We're caught up on the 2023 class (or at least we were until the commitapalooza last night) but there are still a couple of 2024s who pledged during the season. We'll start with the largest of them, and also the second Ohioan of Harbaugh's latest sojourn into territory that's recently come under Michigan dominion. Despite being a(n almost) consensus top-250 in his class, and likely to stick there, Luke Hamilton isn't a 45-23…more of a 29-7. The Buckeyes gave Hamilton a private workout at the OSU camp last summer, but held back on an offer. MSU got him on campus thrice, but Michigan beat Ohio State on November 26th, and Hamilton had a reaction.

“When that clock ran out and I saw that score, I was super hyped, especially from watching how the offensive line played,” Hamilton told The Wolverine. “I was ecstatic. Coach Moore was hyped when I asked if I could call him. He said ‘of f****** course. I’m not leaving until you do.’ Once I told him, he told me how happy he was to build this for the long run.”

Hamilton pledged to the Wolverines the next day.

GURU RATINGS

RATINGS BY SITE
247: 6'5/290	On3: 6'4.5/290	Rivals: 6'6/290	ESPN: 6'5/290
4*, 90, #170 Ovr #8 OT, #5 OH	4*, 90, #227 Ovr #15 IOL, #8 OH	4*, 5.8, NR Ovr #19 OT, #7 OH	4*, 81, #240 Ovr #18 OT, #9 OH
4.27	4.09	4.17	4.15
COMPOSITE RANKINGS
247 Composite	On3 Consensus	MGoBlog
4*, 0.9192, #210 Ovr #12 OT, #8 OH	4*, 90.9, #215 Ovr #15 IOL, #8 OH	4*, #283/764 Ovr #24/53 OTs since 1990
4.19	4.09	4.17

Last row is my conversion to a five-star scale. Links are to profiles

These are going to change as the class comes together, and with a guy starting around #200, where his rankings go in the next 14 months is going to be more interesting than the starting point. The big (expected) drop came as the junior film came in on previously un- or low-ranked guys. About 100 moved ahead of Hamilton in the process. Typical recruiting gravity should see him fall at least another 50-80 spots as the class grows.

One thing to keep an eye on is how sticky his 4-star status is. The sites are loathe to drop an early 4-star to a 3-star. When they do, that usually signifies they wanted to drop him more. However they're also slow to review early commits who don't produce much recruiting drama, especially offensive linemen. Falling out of the top-250 and ending up around 300 overall means their opinions didn't change.

[AFTER THE JUMP: The Joe Moore Award approves.]

SCOUTING

We're talking about an offensive lineman over a year out, so the scouting is light. In Hamilton's case it's unreasonably so, since he's at a scoutable Ohio power in the Cleveland area, has been to camps, and they all have him ranked fairly highly. But they all did so the ESPN way, firing off rankings without any explanation from their respective scouts.

In lieu of the experts, we have to make do with what local and recruiting reporters tell us. One of those things is that Hamilton's been on Ohio radars a long time; he was a First Team All-County and All-District selection as well as a Third Team All-Ohio selection as a sophomore!

The Wolverine's EJ Holland gave us the most detail, painting Hamilton as an interior [insert metaphor].

Hamilton is listed at 6-foot-4 on On3 but at 6-foot-6 on his Hudl page. Hamilton can play right tackle at the next level but isn’t overly athletic and lacks foot speed. However, he’s an absolute mauler when he lines up at right guard. Hamilton is at his best in the run game, and his film features several pancakes and clips where he just tosses dudes around. Hamilton is a bully in the trenches and will be a perfect fit at Michigan.

EJ's OSU counterpart Matt Parker agrees this is not a tackle:

The 6-foot-4, 290-pound interior offensive lineman can play both guard spots as well as center and has a violent, low first step once the ball has been snapped.

Evan Flood reports Wisconsin was looking at him as a guard as well.

There is a take out there from recruiting industry dinosaur Tom Lemming that seems to refute this?

Super impressed with Luke Hamilton 6'5" 290 right tackle for Avon HS, OH. Shows all American skills. Good feet, great finisher, quick hands, very strong and polished. Knocks people off the ball. Fast and athletic. 4.0 GPA.

…but I'm not sure how seriously to take Lemming in this day and age. Reports from the OSU camp that Hamilton attended last summer just said that the coaches had him stay after with one other elite prospect to work with Coach Frye.

That leaves us with Hamilton's own description of himself. To the delight of Harbaugh, that description starts with "I am good at another sport ergo I am good at this one."

“I think that I bring hustle. I come off the ball hard. I am a good protector. I can hold my guys off. I don’t give up, I finish them until the whistle,” he said. … “(Shot put) shows your explosiveness in your lower half,” Hamilton said. “I’d say that I am a pretty twitchy guy. Showing (teams) that I qualified for state shows that I am pretty explosive. That helps a lot.”

OFFERS

Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Pitt, WVU, Nebraska, BC, Iowa State, Rutgers, and Kentucky, among many others. Wisconsin's came in late—they held off on offering when Hamilton visited in April—but that seems to be because they knew they were losing Sheridan soon.

Ohio State was recruiting him but held off on offering. It's likely they will at some point before the cycle's out. I always take recruits' comments about schools they don't choose with a heaping portion of salt but the part about recruiting Ohioans like they're born on 3rd base tracks:

“[Ohio State] did this to all of the in-state [recruits],” Hamilton continued. “They put us on the back burner and will wait until the last second, because they think they have us committed there if they offer, which I think is totally stupid. That is not how that works at all. I’ve talked to linemen all around Cleveland and people that I know and they all feel the same way. … I think Ohio State is taking too long and I don’t think they are doing it right.”

HIGH SCHOOL

Avon High serves the upper middle class suburb of Avon on the western side of Cleveland, about 15 minutes south of (Avon Lake and) Lake Erie. The football facilities are a 3/4 mile walk down a nature path from the school, which I just think is cool. The program is regularly one of the top 10-25 in Ohio, which would make it about on par with a top-5 public in Michigan. This year the Eagles were 12-2 (their only regular season loss was to Glenville) and 7-0 in Division II's historic Southwestern (Cleveland) Conference, which includes Olmstead Falls, Avon Lake, Berea-Midpark, Elyria, North Ridgeville, Midview, and Steele.

Former Michigan/Rutgers DB Ross Taylor-Douglas is the only Michigan guy in my database and the only other Avon 4-star in Rivals', but Avon had a run of OL shortly after RTD, supplying Purdue, Northwestern, West Virginia, and a lot of MAC schools. 2024 RB Jakorion Caffey has offers from several P5 schools and is getting Big Ten interest.

STATS

No stats, lineman.

FAKE 40 TIME

Claims a 5.3 on Hudl which gets four FAKES out of five because it's not repeated anywhere else and because in the photo above it he's miming the pulling of a chain.

That page also gives a shuttle of 4.89, a 28-inch vertical, and a 320 bench press, but he told a local newspaper that's up to a bench of 330.

VIDEO

 

1v1 at OSU's camp last July:

More 1v1s from that camp:

ETC

Finished #10 in Ohio in shot put last year (as a sophomore), with a personal best of 52'5. 4.0 GPA, plans to study criminal justice. Dad was the coach of Elyria HS in the mid-2000s (long after Les Miles went there). Michigan defeated Ohio State 45-23.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

There's a lot of time between now and when the 2024 class's offensive lineman factor in, but I think we're looking at more of a Trevor Keegan or Chuck Filiaga than a tackle here. Hamilton's film is that of a stereotypical high school mammoth who generates crowd noise by blasting some poor kid off his feet. That sort has a long history of transitioning into useful Midwestern linemen, how useful determined by foot speed, intelligence, and time.

Hamilton is already sized like some FBS starters. The disagreement over his height means less inside, which is where he's probably ticketed, so it's not all that interesting to me. How much of his almost-300 pounds needs to be taken off before he's built back is a more salient question, though one that won't have an answer for us for several years. There's a whole 'nother year of teenage growth to get through as well.

I do like that he's a multi-sport athlete. Since his dad's a coach, Hamilton probably will also arrive with a bit more refined technique, and a lot better idea of what's in store, than most of his class. But Michigan doesn't need its linemen right away unless that guy's a Zinter-level unicorn; if that were the case I think Ohio State and Wisconsin would have been quicker to jump. The prognosis is the regular one: redshirt 2024, spend another two years in the mixer, and by the time his row of shark teeth comes up, we'll have a pretty good idea from playing time and coach quotes whether he's got the agility and understanding to step forth. Competition will include 2023s Amir Herring and Nathan Efobi, plus whomever else Michigan adds between now and, like, 2027, in the 2025-'26 classes and the portal. The junior film, for what it's worth, is *very* Filiaga.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Hamilton is the first offensive lineman, and the 4th commit total, for 2024. Michigan probably wants to add at least three more to keep their production line going. It's notable that Sherrone Moore missed out on a lot of his top prospects in the last two classes, and the guys they just added in the portal should be long gone by the time Hamilton's class is stepping forth. Nearby St. Ed's has a trio of FBS-bound OL, with OT prospect Ben Roebuck seeming the most likely next citadel to fall to Michigan's Ohio invasion strategy. His teammates, the Armstrong twins, have MAC offers for the moment but Michigan's keeping tabs.

Outside of Ohio, from what I can tell on the recruiting sites, Michigan's mixing it up with Notre Dame and the rest of the country for Massachusetts OT Guerby Lambert, fighting the rest of the region for 6'8" tackle Andrew Sprague, very interested in Texas's Blake Frazier, and in good shape with Philadelphia OT Kevin Haywood. Getting 5-star QB Jadyn Davis to pull the trigger seems to be the key to unlocking the kinds of recruits Michigan's been missing out on in 2022.

THE 2024 CLASS AS IT STANDS

OFFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
TE	Hogan Hansen	WA	4.0	Colston Lovelandian
OT	Luke Hamilton	OH	4.2	Midwestern mauler
DEFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
DT	Manuel Beigel	CT	3.8	Lengthy German via Choate
MLB	Mason Curtis	TN	4.2	Long athlete moving up