taylor tatum

It's time for another wholesale recruiting update! Three weeks ago I set the stage for all the official visits, now with 3/4 of the big recruiting weekends in June done, I felt it was time to check back in, especially with a handful of more commitments in tow. This time we're not going to do a full position by position breakdown, but merely check in on the big races and talk about various updates across the board that have occurred in the past three weeks. This should quench the thirst of our readers for recruiting content and provide more context for the upcoming commitment dates in early July. 

The Aaron Chiles Saga and what it means for LB recruiting 

Let's start with the bad. Saturday night saw the most surprising development of this recruiting cycle, when 4* LB Aaron Chiles, who had long been a strong Michigan lean, committed to Florida while on a visit. Apparently there had been a few murmurs about Chiles and Florida in the days beforehand (I didn't see these until after the fact), but certainly nothing to suggest that anything like this was remotely possible. When I saw the news tweeted out by Chiles, I was completely shocked, and it seems like the coaching staff ($), and by extension the insider class ($), were as well. Even those who were familiar with Chiles' nibbling on what Florida was selling before the visit felt it was extremely unlikely that Chiles would commit on a visit. The surprise was so great that two Rivals national recruiting experts deemed Chiles --> UF the biggest surprise of the 2024 cycle nationally. 

The experience of Chiles choosing Florida out of the blue seems to have outraged the Michigan staff and inevitably the next question fans had was "will they keep recruiting Chiles?". Not to get too far into the "haha, we'll see what Chiles does when Florida goes 4-8 and fires Napier!! 🤣🤣" discourse, but you have to plan for all contingencies and yes, Florida is not exactly slated to be a juggernaut this fall. A kid who makes a (seemingly) rash decision like that is also one who profiles as likely to reconsider, so there are plenty of reasons to keep poking around, but at this time it's not clear if Michigan will do so. 

[EJ Holland/On3]

Insiders have been divided on what comes next, from some saying that the Chiles decision has burned all bridges and has rendered him persona non grata to the coaching staff ($), while others have said that they may continue to keep an open dialogue ($). Regardless, my reading of the reports makes it clear that they aren't expecting anything and are planning to take the commitment of 4* in-state LB Jeremiah Beasley and then call it a day. Beasley is set to commit next week and all signs are pointing to the Wolverines on this one. He would technically be the only true ILB in the class, but Michigan has a number of LB-ish athletes in this class and theoretically you could move one to ILB.

I wrote in the Cole Sullivan Hello that they plan to start him at MIKE, while I've also heard that Jaden Smith could be an ILB candidate too. Reporting suggests they like these raw balls of clay enough to stick with them + Beasley and wrap it up at LB in '24. It sucks to lose Chiles, because he was an awesome prospect, but given the presumption that a massive NIL offer was what tipped the scales and the manner in which the player conducted that process, perhaps he was not a great fit for Michigan and the culture they're building. Alas, we may never know. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Happier discussion]

Michigan Football has picked up their second 2024 commitment of the weekend today in earning the pledge of 3* RB Micah Ka'apana from Bishop Gorman HS in Las Vegas, NV: 

Committed!! 〽️ #GoBlue @Hayesfawcett3 pic.twitter.com/Lap2t4pNqg

— Micah Ka’apana ✞ (@MicahKaapana) June 17, 2023

Ka'apana is a player that the Michigan staff considers to be grossly undervalued, and their willingness to take his commitment now speaks to that. Ka'apana has not gone to many camps and thus has flown largely under the radar, but a staggering 1,000 yards on just 70 carries as a junior(!) suggests he could fly up the rankings with a larger role as a senior this fall. Mike Hart sure thinks so and views him as an ideal complement to existing RB commit Jordan Marshall, a 4* from Ohio. Whether the commitment of Ka'apana takes Michigan out of the hunt for top 100 4* RB Taylor Tatum remains to be seen, but it speaks volumes about their afinity for Ka'apana to add him to the class as a take right now. 

Like I'Marion Stewart yesterday, Ka'apana will have his Hello this upcoming week. There is no content after the jump. 

I've been wanting to write a Spring Football Bits for weeks, except the biggest news coming out of there isn't what's happening on the field for 2023 but which high schoolers have been coming by to watch it. So here we are, mid Spring Ball of the most anticipated season since 2006, rolling out an update on teenagers who might sign in 2024 or 2025 and be relevant by 2026.

Oh, and one stray 2023 that's still out there.

Safety swipe. VA 4* ATH Brandyn Hillman recently asked out of his NLI to Notre Dame and is expected to join either Michigan or Ohio State($, info in title), with Michigan calling within 15 minutes of Hillman reopening his recruitment. Lorenz agrees Michigan is in front($) but makes it sound more like a 4-point lead, with Ohio State about to get possession($), as Bill Kurelic says OSU is the only school that's currently certain to get visit (video). OSU was the loser of a 5-star battle with Bama for #1 safety/#6 overall Caleb Downs on Early Signing Day. USC, who missed out late on TX 4* Warren Roberson, also offered.

Michigan didn't have a pure safety in the class but brought in three guys who redshirted in 2022 and a couple more ATHs in Jason Hewlett and DJ Waller who project to the LB and CB sides of the safety range, respectively, meaning they can afford Hillman time to develop. Not so at Notre Dame, where the safety depth chart is starting resemble their 4-scholarship player basketball roster. Their 2023 class also got raided over the course of the cycle.

Hillman played QB and several other positions in high school but it's pretty clear this is a safety offer, not a last second quarterback. He's shown out at camps, most recently at the Polynesian Bowl. Tim Prister describes a versatile "wrecking ball" and "Point A to Point B missile" who's sized like a pure safety but brings a LB's mentality. All that sounds more like Khaleke Hudson.

So how did Hillman slip loose? Hillman said "personal reasons." MnB did some message board sleuthing but only found Tom Loy claiming academics but not just academics:

[Loy] stated he “believes academics played a role here in this decision” for him to leave Notre Dame. Loy further stated there were “some hurdles” to getting him academically admitted, but Notre Dame didn’t push to get him cleared. Apparently this is a specific academic problem related to Notre Dame, otherwise high academic schools like Michigan, Vanderbilt and Virginia likely would not have offered.

It's my understanding that Michigan and Notre Dame have the same academic approach—the teams get a handful of "trust us" counters for freshmen who are reasonably close but everyone else has to get in on their own—which means non-qualifiers either A) didn't meet the minimal standard for a counter, or B) were supposed to get in on their own and now need a counter. Loy's claim that ND "didn't push to get him cleared" is a nod toward 'B' but could also translate to "he told us not to bother."

[After THE JUMP: Phil Brabbs gets a downgrade]