Sleeper from Belleville.

That’s literally all I knew about the Michigan linebacker when he suddenly became a top target. He visited with the rest of the Victors Weekend contingent and pledged the night of Juneteenth. That occurred with little fanfare, outside of a pocket of people extremely excited for the end of the bad old days of Michigan feuding with former Tom Wilcher assistant Jermain Crowell. This is the guy who built Belleville into one of the biggest suburban Detroit powers right on the doorstep of Ann Arbor, and then built a fence between us.

Even if the fence hadn't come down with Michigan's 2021 staff shakeup, this is one kid who might have followed Andre Seldon over it; Alexander grew up loving Michigan, and the feeling got very mutual when he showed up to various camps this summer.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	247	247 Comp
2*, 5.4, NR Ovr, NR ILB, NR MI	NR ATH	3*, 86, #783 Ovr, #72 ATH, #23 MI	3*, 0.8355, #1214 Ovr, #105 ATH, #37 MI
3.00	n/a	3.58	3.36

He’s 6-1/204 to Rivals and rounded up to 205 on 24/7. His Hudl page goes up to 6-2/210. Unless those recruiting rankings change he’s going to be near the bottom of Michigan linebacker recruits in my database. Other guys in that pile: David Harris (3.49), Devin Gil (3.48), Desmond Morgan (3.47), Joe Velazquez (3.46), and Obi Ezeh (3.38). The true 2-stars are Marell Evans and Emmanuel Casseus. Gil, Velazquez, and Evans were the other guys listed around 205 as recruits.

Let’s learn what Michigan’s looking at together then, shall we?

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

SCOUTING

Let's start with 247's scouting report:

Aaron Alexander is a 6-1, 205-pound Linebacker from Belleville, MI.

Okay, how about the Rivals commitment post:

he is an intriguing prospect with a great athletic profile and speed

ESPN...created Alexander's profile page yesterday morning. Magnus highlighted the problem here:

There’s not a lot of film on Alexander, who played a COVID-shortened junior season and also appears to have suffered an arm [ED--thumb] injury, resulting in wearing a cast to play a portion of the season. I can’t say there’s a lot to love about Alexander’s highlights other than the aforementioned speed. He chases down a quarterback from behind, but that was after he blitzed A-gap out of control and flushed the QB out of the pocket. He looks a tad slow to diagnose plays, too.

He's giving out grades now; Alexander got a 57 that's standing in for "Incomplete."

I talked to one of my local coach friends last week when Michigan started showing interest, because I'd never heard of Alexander. He was playing running back, and was just okay, but after that broken thumb they started playing Alexander at they hybrid nickel spot and a light went on, right before the lights on 2020 were turned off. We've had a few RBs turn linebacker over the years--most recently Kalel Mullings--but the classic convert (not by choice, he told us) is Ian Gold, and that's where Sam Webb went, except Gold came to Michigan still a running back and only found out he was on defense when Lloyd Carr swapped his binder in fall camp.

Sam also spoke to Crowell, and yeah, this is what you'd hear if they just found Gold:

He finds the football. He doesn’t second guess it. We call it triggering. It doesn’t take (much). If he gets a down block and I tell him, ‘If you get a down block, I need you to fill'... he does that without hesitation. And when I get that.... to me... oh, oh, he'll come bite you! All he needs is the right keys and he's coming down hill.

Crowell elaborated that Alexander thought of himself as a running back until they put him on the field at "nickel" (a hybrid WLB spot that seems a bit more linebacker than Viper):

...and found a missile. He also gave his own comp, and--fair enough--could not resist a quick "you shoulda come to me earlier" dig at the old staff:

Aaron is the kind of kid that Iowa would come in here and get because wouldn't nobody notice him. He reminds me of Kaevon Merriweather, my kid that is at Iowa. To me they're damn near like the same kid. Both are big, fast... both of them. You're never going to have no off the field... or I've never had no off the field problems with them. ...

I figured of all the kids we have... when people see him at a camp, they're going to love him. The only thing that he's missing is a lot of in-game reps... which anybody that can see, can tell his upside is through the roof.

The last was a solid prediction, but Merriweather is a safety. A hard-hitting strong safety in Iowa's Cover 2, but a safety nonetheless. Alexander is coming in to play linebacker for Michigan. So what gives? Crowell to Allen Trieu:

“He is a fast, explosive player who is a great human being,” Crowell said. “I’ve never had a problem out of him ever. He played freshman football and didn’t complain. He played J.V. football, didn’t complain. He worked to be our starting running back then broke his thumb, didn’t complain. He became a star on defense and stayed humble, then didn’t complain when nobody noticed. I love that kid. That's the way they used to build them. He is a 'yes sir, no sir' kid and a coachable team guy.”

Trieu later added Alexander...

"has that foot speed to be a steal as a linebacker, safety or hybrid."

And Lorenz elaborated on what Michigan sees:

Michigan saw enough at Ferris State to eventually move on him but this made it an easy decision. They were given some verified numbers early and love his athleticism and wingspan at the backer spot.

Alexander's dad calls him a "quiet stalker,"($) and adds Aaron is carrying a 4.1 (weighted of course) GPA and wants to be an engineer, plus this dad quote he gave to Rivals EJ Holland:

“U-M is going to bless him, and he's going to bless U-M.”

HIGH SCHOOL

Belleville is less than 30 minutes East of Ann Arbor, but most of its players are coming from the other direction, IE Detroit. With Harrison closing there have been a bunch of new suburban powers popping up, and West Bloomfield (Ron Bellamy) and Belleville, under former Cass Tech defensive coordinator Jermain Crowell, the two big ones as far as Division 1 goes (Oak Park and North Farmington, which inherited big parts of Herrington's program, are D2). Detroit's great magnets, D1 Cass Tech, and King, are in the same talent market.

Part of that feud, naturally, was Michigan’s tendency to backfill their classes with the three-stars from the East instead of down the road. You can defend that—Kwity Paye’s mom is now retired—and Michigan’s in-state efforts before the feud, but it’s clear with the recent hires that Harbaugh has flipped the perception among the fraternity of Detroit coaches regarding how much the state’s flagship football program cares about locking down the state’s best football players. In general, I’ve found Michigan’s retention rate among in-state players is much higher than it’s been with national recruits, with no other factor having that much influence. Their own evaluations are often more accurate as well.

That’s particularly relevant here—arguably the biggest games Ron Bellamy ever coached were when West Bloomfield went up against Belleville, and he probably recruited most of the guys on Crowell’s roster and vice versa. If Bellamy wasn’t on staff they’d still be picking his brain. I watched the classic with West Bloomfield last year but don't remember Alexander standing out except when Donovan Edwards ran through his tackle for a late score. Alexander's WR/DB teammate Jeremiah Caldwell, a Kentucky commit Michigan's trying to flip now that they have Clinkscale, on the other hand, was noticeable.

STATS

I couldn't find them.

FAKE 40 TIME

Allen Trieu said he "ran in the 4.4 range twice" at Michigan's June 13 camp. Let's say that's 4.48 and give it four FAKES out of five.

VIDEO

Single game reels are on his Hudl page. There's also this shot of Alexander in coverage at the June 16 camp:

New Michigan LB target Aaron Alexander (@AaronAlezander8) in coverage #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/uMuKZj6qzM

— "EJ Holland" (@EJHolland_TW) June 16, 2021

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Even the highlights show a guy who looks like he was thrown onto the defense with a cast on and is figuring things out in real time. So this is an offer of potential and opportunity--Michigan needs more bullets in the chamber at linebacker, and can probably trust this one to stick around for awhile as they see if that athleticism can be developed into a late-career star. Sometimes you get a Larry Foote, other times a Devil Gil, and other times it doesn't work out, e.g. Allen Gant. Given the stuff with Belleville in the past, if it's not working out, Michigan's going to have to stick by their commitment to get this guy a degree at least. It's a better gamble than Elysee Mbem-Bosse.

We'll see if he rises up the rankings as the camp performances, Michigan commitment, and a full fall at a position he actually expected to be playing give his profile a lot of upward mobility. We'll also see if he's still growing.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

It's finally got a linebacker in it, after Michigan's said goodbye to more of their top targets than they've hosted for official visits. The long runway for Alexander to playing time means that board hasn't changed. Their top ILB targets have been Jeremy Patton and Sebastian Cheeks. Cheeks will be on campus for his official today, and we'll know after that if George Helow and Mike Macdonald can get Michigan back in the race. Michigan's been running ahead, but losing lead, to LB Jeremy Patton, who was up here this weekend and loved it, but regional schools are coming hard all of a sudden, including Texas. Either way the coaches are staying on Utah super-athlete Lander Barton, whom Harbaugh flew out to see, arriving late to the Nashville camp because of it. West Bloomfield's Michael Williams and OLSM's Jordan Cannon are two local LBs who popped early in their careers and might resuscitate their recruitments with a solid senior season.