Now that we are coming up on the next recruiting dead period (the one implemented by the NCAA because poor SEC coaches didn’t think it fair that Jim Harbaugh wants to coach football during their vacations), I figure it’s a good time to take a look at the state of the 2022 class, and Michigan recruiting in general. Scroll down under the board if you've been following along already and just want to read the editorial. The top of this post is for the people who only want to check in infrequently.

State of the Class

While lazy “hot seat” articles continue to lead with photos of Harbaugh, he and his staff are putting together a top-ten class with considerable upside.

In the last four weeks Michigan has added a high-floor pocket QB in CA 3.5* Jayden Denegal, one of their top RB prospects in SC 3.5* CJ Stokes, 3.5* Idaho flex TE Colston Loveland, 3.5* Quebecois OT Alessandro Lorenzetti, an Uche-like sleeper in CA 3* Kevonte Henry, new staff edge faves 4* Mario Eugenio and 3* Micah Pollard, 3* Belleville RB-turned-hybrid LB Aaron Alexander, and their top (presently realistic) remaining cornerback target, TN 3.5* Myles Pollard.

Before that they had two receivers pledged, silky smooth IL 4* Tyler Morris, a long-term Gattis target who might have been gunning for Bama/OSU before an injury locked him into his current status, and leapy MI 4* Tay’shawn Trent. The class is anchored by MI 5* legacy CB Will Johnson, seems set to hold onto Linguist’s TN 4* nickel Kody Jones, and carries over a pair of low 3*s from before the coaching makeover in MI DT Davonte Miles and CO OG Connor Jones.

All of the commits of the last month except Denegal (falling) and Alexander (an un-scouted recent positional convert) have been shooting up the rankings. In a cycle when there’s been a lot fewer opportunities than normal for late-emerging athletes to change the consensus pecking order, Michigan seems to be trusting their own evaluations more than ever. Their evaluations have also led Michigan to spend some time in the lead for various rising prospects who disappeared as soon as they reached the level where Ohio State and Bama are willing to lift more than a finger, or the super baggy programs like Georgia, LSU, and A&M, and Texas are willing to make it rain.

As for the earlier Hellos, there have been rumblings at times that each one might not make it to the finish line. Will Johnson and Kody Jones were most wobbly when Linguist left, but both recruitments were shored up, with Jones taking longer to be sure than Johnson. Miles and Jones might have been provisional at times, but are reportedly doing whatever it is Michigan wanted to see to keep their spots. I think that’s why we keep getting reports from Jones’s trainer about how well he’s coming along, though as one of two commits in the class, he can’t be in that much danger. Miles showed up to a camp in June and was about where Michigan wanted him to be.

There are a couple more players who could be on the verge of committing. They’re expected to add an RB/WR ATH Dillon Bell sooner or later, and the current commits think Cass Tech DT Deone Walker, a huge DT or possibly OG prospect who used the Covid year to reshape his body, will be along after he gets to experience the process. He named a top five today.

The staff recently expanded their boards at OL and DT after missing on some top targets. Those misses do not include the five-stars—elite WA OT Josh Conerly Jr., and super-elite TN DT Walter Nolen. I think Conerly is still projected to go back to his original Washington commitment, but a decommitment means the guy is in play. As for Nolen, I think we’re waiting to see if he comes to Michigan’s BBQ at the Big House or Alabama’s BBQ at the smaller house, or Florida’s BBQ at the swamp-ass house, or chooses to spend the last weekend before the dead period in his own house. He’s visited all of his finalists. They scoured the recent camp circuit for receivers too but couldn’t find many with reciprocal interest at this late hour. I wouldn’t be surprised if they turn up a Ronnie Bell as senior film rolls in.

The current drama, set to unfold in the next few weeks, is what they’re doing at middle linebacker, as two of their three top prospects are close to announcing, one tertiary prospect seems ready to jump if either of the above don’t, and a spot will be saved for a top-tier guy they hope to pry out of Utah regardless. The sense is one of the two guys they’re waiting on is going to Texas, and the other one might be leaning that direction unless the distance is too great.

Safety has been a bumpier ride than expected as various names seemed close to going blue then didn’t. There are still plenty of balls in the air however so we’re far from panic. A surprisingly good season could put them back in play for one or two elites. A surprisingly bad one (like 5-7 with another loss to MSU) and things could unravel a bit. A catastrophic season that ends with “yep, gotta fire Harbaugh, now” could punch some big holes in it, but there’s some optimism that this class could be more resilient than the 2011 one. It’s in far, far better shape than Hoke’s 2015 class was at this point.

The Guys:

Icon	Name	Meaning
	Sad Josh	The genre of player with unrequited interest in Michigan. Unlikely to receive offers; most will eventually fade off the list and go to Duke or Michigan State or something.
	Nefarious Eduardo	Player is a longshot. Either they've declared someone else a leader publicly or popular opinion holds that they're likely to go to another school.
	Data	Either no opinion or Michigan is one of a fairly even group of chasing schools. Players in this category maintain no leader or change their leader frequently. The default category for players that we don't know much about yet.
	Happy Teeth	Players who have Michigan in a small leading group or have Michigan as a tenuous favorite. Should be regarded as a good shot, not a slam dunk.
	Mr. Blue	Player is either a verbal or is expected to be one sooner or later. Players with this designation are 65%+ to be Michigan commits.

The order is my interpretation of how likely they are to commit and how many recruiting points are being expended. Prep school or IMG players are listed with their home states and then either the state their new school's in or "IMG".

A Note on "Stars": These are a general (not exact) average of a player's status among the recruiting services.

A Note on Premium Info: No illicit sharing of said material will appear on this site. Players are listed with interested schools in their profiles; this information is public. Commitments are by definition public. Any assertions as to schools in the mix, decision dates, or leaders I will back up with links to the source of the information.

[After THE JUMP: The board, and frank talk about cheating and NIL]

Quarterback

Needs: 1-2. Michigan got 5* JJ McCarthy and Texas Tech transfer Alex Bowman, but took just Cade McNamara and Dan Villari in the last two classes after longtime 2020 commit JD Johnson had to give up football for health reasons, and their quarterbacks from the two classes prior have already transferred. Harbaugh would like to get his old Stanford mix of a dual-threat and a gunslinger.

Status: Were laser focused on Denard-ian Nate Johnson before they suddenly opened up the board and took a Navarre/Speight-like Californian who's been falling down the rankings.

Commit
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Jayden Denegal	CA	***.5	Michigan		Ask again later
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Nate Johnson	CA	***	Utah		Speed demon
Conner Harrell	AL	***	UNC		Academic
Ashton Daniels	GA	***	Stanford		Late riser?
Justyn Martin	CA	****	Cal		M offered after above
Bert Emanuel Jr.	TX	n/a	Army, TSU		Camp invite
Destin Wade	TN	***	Kentucky		ATH, package w LB bro Keaten

Running Back

Needs: 1-2. Michigan got a lightning and thunder in the 2021 class but lost Zach Charbonnet and Christian Turner to transfers and Chris Evans to graduation. Another inside/outside duo would be good.

Status: Were the first to offer 5* Gavin Sawchuk but his interest waned, as did that of several other elites they were in for. As soon as they got to the secondary tier they reeled in Stokes, who's been tearing up a low-level South Carolina league and seemed destined for the Gamecocks until their coaching change. They're also expected to pick up a commitment from ATH Dillon Bell, a 6-2 speedster who could play running back or receiver.

Commit
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
CJ Stokes	SC	***	Michigan		Hello.
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
George Pettaway	VA	****	UNC, PSU		Lightning
Dillon Bell	TX	***	M, Baylor		Spread H. Brother elite 2023 CB
Quinshon Judkins	AL	***	Aub, UF, PSU, ND		Thunder. Impressed at 7v7
Kaleb Johnson	OH	***	Cal		Camp/visit/offer
Nicholas Singleton	PA	****	PSU		Canceled M visit for OSU :/
Omarion Hampton	NC	****	UNC, UF, OSU, PSU		Toussaint-like

Wide Receiver

Needs: 2-3. After filling up on slots in 2019 and 2020 and adding three outside prospects in 2021 Gattis should settle into a mix, shooting for the stars and catching as many as can.

Status: Gattis got just one of the two Illinois targets who remember many camps with JJ McCarthy, with OSU picking off the other. Detroit star Tay'shawn Trent committed shortly after 7v7 teammate Will Johnson, though Trent may need a prep year. Top target Tyler Morris committed on 4/20, after an injury possibly saved Michigan from stiffer competition than ND, but also might have robbed them of Morris until 2023 as well. They're also out of it for Andrel Anthony's leapy pal Darrius Clemons, and seem to have stopped recruiting the ATH from my high school. Now they're offering slots and speedsters as they see them. Michigan has a much better shot at some 2023s so they may end up picking up a late flier or camp commit and moving on to that, hoping to fill any gaps in the future with the transfer portal.

Commits
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Tyler Morris	IL	****	Michigan		Hello. Golden Tate smooth.
Tay'shawn Trent	MI	***	Michigan		Hello. Big, leapy. TE/LB?
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Che Nwabuko	TX	***	Pitt		5-9 and super fast
Tobias Merriweather	WA	***	ND/Stanford		Dad from Detroit
Darrius Clemons	OR	****	PSU, Stan, Ore		From EL, friends w Andrel
DJ Allen	TX	****	Baylor, Ark, TCU		Slot
Isaiah Bond	GA	***	Florida		Speed, ATH (DB)
Barion Brown	TN	****	Bama		Bama's QB's buddy
Amorion Walker	LA	***	Notre Dame		Bellamy working
CJ Smith	FL	***	Florida		6-3/fast
Marquarius White	AL	***	Tenn		Nico's school

Tight End

Needs: 2. Michigan's been getting their one guy they scouted better than everybody else and then whiffing on the national recruit they covet each year. Might be time to rebuild the depth.

Status: Marlin Klein was one of the top guys on their board, though he'll need a few years in the weight room first, and Michigan has been going hard after fellow Georgian Oscar Delp since he was a who-dat too but has been trending to Georgia since blowing up into a 4-star. They were the first to offer a third Georgian, 4* Holden Staes, who backed out of a PSU commitment and chose Notre Dame. Then Idaho WR-who-grew-a-butt Colston Loveland popped, and Jay Harbaugh closed before Bama could do so. They're going to try to get Delp too but they're otherwise done.

Oddly rich year for two-stars Michigan would otherwise have a good chance of snapping up on the cheap, like legacy Josh Kattus, Fordson's Mo Hazime, and Dewitt's WR-who-grew Tommy McIntosh, who's totally not going to make us regret this at Wisconsin.

Commit
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Colston Loveland	ID	***.5	Michigan		Hello
Marlin Klein	GA	***	Michigan		Hello
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Oscar Delp	GA	****	UGA leads M		"Yeah Michigan!"
Jaren Kanak	KS	***	Clem, Bama, M, UGA, UF		ATH: WR/S/LB/TE?
Jack Velling	WA	***	OrSt		Rising prep schooler
Tommy McIntosh	MI	**	Wisconsin		From Dewitt
Josh Kattus	OH	***	Kentucky		Son of Eric
Mo Hazime	MI	**	D-II		Fordson

Offensive Line

Needs: 4-6. Now that OL are leaving after their RS sophomore years it's important to load up every cycle with a mix of high floors and high ceilings. Yes, there will be a LOT of sophomores and freshmen when the 2022s arrive but there could also be an exodus as the younger guys see oceans of eligibility ahead for the starters and the starters get NFL eyes six months later. Shark teeth.

Status: This may end up a small class because the projects Warinner loved (Kiyaunta Goodwin, Fisher Anderson) were tied to Warinner, and the elites Moore would rather go after require more than a late push from a first-time OL coach. Reece Atteberry's buddy Connor Jones is the holdover. Moore refocused on blue chips. WA 5* Josh Conerly is probably a longshot though Courtney Morgan got them a foot in the door. The pursuit of Conerly got them in before the flood of offers for Onwenu-ish WA 3* Mark Nabou. Moore was also in good shape for George Fitzpatrick and Lucas Heyer, until the former turned into a possible #1 OT and committed to Ohio State, and the latter drifted back into a Stanford commitment.

So it looks like they'll have to find gems here as well, or move on to 2023. On that front, however, Michigan lucked into Quebecois Alessandro Lorenzetti, a late-bloomer who wanted to play Big Ten football. The board is expanding again to the camp finds and Frey types, but we haven't seen any of them nibble yet. There are a bunch of guys they're keeping tabs on, including Jones's training mates Kaden Weatherby and Braden Miller. They're probably out now for 6-8 OT Andre Roye since his coach at St. Frances, Biff Poggi, is returning to Michigan in a non-assistant role.

Commits
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Connor Jones	CO	***	Michigan		Hello. Puts water in the harbor.
Alessandro Lorenzetti	CT	***	Michigan		Quebecois steal. Hello.
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Josh Conerly	WA	*****	WA decommit		Courtney Morgan connection
Mark Nabou	WA	***	M, A&M, UT, USC		Onwenu-like. Blowing up.
Falentha Carswell	GA	***	YTM, others		Hoops, 6-7 OT.
Luke Dalton	IL	***	MAC offers		Camp, immediate unofficial
Lucas Heyer	MN	****	Stanford		M lost interest
Jackson Pruitt	MI	***	MAC		Cass Tech
George Fitzpatrick	CO	****	Ohio State		Super athlete, should be a 5-star.
Tyler Booker	IMG	****	Bama/OSU		Originally from CT. Old staff had shot.
Joe Brunner	WI	****.5	Wisconsin		Assume Wisconsin
Aamil Wagner	OH	****	OSU		OSU offer came. Tyree Kinnel kinnection.
Carson Hinzman	WI	****	UW, ND, Iowa		Assume Wisconsin
Billy Schrauth	WI	****	ND, OSU, UW		ND leads
Malik Agbo	WA	****	LSU, Bama, Ore, WA		M at bottom of a top 8
Riley Quick	AL	****	Bama, Aub		Baseball star, locals slow-playing
Kiyaunta Goodwin	IN	****.5	Kentucky		Warinner
Fisher Anderson	TN	****	UNC, Stan, NW		Warinner
Ryan Brubaker	PA	***	South Carolina		PSU legacy
Kaden Weatherby	OL	***	TTU		Near M commit pre-Warinner, injury
Laakea Kapol	HI	***	SDSU, Cuse		Warinner
Andre Roye	MD	***	UMD, Pitt, RU		St. Frances, 6'8" OT
Braden Miller	CO	***	MSU		OT, M more interested?
Grayson Morgan	TN	***	UK, UMD, Tenn, MissST		Rising Stars top performer
James Livingston	MI	***	Marshall, EMU		Growing tackle, M watching
Bryce Keller	OH	***	No profile		Toledo Whitmer. Good camp at EMU.

Defensive Tackle

Needs: 3-4. We shall see how the youngsters pan out but instant help is highly desirable since Hinton will probably be off to the NFL soon and the rest of the guys playing don't have much eligibility yet. Michigan is going to play with three in their standard sets.

Status: Another spot where there's a whole new board since the staff changes. Alex VanSumeren decommitted when his brother left and the Alabama interest got serious. Since Don Brown left Nua's been offering a slate of much, much larger individuals, and put Michigan in a position to be a finalist for an elite-elite.

River Rouge's Davonte Miles is one and committed on the offer. Cass Tech's Deone Walker reshaped himself and seems likely to join the class eventually. Michigan whiffed on a few of the guys they thought they could get. That includes Jordan Phillips from Ocoee, who was near a Michigan commit at one point and is horribly underrated, but committed to Tennessee. It also includes IN 3* Kenneth Grant, whom Michigan found on the way up but who way upped past them into Ohio State realm. The staff cooled on Don Brown holdover Hayden Schwartz, an NFL legacy who'll end up at Nebraska. Nua has remained quietly in contact with 6-5/350 Peter Taoipu.

In course they've re-expanded the board and reconnected with former target Derrick Shepard, who committed to Marcus Freeman at Cincy before Freeman went to Notre Dame. They also offered a couple of recent camp risers, Canadian Isaiah Hastings, and South Carolingian Robby Harrison, who showed up to this year's circuit 20 pound heavier than he was last listed. They could also turn to Mario Eugenio's teammate and friend Tawfiq Thomas. Meanwhile they're staying in it for super five-star Walter Nolen.

Commit
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Davonte Miles	MI	**.5	Michigan		Hello
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Walter Nolen	TN	*****	M, OSU, Bama		Elite! Close w K.Jones, W.Johnson. Grparents from MI
Deone Walker	MI	***	M, MSU		Cass Tech, OL/DL ATH
Derrick Shepard	OH	****	Cincy		Committed to Freeman b4 ND
Isaiah Hastings	Ont	***	open		Rising after Big Man camp at FSU
Shone Washington	LA	****	LSU, UGA, Ole Miss		Recent LSU decommit, trains w Eugenio, eligibility?
Robby Harrison	SC	***	IU, KSU, MN		Build a bear, up to 285, setting up visit
Justice Finkley	AL	****	TX, CO, AL		Kemp, M led until reevaluating him as a DT
Jordan Phillips	FL	***	Tennessee		Michigan found first, TN found better
Hayden Schwartz	FL	***	Nebraska		Carlo Kemp-like
Kenneth Grant	IN	***	OSU, Wis, M		"full grown mammoth", blowing up now
Tawfiq Thomas	FL	***	M, ISU, KU		Teammate of Eugenio.
Anthony Lucas	AZ	****	ASU, ND, UCLA		previously visited
Peter Taoipu	WA	***	M, ASU, Colo, Neb		Nua connect
Lavon Johnson	PA	**	VT, Baylor		Big guy
Jadon Scarlett	TX	***	Big 8/SWC		Stock up, explosive first step
Hero Kanu	CA	***	Clem, OSU, LSU, Bama		German, #1 on OSU/Bama's boards now
Damoni Williams	CA	***	Cal		Big guy

Edge

Needs: 3-4. Michigan would love to get an instant-impact guy but they've loaded up in recent classes with various shots at those. Adding need here because Macdonald's defense uses a lot of them.

Status: The board was almost totally blown up by the staff switch. It took awhile however for all the Don Brown anchor targets to fall away, but fall away Caden Curry, Joe Strickland, Anthony Lucas, and Joseph Adedire did. The final holdout was Justice Finkley, whom the staff reevaluated as an interior prospect when they finally saw him in person, though the door may not be completely closed on the Carlo Kemp-alike.

In their stead are the OLBs that Helow and Macdonald covet. They pulled in two of their faves in Mario Eugenio and Micah Pollard, and caught a third Uche-like in Kevonte Henry on the rise. All they need now is Joshua Josephs for the full set, though they missed out on Beau Atkinson along the way. This means there isn't room anymore for sparkplug Anto Saka, who'll probably be great at Northwestern, or former Ypsilantean Torren Wright.

Commit
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Mario Eugenio	FL	***.5	Michigan		Hello. "u-Hen-io" Judon-esque.
Micah Pollard	FL	***	Michigan		Hello. Pure edge.
Kevonte Henry	CA	***	Michigan		Hello
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Joshua Josephs	GA	***	M, Tenn		Don't let SEC see film. Andre Stewart teammate
Joseph Adedire	TX	***	TCU		Don Brownian anchor
Anto Saka	MD	***	Northwestern		Winovichian
Torren Wright	NC	****	NC State		Originally from Ypsi
Beau Atkinson	NC	***	UNC		Aidan-like.
Brian Allen	IL	***	Iowa, Illini		Academic.
Zach Rowell	CA	***	Ore, Stan		SDE, moving up
DJ Wesolak	MO	****	ND, Clem		OLB/DE
Keon Wylie	PA	***	PSU		OLB/DE
DeSean Brown	OK	***	OkSt lock		WDE
Samuel Okunlola	MA	***	open		Brother of 5* 2023 OT
Vincent Paige	TX	***	North Texas		M "closely monitoring"
Tomiwa Durojaiye	DE	***	GT		SDE type

Linebacker

Needs: 3-4. There's been a ton of turnover at LB and the new staff wants to have more of them out there for their multiple defenses, so we're looking into all kinds of Wisconsin-esque dudes who never would have gotten a look from Don Brown.

Status: Unfortunately the transition blew up a solid start. MA 4* Tyler Martin followed Don Brown to Arizona, and former shoe-in Joshua Burnham committed to Notre Dame after the transition opened the door. Here's Steve Lorenz on the 24/7 podcast last spring:

Michigan has reignited their pursuit of four-star Sebastian Cheeks in a big way in the last three weeks or so after minimal contact immediately after the Macdonald hiring. A great source told me the staff's linebacker board is relatively wide open and while there are the guys we've talked a lot about (Micah Pollard, Josephs, Patton, Wade, Barton), some of their most recent offers (DeMario Tolan, Omar Graham, Torren Wright, Robby Snelling, Kyle Efford) appear to be legitimate targets at this point as well. A clear mix of the top guys the last staff preferred and a whole new set of prospects the new staff has evaluated.

Michigan took recent RB convert Aaron Alexander as a program guy because when Jermain Crowell of Belleville says jump we say "how high can he?" and Crowell says "very very high."

They'll pursue UT 4* Lander Barton to the end because Helow/Macdonald think that's what a linebacker should look like. That might be a pipedream though. As for the targets reciprocating interest they'll soon find out if they're set or need to open the board back up when Sebastian Cheeks and Jeremy Patton make their decisions in the coming weeks. Cheeks seems to like Texas more but might want to stay closer to home, while Patton might like Michigan more but might want to stay closer to home at Texas. Unless both go Blue, they'll probably snatch up recent camp offer Deuce Spurlock. A couple of homegrown former four-stars are still waiting around, though even MSU doesn't seem that interested in them.

Commit
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Aaron Alexander	MI	**	Michigan		Hello. Belleville
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Lander Barton	UT	****	Utah, M, ND		Macdonald type specimen
Sebastian Cheeks	IL	****	M, TX, Ore		M picked it back up, hopes distance matters.
Jeremy Patton	TX	****	M, TX, Baylor		M kicked off offer blitz, hopes distance doesn't matter
Deuce Spurlock	AL	**	Michigan		Camp offer, 6-2/200
Mani Powell	OH	***	Arkansas		offered a day before commit
Joshua Burnham	MI	****	ND		M fan once close to committing to Jean-Marie
DeMario Tolan	FL	****	LSU		recent offer
Keaten Wade	TN	****	Kentucky		Package with QB bro. Clink?
Ish Harris	TX	****	A&M		A&M offered as RB
Tyler Banks	VA	***	VT, BC, TN		"ATH" Don Brown liked more.
Robby Snelling	NV	****	Stanford		Stanford Baseball commit
Kyle Efford	GA	***	GT		Helow UMD target
Michael Williams	MI	***	CMU, Cuse		WB Interest diminished after injured 2020
Jordan Cannon	MI	***	M, MSU, Cincy		OLSM

Safety

Needs: 2-3. Michigan wanted to get 2 or 3 in the 2021 class and came away with one. It's time to get the next generation since Dax Hill and Brad Hawkins aren't long for college and the 2020 class could scoot through quickly. Some of the cornerbacks might fit here too.

Status: Andre Seldon's brother Myles Rowser committed ages ago then decommitted, fell down the rankings, and committed to Arkansas. Taylor Groves committed to Mo Linguist but decommitted. Michigan has spent way too long in great shape with West Bloomfield's Dillon Tatum, who can play S or CB, and was about to commit before they replaced Linguist with Clinkscale, who didn't recruit Tatum to Kentucky. MSU, the school Tatum grew up rooting for, used the opportunity to move in and make this a true 55/45 between playing with the best players in Michigan for his old West Bloomfield coach Ron Bellamy, or finally cracking Mel Tucker's four-star cherry at State.

The guys Linguist was after came and went. They had Austin Brown on the hook but he went to Wisconsin, and then they got another blow when TCU managed to convince D'Arco Perkins-McAllister, an athlete they love, to reclassify to 2021 and join the frogs right away. Jake Pope waved at Michigan on his way up from 3-star to a Bama-UGA battle. Other options are AL 3* Ja'Kobi Albert, whom everyone thinks is going to stay in the South but who got weak-kneed at meeting Juwan Howard on his official, Clinkscale's Kentucky commit Jeremiah Caldwell from Belleville, and they could always--hint hint nudge nudge--go back to Wylie E. Groves' own Jaden Mangham, who could fit at receiver, which is another position of need. Just saying.

Also Michigan will stay on 5-star IMG safety/hybrid Keon Sabb, but would need to have a really good season for him to consider it.

Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Dillon Tatum	MI	****	Michigan, MSU		WB/Clink hire a setback
Keon Sabb	IMG (OH)	*****	A&M, Clem		Beat Ohio then let's talk.
Jacoby Matthews	LA	****.5	LSU		Go Ron Bellamy
D'Arco Perkins-McAllister	TN	***	TCU		Reclassified to 2021 for TCU
Austin Brown	IL	***	Wisconsin		Late riser, Hybrid
Jake Pope	GA	***.5	Bama, UNC, UGA		Shooting up rankings
Mumu Bin-Wahad	GA	***	WVU		S/CB, canceled visit
Jeremiah Caldwell	MI	***	Kentucky		Belleville
Ja'Kobi Albert	AL	***	Auburn		Visited, Juwan fan, not leaving South.
Jaden Mangham	MI	****	WVU, Nebraska		Groves!
Kaleb Purdy	MO	***	Mizzou		Nickel

Cornerback

Needs: 7-85. There is no such thing as an excessive number of cornerbacks. If you have too many great ones you put one at nickel and play a Cover 1 all day like Ohio State, which is far too good at plucking five-stars they don't bother coaching and then taking credit for their high draft pick numbers. Michigan lost its last Detroit Cat when Ambry Thomas opted out and 2021 had one guy in it who's barely a top-500 recruit right now, so load up.

Status: This cycle started with a flashing "DON'T FUCK THIS UP" sign and Michigan's staff changes were largely geared towards that end. They nearly fucked it up when Linguist took the Buffalo job, but they hired Steve Clinkscale, one of the few names who could keep Will Johnson in the fold and improve their chances of getting the Stribling-like teammate of Junior Colson, Myles Polalrd. They also managed to solidify Linguist pickup Kody Jones, their nickel target, and a key ingredient in their pursuit of DT Walter Nolen.

Some of the other early names have gone. They're going to continue working on Domani Jackson, who's still committed to USC, but plans to visit Michigan for a game this year. The staff cooled on NJ 4* Jaeden Gould, who ended up taking a late-breaking offer from USC right before Penn State thought they had him. Arizonan super-athlete Benjamin Morrison has a sister at Michigan but seems like a Washington-Notre Dame battle now. James Monds grew up close to the Zinters in Massachusetts and was probably going to be a Don Brown target; he committed to Indiana. There was even a moment when Georgia commit Marquis Groves-Killebrew was going to visit, but that was a week before Linguist left and MGK canceled his Michigan official.

Clink added Kentucky commit Andre Stewart to the board but that recruitment might have stalled as they zeroed in on Pollard and a pair of teammates Courtney Morgan knows, both of whom answer to "Jaleel." They are 3* Jahlil Florence, a lengthy athlete who seems to love Michigan but won't get to visit until the fall, and 4* speedster Jalil Tucker, who seems like a tougher pull. Oregon lurks for both, and probably leads for Tucker.

Commits
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Will Johnson	MI	*****	Michigan		Hello. Deon's son.
Kody Jones	TN	****	Michigan		Hello. Nickel.
Myles Pollard	TN	***.5	Michigan		Hello. Loved you on Colson's film.
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Summary
Domani Jackson	CA	*****	USC		Grew up M fan
Jahlil Florence	CA	***	Ore, M, Fresno		ATH, same HS as Jahlil Tucker
Jalil Tucker	CA	****	Oregon, P12		Super speedy
Andre Stewart	GA	***	Kentucky, Vols, M		Clink. Auburn decommit.
Marquis Groves-Killebrew	GA	****	Georgia		WJ talked into a visit, UGA talked him out
Benjamin Morrison	AZ	****	Wash, ND, A&M		Sister M gymnast
Jaylen Lewis	TN	***	Arkansas		Stribling
James Monds III	FL	***	Indiana		grew up w Zinter

The Ladder Problem

There have been a lot off additions to the board lately that start with "Michigan saw at a camp" followed by a flurry of links over three weeks. More than a few of them have then gone quiet, then suddenly pop up with a flurry of links to an OSU/Clemson/Bama site. What's going on is Michigan has gone full-bore with their scouting this year as they try to capture would-be elites who didn't pop when they normally would have because of the Covid year. How far those guys shoot up determines where they end up. Guys like Lorenzetti and Loveland apexed in the perfect spot for Michigan to pluck them. Sherrod Covil and Jake Pope kept going.

Michael Elkon talks about this in depth in his HTTV 2021 article (news forthcoming this week I hope), but there’s a very good reason that things are this way. The current four-team playoff is set up to send Ohio State, Alabama, and Clemson every year. If one of those teams falters on the way, their league championships and a gatekeeping committee will find a way to put them in the playoffs anyways. Recruits can hardly be faulted for wanting to go to a program that gives them a 90 percent chance of a title appearance versus the 124 FBS teams who’ve never been to the CFP national championship game, and probably never will.

Last year Alabama put together the greatest class in history by 24/7’s reckoning, but the truly extraordinary thing about that class is how little effort they had to expend. They pursued their blue chips with all the vigor and handshakes you would expect, but there was extremely little drama in the way they asked MI 5* DT Damon Payne if he wanted in (Yes, done), or moved in on FL 5* Edge Dallas Turner as soon as he locked in his elite status. The bulk of that class are top-200 four-stars with very short Bama recruitments after being committed to or favoring someone else. Bama’s 2022 class is still tiny, and still ranked behind that of Rutgers, because they know they can wait for the senior tape to roll in then decide which players in the non-playoff teams’ classes they want, and get half of them.

Ohio State tries harder than Bama, but isn’t doing half the work that Harbaugh’s staff is putting into evaluations. The Buckeyes pour more attention into red carpets for the super-elites, e.g. the extensive pursuit of 2021’s #1 overall recruit (#44 of the century to 247) JT Tuimoloau, which went into this month.

When a George Fitzpatrick hits their radars, they say “do you want to play in the playoffs?” to George Fitzpatrick, and two weeks later he commits. Michigan had Fitzpatrick on top of their board for two years because they’re pipelined into the Colorado training groups that Colorado linemen come from. Didn’t matter. Michigan also lost lost slot receiver Kaleb Brown this way. That was Gattis’s guy, AJ Hennings’s guy, the third leg of the JJ McCarthy/Tyler Morris Chicago triad guy. But Ohio State needed a slot to go with their four-man all-blue chip WR class that followed their 2021 all-blue chip WR class that followed their four-man all-blue chip 2020 WR class. There were a couple of months of interest, an offer, a visit, and poof. Lately they’ve moved in on IN DT Kenneth Grant, the huge dude Nua was closing in on all winter and spring. It doesn’t mean Michigan’s out with Grant just like that, but you can follow a trend as well as I can.

Michigan’s place in this is frustrating. To have a shot at equivalent talent Harbaugh’s staff needs to start with a significant advantage (e.g. player is a legacy, or grandparents live nearby), pursue teammates and friends, and/or find the guy a year before their competition, then knock every subsequent interaction out of the park. Even then their shot of landing anyone Ohio State or Alabama wants is less than 50 percent. We’ve seen Bama close on guys who told Michigan they’re coming, even one whose stuff was already in his Michigan dorm. Ohio State is worse because they eat peoples’ souls. Also we hate them.

What you’ve got to remember is that a lot of these recruits are just looking to land at the strongest program willing to save a spot for them. You think it sucks for us that Michigan poured all this effort into Grant from March through July, but Purdue offered the in-state prospect a year ago. There’s a pecking order, and our spot, all things considered is a good one. It’s just not good enough to compete with “do you want a ring?” in an age when certain schools are systemically guaranteed all the rings.

The calcification of college football tiers—which I believe is worse now than even the “Big 2 Little 8” days when there was room for about 8-10 schools to be on TV regularly—is just as frustrating to teams in line behind Michigan, which is the majority of them. Nebraska, which also gets mentioned in hot seat articles that get written without any sourcing inside the program, is in a panic right now because they don’t have the ammunition right now to even attempt to recruit a four-star this cycle. Closer to home, Mel Tucker is on West Bloomfield safety Dillon Tatum every day, because Tucker’s reputation as a recruiter is dying in the light of his own inability to net a consensus 4-star.

That recruitment is a good one to examine. Tatum is a good player, but he’s like a Tyree Kinnel-level good player. State is in it because Tatum grew up an MSU fan, and because they brought back Dantonio’s DBs coach. They were out of it until Michigan changed secondary coaches for the third time in the last six months, and because the carousel ended with one guy, Steve Clinkscale, who conspicuously didn’t recruit Tatum while with Kentucky. Most of those advantages are negated by Michigan having his high school coach at his position. The result is a 60/40 split favoring Michigan that is mostly comprised of the fact that Michigan is the stronger program.

Every recruitment has its specifics, but in general when Michigan catches a guy on the rise, they’re able to move ahead of 100 other schools instantly, because most players these days are most affected by their “best” offer. When that guy rises into OSU-Bama territory, that advantage flips to a disadvantage. This also leads to offers versus “offers” versus “”offers.”” Ohio State might offer a guy like Tatum to see what he does. If he jumps, good, they’ve got him. If he doesn’t, or shows he expects them to do some work to prove the fit, they move on. Sometimes, as with TE Colston Loveland, there are signs Bama is actually fairly hard. They don’t stop at a commitment either. Because they use flips so much, you have to keep an eye on your guys. And even if they don’t go through as much tape as tape-obsessed Michigan, the Tide are no slouches at evaluations, and well ahead of the recruiting sites. If anything, their classes are better than the rankings make them out to be. Tell a Bama assistant that Rutgers is ranked ahead of them in the composite and they’ll laugh and point at the reason every Rutgers “4-star” either shouldn’t be, or showing signs he won’t actually stick in the class if he is. Or the school let a kid graduate early reclassify, which is a thing that just lost Michigan the recruitment of one of their top safety prospects to TCU.

For our part, there is no answer to this until the playoff field expands, Michigan makes a run at it, or one of these programs shoots themselves in the foot. Michigan still has a niche with its education platform, its pipeline to better jobs after college if football doesn’t work out, and Harbaugh’s NFL connections. With the current playoff still in place and Ohio State’s place in it guaranteed unless they trip up twice over another easy Big Ten schedule, it’s not changing anytime soon.

NIL to the Rescue?

There is some hope that NIL can eventually make Michigan competitive with the super baggers. I don’t mean the nickel and dime sponsorships; I specifically mean using the door opened by NIL to funnel money from boosters to the players for whom immediate financial security is a major factor. I think we will get there, with the emphasis on will.

I don’t have direct knowledge of this (by design) but I assume we are already doing the thing most Power 5 schools do, which is have the assistants give some of their pay to their guys, a system one person who’s deeply familiar with SEC recruiting called “The Bama Way” because it spread along with the proliferation of Tide assistants in the 2010s. By TJ Duckett’s admission, Saban’s assistants were doing that at MSU too. Bama likes to keep things in-house so they can control it, which is why their coaching and analyst budget is so much larger than the rest of college football.

None of this is stuff I have proof of. But people these days are pretty free with stories, so I'll share some of the things that have come around more than once. Most Southern schools have separate, “unsanctioned” operations that don’t go through the coaches, but still take directions from them. Georgia, for example, has a small consortium of local builders and contractors who do regular work in the summer and collect unemployment in the winter while doing cash jobs they don’t report to the IRS. Some of their on-campus condos go to the families of recruits for well under their value—the families (eg Otis Reese) then refinance to liquify some of the difference in value, live there while their kids are in school, then sell the homes on the regular market for whatever a home near a college campus is going for by then. Meanwhile the cash-flush boosters pool their wads and dole it out through intermediaries, sometimes as cash, sometimes as prepaid phones, visa cash cards, gift cards to local stores and restaurants. One play is to have the local church pay off a car loan or take care of utility bills. Nobody’s investigating a church, especially since the church often then turns around and uses its own cut to pay a utility bill or car loan for someone else who desperately needs it.

Other than the tax evasion part, none of this is an ethical problem. I just want you to understand why people laugh when we say a startup soft drink sponsorship is going to put Michigan on a level with Texas for the kind of recruit who’s making the bottom line a big part of his decision process. If you are a person who has ever job-searched or bid on a contract, I’m sure you get why more money > less money. Via anybody I talk to, Michigan appears to be extremely lucky to have the kinds of boosters, eg Stephen Ross, who don’t try to stick their noses too far into the program’s business, versus the kind who want to pick the coaches (Ole Miss), settle vendettas against rivals (Auburn) or non-rivals (Georgia), party with the players (Miami), use them as dressing dolls (Oregon), join their ponzi schemes (A&M), stick it to the other booster (MSU) or make their Black players sing a minstrel song (Texas).

We have the boosters, and I’m sad to say I know a couple of Michigan contractors who aren’t as free in December as their tax returns say they are. We’re also in the infancy stage of building that out, and deciding whose skeezy money we’ll take and whose isn’t worth the sketchiness. The attitude of people I know who are close with Harbaugh makes me believe we’re going to turn down most of it, and rely on Nike and some big-ticket friends of the program to match whatever Sarkisian’s recruits are getting to sing “The Eyes of Texas.”