Biggest Recruiting Priorities For The 2021 Class
With its 2020 class completed, Michigan has turned its full attention to the 2021 recruiting class even before the second 2020 Signing Day. Here's its top three priorities in our opinion.
Continue the Emphasis on Explosiveness
We saw Daxton Hill, Giles Jackson, David Ojabo, and Quinten Johnson and others sign in 2019. The 2020 class added Blake Corum, A.J. Henning, Roman Wilson, and Andre Seldon among others, too. What do all these athletes have in common, despite playing on opposite sides of the ball and different positions in some cases? They're all explosive, and if there's one thing we've seen the Wolverines lack when they go up against the elite teams in college football it's explosiveness. See the first pass completion of the Citrus Bowl, when Michigan's best cornerback (senior Lavert Hill) got absolutely housed by Alabama's Jerry Jeudy for an 85-yard touchdown. Hill will likely be a third day pick in the NFL Draft, while Jeudy will go top 10 overall. And I don't have to remind everybody the difference in explosiveness in the last two Ohio State games as well.
Build a Moat Around the State of Michigan
According to the 247 Composite recruiting rankings, there were actually more top recruits in the Michigan prep ranks than Ohio in 2020. The 2021 class is even better. 247 Sports currently ranks 10 players in the state's 2021 class as 4-stars or higher. Damon Payne, Rocco Spindler, and Donovan Edwards are in the top 50 nationally. Garrett Dellinger and early Michigan commitment Giovanni El-Hadi are in the top 100 nationally. Rayshaun Benny, Raheem Anderson, Jaylen Reed, Jamari Buddin, and Kalen King are rated 4-star recruits. Michigan is currently leading all the crystal balls for offensive tackle Caleb Tiernan, who should be a 4-star when it's all said and done. Andrei Anthony and Kobe King are high 3-stars. Odds are the Wolverines aren't going to get all these guys. For example, conventional wisdom on Payne, the overall top-rated prospect in the state, is he's looking to head south. But when you're facing the demographic challenges of the Big Ten footprint, and you've got a bumper crop like this in your own backyard, best to take full advantage of it while you can.
Defensive Tackle
Often they're whiny fan tropes, but then sometimes a mantra is repeated by the masses so often because it's just so obviously true. Thus, you hope the powers-that-be hear your combined voices. The shared lament over Michigan's defensive tackle recruiting/depth is the latter. We saw big, road-grater offensive lines at Wisconsin and Ohio State just maul Michigan, who got caught in a numbers crunch with elite defensive tackle recruits Chris Hinton and Mazi Smith just not ready yet to contribute significantly as true freshmen. However, Michigan didn't sign a single pure defensive tackle in the 2020 class. Which means it either didn't learn its lesson from the 2019 season, or couldn't land one. Only two of its 27 "top targets" so far in the 2021 class, according to 247 Sports, is listed as a defensive tackle (Tywone Malone & Victory Vaka). Malone's interest is believed to have subsided with the departures of Christ Partridge and Anthony Campanile, but Vaka hails from the same school as Zach Charbonnet and is high on the Wolverines. Still, you can't put all your eggs in his basket. Especially for the position on defense that tends to separate the men from the boys in college football.
What are your thoughts on our top 3 2021 recruiting priorities? Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments.
