Michigan's Four Recent Commitments Build Upon Established Foundation

Michigan hosted several prospects over the weekend and is starting to pick up some real momentum on the recruiting trail.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore watches warm up during the spring game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 20, 2024. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Michigan is the reigning national champion and they achieved that by playing sound, fundamental football on both sides of the ball. On offense, Michigan manhandled its opponents with a dominant offensive line, hyper-efficient running game and a quarterback like JJ McCarthy who did exactly what he was asked to do despite having all-world talent.

Because of that, it's not a surprise that Sherrone Moore and Co. recently received commitments from a talented, team-first quarterback, a duo of hard-working, do-it-all running backs and a nasty interior lineman. It's almost like the the culture and paths of success in Ann Arbor reeled in the exact types of players that led to the high-level winning in the first place.

Granted, Hart is a 2026 prospect, but he's obviously been paying attention. Michigan landed a similiar type of signal caller in the 2025 class, at least in terms of mental makeup, in Florida native Carter Smith, and even though McCarthy was a bit of a bigger name than Smith and Hart in terms of his profile, he was always billed as a worker, natural leader and humble contributor. Smith and Hart seem to fit the mold to a tee.

Parker might as well be Hassan Haskins 2.0. They have a smiliar build and playing style and are also pretty similar in terms of their prep path. Neither would be considered elite in terms of their recruiting profile, yet both are from areas that play solid high school football. The college-ready body is there for both of them and the production is solid as well. Haskins will always be a legend as the five-touchdown scorer in Michigan's massive win over Ohio State in 2022 and Parker looks and feels like another back who will outperform his recruiting rating while in Ann Arbor.

Johnson is a little more known as a prospect as a part of the IMG Academy family, but he's coming off a knee injury that caused him to miss his entire junior season. He's originally from Georgia, has a near-elite combination of size and speed at 6-0, 205 pounds and could end up being a true workhorse at Michigan. His high school career has had some ups and downs due to injury, and his drive and work ethic will be tested coming off of such a major setback, but he could develop and thrive in Ann Arbor just like Blake Corum did.

Honestly, look at any one of Michigan's recent offensive linemen and you'll see a pretty consistent overall arc. Not many, if any, of them were viewed as top flight, blue chip, five star types but just about all of them had solid options beyond U-M. Most were quite solid as high school prospects but really bought in, developed and jelled together while at Michigan. Now, most are considered current or future pros, which resulted in back to back Joe Moore Award wins in 2022 and 2023. Strayhorn seems like the same kind of guy. He's very solid, playing at IMG, but not the absolute best in his class. He's learning from the best, following some of the best and understands the tradition at Michigan when it comes to the offensive line. It also doesn't hurt that the former O-line coach responsible for those awards, is now the head coach.