Sherrone Moore on Michigan football recruiting strategy

Michigan football isn’t exactly bereft of talent, but it certainly isn’t in the same stratosphere as some other programs.

When you look at Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, LSU and others, they have as many five-stars on their rosters as schools like Michigan have four-stars. Yet, it was the Wolverines who hoisted the national championship trophy last season, while the others sat at home and watched the game on TV.

Part of that is superior talent identification. A three-star in high school may end up playing like a five-star in college. And vice versa. But for new head coach Sherrone Moore, there are other factors at play beyond talent identification.

The other key aspect, as he told Jake Butt on The Champions Circle’s podcast “The L.A.B.” presented by Wolverine, is that everyone is pulling in the same direction. Instead of multiple egos working against each other in pursuit of their own greatness, this Michigan football team has been built to work together. And Moore intends, whether it’s five-stars or three-stars, to find players who fit that mold.

“You look at the type of guys we just won the national title with, we didn’t have a whole bunch of five-stars — we had some,” Moore said. “We want to have elite talent, don’t get me wrong. I think there’s enough of it out there that you can find that also fits the culture.

“I got the chance to talk to one of the greatest in any sport, Derek Jeter, the other day. And he talked about alignment, he talked about his whole unit he had when he was playing with the Yankees. And it was really about the mentality that they all had. They said they didn’t have first- and second-round draft picks coming in, they’d said, ‘Well, you’re not going to fit here, you’ve gotta leave.’

“It’s all about the culture, the fit, the alignment of the university, the organization. Even businesses — you talk to business people and it’s all about alignment and how that does. It starts at the top. It…