The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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58 THE WOLVERINE MARCH 2017 2017 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE BY BRANDON BROWN Beaver Falls (Pa.) High four-star defensive end Donovan Jeter com- mitted to Notre Dame in mid-Sep- tember, but it only lasted for about a month. The 6-3, 260-pounder opened things up just before heading to U-M for an official visit during the week- end of the Illinois game and com- mitted to head coach Jim Harbaugh pretty much as soon as he arrived in Ann Arbor. "Coach Harbaugh picked us up in a Sprinter van at 12 in the morning and took us back to our hotel," Jeter explained with a smile. "I actually committed that night in the van. I got in the van and I was like, 'You know what, Coach? You're my guy and I'm going to commit.' He pulls the van over, jumps out and gives me a big hug. I didn't make it public until Monday [Oct. 24, 2016], but I committed in the van. "Then in the morning, I kind of for- got that I committed, but he ran up to me and gave me a big hug and said, 'We're glad to have you aboard,' and I was like, 'Oh yeah, I committed.' So then I had to run and tell my parents. That just tells you what kind of guy he is. Not too many coaches would go out at 12 in the morning to pick up recruits." The declaration was a bit unorth- odox, but Jeter 's reasons for com- mitting were not. Without being too negative about Notre Dame, he ex- plained why his pledge to Michigan was different. "I told myself that if I liked Michi- gan more than I liked Notre Dame, I was going to commit to Michi- gan, and to me, it was better than Notre Dame," Jeter explained. "Life at Michigan just seemed to be on another level and obviously Coach Harbaugh is there. At Notre Dame it kind of feels like a small, private high school. There are only about 9,000 people there and everything is gated and just doesn't feel great. At Michi- gan, everything just seemed more free and flowing. There are 40,000 people there and you can tell. "When we were riding around before the game there were people everywhere and parties going on. There was so much more activity and energy. It just felt like where I wanted to be. I'm not trying to badmouth Notre Dame, but it just felt kind of dry there. I just loved the way Michi- gan felt." The draw to Harbaugh is appar- ent when Jeter explains his decision, but he was also drawn to his future position coach, Greg Mattison. Jeter received a detailed explanation from Mattison on how will be used while at U-M, and as an early enrollee, it's already begun. "Coach Mattison wants me to play strongside defensive end, but he thinks I could also slide in and play the three-technique [tackle]," Jeter explained. "I told him that it didn't matter to me at all. I'll line up wher- ever he wants me to and try to make plays." Mattison touched on Jeter 's abili- ties as well. "Donovan played at a great high school — their team won the WPIAL championship," Mattison said. "He's a defensive end with tremendous talent and comes from a very great family. He has one brother that plays football overseas and another one of his brothers starts for the Univer- sity of Pittsburgh on their basketball team. His dad is a basketball coach, and Donovan was a very good bas- ketball player himself in high school. "He is a very, very talented football player. He's big and smart and is a great kid with a fantastic attitude. His size and his mental aptitude defi- nitely make him a real good player, but he's also a real good person, and that means a lot to us, too." With Jeter already more than a month into his freshman year, he's embracing exactly what he signed up for when he committed to Michigan. It's not always easy, but it's what he wanted. "It's different," he said with a smile. "Taking care of myself, the weather, the school and the workouts are a lot more intense and harder — but that's what I'm here for and that's why I signed up with Michi- gan." Speaking of those workouts, all 11 early enrollees seemed to have something to say about strength and conditioning coach Kevin Tolbert's sessions, and Jeter definitely had an opinion about the effects when asked if he was sore. "Whew," he exhaled with a bit of an eye roll and a laugh. "We did squats and in high school I didn't squat that much. I was only doing about 205 and it wasn't heavy, it was just how low we had to go. The next day I woke up and I could barely walk. Then the next day after that was a conditioning day so it was hard to run, but I just had to tough it out. I was very sore to say the least." Although expected to play mostly defensive end, Jeter finished his prep career as the No. 13 defensive tackle in the country according to Rivals. com and will have a chance to work into the two-deep somewhere along the defensive front during his fresh- man season. Harbaugh, Mattison and Tolbert are working on getting him ready to do just that. ❏ Donovan Jeter Is Already Embracing What He Signed Up For Jeter is listed by Rivals.com as a four-star recruit, the No. 7 player in Pennsylvania and the No. 13 defensive tackle in the country. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM