It's a tradition as time honored as raising the flag on the Fourth of July, putting up a tree at Christmas, and setting fire to a couch in East Lansing for no apparent reason: Big Schools stealing recruits away from lower tier conference to fill their needs. Look no further than Michigan's recruiting class last year. When you've got holes to fill, steal talented but under rated recruits from small schools. Look at Indiana's entire recruiting class for example! (I keed, I keed. Don't fire bomb my house).
With Michigan missing out on two medium name but well regarded prospects at positions of need (OT and DT), it may well be time to start poaching recruits from other schools on signing day. Would you rather go to Michigan or Middle Tennessee State? No. Seriously. That's what I'm asking you. There are a large number of large men on the recruiting board who have not yet committed anywhere, or have verbally committed to middle of nowhere schools. If your choices are Toledo in the MAC, or Michigan in the Big Ten I really have to wonder who would choose the former. Facilities, TV exposure, stadium, etc.
So with that in mind, looking at the uncommitteds on the board, why not throw an offer at a big man like Quinton Pompey? 3 stars, 6'3, 275. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but Michigan needs some depth and you're going up against Eastern Kentucky and Marshall. Maybe take a flier on a guy like 6'2, 275 Reggie Patrick, who is listed as having Memphis and UAB as his two schools. Then there's 6'1" 280 Jonathan Battle who apparently has just three suitors, all of which are bottom tier BCS conference schools.
I'm not pretending I've got answers here. If you know why Michigan's not pursuing these kids, feel free to put it in the comments so long as it's not saying something mean. Michigan needs some help, and poaching an uncommitted or undercommitted kid, even as a role player isn't going to hurt.
Teams like Iowa, Michigan State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State have all built their programs around solid three star recruits that can contribute. Some of them have, gasp, even exceeded their projected utility! Just a thought.
Let the poaching commence.