gavin sawchuk

Board lives here.

We have a lot to get to, with a brewing war on the horizon with USC (don’t panic), some major changes on the board at quarterback and cornerback, and the NCAA finally allowing on-campus visits and camps again after a pandemic’s worth of naught.

But first, we’ve got to talk about The D (NNTTD), for Michigan declared yesterday Detroit Day. This was the scene in Ann Arbor:

Not pictured: an unkindness of Ravens

For one day in Ann Arbor, all T’s were pronounced as D’s* all soft TH’s became Z’s, company names were given apostrophized possessives and pizzas were served square and bubbly. Coneys and looseburgers were piled onto the serving staff’s arms and washed down with pop, followed by Sanders on Stroh’s. Harbaugh shared his powerpoint Hall of Fame case for Lou Whitaker, traded gear for jars McClures from Eastern Market, and everyone went home with Pewabic tiles, most of which survived the potholed ride home on 94, which still nobody calls the Ford. I made an all-Motown team for the occasion. Also 30 area recruits for 2022-‘24 were on hand (free), which hand doubled as a map for a spirited, three-hour debate about which route everyone should have taken to get there. That list also turned out to be incomplete($). Rivals’ EJ Holland got reactions($), with Cass Tech OL Jackson Pruitt’s ⬆ the most interesting.

Whom they met along the way is best detailed by the 24/7 crew, who broke down who’s who on the remade recruiting staff on their latest podcast. Lorenz also broke down Michigan’s greatest positions of need which became a high-view state of the class and hosted a VIP chat($) for those looking for the gritty—it’s a few weeks old but has some good bits on Deone Walker and tight end recruiting. Steve is also keeping the visitors list as updated as he can.

The board is also shifting daily. This was expected—after a year and a half of no visits, few camps, and scattered football we knew the late-rising 2022s and all of the 2023s were going to be left unevaluated, both in terms of their football projections and their real interests in schools, until way deeper in the cycle than usual. We’re now starting to see all sorts of guys show up to camps and earn serious offers, and it’s only been a few days since they’ve been able to officially interact in person with these schools and gauge how serious they are.

⬆⬆⬇⬇⬅➡⬅➡BA

People liked the NCAA Football game-inspired arrows last time so I’m going to use them some more. Ups and downs mean trends based on where they were last writeup. Lock means commit or near to it. Peepers is we’re watching for something to happen soon. Right arrow is steady on, or no change despite news, or Connor Jones’s coach is giving quotes again. Left arrow is just there so I could reference a videogame code that’s twice as old as the players we’re talking about.

* [I once seriously confused my bud from from France when I told him to find us a restaurant in a specific New York neighborhood and he spent a half hour searching for somewhere called Liddliddle Lee.]

[Hit THE JUMP for the position-by-position breakdown]

I’m trying different formats for the recruiting posts. If you’re keeping track of all the names you can get much better recruiting coverage from the paid sites dedicated to it. If you’re just trying to get oriented, these posts are for you. I update the 2022 Recruiting Board under Useful Stuff every week or two.

Visits

Lorenz has a (free) rundown of who’s coming and when, with the penultimate weekend in June (which I assume is the BBQ) when they’re going for the most overlap bonuses. I’ve added a few that have been announced since.

June 11-13: QB Nate Johnson, ATH (LB) Tyler Banks, CB Kody Jones, CB Myles Pollard

June 18-20: RB CJ Stokes, RB/H Dillon Bell, OL Lucas Heyer, NT Walter Nolen, SDE/DT Joe Strickland, DT Justice Finkley, DT Sir Mells, DE Mario Eugenio, SDE Joseph Adedire, ILB Omar Graham, OLB Joshua Josephs, HSP Austin Brown, CB Will Johnson

June 25-27: WR Darrius Clemons, DE Anto Saka

Quarterback

Quick Summary: Down to a 3-star Denard type, but it looks like they’ll get him.

Latest: EJ Holland dropped a free article that shared some of his thinking behind potential FutureCast picks, and the first on the list was the one quarterback Michigan still seems to have on the hook, CA 3* Nate Johnson. Short version: Michigan should be able to beat Utah and Oregon State here. Johnson is visiting on the 11th.

Class it is like: 2000. With Drew Henson’s best years ahead of him and 3.5-stars Navarre/Mignery in the class after that, the school about to graduate Tom Brady struck out with elite targets, was too late to get in with the next level, and settled for Jermaine Gonzalez, the gettable athlete from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s. Gonzalez would play some receiver but was never much threat to three-year starter Navarre.

Happy trails: TX 3* Alex Orji committed to Virginia Tech.

[After THE JUMP: What class these offensive positions remind me of.]

Some things have happened since we last checked in. Starting with…

Quarterback

The dominoes fell($) and Michigan’s top pro-style targets went off the board to Clemson (Cade Klubnik) and Penn State (Drew Allar). Oregon’s commitment from Tanner Bailey ruled out the Ducks for Trayce Jackson-Davis’s brother Tayven, the younger Jackson just put out a top eight that excluded Michigan.

Michigan’s now forging ahead with some dual-threats, notably CA 3* Nate Johnson who sounds like($) the closest thing to a Denard Michigan has recruited since the smiling one. The new offer is 3* TX dual-threat Alex Orji, who expressed “tons of excitement” after getting that offer from Harbaugh directly. Orji is a Linguist idea with a lot of regional offers and a highlight reel of leaving a lot of grasping defenders rolling on the ground.

What?

Running Back

Mike Hart seems focused on 5* Gavin Sawchuk, whom Michigan was first to offer, though Oklahoma has five crystal balls there. They’re also looking at a big fella in AL 3* Quinshon Judkins, who impressed Rivals’ EJ Holland($) at the Panama Beach 7v7 Tournament.

[After THE JUMP we finally name our Tennessee operation]