The Profiles: 2022’s Last Take, K Adam Samaha, K James Turner (Tr), S Brandyn Hillman, CB DJ Waller, CB Cameron Calhoun, CB Jyaire Hill, CB Josh Wallace (Tr), HSP/LB Jason Hewlett, LB Hayden Moore, LB Semaj Bridgeman, LB Ernest Hausmann (Tr), OLB Breeon Ishmail, DE Aymeric Koumba, DE Enow Etta, DE Josaiah Stewart (Tr), DT Brooks Bahr, DT Cameron Brandt, DT Trey Pierce, OT Evan Link, OT Myles Hinton (Tr), OT LaDarius Henderson (Tr), OG Nathan Efobi, IOL Amir Herring, OC Drake Nugent (Tr), TE Deakon Tonielli, TE Zack Marshall, TE AJ Barner (Tr), WR Semaj Morgan, WR Fredrick Moore, WR Karmello English, RB Benjamin Hall, RB Cole Cabana, ATH Kendrick Bell, QB Jack Tuttle (Tr)

I'm half a year behind our normal schedule for this series, but I managed to get the last three written up in February. Now it's time to wrap. Because this is coming so late however, I think we need to contextualize some relevant dates for this cycle.

• 2019-'20 (freshmen in high school): COVID starts in March. 7v7s and spring camps canceled, sophomore summer camp seasons interrupted.
• 2020-'21 (sophomore): Pandemic. Seasons canceled or delayed. Visits and scouting are off. This is when most players would have normally been scouted so evaluations are lacking. Michigan retains Harbaugh on the cheap but overhauls staff with Hart, Bellamy, Mac, Helow, Linguist, Sherrone promoted to OLs. In May Linguist leaves for Buffalo, Clinkscale hired. Supreme Court issues its opinion on NCAA vs Alston in June.
• 2021-'22 (junior). NCAA issues its "Interim Policy" on NIL in September, opening the floodgates. By December most large programs are openly using NIL as pay-for-play. Michigan beats Ohio State, loses to Georgia in the Playoff Semis. Courtney Morgan leaves for Washington in December. Nua leaves for USC in early Jan. Mac to Ravens. Harbaugh interviews with Vikings. Gattis leaves for Miami-YTM in February, M hires Minter, Newsome, and Elston; Sherrone and Weiss made co-OCs. Rise of collectives. Harbaugh: "We're transformational not transactional."
• 2022-'23 (senior). Michigan goes undefeated in regular season, wins B10 again. Class signed in December. M loses to TCU in Semis, Weiss fired. Harbaugh flirts with NFL: "Can't out-happy happy." Helow, Weiss replaced with Partridge & Campbell.

IT IS A B+ CLASS WITH AN 'A' FOR TRANSFERS

This class was more spray than the relatively laser 2022 class. Despite two straight trips to the Playoff, this class was hampered by a new NIL era,the recruiting market's own overreactions, and a lack of available playing time on a roster stacked for a national championship run (it was a success), but also by themselves.

The result was Michigan stocked up on as many high ceilings as they could get their hands on:

It moves up to an 'A-' class if you count the transfers, though. I was pretty high on all of them but Tuttle (Wallace joined too late for a writeup), and perhaps too high on Henderson only.

This was really hard to grade though because there are so many projects. A positional rundown, with transfers in parentheticals:

• QB: F (C). Bell moved to WR immediately, Tuttle a 6th year career backup. Would have been nice to have a JJ successor in the wings, or just another competitor.
• RB: A-. No superstars but both guys expected to be major contributors.
• WR: B+. Smallish except for Bell, but all expected to play above their rankings.
• TE: B- (A). Far be it from me to question Michigan TE recruiting but Loveland sets a new bar. I claim the title of blog chief of saw it coming with Barner.
• OL: C+ (A). Two high floors (Link, Herring) and a ceiling (Efobi) is a small class for the 2x Joe Moore winners. I thought the transfers were outstanding.
• DT: B. I really like Pierce. Even if you file Brandt and Bahr here, I wanted another pure DT because OMG and KG aren't gonna be here 4 years.
• Edge: B+ (B+). Etta should get more talk, the rest are DE/DTs (Brandt) or high-upside projects. I thought Stewart was Mike Danna.
• LB: B (A+). Everyone loves Hewlett's ceiling but Hayden Moore seems like a find. Bridgman, eh. Hausmann's gonna be a star.
• S: C+. Brandyn Hillman was a good pull, but needed more than one high-upside positional convert.
• CB: A- (B). Jyaire Hill is a future 1st rounder, DJ Waller is a wild card, Calhoun didn't stick around; I thought he was more of a floor than a catch. Trying to grade Wallace on what I thought when he committed; he'd be an A from what we know today.
• SP: B+. Samaha was born to go to Michigan, but the history of #1 Kornblue Ks is encouraging.

[After THE JUMP: A lot of upside, a few whiffs].

THIS WAS THE ASK-AGAIN-LATER CLASS

This was not a beverage question, I don't think. [Barron]

I called 20 of the freshmen some kind of "project," wrote "upside" 28 times, and used "ceiling" with some variation of "high" 30 times. Samaha, Pierce, Herring, Morgan, and the running backs were the only guys I thought were within shouting distance of their final forms, though a couple of the receivers might have been useful last year and DJ Waller actually made his way on the field in non-garbage time.

That's put against some extreme let's sees. Koumba's a French edge who's older than most sophomores. Efobi is still learning the game. Kendrick Bell has yet to play receiver, Hillman's a year into safety, Hill's converting from free safety, Marshall's moving from receiver, Breeon Ishmail and Jason Hewlett won't know what they are for awhile, and Brooks Bahr was a lacrosse player before shooting up into a DT? DE? OT? If I'd done this fairly we'd also count DJ Waller as a who-knows, because I certainly couldn't have predicted he'd finish the season at CB#3. The few guys, like Hayden Moore and Cam Calhoun, who played something like their future college job, were like 20+ under the position's collegiate playing weight.

UNFILLED NEEDS

Michigan missed out on a few items on the shopping list. In order of how nice it would be to have a Dude right now:

1. An elite QB to compete in 2024 or 2025. It's hard to stack dudes these days, especially when it wasn't clear if JJ McCarthy had one or two years left, but how hard was it to sell someone on the idea of being JJ's backup for a season then starting three years? Michigan spent the cycle futilely zeroed in on Detroit King's Dante Moore, who went to UCLA because he wanted to get some money and start immediately. By the time they gave up the chase most of the guys had already picked their programs and Matt Weiss had the FBI at his house. In a world where Michigan hires a Kirk Campbell-caliber QB coach instead of Weiss they probably still don't get Moore, or Malachi Nelson (USC).

2. A 5-star cornerback. I love Jyaire Hill, don't get me wrong, but ideally there was another Top-100 type like Will Johnson to pair him with, and it's frustrating they didn't get one considering at the time there was a wide-open starting spot on a team headed for a national championship. Would have been nice to flip Aaron Gates from Florida and have him rotating with Wallace by the end of the year.

3. Edge bender. Ojabo and Hutchinson left in 2021, meaning Michigan had a full cycle to find and secure the most Uche-like pass-rushers on the market. They really wanted Nyckoles Harbor, and their NIL approach cost them Collins Acheampong very late. There was also an academic thing that sunk their chances with a 5-star type.

4. Linebacker. Their NIL squeamishness cost them Raylen Wilson, and while Hewlett has a super high ceiling, that's years down the road. On the other hand they added Hausmann, who's probably going to be better than Wilson in 2024, and swung back around for Jaishawn Barham this year, so the situation is less dire than when this class was coming together.

5. A top-end WR to start in 2024. I like the guys they got, but the big fish were, ironically, scared off by Michigan finishing strong with Darius Clemons and Amorion Walker in 2023.

GRADING THE STAFF

Sticking to the coaches who were here in 2022 because the class was all signed before the 2023 changes and none of the guys Gattis or Nua recruited over 2021 stuck around.

Grades on a curve because the NIL situation wasn't their doing.

Steve Clinkscale (DBs): A. This class was defined by boom-or-bust athletes and Michigan's reinsertion into Ohio, both of which can be credited directly to Clink. While laying the groundwork for the Jordan Marshall class, Clink raided his alma mater of Youngstown Chaney for 2023 diamonds Jason Hewlett and DJ Waller, and pulled Breeon Ishmail and Cam Calhoun out of Cincy. Clink also won class jewel Jyaire Hill over a pitched battle with Ryan Walters, and scored late with Hillman, though that was a joint effort.

Ron Bellamy (WRs): A-. There was a point in cycle when it seemed like Bellamy was the only guy doing it. Mac was out, Helow was chasing 5-stars, Harbaugh was chasing the NFL, Weiss was chasing Harbaugh, Jay was chasing Dante Moore because Weiss couldn't be bothered, and Gattis and Nua were chasing new jobs. Ron was chasing a lot of WRs out of his reach, but he was also scouting Fredrick Moore, securing his dude Semaj Morgan, and staying on his fav Karmello English through an Auburn commitment. Bellamy, using brother-in-law Tshimanga Biakabutuka's residence as a home base, was also the man behind all of the interest from Virginia/Maryland/Carolina prospects like Hillman, Link, and Josiah Stewart. Amir Herring also played for Ron at West Bloomfield.

Mike Elston (DL): B+. He couldn't get traction with the kinds of guys Notre Dame had, but Elston always had some good options to fall back on, and some wins that are probably going to look really good next year in Etta and Pierce. We'll see what they get from Bahr and Koumba, but Brandt is a high floor. Elston also probably helped flip Hillman when ND couldn't get him enrolled.

Mike Hart (RBs): B. Mike stuck mostly to his own position, ID'd the guys he wanted, and ran through the competition like so many Northwestern arm tackles to secure top in-state prospect/Spartan lifer Cole Cabana and Georgia diamond Ben Hall with minimal recruiting drama by the end of March 2022, at which point Hart shifted his focus to 2024's Jordan Marshall and Dillon Tatum. Solid work.

Sherrone Moore (OL/co-OC): B (A+ with transfers). Moore was hamstrung this cycle by the NIL issues and distracted by job offers and the demands of coordinating, which led to him missing out on his A-tier prospects and winning only Evan Link from the original B-tier. He kind of had to go back to Amir Herring, and get a late boost from jumping on the rising/raw Nathan Efobi. The two-time Joe Moore winner found more success in pitching the Olu track to fellow one-and-NFL transfers Nugent and LaDarius Henderson, plus Myles Hinton. Sherrone was also reportedly involved with Detroit and Chicago recruitments like Semaj Morgan, Brooks Bahr, and Deakon Tonielli. He also put a lot of work into the failed recruitment of Moore, and the successful transfer recruitments of Jack Tuttle and AJ Barner.

George Helow (LBs): B. I didn't expect this but Helow found his footing late in his Michigan career, not so much in getting a flimsy commitment from Raylen Wilson, or in replacing him with Semaj Bridgeman, but in raiding Nebraska. Full credit must be given for catching Ernest Hausmann on the second go-around, and doing most of the pulling of Hayden Moore out of the Huskers' 2023 class. Both flipped in December 2022, just a month before Helow was replaced by Chris Partridge.

Jay Harbaugh (TEs/Safeties): B-. It's hard to grade Jaybaugh this cycle because of the position switch, because he did so much behind the scenes, because he was necessarily enveloped in his father's NFL flirtations, and because the guys he got were mostly projects. His territory was out west, where he discovered Zack Marshall. Fredrick Moore was another underrated find for Jay to pass along; I think we're really going to miss Harbaugh's scouting eye.

Grant Newsome (TEs): C. As a grad assistant Newsome was helping Sherrone with the OL, and probably deserves partial credit for those guys. Marshall and Tonielli technically committed to Newsome after Jay laid the groundwork.

Jesse Minter (DC): D+. Minter didn't do much recruiting here, but he helped close on a few defensive prospects, most crucially Hill. Even that was an upgrade from Macdonald.

Matt Weiss (OC/QBs): Fail. He doesn't even get an F. I'm coming off too hard on him because this is a recruiting article and I'm more sympathetic to his offensive acumen. But Weiss's contribution to recruiting was to blow it with Dante Moore, let Lloyd Carr's 2024 5-star grandson go to Notre Dame, then had to be taught by Jadyn Davis's dad how to recruit the 2024 QB that Michigan did get, just in time to upset the applecart with computer crimes.

Also Ronnie Bell and Steve Casula get extra credit for Kendrick Bell. Samaha recruited himself.

MISTAKES WERE MADE

The 2023 class was affected by a number of self-owns. Some of them were behind the scenes, some obvious, some structural, and most have been resolved now. Among the issues identified:

1. Harbaugh had a foot out the door. The NFL rumors started before he coached a game at Michigan, but the 2023 cycle was probably most affected, since it became deadly serious after Harbaugh nearly took the Vikings job in 2022. By that point the '22s were signed, and the positive signals from Santa Ono were coming too late.
2. Courtney Morgan was allowed to go. For whatever reason Harbaugh didn't value Morgan as highly as Kalen DeBoer did, which I and others who know Morgan maintain was a mistake. Missed opportunities like making sure Dante Moore knew that Colin Kaepernick was going to be at the spring game can be traced back to a disorganized recruiting department in the wake of Morgan's departure.
3. Hiring Ravens guys who couldn't recruit. Mike Macdonald didn't recruit. Minter arrived in 2022 and was better than Macdonald, but still nobody's idea of a recruiter. Helow cared but was a punching bag on the trail. Weiss was no better than Mac. Moore was dealing with OC duties. Harbaugh addressed this mid-cycle by adding program alumni Mike Hart, Mike Elston, and Grant Newsome to his staff, but those were offset by losing relationships with guys that Nua and Gattis recruited. A disproportionate amount of responsibility for recruiting the 2023 class fell on Bellamy, Clinkscale, and Jay.
4. "Transformational not transactional." Warde Manuel and Jim Harbaugh reportedly agreed on one thing, and that thing was putting out the dumbest statement in the history of Michigan recruiting. As the NIL era dawned the first words out of our mouths told the market that Michigan wasn't interested in paying market value. This line got a lot of free advertising as rivals gleefully shared it with every kid we were competing with them for.
5. The "NIL" era. The NCAA threw its hands up just in time to make this cycle the Wild West. Michigan probably did the best job of any school at setting up real, honest opportunities for their athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness. Unfortunately that's just a small part of the funding mechanism for paying players to play football, and the other kind was what everyone cared about. Without any testimonials schools were flinging about crazy numbers that nobody was actually getting paid. The types of kids the SEC schools always lured away with renumeration were going to be off-limits anyways, but Michigan's "We're staying out of it" stance further distanced their recruiting from peer/local institutions like Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Michigan State, whose messaging was all about shaking down donors for promises that were duly passed on to the players. It would take another cycle or two for Michigan to be able to show how close their actual NIL efforts were coming to the actual purse from broken LSU and Texas A&M promises.

Alex Drain wrote his definitive piece on Michigan's recruiting own goal in December 2022. The short version is program instability from Harbaugh's flirtation with the NFL, plus an insulting level of commitment to compensation relative to their peers, created a negative feedback loop that undermined any momentum from the breakthrough 2021 and statement 2022 seasons.

THOSE WHO GOT AWAY

Alex handled most of the recruiting updates this cycle so he might remember more guys than I do, but there were again some themes specific to this class to explain most of the pursuits that fell short.

THE ONE

In 2021 the all-hands-on-deck local 5-star Michigan *HAD* to win was Donovan Edwards. That class was also buoyed from the early pledge of JJ McCarthy, a 5-star QB who gave the program legitimacy and an extra impact recruiter. In 2022 Will Johnson served both roles.

In 2023, that guy was supposed to be Martin Luther King QB Dante Moore, who wound up 5th overall in the composite. The difference: Edwards (whose HS HC was on staff) and Johnson (a legacy) had deep connections to the program. Instead of committing to Michigan and leading the class, Moore shifted to Notre Dame as soon as Notre Dame got their pay-for-play operation going. It turns out what he really wanted was early playing time. He committed to Oregon, flipped late to UCLA when Bo Nix came back to school, and portaled back to Eugene this offseason.

DECOMMITS

The headliner here is GA 5* LB Raylen Wilson, the crown jewel of George Helow's Southern connections. Georgia stayed on him, and when it became clear Michigan wasn't going to put their money where their program was, the Dawgs won a flip. Wilson was an immediate (not good but you know: freshman) contributor at Georgia. Semaj Bridgeman committed shortly thereafter but was hardly the same level of prospect.

MA 4* TE Andrew Rappleyea (PSU) was a weird story—he was a PSU fan and PSU lean who was planning to commit there on January 3, 2022. Rapplyea didn't tell the PSU staff that however, and missed a call from them on December 29th when they were set to take a 3rd TE commit in the class. Michigan used that rift to move in, but a couple of those TEs left the class and PSU got him back, whereupon Michigan immediately jumped on Tonielli.

The loss of CA 4* Edge Collins Acheampong (Miami-YTM) rankles because it shows the true moral repugnance of Michigan's pay-for-play stance. Collins came to the U.S. expecting to play basketball but fell in love with football. Living with a host family in Southern California, Acheampong had excellent grades, a perfect frame, freakish athleticism, and a mother working 70-hour weeks 7,000 miles away who'd never seen him play. When local events endangered the lives of Acheampong's family in Ghana, he needed money immediately. Mario Cristobel, who'd just hired away Josh Gattis, was aware of the situation, and immediately stepped in to help Acheampong's family resettle in return for a flip to the Canes. Acheampong redshirted with an injury and is transferring to UCLA. Michigan took Aymeric Koumba.

Finally there's VA 4* DT Joel Starlings, who left when Nua did and ended up at North Carolina.

FUTILELY CHASING GUYS THAT WARDE WON'T PAY

Beyond Wilson, Michigan took their breakthrough as a signal they were allowed to pursue the kinds of national guys at Southern power programs that Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, LSU, etc. are always fighting over. Most of those pursuits went no further than a place in a Top-7, which generates a lot of Michigan-tagged articles on the pay sites but aren't worth our time.

Of those that got serious, the closest Michigan came was a third-place finish for Olympian ATH (TE/WR/DE/whatever) Nyckoles Harbor. Harbor spent most of the cycle a Michigan-Maryland-??? guy, but Oregon came in with a lot of money at the end, and then local South Carolina came with even more money and won out.

Clinkscale was hard after a couple of Southern top-100 cornerbacks until it was apparent Michigan couldn't compete in that arena. CB Chris Peal went to Georgia, which led to Clinkscale moving on to Cam Calhoun. He stayed on their top nickel target, Aaron Gates, even after he committed to Florida, and didn't replace him in the class. It was a similar story with Gwinnett DT Kayden McDonald, a high-floor Elston target who ended up at Ohio State, and 4.5* GA OT DJ Chester (LSU), whom Sherrone Moore kept after long after fans thought we had any chance.

Bellamy's Louisiana roots weren't enough to prevent LA 4* Shelton Sampson from choosing LSU. 5* RBs in Southern states like Reuben Owens (Louisville), Samuel Singleton (FSU) and Justin Haynes (Bama) were in our crosshairs earlier in the cycle. LA 4* LB Tackett Curtis returned more interest than we expected, but chose USC. GA 3* OL Paul Mubenga seemed set to commit to Michigan until LSU jumped in with an offer that showed they too thought he was terribly underrated by the sites. When Elston came aboard Michigan was promptly in and out of races for IMG(via St. Louis) 4.5* Samuel M'Pemba (Georgia), FL 4* John Walker (UCF), and FL 5* DT Jordan Hall (Georgia). They were never really in it for #3 overall FL Edge Keon Keeley (Bama), who was committed to Elston at Notre Dame.

The SEC wasn't alone in this. Ohio State swooped in on athletic OL target Luke Montgomery from Findlay. Because Notre Dame got their NIL house in order well before Michigan, a lot of the battles between the nation's two scouting giants went one way quickly, costing us Zak's brother MA 4* TE Preston Zinter, CA 4* TE Cooper Flanagan, MO 4* RB/CB Jeremiyah Love, OH 4* DL Brenan Vernon, whom OSU tried to flip, and TX S Peyton Bowen, who later shot into the top-50 and flipped to Oklahoma. Michigan won one on the backswing with Brandyn Hillman. NC 4* OL Sam Pendleton and IL 4* OL Charles Jaguash were top targets for Sherrone Moore, but when he moved took over OC duties, ND convinced those guys that Moore's star was rising too quickly to trust he'd be at Michigan long enough to develop them.

THE CONNECTION LEFT TOO

This could go in the section above, but it was mostly Josh Gattis that had Michigan hard after FL 5* WR Jalen Brown for this class. Brown also had links to Desmond Howard, but not as much to Ron Bellamy, and his recruitment tailed off when Gattis departed. Another half fit for this section was WA 4* RB Jayden Limar. Jay Harbaugh deserves credit for prying Limar out of ND's class, but Hart fell in love with Benjamin Hall, and Limar slipped away to Oregon.

The early OL board for this class was Ed Warinner's, but I think we can skip all those names since we weren't really paying attention at the time. Similarly the DL board was reset when Mike Elston replaced Shawn Nua.

THE OTHER TEAM OUT-RECRUITED US

There are always a few battles where equivalent effort was expended, and you just have to tip your hat to the other school for coming out ahead. ID 4* Kenyon Sadiq was a TE/WR who blew up after Michigan filled up, by which point Oregon and Washington were both making sure another Loveland didn't leave the region. Some of the guys here came with a twist where the assistant who won that recruitment is now coming to Michigan. 3* IL nose Jamel Howard was a package deal with Trey Pierce when both committed to Wisconsin, and Michigan hoped to flip both. They came close at early signing day, but the Badgers were able to convince Howard to hold off and see what coaching staff they brought in. That turned out to be Greg Scruggs, and while Michigan kept fighting, Scruggs won out on NSD. Now that Scruggs is coming to Michigan, you wonder if this fight's not over (Howard redshirted). Brian Jean-Marie also did some damage to his once and future team. TN 4* LB Arion Carter was an athletic, late-riser Junior Colson comp that Michigan had scouted when BJ was at Michigan; that relationship shifted to the Vols, who fended off late swings from Bama, Colorado, and Ohio State to keep Carter in-state.

NO YOU CAN'T HAVE OUR DUDES

As they tried in a couple of previous cycles, Michigan targeted guys everyone assumed belonged to another school by birthright. This worked with Hayden Moore, but failed to draw Polynesian Utah 4-stars Spencer Fano and Caleb Lumo away from the Utes—Fano wound up starting at left tackle for them, and Lumo is slated to start in 2024. 5* ATH (WR/DE) Malachi Coleman is a basketball, football, and most of all ACTUAL hero to his hometown community of Lincoln, Nebraska, but Michigan wasn't going to let a 6'4" Mike Sainristil stay home without a fight.

Iowa broke all the rules to hold onto local 5* OT Kadyn Proctor, lost him to Alabama on Early Signing Day, and broke the tampering rules to get him back in the portal after Bama's Rose Bowl loss to Michigan, which was the other team that was trying to stay in that fight.

DIDN'T TRY HARD ENOUGH

This is the category of player where Michigan didn't put in as much effort as another team. It doesn't mean Michigan didn't want the guy (those are the Sad Joshii) or that Michigan would have necessarily won him if they tried harder. The most notable is probably Walled Lake 4* RB Darius Taylor, whom we all liked, but Hart already had the spots filled; Taylor had a great freshman year at Minnesota. Michigan also poked around with FL 4* Treyaun Webb and FL 3* Kendrick Raphael but had those guys behind the ones they signed.

Michigan tried to turn to CA 5* QB Malachi Nelson late, and found him surprisingly reciprocal, but USC was already well ahead; those Monday morning quarterbackin' the Dante Moore recruitment inevitably wonder what if Harbaugh had gone after Nelson when USC was still in turmoil. They also took late swings on MA 3* dual-threat Pop Watson, who ultimately chose Virginia Tech, and IA 4* JJ Kohl, who stuck with Iowa State. At RB, some people thought Michigan could have held out for top-100 RB Mark Fletcher, who decommitted from OSU, or Limar instead of taking Ben Hall. MI 4* OL Dylan Senda got more attention from former Michigan OL Kurt Anderson and Northwestern than current Michigan OC Sherrone Moore. When Rappleyea decommitted the other option at the time was trying to divert CA 4* TE Walker Lyons from Stanford; a huge senior year at Folsom shot Lyons up the rankings and USC caught him on the way. Finally, it's not often Bama appears in this category, but FL 4* WR Jaren Hamilton was one spot below Karmello English on the board when Michigan had one spot left.

SAD JOSHII

Things cooled with CA RB Dijon Stanley when spots filled up. Sherrone was keeping tabs on TX OL Nick Fattig but when the spot was available they let Fattig stay with Texas Tech. Similar story with UT 3* OL Taliafi Ta'ala, the third wheel on the Spencer Fano/Caleb Lumo ride, who went to Utah State. There was talk of FL 3* LB Desirrio Chiles that was probably more about recruiting his brother for 2024. Raheem's brother Khamari Anderson went to Cincy. When Mike Elston whiffed at the 5-stars he moved on to a B tier that included Brooks Bahr, Cam Brandt, and the Pierce/Howard pair. Behind them were guys like KY 3* Saddiq Clements (Purdue), VA 3* Rodney Lora (UNC), NV 4* Kelze Howard (Oregon State), and IN 4* Kendrick Gilbert. TN 3* WR Chance Fitzgerald (Virginia Tech) was moving up late and was a take if Michigan missed on English at signing day.

I LEARNED YOUR NAME

I'm going to skip this section because I didn't learn their names; Alex did.

SOME OF THEM ARE QUITE YOUNG

Football players are often held back a year to allow them to develop further and maximize their opportunities, so it's interesting that this class skews about 30 percent younger than a usual one. Was it on purpose? I know Beilein used to do that. Skewing old for their class:

1.  Aymeric Koumba (5/11/2003)
2. Karmello English (2/9/2004)
3. Kendrick Bell (4/20/2004)
4. DJ Waller (5/24/2004)
5. Brooks Bahr (8/26/2004)

Skewing young:

1. Jyaire Hill (8/31/2005)
2. Zack Marshall (7/9/2005)
3. Cameron Brandt (5/23/2005)
4. Semaj Morgan and Nathan Efobi (5/6/2005)

Hill was actually born a day before the cutoff date and might be the youngest freshman of the year. In fact Jyaire is younger than 16 of *THIS* year's freshmen, 11 days junior to Jadyn Davis, who wasn't held back.

For the record, this is the first Michigan class in which the majority of players were born after the founding of MGoBlog (December 4, 2004). Eight guys from last year's class also pre-date the existence of this site.

OTHER SPORTS ROUNDUP

As per tradition for Harbaugh classes, most everybody played multiple sports in high school. A * means he might play varsity at Michigan.

• Basketball: Kendrick Bell, Ben Hall, Karmello English, Deakon Tonielli, Cam Brandt, Enow Etta, Ishmail, Hayden Moore, Jason Hewlett*, Samaha (dad was coach).
• Track & Field: Bell, Cole Cabana*, Tonielli, Nugent, Herring, Nathan Efobi, Henderson (as a runner!), Hinton, Brandt, Etta, H.Moore, Hewlett, Hill, Calhoun
• Soccer: Efobi, and I assume Koumba because if you're an athletic kid in France you've played soccer at a level at least on par with U.S. school travel teams.
• Lacrosse: Bahr*

There were also a lot of D-I athlete siblings.

STOCK UP GENTLEMEN

I was hype first though. [Bryan Fuller]

These are the guys I got more enthusiastic about as I scouted them. It’s not the same as “Sleeper”—it’s how much my opinion changed from what I thought I would find when I went in versus when I came out.

• LB Hayden Moore. When you understand his HS role and see he was still making all those tackles I'm only surprised we're not hearing more about him.
• DT Trey Pierce. I pulled up short of a Mason Graham comp but still went with Ryan Glasgow, who's human human OMG.
• WR/Slot/KR Semaj Morgan. Cat's out of the bag now, but he was critically under-showcased at WB, rankings slip shows a hole in recruiting.
• WR Fredrick Moore. By the time I got to this the spring hype was out there. Pay no attention to the recruiting rankings; the Ronnie Bell comp is tight.
• RB Benjamin Hall. He was mostly on the bench as a senior, but the spring tape combined with the game tape revealed Hart must've known something.
• Edge Enow Etta. The Derrick Moore Memorial Top-150 guy who should have been a Top-50 guy we're not talking enough about.
• OL Amir Herring. Another WB guy who fell because of lack of recruitment drama and Michigan seeming to not prioritize him. Went to AA game and killed it.
• S Brandyn Hillman. This is where '90s star strong safeties come from. Academic "snafu" was nothing.
• Transfer TE AJ Barner: I didn't predict he'd be the #1 blocking TE in the country, but Ian Boyd and I were banging the drum.
• Transfer OT Myles Hinton: The 5-star stuff is still there, less of a project than anticipated.

STOCK DOWN GENTLEMEN

These are the guys I was hoping I would come out higher on.

• MLB Semaj Bridgeman. I'd like to move him to Hammerin Pandaback.
• DE/DT Cam Brandt. Good dude, lack of explosion, Carlo Kemp comp deployed.
• CB Cameron Calhoun. Was getting hype in spring that didn't gybe with the scouting, presciently predicted he was a flight risk.
• Transfer QB Jack Tuttle. Ran into an O'Korn vibe and ran away.

I also learned Jyaire Hill was further from the field than I'd hoped but he's still the #1 player in the class and doesn't belong in the above category.

BOOM OR BUST

Probably boom [Fuller]

He might be awesome, but who knows because there's a long way to go. This is like the rest of the class pretty much.

• Edge Aymeric Koumba. Same burst/dip/measurables as Ojabo. Ceiling: vast. Rawness: equally vast.
• LB/? Jason Hewlett. Every beat writer called him underrated even after their site bumped him to 4-star. Just have to teach the ridiculous athlete how to play the hardest position on defense.
• CB/? DJ Waller. Writeup predates his actual playing cornerback. Some ppl thought he'd grow into a DE!
• Edge/? Breeon Ishmail. Hoping to build a TJ Guy/Jaylen Harrell, before I fully appreciated Harrell.
• OG Nathan Efobi. Great measurements, didn't realize there were so many bad habits to unlearn.
• WR/? Kendrick Bell. Just started learning receiver, basketball size/athleticism.

MOST LIKELY TO HELP IMMEDIATELY IN 2024

Not counting transfers, and not counting 2023 because Michigan already played its 2023 season (and won a national championship for it).

1. Jyaire Hill. We'll be on the lookout for spring talk after an injured 2023.

2. Semaj Morgan. Already secured slot/KR/PR roles as true freshman.

3. Fredrick Moore. Depth chart cleared out for him, still picking up stray hype.

4. DJ Waller. Can he play CB? Answered. Can he find the ball? Good question.

5. Trey Pierce. Surprised he wasn't a wrestler. Ready-made DT type that Wisconsin always seems to get.

HM: Look for Karmello English to be a top-3 receiver, Enow Etta to break through as the 5th DE, Hayden Moore darkhorse to move up the LB depth chart. Hall and Cabana will get their turns when Mullings and Edwards graduate.

BEST PRESENT TO UNWRAP IN A FEW YEARS

This is the entire class but I'm going to deviate from the obvious Jason Hewlett answer to highlight Brandyn Hillman, because I don't think it's an if but a when that guy busts out. Think he's a major part of the Post-Moore/Paige plan.

SLEEPER OF THE YEAR

Layup? [Paul Sherman]

Reminder that the rules disqualify anyone who got a 4th star from any of the major sites. Brian's record at this is much better than mine, but he really hit his stride back when there was only one or two sites actually trying to re-rate guys. That era might have left me a Kenneth Grant (4-star to On3), Colston Loveland (247) or Rod Moore (247). This year's 1/4 disqualifiers are Efobi (On3), Pierce (Rivals), Semaj Morgan (Rivals), and Fredrick Moore (Rivals). On3 and 247 both made Hewlett a 4-star then called him the class sleeper anyways. GUYS!

That leaves us Zack Marshall, Brooks Bahr, DJ Waller, Kendrick Bell, Aymeric Koumba, Breeon Ishmail, Hayden Moore, and

Benjamin Hall. Let's go back to the spring game. Pick your favorite run.

Everyone's gonna pick the bounce, and I love the one at 2:07 where he downshifts *just* enough to give El-Hadi time to set up his block, but not enough for McBurrows or Bennett to catch him from behind. But let me talk to you about that run at 4:26 when he subtly presses one gap over so Persi can come off a double and pick up a LB who cross Barner, and then when Hall's through the hole he's already setting up a whiff by Zeke Berry. Or this run that didn't even make the highlight reel above.

There's just so much patience and vision there, and quite a lot of power after. Hall fell down to obscurity because he wasn't even the 3rd leading rusher on a stacked North Cobb team with Arkansas dual-threat QB Malachi Singleton and Clemson scatback David Eziomume on it. Turns out this was because of a fumble against the #1 team in the state in Week 2.

It's a dangerous pick because Mullings has the role locked up for 2024 and Jordan Marshall is already lurking around the practice fields. My next pick would have been Hayden Moore.