The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MICHIGAN RECRUITING five-star prospect, the top recruit at his position and the No. 11 overall player in the country. Finally, in Texas the position group the coaches are after is offensive line where six prospects have picked up an offer from the Maize and Blue. Al- len High's Gregory Little — who is rated as a five-star prospect and the No. 1 offensive tackle in the country — has an offer from Michigan, but he's likely off the market for good as a Texas A&M commit. The Wolverines do, however, have a very realistic shot with four-star Houston-area product linebacker Dontavious Jackson from Elsik High because they will host him for the spring game April 4. To date, the coaches have offered 19 prospects from Florida, 23 from California and 25 from Texas. LOOKING AHEAD With National Signing Day 2015 well in the rearview and the 2016 offer list growing by the day, the Michigan coaches have started to look even fur- ther into the future. To date, 26 current sophomores have pulled in an offer from the Michigan coaching staff, including five five-star prospects: Antioch (Ca- lif.) Senior running back Najee Harris, Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy of- fensive tackle Calvin Ashley, Miam- isburg (Ohio) High offensive tackle Josh Myers, Newbury Park (Calif.) High cornerback Darnay Holmes and Chesapeake (Va.) Indian River safety Devon Hunter. It's early for these ris- ing juniors, but Michigan has offered 21 of the Rivals100 in that class and will have a long time to form bonds with them, which is something the coaches were behind on in 2016 and definitely 2015. New ground was also broken in terms of Michigan recruiting with the coaching staff extending their first of- fer to a high school freshman. Mem- phis (Tenn.) Harding Academy offen- sive tackle Will Lawrence pulled in a Michigan offer in early March and is the first member of the 2018 class to do so. Lawrence already stands 6-4 and tips the scales at 280 pounds even though he's only 15 years old. Lawrence's offer list is already swol- len with Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Florida State, Ohio State, TCU, Texas, UCLA and USC among several others. He is in line to be one of the top pros- pects in the entire country for 2018, and Michigan decided it wanted to try to be a factor in his recruitment. ❏ On The Web For regular reports on Michigan football recruiting plus videos of U-M commitments and targets visit TheWolverine.com.