Ikechukwu Iwunnah Has Committed To Michigan
Michigan's second bonafide DT of late Signing Day is in the boat:
Welcome to Michigan, Ikechukwu (Ike) Iwunnah! 〽️@Ikeiwunnah hails from Texas as a 6-4, 281-pound defensive lineman! #GoBlue | #NewBlue | #NSD21 pic.twitter.com/GQNHgcxFT0
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) February 3, 2021
Iwunnah was committed to Colorado until ~10 minutes ago; he's ranked just outside the top 1000 on the composite but has bonafide size at 6'4" 275 and is a lottery ticket at a spot where Michigan needs lottery tickets. With recently committed four-stars George Rooks and Rayshawn Benny also joining the class, DT recruiting is no longer a five-alarm fire.
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February 3rd, 2021 at 9:31 AM ^
keep on rolling
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:33 AM ^
I like Ike
February 3rd, 2021 at 1:21 PM ^
Hashtag that!
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:33 AM ^
This class ended up so much better than I ever imagined. I honestly don't know how they kept it together to begin with and then went out and improved on it at the greatest position of need. The coaches deserve a lot of credit.
February 3rd, 2021 at 12:04 PM ^
Yeah but aren’t we supposed to hate Harbaugh and still want him gone?
February 3rd, 2021 at 1:07 PM ^
They definitely do. The unfortunate thing is that this class isn't really going to help Harbaugh much in what appears to be a make-or-break kind of year. Other than Edwards, it would be a surprise to get significant help from any of the true freshmen-- he just has to roll with the roster he's got and coach the hell out of it.
February 3rd, 2021 at 1:23 PM ^
DaVonta Smith caught the game winner in OT of the NC game as a true frosh.
That's all I'm expecting from Flash Worthy! I'm reasonable! ?
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:35 AM ^
So maybe Brown was the biggest problem and not Harbaugh all along?
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:42 AM ^
Well except Harbaugh should have seen the disaster at DT earlier. And it's not like it's been the offense carrying the defense.
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:52 AM ^
I would submit that all of the losses in our biggest games in 2018 and 2019 were on the defense. And the problems this year were much worse on the defensive side of the ball despite the defense returning a lot more experience than the offense.
I think Harbaugh's hands were kind of tied. He may well have seen the problems building with Brown and felt like he needed to change some things, but how do you fire a guy when he's put up the results that Brown did for 3.5 seasons? I also think Mattison leaving was way more on Brown than it was on Harbaugh.
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:16 AM ^
Mattison may have had issues with Brown that made him unhappy here, but OSU offered him the DC job and doubled his pay - hard to pass on that, even if you are happy at your current job.
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:24 AM ^
greg mattison is a job-hopper. always has been.
please note - that's neither a defense nor complaint about don brown. but ascribing mattison moving to another job to anything other than greg mattison's tendencies is kinda a fool's errand.
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:40 AM ^
Fair, but many on this board, not to mention Brian and Ace, have been happy to say that coaches leaving here, including Matison, is proof that no one wants to work with Harbaugh. I just wanted to push back on that idea.
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
I think Harbaugh wanted to dump Don Brown a couple of years ago but gave him too big of a contract and was stuck with him. Can't really fault the administration if that was the case. Harbaugh hired him, but I think he was stuck. He renegotiated his contract to free up a little money and went the low cost route of hiring young guns.
At least that's my hypothesis for the last couple of years spiraling out of control and how we're hopefully in a much better place now.
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:17 AM ^
no argument here. have some coaches and players left because they couldn't / wouldn't / didn't get along with him? almost certainly, but that's true of every single-leader organization.
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:03 AM ^
But tell me a game the offense has won? There's always going to be games where the defense can't carry the team, but I can't remember the last time the offense did it's part. There were significant problems on the defense for sure, but the idea those losses were only on the defense doesn't make sense to me.
February 3rd, 2021 at 1:31 PM ^
They boat-raced Notre Dame in a monsoon, IIRC.
February 3rd, 2021 at 1:31 PM ^
The Minnesota & rutger games in 2020. Do you want to look further back?
I'd say putting up 44 on ND in '19 was pretty sweet, but was totally a team effort, as the D also dominated.
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
Brown had problems but for virtually his entire tenure at UM his defenses were top-10 units whole the offense typically floated in the top 20-30 range. And other than Ike the other 2 guys were DTs Michigan was in on with Brown heavily; it wasn't like Nua went out and found Rooks and Benny on his own.
I think these kids didn't know if Harbaugh and his staff would be around next year so they kept their options open; it's telling that both didn't commit during the early signing period despite there being a lot of opportunities for them to sign elsewhere.
February 3rd, 2021 at 1:50 PM ^
Yep. If only he could have fielded some top 5 defenses in his time here we may have lost less than 3 games for a change. It really is a disservice what he did to poor Jimmy, occasionally requiring a competent offense.
February 3rd, 2021 at 3:28 PM ^
The offense scored plenty of points against OSU in 2018-19 to win. But Brown's defense gave up almost 120 points across both those games. Brown racked up impressive stats against inferior teams and crumbled when it mattered most. I acknowledge that Brown was a very good coordinator for most of his time here. But at the most crucial times his system did not hold up and it was getting progressively worse. It's just a fact.
February 3rd, 2021 at 4:59 PM ^
If you think 27 points is "plenty" to win high level football games in this era we're starting from a completely different reality and are going to find it impossible to come to any sort of agreement. Or a mostly in garbage time 39 for that matter.
February 3rd, 2021 at 8:24 PM ^
27 points when you only have the ball 23 minutes isn’t bad. Had Brown’s defense not allowed OSU to use all the clock by running the ball for over 250 yards, they could have scored more. Also, the offensive game plan and coaching were good. Hard to overcome 6 crucial drops, including one in the end zone and the QB fumbling a snap in the red zone. None of that was on the coaches. Not to mention, once you’re down by three possessions late in the third quarter because your defense is giving the resistance of a wet paper bag, you become a one dimensional pass every down offense that is much easier to deal with.
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:38 AM ^
Big pickup Now can we get some corners?
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:53 AM ^
We got McBurrows. And maybe now that Zordich and Brown are gone, we can see what some of the younger DBs that they wouldn't play can do.
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:37 AM ^
Watch McBurrows tape... he goes violently after the ball every time, as if he were the WR.
February 3rd, 2021 at 12:03 PM ^
Probably important to remember that we used to put our corners on an island. I think we may see more playable cornerbacks in a system that allows them to be off the ball/line a bit more. Not forcing every corner to play man every down is probably going to relieve a lot of pressure off the cornerback room. Also, the ability to adapt and adjust will be nice for the defense as a whole
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:42 AM ^
Great! Might need 3 more DT's next year for depth purposes but this is a great start.
Right now the depth chart is Hinton, Jeter, and Mazi Smith. We don't know how good Hinton and Smith are going to get, even less so for Smith, and Jeter feels like he is what he is at this point. It will be of paramount importance for the team to get a LOT of DT's over the next 2 classes and coach them up fast. Great start today.
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:49 AM ^
Seriously? I don't check MGoBlog in like 12 hours and return to find that we have signed 2 more legit interior DL's?! This is awesome news.
Remind me to lay off of MGoBlog for like 2 months during next year's signing season. My absence from the site seems to be the key to this whole recruiting endeavor.
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:59 AM ^
Can you maybe quit the blog during football season as well?
February 3rd, 2021 at 1:33 PM ^
Count on us!
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:06 AM ^
In December, Matt Dudek did tweet that we should wait for the February 3rd signing day. Bingo!
Like for many/most of us there were doubts, but..
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:12 AM ^
Check out those Kubrick Eyes
February 3rd, 2021 at 12:47 PM ^
Lets now cross fingers and hope he can land a 400lb samoan in the next cycle.
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:16 AM ^
Im especially happy with this flip so I can gloat a bit with my CU alum buddy.
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:37 AM ^
He was committed to a P5 school and had a couple of more P5 offers, so not a complete lottery ticket. Michigan by far his best offer, but he's not a complete flyer.
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:56 AM ^
If this kid is actually 6'4" 275 then I'm super excited about him. He has one of those rare frames where he can be 300+ pounds look like he's not carrying nearly that much weight and still move well
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:09 AM ^
Another great late pickup for UM. Watching this kids film I think he’s underrated he should at least be a high three star. I think he could have a very good career at UM. Welcome young man
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:33 AM ^
Need someone who can cover a reciever.
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:58 AM ^
Just had a 6’4” 370 pound guy on the table for our last case. Ike is gunna be a massive dude
February 3rd, 2021 at 2:39 PM ^
What kind of table? Dining table? Mortuary table?
February 3rd, 2021 at 12:46 PM ^
His tape looks phenomenal, to these laymans eyes..
February 3rd, 2021 at 12:48 PM ^
Iwunnah? I wanna winner!
February 3rd, 2021 at 4:56 PM ^
Good luck to Carl Grapentine. He is going to have to pronounce "Ikechukwu Iwunnah" over the PA. Hoping he will have lots of practice saying "tackle by Ikechukwu Iwunnah" over the next few years.
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