It was only a matter of time but it feels so good nonetheless. Four-star interior lineman Raheem Anderson announced on Sunday that he will, as everyone expected, continue the legacy of my parents' alma mater at the University of Michigan.

Happy Easter

Happy Birthday Grammie

Committed...#2EZ pic.twitter.com/FNdT07tXHL

— Raheem Anderson II (@espn_heem) April 12, 2020

Anderson was expected to join this class ever since his official visit, when he and his high schoolmates took in the MSU game. If "tell me why you're interested in Michigan" was an exam question written by myself and Dr. Sap, Anderson would set the curve:

“The Team, The Team, The Team, basically, family, everything like that, the ability of the coaches, that’s like my No.2 thing as far as where I’m looking,” he said. “First is academics, second is the stability of the coaches. So , yeah I just look at that.”

Question 2 would be "What stood out?", and Raheem's answer is the one we're reading in class:

“The fact that (Michigan) didn’t show mercy,” Anderson simply stated.

Anderson would also get high marks from Bo for this comment after sitting through the Notre Dame downpour:

"Very wet and cold environment but that's football. Highlights were the whole game. It was a linemen game."

And is that hint of Ufer I detect?

"It was just pure domination by those Maize and Blue guys,” Anderson told The Michigan Insider. “Loved it.”

Oddly for an in-state four star, there was some question along the way if Michigan valued him as much. That apparently got cleared up recently, via Rivals' EJ Holland($):

Anderson's commitment came after he got the green light from Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. The two had a video chat on Thursday. It was then that Harbaugh made it clear that Anderson was a wanted man and a guy the staff was going to press for the remainder of the cycle. It didn't take long for Anderson to make a decision. He silently committed over the weekend before making it public.

Despite Anderson starting in the middle all three years he’s been in high school, Michigan might see classmate Greg Crippen as the future at center and Anderson as a guard.

I see it too. As the little commitment vignette shows, in addition to being the most Michigan recruit in the class, Anderson is the least subtle person on the field. Already close to 300 pounds (295 to Rivals, 296 to 24/7) or over it (ESPN lists him at 306), Raheem highlights come in one variety: puny humans move. Even without the helpful arrows pointing at the player you can tell something unfair is going on because a mass of bodies are parting like the dam just broke.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	247	247 Comp
4*, 5.8, #2 C, #6 MI, #139 Ovr	4*, 82, #3 C, #18 MW, #6 MI, #226 Ovr	3*, 89, #3 C, #9 MI, NR Ovr	4*, 0.9198, #3 C, #7 MI, #211 Ovr

24/7 hasn't put out more than their Top 247 yet, and that includes no centers, but the next C and the next State of Michigan prospect (OLB Jamari Buddin) are solid 4-stars so he's right on the cusp. ESPN has Anderson a solid 4-star, and Rivals is the most bullish, with a top-150 ranking.

This is a reflection of how the different sites rank offensive linemen. You'll note Rivals is often not as high on the Frey-type tight ends Michigan hopes to grow into athletic tackles because they have a higher regard for players closer to being ready to play, and that 24/7 will use upside as a greater factor. Here we get the flipside of that equation: Anderson is ahead on technique, already has the size and strength of a typical Power 5 starter, and has been playing at his projected position for his state's biggest program, so what you see on film is much closer to the finished product than your typical center prospect.

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

SCOUTING

Anderson's been on radars a very long time after finishing in the top five at the 2018 Under Armour camp as a freshman (video at the link), and "took good reps" at that year's United Stars Showcase and Best of the Midwest. On his sophomore camp circuit Anderson "had a high win-rate" at The Opening Ohio regional while playing guard and center. Anderson got his offer a week later.

We'll start with Rivals since they’re the highest. EJ Holland($):

5. I had an opportunity to see Anderson play live twice this fall, and he checked all the boxes for me. I feel like one of the biggest reasons I was opposed to him playing guard is because he had a much better in-game performance at center than Crippen, who I also had a chance to see with pads on last year. Anderson did a fantastic job of commanding the line and was very cerebral.

6. The thing that really stood out to me about Anderson, though, was how nasty he was. The offensive line position is really the hardest to evaluate because it's mostly about projection. On top of that, aggression usually builds with time and guys learn to really finish off blocks. Anderson is already a bully and loves to serve up pancakes. He's a dominant force on the inside.

Holland also calls Anderson “a mauler.” Rivals had their eyes on Anderson early, naming him and Ryan Linthicum as “two dominant players” among what would be a record four offensive linemen likely to get five stars. Brandon Brown named Anderson one of the top prospects at their Cincy camp a year ago:

Performance: There might not be a better sophomore true center than Anderson in the country. He's got good size, is extremely light on his feet and seems to have a ton of upper body strength by the way he handles pass rushers. He takes a lot of pride in being a center but there's obviously a future for him at guard too if he were to check that position out at the next level. He wasn't dubbed the MVP of the offensive line during the camp but he may have only lost a rep or two all day.

And the national writers had this to say from the same camp:

A few interior offensive linemen nearly stole the show from Parks. Centers Raheem Anderson II and Davion Weatherspoon are both in the 2021 class and they dominated the defensive tackles they faced. Neither lost more than one or two reps during the one-on-one session.

Midwest recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt gave Anderson the camp’s “The Hulk” award:

At day’s end it was Detroit Cass Tech sophomore Raheem Anderson who won the majority of those repetitions where strength was key. Anderson is a true offensive center prospect who plays light on his feet, but it is his ability to anchor and stop a defensive tackle’s momentum cold that sets him apart.

24/7’s the relative downer and give a very good explanation why:

We have also been seeing him at camps since around that time and he has always won a majority of his reps. He is very solid technically. He plays with an excellent base and moves his feet well enough laterally to be successful in pass pro. He gets his initial punches off quickly. Size wise, for a center, he is slightly above average. He has such a good punch though, that he knocks bigger guys off balance and he will look to finish his blocks when he can. In the past, his testing results have not been elite. That calls into question how much it really matters for an interior offensive lineman. When asked to pull, he does fine in space. He is balanced and coordinated. But if you're looking for an area of improvement for him, I think lateral agility and foot speed can still be worked on if we're projecting him to college and then beyond that.

Trieu also calls Anderson "one of the higher-floor prospects" in Michigan and expects him to start. The profile description also mentions "solid arm length" so the testing results concerns appear to be purely athleticism-related.

Trieu also took in a few of Anderson's games, noting the Cass Tech OL didn't play well versus Chicago Phillips "but highly recruited juniors Raheem Anderson and Terrence Enos looked the part."

I should note 24/7's Brice Marich was considerably higher on Anderson when the national #1 center chose Clemson:

With Linthicum now off the board for the Wolverines, where do they turn at the center position in the 2021 cycle? Well, it might not be far having one of the best right in their own backyard with Detroit (Mich.) Cass Tech four-star offensive lineman Raheem Anderson, who I personally feel is an elite player himself and wouldn't be anywhere close to a consolation prize if Michigan could pull him.

Touch the Banner disagrees with the sites’ assessment of who’s a guard and who’s giving snaps between Anderson and Crippen, but also notes the messy feet that might cause problems for a position that is expected to get to the second level more often:

Anderson has a prototypical center body. Listed at 6’3″, he’s probably about 6’2″ and has that squat, powerful build you think of when picturing a center. He does a great job of staying low and maintaining leverage on interior players to win battles in the trenches. He seems to especially enjoy down blocks, which is really where he seems to excel. He likes to finish blocks and does a good job of driving his feet after contact. I like him as a run blocker.

As a pass blocker, I believe there is some work to do. Anderson needs to do a better job of moving his feet laterally. He tends to try to outmuscle people with his upper body. And while I mentioned that he stays low initially, he does tend to get up high when releasing to the second level and/or when drive blocking. His feet get too narrow, and that technique will lead to either missed blocks or holding calls in the future.

Cass Tech head coach Thomas Wilcher sees the kind of kid Bo would have recruited:

“I see a kid who can elevate the team, a kid who can motivate the team and a person who has every little thing it takes to be a great player,” Wilcher said. “He has the GPA, he has good listening skills, he has the work ethic to keep trying, he has that engine that just don’t quit. He’ll just be a great player as long as he keeps going the way he’s going.”

OFFERS

Anderson may have been the Wolverines' to lose all along, but three years of being ranked in the top three of his position nationally brought quite a few offers as well as "offers." LSU's pursuit was for real—Anderson and his family drove down there last summer($) for LSU’s camp, and Mom was reportedly very into the idea of moving to Baton Rouge, and all the defending champs had to offer.

Georgia offered last week, and Michigan State was recruiting Raheem harder under the new regime. Planned visits around the Southeast were obviously no longer feasible, but it's a fair assumption that the increased contact from the SEC powers forced Michigan, in position to put together one of the top OL classes in history, to decide if Anderson's a priority or not. Louisville, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri were always in the mix, Syracuse was trying, and Purdue had hopes of landing Anderson and 3-star teammate Terrence Enos as a package deal.

HIGH SCHOOL

Cass Tech, Detroit’s premier magnet school for generations, has provided all manner of players to Michigan, from the tiniest little nickelback to literally the largest man to ever play here. Anderson, of course, is closer to the Michael Onwenu end of the Technician scale. Coach Thomas Wilcher was a solid running back for Bo, though it’s hard to put an exact number of recruits he needs to send down I-94 to make up for that fumble in the ‘86 game.

Raheem’s decision to play for Wilcher was unexpected—Raheem Anderson the elder was a star for rival Martin Luther King back in the day:

It certainly couldn’t be any tougher than when he decided to enroll at Cass as a ninth grader. He had to break the news to his father, Raheem, who was a mainstay in the trenches for the late 80s football teams at arch-rival Detroit King.

“We had an agreement – I told him ‘If you keep your grades high, you could pick the school that you want to go to,” his father explained. “He got a 4.0, he shook my hand, he looked me in the eye, and said, ‘Dad, I want to go to Cass.’ It was rough (for me to hear), but it was like, I don’t want to micro-manage his life.

STATS

OL, no stats.

FAKE 40 TIME

The D Zone lists a 5.49 from the latest camp. Since that’s laser-timed in a camp setting, it’s believable, but 5.49 is pretty fast for a lineman and Raheem is noted to be NOT FAST in his scouting reports, so I’m giving that three FAKES out of five in my useless quest to reorient our FAKE ratings to something more appropriately incredulous.

VIDEO

Opening Video (if you can get it to play). Junior highlights:

There’s also plenty of camp video out there. Here’s one from the Rivals 5-Star Challenge last June, with Anderson showing success against top-300 Miami (YTM) commit Savion Collins, but struggling with TAMU commit Isaiah Raikes.

Sophomore highlights and single-game reels can be found on his Hudl page.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Michigan has a couple of center prospects vying to be multi-year starters from two classes ago in Zach Carpenter and Nolan Rumler. One of them will (hopefully) be entrenched as a redshirt sophomore returning starter when Anderson arrives, and the other could be starting at guard by then. Both 2021 center prospects should be able to redshirt while competing for the backup job, and given his advanced technique and size Anderson is a likely candidate to use up his four games. The winner of that battle is then likely to find himself the backup center for 2022 and 2023 and the starter for two years thereafter. 2020 signee Reece Atteberry could also figure into the center mix. If OL doesn’t work out, defensive tackle is also a possibility, but I don’t think that’s his future.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan now has three four-star OL commits this cycle, and would like to get up to five or six. OT prospect Giovanni El-Hadi was the 2021 class's first pledge, and as noted IMG Academy C/G Greg Crippen joined earlier this month. I must note that Steve Lorenz believed as of late March that Michigan saw Crippen as the center:

Moved OC Greg Crippen to 'top target': It looks like Michigan prefers the east coast/IMG four-star as their center in this class.

Moved OC Raheem Anderson to 'high choice': It appears Crippen is the top target at center.

That has been going on a long time, with Saw Webb hinting along the way that Anderson was a luxury if Crippen comes.

If I read the situation correctly, the crunch was more due to Michigan having a surfeit of elite OL prospects with Michigan ties this cycle. Since then, five-star center Ryan Linthicum went off the board to Clemson, Detroit Country Day G/T Caleb Tiernan surprisingly committed to Northwestern (where former Michigan C Kurt Anderson is now OL coach), top-100 in-stater Garrett Dellinger seems ticketed for LSU, and five-star OT Nolan Rucci, a PSU legacy, was always just a pipe dream.

That still leaves plenty. Four-star Illinois LT prospect David Davidkov was (and is still) trending Michigan, and the battle for 4.5-star guard prospect Rocco Spindler won't be over for some time. Michigan is also after recent commit Casey Phinney's teammate Drew Kendall, the #1 player in Massachusetts and a national top-150 guard who's also being recruited by Duke OL coach Greg Frey. Oak Park's Rayshaun Benny is still listed as an OT to the sites but Michigan is recruiting him as a defensive tackle. Spindler could also play defense.

As the kids say: Go Cass, kick ass!