2020 recruiting

1 hour and 18 minutes

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[After THE JUMP: the player and what we said]

Our annual Signing Day Livepod will be at 5pm this evening. Tune in wherever Youtubes are played, or catch the podcast version after. The 2021 Recruiting Board lives here or you could use 247's much better one. Please do not share paywalled info.

LETTERS IN

This section will be updated throughout the day.

• QB JJ MCCARTHY (IMG via IL, 5*)
• RB DONOVAN EDWARDS (West Bloomfield, 4.5*)
• RB TAVIERRE DUNLAP (TX, 3.5*)
• TE LOUIS HANSEN (MA, 4*)
• WR CRISTIAN DIXON (CA, 4*)
• WR ANDREL ANTHONY (MI, 3.5*)
• OT GIOVANNI EL-HADI (MI, 4.5*)
• C GREG CRIPPEN (IMG via MA, 4*)
• C/G RAHEEM ANDERSON (Cass Tech, 4*)
• OT TRISTAN BOUNDS (CT, 3*)
• DE KECHAUN BENNETT (MA, 4*)
• DE TJ GUY (MA, 3*)
• DT DOMINIC GIUDICE (NJ, 2.5*)
• LB/Viper JUNIOR COLSON (TN, 4.5*)
• LB TYLER MCLAURIN (IL, 3*)
• Safety ROD MOORE (OH, 3*)
• K/P TOMMY DOMON (OLSM, 6*)

TARGETS SIGNED ELSEWHERE

CB OMARION COOPER (FL, 4*) was a promising FSU flip opportunity until Michigan's season went belly-up. He signed with FSU.

LB BRANDEN JENNINGS (FL, 4*) was committed to Michigan but couldn't be assured the staff will still be around and had longstanding connections to Maryland.

DE QUINTIN SOMERVILLE (AZ, 4*) flipped to UCLA today. He's a longtime family connection for Shaun Nua, so this is likely a sign that Michigan's DL coach won't be back next year.

ANNOUNCEMENT TIMES OF INTEREST

COMMITTED TO MICHIGAN (1:40 PM): RB DONOVAN EDWARDS (MI, 4.5*). Michigan's long pursuit of the dynamic back out of West Bloomfield looks to close in the right direction. There's a small chance Georgia could pull a late one, if you want to add some late drama to a recruitment that's been completely devoid of it.

4:00 PM: WR XAVIER WORTHY (CA, 4.5*). Worthy took a trip to Alabama when it looked like Gattis might not be retained, but the guy we quietly comp to Anthony Carter seems to have had his doubts quelled and is expected to sign with Michigan.

5:00 PM: (MGoBlog Signing Day Livepod)

8:00 PM: CB JA'DEN MCBURROWS (FL, 3.5*). Michigan's only cornerback commit was solid the entire process then turned into a coinflip to switch to Miami (YTM) in the last few days.

ANNOUNCEMENTS TODAY, TIME UNKNOWN:

OG DREW KENDALL (MA, 4*) is deciding between BC and Stanford, possibly today. Michigan was in heavy pursuit before this year but that petered out before the season. They recently revived contact but it's unlikely to affect him.

TARGETS NOT COMMITTING TODAY

DT RAYSHAUN BENNY (MI, 4*, MSU commit). Benny was a longtime Michigan lean who committed to MSU after the loss. Lately Michigan seems to have made up ground and convinced him not to sign just yet.

DT GEORGE ROOKS (NJ, 4*). Rooks is visiting Penn State tomorrow. Recently BC joined M and PSU atop his recruitment, which has been quiet. The hope is he waits until after the New Year.

LB commit JAYDON HOOD (FL, 4*, commit). Still hasn't visited Michigan, plans to get up to Ann Arbor, still talks to other schools but currently expected to sign with Michigan in February if all goes well.

CB CEYAIR WRIGHT (CA, 4.5*). He's a USC lean with ND #2 after a visit there, but Wright has a couple of friends on Michigan's team and visited for that self-organized Wisconsin get-together the class made. Wright plans to make his announcement when the Army Game would have been played, January 2, when hopefully things will be more stable.

Last year I did a What I Learned post about the 2019 class after that set of recruiting profiles was completed; now that 2020 is done let's reprise. I've gone over every scrap of information and highlight video; I've even scouted a couple full games when information on a prospect was frustratingly thin, or used Adam and Dave's Future Blue Originals/Derivatives.

These are my takeaways.

It's a B+ class

There's a lot of consternation about the lack of truly top-end prospects in this class, and it's understandable. It's nice to have guys like Rashan Gary and Jabrill Peppers around. This class does not have a single composite top 100 prospect. 2019 had 3, including two five stars; 2021 has 3, including a five star. I don't think it says a whole lot other than it was a weird year.

On the other hand, there are almost literally no fliers. If JD Johnson had not been forced to retire, thus paving the way for Dan Villari to get a Signing Day offer, the lowest-ranked guy in the class would be #513 Kris Jenkins. That's just outside the 3.5* range we use to designate players who are high three stars pursued by a large number of mid-to-upper-level P5 teams.

The previous class, which ranked first amongst Big Ten teams, had seven guys ranked lower than Jenkins. Five of them were below 750th. The 2021 class also has some deep cuts. So while the 2020 class doesn't have much of a top end it is uncommonly deep.

This is something I said on Signing Day. Doing the profiles reinforced that take because various guys in the back half of the class jumped out as good bets. Jeffrey Persi is a Greg Frey tackle. Cornell Wheeler has Ron Bellamy travelling the state to yell at people about how good he is. Matt Hibner's composite ranking is held back by ESPN and Rivals, who missed his incredible fitness montage. Roman Wilson… yes, he is in the back half of this class. I know.

This isn't a class that's going to shift the paradigm against Ohio State but what does that even look like? If we judge it by the standards of other recent Michigan classes it's solid.

[After the JUMP: stocks up, down, and shruggie sections]