As I said -- I'm not the normal UM fan. I'm a realist and understand the landscape of CFB. The days of teams taking rosters fill with unranked or two/three star recruits and winning a title is long over. If you aren't getting the elite recruits (the 5 star, the top 100, the top 150 type recruits in bunches every cycle) you are only falling further and further behind.
With the high school level now filled with advanced coaching, high level national camps, 7 on 7's, strength and conditioning programs, etc. -- You may find one or two guys who make a big jump in college, but that isn't the norm. Michigan fans are blinded by our recruiting classes that say top 10, but when you look at the breakdown of the difference between a top 10 class and a top 5 class it is ENORMOUS. Two years ago -- UM had the #9 class, OSU had a top 5 class, cant remember if it was 3, 4 or 5. Our #1 recruit in our class was AJ Henning. He would have been the 10th or 11th best recruit in OSU's class. Yet, we were only 4 or 5 spots in the rankings from them.
Our ONLY shot to recruit like the truly elite programs right now is NIL deals -- having our boosters with more money than they know what to do with, to start throwing money at recruits. If that doesn't happen -- UM will continue to be what they are. A 2nd or 3rd place team in our own division.