bennett warren

It's time for another wholesale recruiting update! Three weeks ago I set the stage for all the official visits, now with 3/4 of the big recruiting weekends in June done, I felt it was time to check back in, especially with a handful of more commitments in tow. This time we're not going to do a full position by position breakdown, but merely check in on the big races and talk about various updates across the board that have occurred in the past three weeks. This should quench the thirst of our readers for recruiting content and provide more context for the upcoming commitment dates in early July. 

The Aaron Chiles Saga and what it means for LB recruiting 

Let's start with the bad. Saturday night saw the most surprising development of this recruiting cycle, when 4* LB Aaron Chiles, who had long been a strong Michigan lean, committed to Florida while on a visit. Apparently there had been a few murmurs about Chiles and Florida in the days beforehand (I didn't see these until after the fact), but certainly nothing to suggest that anything like this was remotely possible. When I saw the news tweeted out by Chiles, I was completely shocked, and it seems like the coaching staff ($), and by extension the insider class ($), were as well. Even those who were familiar with Chiles' nibbling on what Florida was selling before the visit felt it was extremely unlikely that Chiles would commit on a visit. The surprise was so great that two Rivals national recruiting experts deemed Chiles --> UF the biggest surprise of the 2024 cycle nationally. 

The experience of Chiles choosing Florida out of the blue seems to have outraged the Michigan staff and inevitably the next question fans had was "will they keep recruiting Chiles?". Not to get too far into the "haha, we'll see what Chiles does when Florida goes 4-8 and fires Napier!! 🤣🤣" discourse, but you have to plan for all contingencies and yes, Florida is not exactly slated to be a juggernaut this fall. A kid who makes a (seemingly) rash decision like that is also one who profiles as likely to reconsider, so there are plenty of reasons to keep poking around, but at this time it's not clear if Michigan will do so. 

[EJ Holland/On3]

Insiders have been divided on what comes next, from some saying that the Chiles decision has burned all bridges and has rendered him persona non grata to the coaching staff ($), while others have said that they may continue to keep an open dialogue ($). Regardless, my reading of the reports makes it clear that they aren't expecting anything and are planning to take the commitment of 4* in-state LB Jeremiah Beasley and then call it a day. Beasley is set to commit next week and all signs are pointing to the Wolverines on this one. He would technically be the only true ILB in the class, but Michigan has a number of LB-ish athletes in this class and theoretically you could move one to ILB.

I wrote in the Cole Sullivan Hello that they plan to start him at MIKE, while I've also heard that Jaden Smith could be an ILB candidate too. Reporting suggests they like these raw balls of clay enough to stick with them + Beasley and wrap it up at LB in '24. It sucks to lose Chiles, because he was an awesome prospect, but given the presumption that a massive NIL offer was what tipped the scales and the manner in which the player conducted that process, perhaps he was not a great fit for Michigan and the culture they're building. Alas, we may never know. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Happier discussion]