Michigan had a less than stellar recruiting season due to a mediocre football season, a rash of coaching changes, a reduced amount of scholarships, and tough competition for the most talented players available. To say that Signing Day was a disappointment to Wolverine fans was an understatement; it was downright devastating. Michigan ranked somewhere between 20th to 24th nationally after two consecutive seasons that the Wolverines finished in the Top 5; worse, we finished not only behind Ohio State for the third consecutive season, but also behind divisional rival Penn State, and in a virtual dead heat with Nebraska after they made a coaching change. There was no 3rd consecutive Signing of the Stars Extravaganza planned for the Crisler Center as Harbaugh nixed the event. Many fans and former players including Amani Toomer, Top Recruit of Michigan's 1992 class and former member of the New York Giants 2007 Super Bowl Champions, are disgruntled with the progress of the football program under Harbaugh and staff; former NFL Analyst and Ohio State receiver, Cris Carter, has called Harbaugh the most overrated coach in college football. Prior to the Outback Bowl loss where Michigan was the only Big Ten team to lose a bowl game, Michigan Athletic Director and former Harbaugh teammate, Warde Manuel, was trying to work out a "lifetime" contract with Harbaugh to coach the Wolverines. Harbaugh is currently making over $7 million per season with three assistant coaches making over $1 million each, and the coaching staff is compensated in the Top 3 nationally; however, they are not getting the results on the field to warrant the compensation. Will Muschamp of South Carolina and Paul Chryst of Wisconsin ranked 37th and 36th in total compensation for their staffs out of 128 Division I football programs, and both earned wins over Harbaugh at Michigan in 2017.

Michigan Big Ten Football Title Drought	Years	Period
Oosterbaan to Elliott	14 yrs.	1950-1964
Carr-Rodriquez-Hoke-Harbaugh	14 yrs.	2004-2018
Michigan exits conference, 1907-16 Yost	12 yrs.	1906-1918
Kipke to Crisler/Great Depression to WWII	10 yrs.	1933-1943

Michigan's title drought is now the longest in Wolverine history, and Harbaugh's first three seasons haven't changed the dilemma although we are closer to the top than before he arrived. As a Michigan football fan, I've experienced two of these droughts. Ohio State's Urban Meyer is 6-0 against Michigan since his arrival in 2012, and Michigan State's Mark Dantonio is now 8-2 against the Wolverines. Penn State (Franklin) and Wisconsin (Chryst) are tough competitors, and now Minnesota (Fleck), Purdue (Brohm), and Maryland (Durkin) loom as competitive programs along with Iowa (Ferentz), Northwestern (Fitzgerald) and Nebraska (Frost); Indiana has taken Michigan to overtime in two of the past three seasons, and the Hoosiers have three former Wolverine Coaches on staff (Hart, Debord and Sheridan). Michigan finished 4th in their division, and had the 6th best overall record in Big Ten play in 2017. There are few "soft" games on the conference schedule although Indiana, Rutgers, and Illinois are the least competitive of the 9 game schedule with a conference that won the Bowl Championship Trophy with a 7-1 record, and the Wolverines were the only loser. The Big Ten competition continues in its intensity, and the path to the top continues to be a great challenge in a 14 team conference. Our non-conference schedule is also rugged with Notre Dame back on schedule plus future tilts with Washington, Virginia Tech in 2020 and 2021 plus UCLA in 2022 and 2023 with Texas and Oklahoma in home and home events, 2024-2027. One of the things Coach Harbaugh recognized is that we needed a younger Strength & Conditioning Coach; he hired Ben Herbert from Arkansas to fill that need so hopefully that will result in a stronger team in 2018 beginning with Winter conditioning.

This class has 4 January enrollees: Joe Milton, Transfer Sean Patterson, Myles Sims, and Taylor Upshaw; they will get the benefit of 15 Spring practices prior to Summer Camp. Patterson should find out about his eligibility in late February.

On Offense, the Wolverines landed two quarterbacks to replace departing Wilton Speight, John O'Korn and Alex Malzone; they are Mississippi transfer, Sean Patterson, originally from Toledo, and Joe Milton who enrolled in January. Harbaugh offered at least 14 quarterbacks in this class; he lost out early on Matt Coral (USC, then Florida, then Mississippi), Trevor Lawrence (Clemson), Artur Stikowski (Miami-FL, then Rutgers), Cameron Rising (Oklahoma, then Texas), Jacob Sirmon (Washington), and Jack West (Stanford). He gained the commitment of Milton in May; then, he concentrated his efforts on two many thought he's get: Dorian Thompson-Robinson (UCLA) and Tyler Shough (North Carolina, then Oregon) who visited in May, but he persuaded neither to commit. Doyle committed in late September after an official visit, but reniged on February 4 three days prior to Signing Day and signed with Arizona. It looked like he'd be satisfied with Milton and Doyle; however, he was able to gain the transfer of Patterson in December which caused Doyle not to sign on December 21. Others we would have offered if was any interest on their part would have been Justin Fields (Georgia) and Tanner McKee (Stanford-Mormon Mission); Michigan State signed one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the state with La'Darius Jefferson plus another inking Javez Alexander. Kyle Grady, Max Wittwer, and Owen Goldsberry also pledged as Preferred-Walk-ons. Dan Mullen left Mississippi State for Florida and snatched Emory Jones away from the Buckeyes, and Kirby Smart of Georgia stole Justin Fields from an earlier pledge to Penn State. Michigan Quarterbacks

Will Shea Patterson be eligible for 2018? Will he be the starter?

One of the big problems we've had at Michigan is the stubborn insistence on only recruiting pocket passers! All the other top teams have both pocket passers as well as dual threat running quarterbacks on their roster, and they utilize both regularly. It is no mistake that our defense has such a difficult time defending dual threat quarterbacks when they do not practice against them since we have none on our roster. Hopefully, Joe Milton and Michael Barrett will help change this philosopy. Georgia made it to the BCS National Championship with a Freshman quarterback Jake Fromm, and they just offered 22 quarterbacks in 2017, and landed Fields to compliment Fromm. Alabama and Tennessee offered 20 quarterbacks each.

Joe Milton has enrolled January, 2018 and will perform at the Spring Game on April 14

Hassan Haskins and his family with Jay and Jim Harbaugh

At Running Back, it was difficult for Jay Harbaugh to get the top recruits on campus for a visit; he isn't considered one of the top running backs coaches. We offered at least 16 running backs, and signed four. Tennessee offered 38 running backs, Virginia Tech with 25, and Nebraska with 24 offers. We lost Ty Isaac, and gained the pledges of Christian Turner in April, Hassan Haskins in late October, gained H-Back/Fullback Ben VanSumeren on December 17, and Michael Barrett on January 23. Abraham Alce visited on the final weekend of January. Markese Stepp of Indianapolis pledged early to Notre Dame, but ended up signing with USC. Most of the top backs in the South ended up staying in the South: James Cook (Georgia), Zamir White (Georgia), Asa Martin (Auburn), Lorenzo Lingard (Miami-FL), and Fabian Franklin (TCU). Georgia led the nation with Cook and White to replace their two stalwarts Sony Michel and Nick Chubb. We coveted Mychale Salahuddin as an All-Purpose Back, but he signed with Pittsburgh after earlier pledging to USC; other APBs we coveted were Jashaun Corbin (Texas A&M), T.J. Pledger (Oklahoma), and Lyn-J Dixon (Clemson). Ohio State got Brian Snead out of Florida, Master Teague of Tennessee, and kept In-Stater, Jaelen Gill, from Ohio, but Tavion Thomas signed with Cincinnati. Michigan's Greatest Running Backs

Will Michael Barrett be the new Jabrill Peppers at Michigan? He can play Quarterback in Wildcat, Running Back and Wide Receiver! Harbaugh wants him to play Slot to start.

Harbaugh with Christian Turner

Ben VanSumeren sleeps with a football at night

Ronnie Bell is a two-sport star from Kansas City, will he also play basketball at Michigan?

At Wide Receiver, Pep Hamilton lost out on top prospects throughout the whole recruiting process although this was a position of great need; he wasn't much of a recruiter, and most Wolverine fans were disappointed in the progress of the wide receiving corps as well; , the passing game ranked one of the lowest nationally. Most of us didn't realize what a great coach we had in Jedd Fisch, and Hamilton certainly was not an able replacement. Harbaugh hired former MSU Quarterback, Dan Enos, on January 8, but Nick Saban stole him away on January 25. Harbaugh interviewed former Florida Head Coach, Jim McElwin, on February 6 for the position. We offered at least 42 wide receivers and tight ends. The only signee we've secured so far is Ronnie Bell, and we just gained his pledge on December 18, and he is our lowest rated prospect by all the rating services. We really wanted Amon-Ra St. Brown (USC), JaMarr Chase (LSU), Bryan Addison (UCLA), Chris Olave (Ohio State), Jalen Hall (Oregon), Kamryn Babb (Ohio State), Justin Shorter (Penn State), Kearis Jackson (Georgia), Dillon Spalding (West Virginia), Shocky Jacques-Louis (Pittsburgh), and Kyle Philips (UCLA) the most. In all, we offered at least 42 guys; we hoped to gain the transfer of Van Jefferson from Mississippi, but couldn't get his transcript through admissions so he transferred to Florida, and his teammate, Deontay Anderson who we recruited as a Safety went to Houston. It is practically impossible to transfer to Michigan, and get credit equivalency for what you've earned credit in at other universities; Michigan seems to believe that other versions of the same subject matter are irrelevant. Michigan Ends (Wide Receivers, Tight Ends and Wingbacks (Slots)

Muhammad Mustafa was one of the most coveted Tight Ends in the nation, and played at Missouri City, Texas

At Tight End, we gained the pledges of Luke Schoonmaker in July, Mustafa Muhammad in October, and Ben VanSumeren in December just before early Signing; however, the most coveted player, Jeremy Ruckert, signed with Ohio State and legacy, Will Mallory, son of Mike Mallory and nephew of Curt and Doug Mallory, pledged to Miami-FL. He also hankered for Tommy Tremble (Notre Dame), Luke Ford (Georgia), Michael Ezeike (UCLA), and Brevin Jordan (Miami-FL), etc. We gained the pledge of Leonard Taylor early; however, we never could get him to come on an official visit although the coaches tried hard to get him on campus. We recruited Taylor as a defensive end rather than as an athlete so that could be another reason why he decommitted along with the pressure from Ohio people not to come to Ann Arbor. Taylor signed with Cincinnati. Others offered included Malcolm Epps (Texas), Judge Culpepper and Zach Kuntz (Penn State), Zach Sheffer (LSU), and Trenton Gillison (Michigan State). Although Harbaugh wants Michigan to be known at "Tight End University," it hasn't happened. Late in the process, we offered Iowa pledge, Ben VanSumeren, after we miffed on Tremble. Tennessee led the nation with at least 85 offers to receivers, over double our efforts while Georgia offered 62. Tight End Coach Greg Frey left for his alma mater, Florida State, and we replaced him with Sherrone Moore from Central Michigan.

Luke Schoonmaker, 6'6" 229 lbs. from Hamden, Connecticut, is he the hidden gem of the 2018 recruiting class? He also played quarterback, and in baseball was a pitcher and first baseman

On the Offensive Line, Coach Drevno offered over at least 37 prospects, and gained the pledges early from In-Staters, Ryan Hayes, and Jalen Mayfield in May; Mayfield earlier committed to Minnesota. We lost 4-Year Starter, Mason Cole, and transfer of 2016 recruit, JaRaymond Hall. The earliest pledge, Emil Ekiyor, of Indianapolis was committed to us for over a year until Alabama offered him, and stole him within about 6 weeks in late October. That was the biggest "black eye" in the recruiting season. After that, it was difficult for Drevno to get other pledges and official visitors; some of the prospects recruited the hardest included Nicholas Petit-Frere (Ohio State), Jarrett Patterson (Notre Dame), Tommy Brown (Alabama), Brey Walker (Oklahoma), Cade Mayes (Tennessee, then Georgia), Rasheed Walker (Penn State), Antwan Reed (Penn State, then Western Michigan), Jamaree Salyer (Georgia), Trey Hill (Georgia), James Ohonba (Michigan State), Fred (Juice) Scruggs (Penn State), Curtis Dunlap (Minnesota), Daniel Faalele (Minnesota), Jerome Carvin (Tennessee), Barton Clement (Texas A&M), Rafiti Ghirmai (Texas), Jalen Goss (Florida State), etc. Another early pledge, Jalil Irvin, decommitted and later signed with Auburn. We also lost two good prospects right in our own back yard in Washtenaw County; Michael Fortney of Milan to Wisconsin and Demitri Douglas of Saline to Michigan State. Other Michigan guys we passed on included Marquan McCall (Kentucky) and Tyrone Sampson (Nebraska). We recently approached Rice Grad Transfer, Calvin Anderson, as a possibility since we were unable to recruit all the candidates we sought. UCLA offered at least 50 offensive line prospects, Tennessee had 43, Wisconsin, Oregon and Maryland offered at least 42 each. Georgia easily landed the top offensive line group nationally with Cade Mays, Trey Hill, Jamaree Salyer, and Warren Ericson. Harbaugh surprised many on January 20 by offering Minnesota Run Game Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach, Ed Warriner, a position "to be determined." Warriner formerly coached at both Ohio State and Michigan State, and his son will be playing for Mark Dantonio's Spartans this Fall. Michigan Offensive Line

Will Minnesota's Run Game Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach, Ed Warriner, be an Senior Offensive Analyst for Michigan or Offensive Coordinator as he was for Ohio State?

Ryan Hayes was listed as a Tight End, but most expect the 6'7" 262 lbs. athlete to end up on the offensive line

All in all, Michigan football fans can only be disappointed with the recruiting and offensive line coaching of Coach Drevno in 2017; we expect better performance than what we saw in 2017, and it appears that we didn't re-load for 2018 with recruits ready to step in immediately like many other schools have done. Drevno recently apologized to the team for his poor coaching job on January 17. We do have redshirts, Chuck Filiaga, James Hudson, Andrew Stueber, and Joel Honigford who could immediately impact line play though along with returning starters, Ben Bredeson, Cesar Ruiz, and Grant Newsome along with backups Jon Runyan Jr. and Stephen Spanellis. There are six guys who have started games: Bredeson, Onwenu, Ruiz, Ulizio, Newsome, and Runyan. We will start the Spring with only 11 scholarship offensive lineman; that is the lowest since I've been following Michigan Football in 1959. Most Division I Football Programs carry between 15-18 for the gruelling 13 game season. When Coach Harbaugh visited recruit Jarrett Patterson in Arizona on January 16 with Coach Drevno, Harbaugh told him, "I'm a different person coming into this season, and he needed to "fix some things." Patterson was wavering between UCLA and Michigan at that time; then, he was offered by Notre dame, visited, and signed with them on February 7.

On Defense, Coach Brown feels very good about his returning defense that was one of the better groups in the conference and the nation in 2017. He loses starters, Maurice Hurst and Michael McCray, but returns 9 of 11 starters. Brown knows his linebacking crew will be much better, more athletic after redshirting Drew Singleton and Jordan Anthony so he has more depth in 2018; however, he realizes that safety is a problem area especially in giving up big plays.

Will Greg Mattison, 68, coach Aidan Hutchinson for the next four years?

On the Defensive Line, Coach Mattison offered over 40 prospects with losing All-American Maurice Hurst, and gained the pledges of legacy Aidan Hutchinson, son of All-American Chris Hutchinson, in February plus former Florida commit, Taylor Upshaw, in late November, and he enrolled in January. Hutchinson acquitted himself well in the U.S. Army All-American game with 4 tackles including a sack. We coveted Rick Sandidge (South Carolina), Tyler Friday, Tyreke Smith, Tommy Togiai and Taron Vincent (all for Ohio State), Alim McNeill (North Carolina State), Eyabi Anoma (Alabama), Micah Parsons and Jayson Oweh (Penn State), K.J. Henry (Clemson), Ronnie Perkins and Michael Thompson (Oklahoma), Jayson and Justin Ademilola (Notre Dame), and Thomas Booker (Stanford) the most from our offers. We were in on the Ademilolas early in March thanks to Chris Partridge, but Notre Dame snatched them away in early May. Late in the process, we got Julius Welschof, a 21 year old German, who was pledged to Georgia Tech; however, he camped in Ann Arbor last Summer.

Taylor Upshaw enrolled January, 2018 and will also compete at the Spring Game on April 14

Another philosophical problem Michigan has had over the years is their inability to emphasize defensive tackles in recruiting; that is not the case for Alabama and Georgia who offered 66 lineman each in 2017, but that was not as many as former Alabama coach, Jeremy Pruitt, who just took over at Tennessee as he offered 90 defensive lineman. Michigan offered 41 defensive linemen. Nick Saban won his first National Championship at Alabama in his 3rd season in 2009 with a 14-0 record; his team averaged 11.7 points allowed per game through 14 games with the most point allowed in the first game with 24. In 2011, the Crimson Tide rolled to a shutout win over LSU in the title game after avenging an earlier, 9-6, defeat. In 2012, Saban's troops won another national title allowing only 14 points in the title game, and posting 4 shutouts during the season; the only team that scored more than 17 points on his defense was Georgia in the SEC title game with 28. In 2015, Alabama won another national title outscoring former Alabama Coach, Dabo Swinney and Clemson, 45-40, but was outscored by the Tigers, 35-31, in the 2016 rematch; in 2017, Saban's defense shut down Clemson, 24-6, to reach the title game. The main point is that Saban has been so successful due to a staunch defense led by mobile, athletic defensive linemen; that has not been the tradition for Michigan Defensive Linemen.

Julius Welschof camped June, 2017, but didn't get a scholarship offer until December 17

The Wolverine rotation will be tough for any of the freshman to crack with Gary and Kemp rotating at the Anchor End, Solomon and Mone at the Nose, Marshall, Dwumfour and Redshirts Donovan Jeter and Deron Irving-Bey competing at the 3-Technique, and Winovich back at the Buck Linebacker/DE with Kwity Paye rotating. Big things are expected from Redshirt Luiji Viliain; however, it is uncertain how much Redshirt Philip Paea will contribute so he could move to the beleagured offensive line. Both Reuben Jones and Ron Johnson have been disappointments so far in their careers so little is expected from either of them in 2018.

Cam McGrone with Coaches Partridge, Brown and Harbaugh

At Linebacker, Coach Partridge, 36, was approached by Alabama's Nick Saban to fill the defensive vacancy when Jeremy Pruitt took over at Tennessee; Partridge, our best recruiter, and been a stalwart in identifying and building relationships with prospects and coaches in the East particularly New Jersey decided to re-sign with Michigan. Harbaugh increased his salary from $350,000 to $500,000. We offered only 24 linebacking prospects because we redshirted Drew Singleton and Jordan Anthony plus have Freshman Josh Ross, Sophomore Josh Uche, and Redshirt Junior Devin Gil ready to fill openings left by Captain Michael McCray and Noah Furbush. We got two of the nation's top prospects with athletic Indianapolis star, Cameron McGrone in late July; he is our only recruit to be a 5 star prospect. Otis Reese pledged on June 18, 2016, but decommitted to sign with Georgia on February 7, 2018. D.J. Durkin led the nation with 36 linebacker offers followed by Mark Dantonio's 33 for MSU, Tennessee had 32, and LSU came out with 30. Others we were the most interested in included: Shayne Simon (Notre Dame), Dallas Gant (Ohio State), nephew of former Wolverine Tony Gant, (Ohio State), Dillon Harris (Connecticut), David Reese (Florida), Bumper Pool (Arkansas), Brian Asamoah (Oklahoma), etc. We lost the decommitment of Antwuan Johnson to Bowling Green; it was probably more of a grade issue. We bypassed the brother of Kenny Demens, Kolin, at Detroit Country Day as he decommitted from UCLA and signed with Pittsburgh.

The Green twins, Gemon and German

In the Defensive Backfield, Coach Chris Zordich offered at least 51 prospects as Coach Brian Smith moved on to Rice. Coach Devin Bush Sr. replaced Smith for the Outback Bowl, but it is yet unknown if he'll stay on as a 10th coach or continue to be an analyst as Chris Partridge will move to coach safeties. We gained the commitments of twins, Gemon and German Green, Myles Sims in April and Sammy Faustin in August, and closed with Vincent Gray and Grad Transfer Casey Hughes from Utah on January 21. We have boosted our position group to 16 guys, most of any position group on the team, with only the loss of Brandon Watson; in 2017, we only had 11 scholarship athletes in this position group with 7 walk-ons so we've added more depth and competition. Tennessee offered 72 defensive backs, Nebraska offered 59, Georgia with 57, South Carolina sent 55 with both Oklahoma and Virginia Tech with 52 each. Some of the safeties we missed out on included: Derrik Allen (Notre Dame), Talanoa Hufanga (USC), Julius Irvin (Washington), Jamien Sherwood (Auburn), Trey Dean (Tennessee, then Florida), C.J. Smith (Florida, then Nebraska), Tyreke Johnson (Ohio State), etc. and cornerbacks included: Josh Jobe (Alabama), Chris Smith (Georgia), Olaijah Griffin (USC), Houston Griffith (Notre Dame), Kalon Gervin (Michigan State), etc. Hufanga and Irvin visited, but picked USC and Washington. The one that may have hurt the most was the loss of Jobe to Alabama after we were closed to flipping him from his previous pledge to Miami-FL; he cancelled his Ohio State visit in November, and pledge to the Crimson Tide a few weeks later. We also had Olaijah Griffin scheduled to visit in January, but he cancelled. Harbaugh also expects big things of new intern, Jordan Kovacs, to help coach the safeties.

Will Myles Sims earn playing time in 2018?

Our starters return with LaVert Hill and David Long at the corners; they are backed up by Ambry Thomas, Jaylen Kelly-Powell, and Ben St. Juste so the addition of 5 freshman should help competition and depth. The lack of depth at defensive back in 2017 also hurt the development of our wide receiving corps; one has to practice against the best in order to become the best. The big problem is at safety where Tyree Kinnel, J'Marick Woods and Josh Metellus return as starters for the two positions with Brad Hawkins and Jordan Glasgow as their backups; Khaleke Hudson proved to be one of the leaders of the defense, and improved significantly in 2017, but depth at Viper is a problem. Perhaps the increased competition will help improve the depth, special teams, and reduce the amount of big plays given up in 2018.

Sammy Faustin with Coach Harbaugh

Vincent Gray pledged on January 21 despite last minute offers from Oregon and UCLA

Casey Hughes is coming to Ann Arbor from Utah to help Michigan win a Championship

February 7, 2018 Signees/Pledges/Transfer-Bold already 4 enrolled

Barrett, Michael	5'11"	215
Bell, Ronnie	6'1"	170
Faustin, Sammy	6'2"	190
Green, Gemon	6'2"	165
Green, Germon	6'2"	168
Gray, Vincent	6'2"	180
Haskins, Hassan	6'1"	202
Hayes, Ryan	6'7"	252
Hughes, Casey	6'0"	185
Hutchinson, Aidan	6'5"	234
Mayfield, Jalen	6'5"	273
McGrone, Cameron	6'1"	215
Milton, Joe	6'4.5"	222
Muhammad, Mustafa	6'4"	235
Patterson, Shea	6'2"	203
Schoonmaker, Luke	6'6"	225
Sims, Myles	6'2.5"	173
Turner, Christian	5'11"	187
Upshaw, Taylor	6'5"	240
VanSumeren, Ben	6'3"	228
Welschof, Julius	6'6"	250

On Special Teams, we gained Michigan walk-ons Jake Moody, George Caratan, and Adam Culp as Preferred Walk-on candidates for placekicker to give Quinn Nordin some competition; we just offered Moody on January 18 as a Greyshirt for 2019, and have been trying to secure a more consistent punter than Brad Robbins or Will Hart who have both been disappointments.

Rating Service	4 Star Prospects	5 Star Prospects
247Sports	389	28
Rivals	373	25
ESPN (80+ 4 star/90+ 5)	451	15

On February 7, Georgia had the most 5 star commitments with 8 (Fields/White/Salyer/Mays/Anderson/Cox/J.Cook/Tindall/Campbell), Clemson (Lawrence/Thomas/Henry/Carman/Kendrick/Belk/Ross) had 7, Ohio State (Vincent/Gil/Mitchell/T.Johnson/Petit-Frere/Smith) and USC (St. Brown/Daniels/Gaoteote/Hufanga/Taylor-Stuart/O.Griffin) had 6 each, Texas (Foster/Cook/Overshown/Sterns/Green) had 5, Penn State (Parsons/Shorter/Slade), Alabama (Anoma/Walker/Surtain/Waddle) had 4, Oklahoma (Radley-Riles/Redmond/Walker) had 3, Miami-FL (Lingard/Pope) and Washington (Kaho/Spiker) had 2 each with Florida State (Woodbey), Michigan (McGrone), LSU (Marshall), North Carolina (Adams), and Oregon (Devon Williams) had one each.

The Bulldogs already have pledged 3 of the Top 10 and 6 of the ESPN Junior 300 for 2019 already; Kirby Smart became Georgia's Head Coach in 2016, and took his team to the BCS Title game in two seasons with the nation's Top Recruiting class for 2017 after finishing in the Top 3 in 2016. Michigan has 4 pledges (Rumler/Thomas/Herron/Hinton) in the ESPN Junior 300 for 2019 with Michigan State gaining 3 pledges (Barnett/Mathis/Brown); however, the top recruit in the state, Devontae Dobbs, is leaning towards the Spartans due to the pledge of his teammate, Julian Barnett, and Wisconsin has already gained the pledge of Logan Brown. Mazi Smith, Anthony Bradford, Jaren Mangham, and Marvin Grant are other Michigan recruits for 2019 in the ESPN 300. Things are already beginning to "heat up" for this year's recruiting season! Top Michigan Recruits for 2019

MRunner-Up	Commitment
Ekiyor, Emil Friday, Tyler	Alabama Ohio State
Gant, Dallas	Ohio State
Mallory, Will	Miami-FL
McNeill, Alim Patterson, Jarrett Petit-Frere, Nicholas	North Carolina State Notre Dame Ohio State
Reese, David Reese, Otis	Florida Georgia
Ruckert, Jeremy	Ohio State
Sandidge, Rick	South Carolina
Shough, Tyler	North Carolina/Oregon
Simon, Shayne	Notre Dame
Spalding, Dillon	West Virginia
Thompson-Robinson, Dorian	UCLA
Tremble, Tommy	Notre Dame

Michigan continues to consistently get beat on the recruiting trail by Ohio State, Notre Dame, Alabama, Georgia and many others as the list grows; we fail to "close the deal" on the most talented recruits that we covet

In all, Harbaugh offered approximately 250+ scholarships in 25 states including at least 16+ preferred walk-on offers; he offered 330+ prospects in 2016. We offered the most prospects from Florida (57+), Georgia (30+), Texas (29+), California (21+), Ohio (12+), New Jersey (11+), Michigan (10+), and Maryland (7+) with 5 each from Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri and Pennsylvania. We have 21 Signees as of January 26 with two Grad Transfers; our top prospects in the class are Cam McGrone, Mustafa Muhammad, Joe Milton, Aidan Hutchinson, and Myles Sims. We may be able to gain another grad transfer or two this Spring. All teams have until April 30 to sign recruits for the 2018 season, and grad transfers can be accepted anytime through Summer until the Fall semester begins. There were 373 "4 Star" recruits on Rivals, on ESPN Rankings, they listed 451 "4 Star" Recruits rated 80 or higher with 85 wide receivers as the most of any position group, and on 247Sports, there were 389 "4 Star" Recruits. There are nearly 1.1 million high school football players each season in American, but only 6.7% have a shot at playing college football with only 2.6% having a shot at Division I; each ranking service has approximately 5,000 prospects in their database with ratings from one to five stars. Recruiting talent in any endeavor is a matter of perception and hope; the hard work, competition, and improvement is unmeasurable so time will tell over the next 3-5 years as how these young men will develop under the tutelage of Harbaugh's staff. The 2017 recruiting season isn't officially over until the end of April, and it wouldn't be surprising to see Harbaugh accept one or two grad transfers following the Spring Game on April 14 to fill positions of need.

Recruit	Previous School
Mayfield, Jalen	Minnesota
Upshaw, Taylor	Florida
VanSumeren, Ben	Iowa
Welschof, Julius Gray, Vincent	Georgia Tech Missouri

Michigan snatched 5 guys previously committed to other schools

Offers by Team and Position Group

Team	QB	RB	WR/TE	OL	DL	LB	DB	ATH	PK/LS	Total Offers	Signees	ESPN300	Coaching Change	Rank	Record	Coach
Georgia	22	21	62	35	66	22	57	9	1	295	26	19	No	1	13W-2L	Smart
Ohio State	7	11	36	25	38	13	33	8	0	171	26	19	No	2	12W-2L	Meyer
Texas	6	11	19	22	20	12	21	4	2	117	27	17	No	3	7W-6L	Herman
Penn State	10	7	25	22	37	15	32	6	1	155	23	13	No	5	11W-2L	Franklin
Alabama	20	14	55	30	66	22	49	13	2	271	19	13	No	7	12W-1L	Saban
Miami-FL	11	15	45	26	48	13	23	4	2	187	23	12	No	8	10W-3L	Richt
Oklahoma	6	11	26	21	43	23	52	11	0	193	22	9	No	9	12W-2L	Riley
Notre Dame	2	14	36	18	36	21	43	11	0	181	22	9	No	10	10W-3L	B.Kelly
Clemson	4	9	15	15	20	11	31	4	2	111	17	10	No	6	12W-2L	Swinney
Auburn	6	12	51	33	29	23	48	10	1	213	24	11	No	12	10W-4L	Malzahn
USC	5	17	30	20	29	14	30	9	0	154	18	9	No	4	11W-3L	Helton
LSU	13	21	49	31	53	30	40	12	0	249	22	10	No	15	9W-4L	Orgeron
Washington	5	6	11	14	15	13	15	7	0	86	21	6	No	13	10W-3L	Petersen
Michigan	12	16	42	37	41	24	51	18	0	241	19	4	No	21	8W-5L	Harbaugh
Oregon	12	15	53	42	55	23	51	14	1	266	24	7	No	16	7W-6L	Cristobal
Tennessee	20	38	85	43	90	32	72	26	2	408	22	4	Yes	20	4W-8L	Pruitt
Florida	11	17	52	41	58	19	62	14	1	275	19	7	Yes	14	4W-7L	Mullen
South Carolina	14	22	44	29	55	15	55	11	0	245	22	5	No	18	9W-4L	Muschamp
Virginia Tech	9	25	35	33	44	12	52	18	0	228	24	3	No	19	9W-4L	Fuente
Maryland	7	12	47	42	68	36	46	19	1	278	23	2	No	20	4W-8L	Durkin
Florida State	10	10	38	20	39	15	38	7	0	177	21	6	Yes	11	7W-6L	Taggart
Michigan State	10	24	35	30	50	33	42	12	0	236	20	1	No	26	10W-3L	Dantonio
Texas A&M	12	6	33	10	27	15	20	4	1	128	23	4	Yes	17	7W-6L	Fisher
Nebraska	13	24	52	33	50	23	59	16	2	272	24	2	Yes	22	4W-8L	Frost
UCLA	9	19	41	50	27	18	37	14	0	215	28	4	Yes	18	6W-7L	C.Kelly
Wisconsin	8	18	50	14	42	27	45	12	0	216	19	0	No	39	13W-1L	Chryst
Stanford	3	5	7	4	8	10	14	3	0	54	13	5	No	54	9W-5L	Shaw

Our new recruiting coordinator, Matt Dudek, came to Ann Arbor from Arizona in late July where he was in the same position for Rich Rodriquez; he has simply not done the job in his first year that Harbaugh had hoped for. He replaced Tony Tuitoni who coached Fresno State's defensive line to a Mountain West Championship in 2017; he was going to build us into a Samoan recruiting center, and we had no Samoan recruits visit in 2017 other than Hufanga with about 5 offers. I listened to an interview with Dudek on WTKA, and did not come away impressed; he sounded like a fast-talking salesman, and not very professional. In addition, Harbaugh had to add new coaches with much better recruiting prowess than previously. It was obvious that Pep Hamilton was a poor recuiter, but Tim Drevno has also been sub-par so he's brought in Dan Enos/Jim McElwine and Sherrone Moore to help infuse more recruiting enthusiasm offensively. Similarly on defense, Brian Smith was not a great recruiter so he's moved Chris Partridge to coach safeties, and brought in Al Washington to coach linebackers; Washington has good connections in the State of Ohio. When we offer a recruit, it generally carries more impact because of our tradition; therefore, we should rarely lose a recruit to teams like Indiana, Iowa, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Kanas, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, etc. unless that prospect wants to say in-state. Unfortunately, we are losing recruits to schools with lesser tradition, and even worse, we are consistently losing national recruits to the upper echelon schools like Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Florida State, Oklahoma, etc. We have always had difficulty pulling recruits from the South when we recruit against SEC and ACC school, and in the West when the PAC-12 and Big 12 schools offer, but we should rarely lose a recruit less heralded programs, but we are. Unfortunately, we plummeted below Oregon, Florida, Florida State, Texas A&M, UCLA, and Tennessee nationally in the recruiting rankings, and all six of these programs had coaching changes during the height of the recruiting season. How to win at Recruiting Although we are considered by Forbes Magazine as the #5 team in America for "Brand" or value at $94 million, our recruiting effort didn't even land the Wolverines in the Top 20 nationally.

National and Major Conference Football Recruiting Leaders for 2017