan.  He decided to go somewhere else.  So it must be Sam who lied to us about all of it.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 5691