The University of Hawaii is getting some competition for that race to plant its flag in Australia. Michigan is also expanding its reach to Down Under, as well as American Samoa … not to mention, the Wolverines are going to hit the Rainbow Warriors literally where they live.
The NCAA saying OK to satellite camps has ramped up the recruiting wars. Everywhere, including Hawaii. And nobody knows if and when Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh will run out of gas and ambition.
Any linebackers in China?
Despite the protestations of the SEC, the NCAA last month reversed its ban on camps at venues where a college team does not usually practice or play. These instructional camps for youth players are also huge recruiting tools, and the powerful SEC didn’t like the idea of Harbaugh invading its turf. (The short-lived ban also included coaches working at camps outside of their own region.)
To say Michigan has grabbed the ball and run with it is an understatement. At last count, the Wolverines will have at least a presence at 30 camps around the country, plus seven at Michigan.
Actually, make that around the world. Michigan will host a camp near Melbourne on June 3.
Maybe it’s a coincidence that Hawaii opens this season with a game against Cal in Sydney … and the following game is at Michigan.
The camp in Australia was made official Tuesday night. On Wednesday, several reports surfaced that Michigan also will hold them in American Samoa and Hawaii (word on the street is at Saint Louis School … “Hey, Tua,” we can hear Harbaugh’s pitch now. “You know where Tom Brady went to college? It wasn’t ’Bama.”).
UH athletic director David Matlin is a smart guy who will wisely refrain from providing too much aloha for his fellow Michigan men while they’re in town. They’ll already have a tour guide, anyway: Tony Tuioti recently joined the Wolverines staff as director of football operations.
The former UH defensive tackle, assistant coach and ops director and Warriors head coach Nick Rolovich worked together on Greg McMackin’s staff, and Tuioti was the only assistant retained by Norm Chow after McMackin’s 2011 departure. When Tuioti was let go after the 2013 campaign he resurfaced with the Cleveland Browns as a defensive quality control assistant for the next two seasons.
Part of Tuioti’s job is logistics for camps. So his fingerprints are all over the expansion of the Wolverines’ footprint across the Pacific.
More camps mean more opportunities for island prospects to be seen in person by more coaches from more schools.
But, as it also does for the SEC schools, it decreases UH’s chances of keeping a prize recruit or hidden gem home. The former always has been a challenge here, even in the days when the players had to travel by ship to go away for college.
Expect others to follow Harbaugh’s lead with their own camps throughout the Pacific. And talents like Melila Purcell (American Samoa), Scott Harding (Australia) and Chad Owens (Hawaii), just to name some recent examples, will become even more unlikely to fall through the cracks and into UH uniforms.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads Opens in a new tab.
