garrett dellinger

I'm not usually your recruiting guy, and there are many on our message board who follow this stuff more closely than I. But since we're down our football recruiting guy during all of this, I found myself trying to play catch-up in the process of writing various Hello posts. While I'm at it, I figured I might as well try to catch you up too. If you're a heavy recruitnik, I recommend you subscribe to one of the paid networks. If you're like me and just want an idea of what they're talking about, this post is for you. If you see something or someone I left out, please say so in the comments.

The Board:

I might as well get this old thing out of the garage.

Icon	Name	Meaning
	Sad Josh	The genre of player with unrequited interest in Michigan. Unlikely to receive offers; most will eventually fade off the list and go to Duke or Michigan State or something.
	Nefarious Eduardo	Player is a longshot. Either they've declared someone else a leader publicly or popular opinion holds that they're likely to go to another school.
	Data	Either no opinion or Michigan is one of a fairly even group of chasing schools. Players in this category maintain no leader or change their leader frequently. The default category for players that we don't know much about yet.
	Happy Teeth	Players who have Michigan in a small leading group or have Michigan as a tenuous favorite. Should be regarded as a good shot, not a slam dunk.
	Mr. Blue	Player is either a verbal or is expected to be one sooner or later. Players with this designation are 65%+ to be Michigan commits.

The order is my interpretation of how likely they are to commit and how many recruiting points are being expended.

A Note on "Stars": These are a general (not exact) average of a player's status among the recruiting services.

A Note on Premium Info: No illicit sharing of said material will appear on this site. Players are listed with interested schools in their profiles; this information is public. Commitments are by definition public. Any assertions as to schools in the mix, decision dates, or leaders I will back up with links to the source of the information.

Quarterback

Commit
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Previously
JJ McCarthy	IL	****.5	Michigan		Hello.

Needs: High. Michigan took just Cade McNamara and Dan Villari in the last two classes after longtime 2020 commit JD Johnson had to give up football for health reasons. The way quarterbacks transfer these days they could lose whoever loses the McCaffrey/Milton battle.

Commit: Michigan locked up blue-chip J.J. McCarthy before the end of his sophomore season. The news today is he'll play his senior season (if there is one) at IMG.

Sometimes a move to IMG is a worrying thing, but not with McCarthy, a 100% locked commit who's been "one of the most passionate commitments the staff has reeled in within the same time frame," according to 247's Steve Lorenz. McCarthy now gets to whisper sweet maize and blue nothings to some of the most talented players in the country all fall. It's a good thing for him as a prospect too: he'll arrive with an extra year of college-level coaching, and enroll early, according to Orion Sang.

Other McCarthy things of more recent vintage include a practice video Rivals's EJ Holland put out($) in a series of embedded tweets on May 4—if you're not a subscriber you get to scroll through his timeline. Rivals's Austin Fox says McCarthy could be a 5-star if there's a senior year. Lorenz recently profiled McCarthy in his new commitment overview series.

Prospects. As far as I can tell they are not pursuing another at this time.

[After THE JUMP: Chipping away]

Michigan lost their first verbal commitment of the 2020 cycle, and it was a big one. Four-star OH WR Kalil Branham tweeted that he was decommiting, somehow managing to fit it within Twitter’s character limit and eschewing the Notes app. 247’s Steve Lorenz wrote a quick piece in the wake of Branham decommitting in which he notes that Branham committed to Pep Hamilton and his primary recruiter was Al Washington (who, according to 247’s player profile, had been pursuing him since he was at Cincinnati) and, uh, those guys no longer have offices in Schembechler Hall.

The staff may be close to adding a verbal from a skill-position player, though. Lorenz did some digging in the wake of MD RB Blake Corum tweeting that he’s close to a decision and came back with his crystal ball still solidly on Michigan. Corum has been one of Michigan’s top targets for some time, and should he pick Michigan he won’t be going there alone; fellow St. Frances Academy four-star OLB Osman Savage and three-star OT Micah Mazzccua are a current teammates. When exactly said decision will go public isn’t clear, but Lorenz closed his post by saying it could be in the very near future.

Lorenz also added a crystal ball for NY ATH William Mohan. He unofficially visited earlier this month, and Lorenz reports that he’s a take as a Viper. The three-star is currently ranked #415 in the composite and is the #4 player in New York. The Wolverine’s Brandon Brown spoke with Mohan, who said that the intensity with which Michigan is recruiting him is a 10/10. He said OSU, PSU, Pitt, and Rutgers are also recruiting him hard, but noted that his interest in Michigan is a 10/10. Mohan then told Brown that he’s going to be back for an official visit. Fun fact, per 247’s player page: his nickname is ‘Apache.’ If this makes you think of Traverse City and now you’re hungry then we’re on the exact same page.

A long-time top target made his first visit to Ann Arbor at the end of last week and liked it enough that he told 247's Steve Wiltfong he'll be back for an official. NJ S Jordan Morant spent Thursday on campus and told Wiltfong he was impressed by the facilities and academic opportunity (and support) Michigan offers, and he added that his favorite thing about Michigan is having coaches Partridge and Campanile on staff due to the level of comfort that provides with them both being from New Jersey. 247's Steve Lorenz wrote that he was waiting to see whether the staff would mention playing with Daxton Hill to Morant; on Thursday Morant tweeted at Hill "this the move?", so I think it's safe to assume we know who was discussed that day. One thing that's interesting is Morant's ranking. He's #112 overall and the #8 safety in the composite, but 247 has him significantly higher at #43 overall and the nation's top safety. I watched his junior highlight film and his speed, athleticism, explosion, and change of direction lead me to believe 247's ranking is about where he should be.

[More big visits and crystal balls after THE JUMP]

Perhaps you’ve heard that there is a football game that will be played at Michigan Stadium this weekend. Teenagers from around the nation are flocking to Ann Arbor to observe the dairy-engorged behemoths from Wisconsin clash with the Herbert-engineered athletic specimens from Michigan under the  glow of very long banks of electric lights.

One teenager who won’t be in Ann Arbor headlined last week’s post as a would-be visitor, and his absence is not necessarily a bad sign for Michigan. Word got around on Monday that five-star NC ATH Quavaris Crouch would no longer be on campus this weekend. 247’s Steve Lorenz reported yesterday that the decision was mutual, and that Michigan’s staff would rather have Crouch, whom he noted is one of the staff’s top two or three remaining targets, on campus some weekend where there aren’t so many other visitors, thus allowing them to focus more attention on Crouch.

This makes some sense in light of Rivals and 247 reporting that five-star OH DE Zach Harrison will be taking an unofficial visit this weekend. 247’s Steve Lorenz reports that Harrison took an unofficial to Ohio State on Wednesday to learn more about their academic offerings. Lorenz notes that Harrison and fellow unofficial visitor 2019 OH S (but really Viper) Joey Velazquez, one of the commits recently featured in FBO, are good friends who grew up together, so maybe being on campus together makes a difference for what will be Harrison's fourth Michigan visit.

It makes even more sense when considering that there are only three official visitors this weekend, two of which are already committed to Michigan with the other happening to be their likely top priority on the offensive line. IL OT Trevor Keegan took an official to Ohio State last weekend and still has officials to Penn State, Georgia, and Clemson planned; 247’s Steve Wiltfong CB’d him to Georgia last week. That’s a lot for Michigan to have to counter, so rescheduling Crouch for a different weekend, risky though it may be, is understandable.

[Hit the JUMP for more visitors and interesting in-state 2020 interviews]