Last year I did a What I Learned post about the 2019 class after that set of recruiting profiles was completed; now that 2020 is done let's reprise. I've gone over every scrap of information and highlight video; I've even scouted a couple full games when information on a prospect was frustratingly thin, or used Adam and Dave's Future Blue Originals/Derivatives.

These are my takeaways.

It's a B+ class

There's a lot of consternation about the lack of truly top-end prospects in this class, and it's understandable. It's nice to have guys like Rashan Gary and Jabrill Peppers around. This class does not have a single composite top 100 prospect. 2019 had 3, including two five stars; 2021 has 3, including a five star. I don't think it says a whole lot other than it was a weird year.

On the other hand, there are almost literally no fliers. If JD Johnson had not been forced to retire, thus paving the way for Dan Villari to get a Signing Day offer, the lowest-ranked guy in the class would be #513 Kris Jenkins. That's just outside the 3.5* range we use to designate players who are high three stars pursued by a large number of mid-to-upper-level P5 teams.

The previous class, which ranked first amongst Big Ten teams, had seven guys ranked lower than Jenkins. Five of them were below 750th. The 2021 class also has some deep cuts. So while the 2020 class doesn't have much of a top end it is uncommonly deep.

This is something I said on Signing Day. Doing the profiles reinforced that take because various guys in the back half of the class jumped out as good bets. Jeffrey Persi is a Greg Frey tackle. Cornell Wheeler has Ron Bellamy travelling the state to yell at people about how good he is. Matt Hibner's composite ranking is held back by ESPN and Rivals, who missed his incredible fitness montage. Roman Wilson… yes, he is in the back half of this class. I know.

This isn't a class that's going to shift the paradigm against Ohio State but what does that even look like? If we judge it by the standards of other recent Michigan classes it's solid.

[After the JUMP: stocks up, down, and shruggie sections]

Stock up gentlemen

I became distinctly more enthusiastic about a few different guys:

• RB Blake Corum: Annihilated the best high school competition on offer, and did so as a darting interior runner with great vision. Individual game scouts reveal a guy with very little High School Crappe to coach out of him. Short but not tiny, which is great for running backs. Already 204, which should be playing weight.
• OL Zak Zinter: Appears to be a straight up recruiting W against Notre Dame, which is possibly the best school in the country to beat out for a guard. Post speculated that Zinter was listed well under his actual weight, a speculation that came good when the updated roster listed him at 334; that size recontextualizes the scouting quite a bit. Post didn't want to compare him to Mike Onwenu but if he's 334 and looks like he does the comparison will be hard to escape since they're both super-dense guys with adamantium bones or something. 
• CB Andre Seldon: Seldon is tiny, which held back his rating for a long time, but when he showed up at his All Star game he drew universal praise and got significant bumps up the rankings. If there was a spot where his height would be exposed that was it; it was not. Meanwhile he has everything else you want in a cornerback, and did almost literally everything he could to seek out top opposition and defeat it. I went in thinking he'd be a nice nickel and came out thinking he could be Will Likely or Antoine Winfield.
• S Jordan Morant: Highlight film is full of situations he shuts down in the open field with aplomb. Drew the kind of Jabrill Peppers comparisons that are credible because they are specific. Tackles like Jordan Kovacs. Has not put up good 40 times but has a killer shuttle. Major foot injury is a concern.

I guess you could put Roman Wilson in this category too, but it's not like the things that make him an appealing prospect need a whole lot of dissection. Dan Villari is also worth a mention since I went in thinking he had no shot at being a QB and found a guy with enough athleticism to throw off-platform and pick up rugged rushing yards. Still a longshot, but that's better than no shot.

The flipside

A few guys didn't seem to have the scouting to back up their rankings:

• DE Jaylen Harrell: Harrell is reputed to be an Uche sort of guy. He did not have the eyepopping scouting Uche did (despite the fact Uche was outside the top 1000 on the composite) and his ranking is heavily dependent on ESPN leaving him in their top 200 as the other sites dropped him into three-star range. Harrell started the cycle as a top 50 player, so this is a situation where ESPN's rank-and-forget approach is likely to be inaccurate.
• LB Nikhai Hill-Green: Early returns from inside the program are already disputing my skepticism here so take it for what it's worth. Hill-Green was barely scouted and when I went back to look at St Frances's win over IMG I discovered he was platooning. He got the second and forth quarters and went the wrong direction a lot. I mentioned Mike McCray and Desmond Morgan. Now apparently he's beating RJ Moten, about whom more in a second, in races?
• CB Darion Green-Warren: Green-Warren's scouting is littered with references to middling athleticism, which is about the last thing you want to hear about a cornerback in the aftermath of a couple of debacles against OSU. Green-Warren is also praised for having really advanced technique for a high school guy but the specter of crossing routes looms large.

I'm also nonplussed about Eamonn Dennis as a cornerback. Dennis's high school tape is almost literally all offense and while he's a verified fast guy his shuttle isn't where you want it to be for a 5'10" corner. Moving Dennis is a logical decision given the state of the roster and he's not exactly overrated since he's a three-star. It is a thing that you do because you have some issues in the secondary you're scrambling to fix.

Boom or bust

McGregor is the subject of takes [Dave Nasternak]

The guys who could be anything:

• DE Braiden McGregor: Wildly divergent camp takes. Rivals dumped on him when he went to their camps; he was the ALPHA DOG or close to it whenever 24/7 saw him. Rivals ranking is outside the top ten in the state, because Rivals doesn't want to project Midwest recruits down the road. Senior year knee injury prevented a final verdict and was also the variety where you're concerned it might be a long-term issue. I have a distinct take here—he's going to be very good—but he's one of the more controversial croots in the region.
• LB Kalel Mullings: Beset by injury that limited him to four games as a sophomore and junior. Healthy senior year was spent playing a lot of offense. Needs a ton of work to be an inside linebacker but pretty close to playing weight already so his speed and fluidity are likely to translate. Caris alert: a year younger than most of his class.
• S RJ Moten: Dual-sport athlete who put up a 40 inch vert at 200 pounds. Mostly played offense in high school and spent a lot of time becoming a single-digit-round baseball prospect. Has already generated buzz inside the program that he is an eyepopping athlete. He is also very, very raw as a safety.

Morant could also fit in this category because of the foot injury.

Sleeper of the year

The criteria for this award has changed as the ranking industry has grown and shrunk; for the last few years it's been restricted to composite three-stars.

Kris Jenkins is the pick. Jenkins's ranking is (relatively) low because he's a guy who projects as a defensive tackle and is listed at 240 pounds. His genetics and frame mean that shouldn't be a long term issue, and then you've got a guy who has shown the ability to fire out low and batter people. He was benching 350 a year ago, and that'll only go up.

William Mohan, the viper nicknamed "Apache," was a close second. Vipers are always strong candidates for sleeper slots because the sites usually see them as NFL tweeners and 24/7 is explicitly looking at draftability when they rank. I too have a success bias here: the depth chart at viper is a much harder climb than the one at DT.

The recruiting sites were this close to putting Roman Wilson in three-star territory—he is #354 and the last four star is #373—and barely prevented the most emphatic windmill dunk of a sleeper pick in site history.