Signing Days at Brady Hoke's Michigan were awesome; 62 percent of the signees in Hoke's three complete classes were rated four- or five-stars as recruits. Only six teams in the entire country have been better. The other teams in the Big Ten combined to bring in only 11 percent blue chips in that time.

On the field, however, plenty of teams were better than Hoke's Wolverines. Michigan went an embarrassing 31-20 under Hoke, and after a lucky 11 wins in 2011, the win total dropped to eight, then seven, then five -- so Hoke is now out. In fact, Michigan went just 12-15 in its last 27 games. And the record in the Big Ten, the worst major conference, was a paltry 18-14.

It would have made sense to give Hoke more time, had the program been trending in the right direction. But Hoke's Wolverines were trending downward, and it was not because of recruiting. Talent was coming in at a rate higher than almost any Big Ten school, but was failing to be developed with shocking regularity. The further Hoke's program got away from the Rich Rodriguez years, the worse his teams became.

Regardless of coach, Michigan is likely primed for a nice 2015, as only 10 percent of the scholarship players in 2014 were seniors. Hoke lost the chance to win with that, because he and his staff demonstrated that they did not deserve the chance to squander another roster.

In fact, this is almost exactly what Michigan's Athletic Director said Tuesday.

"So, you might ask how do you reconcile the tension between results and values? Well, one could also make the argument that we have a very young team and we’re about to pivot next year into being an extraordinary team. It has to do with making sure then that Brady has received adequate time to exhibit that arc of improvement that would come from his effort and I believe that Brady had enough time to produce results and they're just not there today, therefore I believe it's time to make this transition." -- Jim Hackett

Not all of the losses were Hoke's fault. Eventually, though, recruits and their parents tire of excuses. Michigan's recruiting depends on it being able to pull kids nationally, as the state and region are not loaded. And every inexplicable loss puts a little more doubt in the minds of high schoolers and another arrow in the quivers of Ohio State's Urban Meyer and Penn State's James Franklin.

In June, I wrote:

Michigan has out-recruited every team on its schedule, save Ohio State and Notre Dame, by a huge margin. And it has a weak non-conference schedule in 2014. If it slips up again and turns in another season without double-digit wins, I would expect a drop-off in recruiting.

And recruits did tune Hoke out, especially national recruits. The Wolverines, after a couple of decommitments this week in the wake of Hoke's firing, have only six commitments seven weeks before National Signing Day (February 4). Six! Tellingly, all six are from Big Ten country. They're headlined by Brian Cole, an electric athlete out of Saginaw Heritage High School.

This Michigan class is not going to be very good. It will grow, but as the quantity increases, the proportional quality will decrease, because Michigan is not in on enough elite players to close this class with fury. Luckily for the Wolverines, they don't need to take a huge group anyway because they graduate only eight seniors.

This may sound obvious, but Michigan's next coach needs to win immediately, both for the fans and supporters of the program. But also for recruiting.

Consider this: recruits in the next class were born in 1998. That means they entered first grade around 2004. That was the last time Michigan won the Big Ten. Since then, the Wolverines have won double-digit games only twice. They have only one win over Ohio State in that timeframe.

Since recruits entered grade school, Michigan has not been an elite program. It has been recruiting on tradition and facilities, not results. Recruits have been told of Michigan's rich tradition, but have not seen it.

If Michigan wants to continue to recruit at an elite level so that it has a chance to actually develop elite athletes, it needs to rack up wins.

And that should be doable. Michigan has out-recruited every team on its 2015 schedule, with the exception of Ohio State. If the new coach can go 9-3 against that slate, with a chance at a bowl victory to get to 10 wins, that would be a sign of progress and restore the faith of recruits, parents, and high school coaches in the region.

After that, Michigan can seriously look at prospects from around the country, perhaps from an area in which the new coach has some experience.