Bob Shoop’s history as a recruiter and how he will fare at Michigan

It was reported last week, but now the news is official — Jim Harbaugh has hired former Mississippi State and Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop as an assistant coach at the University of Michigan. He will coach the safeties.

After losing assistants Chris Partridge (Ole Miss) and Anthony Campanile (Miami Dolphins) this offseason, it was necessary to bring in coaches that had a history of good recruiting. Brian Jean-Mary, who was also officially announced Saturday, is a good recruiter and on-field coach.

Shoop has definitely proven himself as a coach, but one thing he hasn’t done much of during his time in college football is recruit. According to Steve Lorenz from The Michigan Insider, Shoop is the 428th ranked recruiter for the 2020 class, per 247Sports’ composite recruiter rankings. He was also ranked 117th in the SEC in 2019.

In Mississippi State’s 2018 class, he was the primary recruiter for three-star safety Aaron Brule and three-star athlete Nathaniel Watson. For its 2019 class, he was the secondary recruiter for three-star cornerback Collin Duncan and three-star safety J.P. Purvis. Shoop was also the secondary recruiter for three-star safety Theo Jackson, from Tennessee’s 2017 class.

The lone four-star he has reeled was in 2015 during his time at Penn State, when he helped land cornerback John Reid. And even then, he was only the secondary recruiter. The primary recruiter? None other than Josh Gattis.

Needless to say, Shoop isn’t known for his recruiting. But neither was U-M offensive line coach Ed Warinner — that is, until he got to Ann Arbor. Since Warinner’s arrival in 2018, he has brought in nine offensive linemen combined in the 2019 and 2020 classes (10 if you count unsigned 2020 commit Micah Mazzccua).

Warinner has recruited his tail off since his arrival at Michigan. I am not saying Shoop is going to turn around his recruiting game like Warinner has, but we’re going to have to give him a chance to do that. Maybe he will — who knows?

Replacing Partridge and Campanile on the recruiting trail was always going to be a tough task. The on-field results from Michigan’s current defensive backs, specifically the safeties, should be a lot better than in past years. But the off-field things, primarily recruiting, is going to likely take a bit of a hit. How much of a hit remains the biggest question.