Wheeler committed to Michigan last September, the same weekend as the Nebraska game.

HO〽️ETOWN HERO, 1000% COMMITTED #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/gwh3a53wiu

— Cornell Wheeler ¹ᵏ (@CWheeler__) September 25, 2018

We missed a few of these last year since we lost Ace who usually writes them. Since it's useful to have these hello posts around later I'm trying to get us caught up when I have a spare moment. As for what Michigan got 10 months ago, there's some disagreement.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	24/7	24/7 Comp
5.8, #13 ILB #5 MI, #233 Ovr	3*, 79, #10 ILB #15 MI, #41 MW	3*, 85, #42 ILB #24 MI, #924 Ovr	3*, 0.8793, #19 LB, #12 MI, #467 Ovr
☆ rtg: 4.10	3.97	3.47	3.79

At the time of his commitment Wheeler was a consensus "3.5-star" as we say. Since then we've had a divergence. While the Michigan commitment bumped him up a few spots, Rivals has had him at a couple of camps and raised his rankings twice, holding Wheeler in their top 250. He was the only Michigan prospect to move up with their June re-rank. Meanwhile 24/7 started lower and has dropped him 20+ spots eight times since February. At this rate he'll be out of their top-1000 by the end of summer. ESPN came along in February by splitting the difference: "79" to them means a guy short of four stars and leaving him out of their top-300 and their Midwest ranking both confirm that.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting from those two sites, video, and the rest.]

SCOUTING

We'll start with Rivals because they're the highest on Wheeler, and are pretty clear about their rankings coming from their camps. Brandon Brown's summary from the Cincinnati Camp in April:

For a sawed-off inside linebacker, Wheeler actually does quite well in camp settings. The four-star prospect and Michigan commit does a pretty good job in coverage and actually has very good ball skills. He even took a couple of reps at running back and scored a long over the shoulder touchdown against a pretty good defender.

Brown adds that Wheeler's a "true leader" and noted on Twitter "his movement skills have consistently improved."

Wheeler's head coach is Ron Bellamy, who describes the linebacker prospect as "a great teammate and a fierce competitor," and compared Wheeler to former Orchard Lake St. Mary's star Josh Ross at the time of his commitment:

"He reminds me a lot of Josh Ross," West Bloomfield head coach Ron Bellamy said. "He is physical, instinctive, loves football and plays the game with aggression."

…and describes the kind of defensive quarterback:

"This year, you can see he knows more about the game. We start a sophomore linebacker, and that was Cornell last year, so he's grabbing him and moving him to the right spot, he's tapping defensive linemen and getting them in the right gap. He knows what everyone is doing and that's the biggest difference from last year."

Wheeler trains with Rising Stars/Reggie Wynns, who said "He is a tough, really tough kid and a true inside backer."

Wheeler himself says he's working on his speed and coverage, though Bellamy is quick to praise those parts of Cornell's game. WB's defensive coordinator Tyrice Grice calls Wheeler the "Best LB in the state" and cites instincts and understanding:

He has a knack for finding the ball. He has good football instincts. He is a true linebacker. He is a smart kid, understands the game and he is one of the team leaders. I expect big things from him.

The instincts were the highlights of 24/7's Allen Trieu's scouting last September, though the things they say about athleticism by not saying them are not said quite loudly:

Smart, instinctive, and a hitter, we will see how the 6-foot-0, 205-pound prospect continues to grow, but he was very noticeable and in on a lot of plays."

Since then, we have seen Wheeler add some weight. He measured 6-foot-0 and 228 pounds at the Nike Opening Regional. He does not have a 40 on record, but recorded a 36-inch vertical, a solid measure of his explosiveness. In terms of measureables, he is never going to be the belle of the ball at those events. He is the type of kid who is going to out produce a lot of guys who have better testing numbers though. He gets James Ross a lot. I can see some Desmond Morgan there too where, Desmond was not a combine type guy, but was smart, instinctive and worked his way into being productive. That is what I see with Cornell. And the few times that I have seen him in 7-on-7, he made a good amount of plays just by being in the right places as well.

In case you missed "not fast" in there, Trieu later clarified "Wheeler will not burn up a stop-watch. He is not 6-foot-3. But he makes a ton of plays. He can be the rock in the middle of a defense." His report referenced a take from the West Bloomfield-Southfield game last year, whence the line at the top earned a spot at the bottom. It was the high point of his 24/7 ranking. They more recently saw Wheeler at a 7-on-7 camp that's one of the broken pieces of what used to be Sound Mind, Sound Body (thanks NCAA), but Lorenz just quoted the above from September.

MGoFish jumped in with a comparison to another guy from the Bloomies Michigan once let get away:

Wheeler’s tape immediately reminds me of former Michigan commit and current standout Florida Gator, David Reese. He’s stout, quicker than fast, and his instincts and toughness set him apart on the field. He shows the ability to read defenses and make plays on the ball carrier. And when those plays are normally some devastating hits. He can really lay the lumber. At this point, he looks to be a great fit at inside linebacker. With room to grow and plenty of time to get there before he gets to Ann Arbor, he could be a very nice addition to the linebacker room.

OFFERS

At the time of his commitment Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa State, Minnesota, Mizzou, and Syracuse were the other parties in any kind of running. Ohio State "wanted to see more film." Nebraska came sniffing around later. Michigan State "came in too late," which might mean State never thought they had a chance, though it is a data point that the local Bullough factory didn't pursue an instinctual in-state inside linebacker at an emerging public power program.

HIGH SCHOOL

So West Bloomfield is going to matter a lot down the road, and I live just down the road, so I'm going to give you the lay of the land. From a decade before I was born until this year, Farmington Hills Harrison, situated close to the Orchard Lake Road exit of I-696, was the local power program. As many families have moved here to make sure their kids played for Coach Herrington over the years as came for Forest "your house costs $200k more because it goes to this" Elementary.

Four miles up Orchard Lake is West Bloomfield High. If you were to make a list of high schools in Michigan that produced the best data analysts or most crucial developments in solar technology, you'd be hard pressed to find one better. Unsurprisingly, until former Michigan receiver Ron Bellamy arrived, they were terrible at football.

With Harrison closing, competition to be the great unofficial public football magnet of Metro Detroit came down to Southfield—coached by a Sparty who's one of my brother's coach friends—and West Bloomfield. Southfield produced Malik McDowell and Lawrence Marshall, but West Bloomfield won. Consider this the new Harrison. Safety Makari Paige is a top target for Michigan this cycle; running back Donovan Edwards is one of the best prospects in the state next year; and the 2022 class already has at least four guys who'll end up 3- or 4-stars.

STATS

Via the Detroit News Wheeler had 146 tackles and 11 TFLs for West Bloomfield last year.

FAKE 40 TIME

Not recorded but 36-inch vertical. I'm going to invent a time of 3.14159265359 and give it eleventy FAKES to get our FAKE average back up to credibility.

VIDEO

Junior year highlights:

Rivals shows the camp film from Chicago:

24/7 caught his game vs. Clarkston. Sophomore highlights and single game reels are available on his Hudl page. I recommend the one against my alma mater—Groves—because my Falcons run a ton of pre- and post-snap motion designed to screw with linebackers that Wheeler wouldn't fall for. The Belleville film has some good offensive highlights. Dancing.

ETC

Member of this class most likely to have an Opinion on the correct shade of maize and whether George Little or Fielding Yost was responsible for keeping Benny Friedman on the bench as a sophomore. Grew up in love with Michigan and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

He's not Devin Bush, but since I'm privy to some conversations between Wheeler's coach and his former teammates, I can provide a comparison with another Big Ten linebacker who played for an early aughts Michigan player in high school: Ohio State's Tuf Borland. The Desmond Morgan and David Reese comparisons work too. I wouldn't say Josh Ross because Ross's raw athleticism is excellent in comparison to any linebacker save Devin Bush.

The scouting here matches the film, and makes sense in context. The videos from the Rivals camps show a linebacker who isn't mirroring running backs like a cornerback would, but when the ball comes Wheeler is always right there because he's got the advanced footwork and anticipation to make it work. The video shows a guy who reads plays so quickly that he gets an extra half second head start over jumpier guys. The acceleration also pops: when there's a gap, Wheeler is through it very quickly.

Ten years ago that was a solid four-star linebacker. Today, with more teams that use their running backs as quasi slot receivers and roll out QBs who run like safeties, having a Desmond Morgan or Tuf Borland in the middle of your defense means having to commit safeties to the backfield. This is why Michigan pursued Devin Bush like he was a Top 10 draft pick, and left David Reese and Tuf Borland to our two biggest rivals. I believe Rivals is seeing everything you want from a linebacker in a 2010s context, while 24/7 is looking at the athleticism ceiling—and the lack of height to make up for it—and wondering what that looks like in the context of Football in the 2020s.

My take is that's real but overrated. The more teams are using nickels and dimes as their base, the more speed they're getting out on the edges and using inside linebackers in seek and destroy roles. Don Brown did that for years until he had a Devin Bush who could do all the things. If you build a linebacker out of high awareness, great acceleration, strong block shedding, great tackling, and a top speed in the 70s, you've found a player.

I realize fullback no longer technically exists here, but that's another potential role for Wheeler if linebacker doesn't work out—a lot of the video above shows Wheeler on offense, and his high football awareness, good acceleration, and low center of gravity would work in some apocalyptic future where fullbacks roam the Earth again.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

I wrote in the Mullings Hello last month that Michigan is loading up with the knowledge they will have to get some playing time out of this class. They only took Charles Thomas in 2019, and by the time the 2020s have redshirted, Cam McGrone/Michael Barrett will be juniors, and Josh Ross/Jordan Anthony seniors.

[UPDATE: I originally wrote the next bit before Melton committed to OSU so it's been edited.]

Wheeler was the first to commit out of what is now a four-man ILB class including Osman Savage, Nikhai Hill-Green, and Mullings. They're not going to have a five-man ILB class, but dropping one would be tough since Hill-Green and Savage also come from an important pipleline program, and if they had to choose just one to keep it would be Mullings.

Wheeler probably has the lowest ceiling of this group, but he has also played a big role in building the class, and as you've seen with Borland, Reese, and every Northwestern linebacker ever, a ball of instincts is a fine place to start.