The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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64 THE WOLVERINE NOVEMBER 2017 BY BRANDON BROWN S ince last fall, Jim Harbaugh has brought in a couple of new people to run the Michigan football recruit- ing machine, and with them come some new ideas and approaches. Harbaugh hired Matt Dudek to be the director of recruiting and also brought in Cooper Petagna to serve as the recruiting coordinator. As soon as Dudek arrived, he decided that he'd like to switch up how official visits were conducted in hopes of maximizing their potential. "My official visits, I promise you will be the best that Michigan has ever seen," Dudek confidently said. "It's all about that vibe and flow, and it's organized. It's not a knock in any way of how it's been done before, but it's something I pride myself on. "Over 11 years of doing this, I have been adamant about how much I hate in-season visits. The kids get gipped in their hours. They only get 48 hours on campus, and they miss out on a lot because they're playing games on Friday, we have our game on Saturday where the coaches and players are tied up and then there's a little bit on Sunday for a breakfast maybe. "I'm all about controlling what I can control. I personally cannot con- trol the weather, or if we win or lose. There are a lot of variables that you can't control on a game weekend." Dudek has been firm on that, but a place like Michigan and a new rule has loosened him up a bit. "I'm changing my tune on that be- cause there are 111,000 people in The Big House on game day," Dudek ex- plained. "Experiencing that is so im- pressive. That banner run is special , and one of those things that's huge and impactful. "If and when we are playing in the Big Ten championship, we also would lose a weekend in December so that cuts down on post-season vis- its. We are going to bring in as many official visitors as we can, and of course we're targeting the big games like Michigan State and Ohio State." MICHIGAN STATE OFFICIAL VISITORS Michigan hosted Air Force and Cincinnati early in the 2017 season, but didn't bring in any official visi- tors and didn't bill either game as a big recruiting event. When U-M hosted Michigan State, however, that all changed. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and neither did the Spar- tans — but the official visitor list was star-studded, and all nine prospects seemed to enjoy their time. Gardena (Calif.) Junipero Serra four-star athlete Bryan Addison "The visit went well," Addison said. "We did a lot of the normal of- ficial visit stuff. We got to go through all of the facilities and see the sta- dium before the game. The players were a little upset about the loss, but we still spent a little time with them. "Basically we just got a good chance to see what Michigan was all about. I had a great time and a really good experience overall." Rivals.com's No. 3 athlete and No. 59 overall prospect nationally is being recruited to potentially play both wide receiver and safety at U-M because of his 6-5, 175-pound frame. Washington (D.C.) St. John's College High three-star pro-style quarterback Kevin Doyle Doyle returned to U-M as a commit and had a chance to put his recruit- ing hat on while spending time with several Michigan targets. "I was sitting with Shocky [Jacques- Gardena (Calif.) Junipero Serra four-star Bryan Addison, the No. 3 athlete and No. 59 overall player in the country per Rivals.com, enjoyed his official visit to Michigan Oct. 7. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL MICHIGAN RECRUITING Changing Up Official Visits 2018 Michigan Commitment List Player Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (High School) Kevin Doyle QB 6-4 210 Washington, D.C. (St. John's College High) Emil Ekiyor OL 6-4 339 Indianapolis (Cathedral) Sammy Faustin CB 6-2 170 Naples, Fla. (Naples) Gemon Green DB 6-2 173 DeSoto, Texas (DeSoto) German Green DB 6-2 180 DeSoto, Texas (DeSoto) Ryan Hayes OL 6-7 250 Traverse City, Mich. (West) Aidan Hutchinson DE 6-6 248 Dearborn, Mich. (Divine Child) Jalen Mayfield OL 6-5 250 Grand Rapids, Mich. (Catholic Central) Cameron McGrone LB 6-1 210 Indianapolis (Lawrence Central) Joe Milton QB 6-5 210 Orlando, Fla. (Olympia) Otis Reese LB 6-2 195 Leesburg, Ga. (Lee County) Luke Schoonmaker TE 6-6 229 Hamden, Conn. (Hamden Hall Country Day) Myles Sims DB 6-3 173 Atlanta (Westlake) Christian Turner RB 5-10 180 Buford, Ga. (Buford) 2019 Michigan Commitment List Player Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (High School) Stephen Herron DE 6-4 225 Louisville, Ky. (Trinity) Christopher Hinton DE 6-5 265 Norcross, Ga. (Greater Atlanta Christian) Nolan Rumler OL 6-4 300 Akron, Ohio (Hoban) Charles Thomas LB 6-0 216 Fairburn, Ga. (IMG Academy [Fla.])