I am writing this as a lifelong Michigan fan/supporter. I live and die with the football, basketball and hockey teams every year no matter who is coaching or what our record is. After watching DaShawn Hand provide another gut-punch to the U-M fanbase this week, I have been thinking about what the real issue is. Jason Whitlock wrote a very critical piece last week after the MSU game questioning Michigan's toughness and also brought up a point about how Brady Hoke had "fallen in love with the 5* ratings for recruits instead of recruiting the "character" Michigan guys. I was just watching a piece on the MSU defense on Gameday and they focused on the top 4 players on that unit: Max Bullough, Darqueze Dennard, Shilique Calhoun and Denicos Allen. Looked up their HS recruiting profiles online and Bullough was the only 4* rated player in the group. The other 3 were 3* players and I noticed that none of them were even showed any interest by the Michigan staff. This was obviously in the 2009-2010 timeframe so I will excuse the current staff from that but the question begs to be asked, are we substituting toughness and character for the 4* and 5* players? Not saying that the 4 and 5 star players don't have it but MSU clearly seems to recruit players with the chip on thei shoulders and it shows in how they play. That being said, I'm a HUGE Hoke/Mattison fan and think that they will turn this thing around but I'm curious what others out there are thinking along these lines. GO BLUE!!!!