kobe baynes

Oak Park five-star OL Justin Rogers has been on Michigan’s radar forever, but it’s just in the past few weeks that they’ve seemed to make progress with the state’s top-ranked player. Rogers told WolverinesWire’s Isaiah Hole after a mid-February visit that he needed to continue to build a relationship with Michigan’s staff, particularly with new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, and that daily communication needed to happen. Rogers visited again a week later for the Michigan State game and told Hole that communication with the staff had indeed picked up, and the game served as another opportunity to build his relationship with Gattis.

Whereas last week’s visit the two spoke more about Rogers’ past, and not much about football in a recruiting-sense, this time, Rogers says that Gattis has started laying down the foundation of how the five-star prospect could fit in with the Wolverines’ offensive plans, especially given the attrition that will happen by the time the Oak Park standout would arrive on campus.

“We’ve just been talking about (the future), college-wise,” Rogers said. “The offensive line, (how they have) all of the seniors and juniors. We’ve definitely talking about the future. We’re talking about all of that.”

It seems particularly beneficial to have had Rogers on campus consecutive weeks in light of the details he shared with Hole about his conversation with Gattis during his first visit.

“When did you start playing football?” Rogers said. “It was the little questions he was asking. It was like, ‘Wow, this is the first coach that ever did it.’ It’s definitely, it was crazy.”

Turns out relationships are built by talking to people about their life.

Another big visit, this one upcoming, comes from three-star, #499 overall VA DE Antwaun Powell on March 22. His ranking might not be that high just yet, but it’s telling that he’s the only weakside end on 247’s top target list. The Brice Marich article linked above notes that Powell’s hearing frequently from and developing a good relationship with Don Brown, which also tells you something about priority.

[More 2020 updates after THE JUMP]