aaron gates

The weather is warm, summer is in full swing, and you know what that means: it's recruiting season! Our last recruiting update was a few weeks back and at the time, I was talking about overarching questions, why there weren't as many commitments as some wanted, the Dante Moore saga, and a few key prospects to follow. Some elements of that story still ring true; Michigan hasn't gotten any more commitments since last time around and the Dante Moore sweepstakes still have no end in sight. 

But other conditions have changed, and the next few weeks are likely to see even larger changes. This weekend is Victor's Weekend, the third straight weekend in which the staff has hosted several key recruits and this one is the biggest. By the end of June, nearly all key 2023 recruits will have taken either an official visit or an unofficial visit, and a number of top targets are set to decide by early July. Michigan Football under Jim Harbaugh has typically done most of its recruiting in the summer and with school freshly out, it is firmly summertime. Time for some commits to roll in. 

Today I'm going to do an abbreviated mid-June version of the 2023 recruiting board, moving position by position to see what's going on, which targets have visited, which prospects could be close to committing, and where things stand as we get into the meat of the summer. Along the way I'll touch on some of the most burning questions and then wrap it up with a few thoughts at the end. 

Quarterback

Want: 1

Commits: 0 

Scoop: Speaking of burning questions, this is where we can talk about CJ Carr, even though he's in the 2024 class. Carr, grandson of Lloyd (if you didn't know this, I'm glad you just woke up from your coma), committed to Notre Dame last week and sent some corners of Michigan Twitter into peak Down Bad status. I got several CJ Carr-related questions for the mailbag piece I did earlier in the week, but chose to defer them to this piece. Carr's fate has long been linked to that of the only 2023 QB target, Dante Moore. The two talented in-state QBs were very much aware of the other's presence, and the smart reporting has said for some time that the two were unlikely to wind up at the same school. Both want playing time and spoiler alert, it's hard to start two QBs simultaneously.   

Dante Moore's recruitment has been long and winding and some schools are starting to get tired of waiting. It seems to me that CJ Carr may have been tired too. Rather than waiting for the older Dante to shoot his shot, Carr pulled a Han Solo and shot first. Notre Dame was once considered the leader for Moore, but now with Carr in the class, it would appear to be unlikely that Moore winds up in South Bend. He continues to look around at other schools besides Michigan, but the longer he draws this out, the more suitors will drop out of the running. A lot of schools don't want to wait for his timeline and if there's a similar caliber of QB willing to commit, they'll take that kid and bail on Dante. That's why many insiders have indicated that the longer it goes, the better it gets for Michigan ($). The upcoming commitments of Avery Johnson and Jaden Rashada are interesting to watch, because the schools those two pick will likely then drop out of the running for Moore. 

Michigan remains in a unique position being the school who is only recruiting Moore. There is no Plan B right now, and that makes it incredibly risky. If they end up getting Dante, then it likely will be worth it. But if they don't, that will be a major swing and a miss, and one with tough consequences given that 2022 was a pretty weak QB class too. As for 2024, the name Jadyn Davis has been rising up the board in the absence of Carr. Part of the Carr decision was Michigan allegedly not viewing Carr in the same way as other schools, and their pursuit of Davis was a factor.

The 5* QB from North Carolina visited Michigan early in June and the Wolverines have since picked up predictions at several sites for the QB. Ranked as a top 15 recruit in the class, Davis would be a massive coup to land, but obviously there are still ages to go in this one. Pulling a kid like that from the south is not going to be easy, even if there is early momentum and real mutual interest. What I will say is that if Michigan somehow were to end up with both Dante Moore and Jadyn Davis, then the thought of CJ Carr will be a distant (laughing) memory. But we are still a very, very long way from that being reality. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More positions!]