Monday Michigan Football Recruiting Roundup Wanders Into the Darkness

Michigan Offers Barajas

Michigan extended an offer to inside linebacker Josh Barajas. The inside prospect is long enough to play the SAM position, like many of the linebackers who came before him in Michigan's class of 2014; it looks like the coaching staff has its heart set on finding big, long linebackers. I wouldn't be surprised if this had a little something to do with the current crop of roughly six-foot linebackers' struggles to get off of blocks.

Anyway, Barajas is excited about the offer($):

"It's huge," he said. "To get an offer from program like that is huge."

The Wolverines were in the school recently and once defensive coordinator Greg Mattison saw Barajas' film, it was a done deal.

"Coach Mallory said their defensive coordinator finally got to see the film and liked what he saw so they extended an offer."

Michigan State, Notre Dame and others will all fight hard for his services. Check out his Hudl film here.  Eric also caught up with Barajas, who did not rule out the possibility of a commitment during his visit later this month.

Marshall's Improvement and Motivation

Michigan rush end commitment Lawrence Marshall played with plenty of motivation during his senior season, wearing a patch in memory of his late father and grandfather. He improved more as a football player from his junior to senior seasons than any other player in Michigan's class of 2014 and talked about that, among other things, with Sam Webb:

I found Sam's "wandered into the darkness" comment pretty funny. I recommend listening to the interview.

EDIT: I completely forgot to mention the biggest takeaway from the above video. Greg Mattison has apparently informed Marshall that he will be moving Taco Charlton to the 5, meaning than Marshall will have a much quicker path to playing time than he may have had before. Charlton is a true 6'6" and is quickly approaching 280 pounds, making him a suitable strong-side defender. Marshall is Frank Clark with a slightly higher ceiling who already possesses the ability to contribute on passing downs, so expect to see him early on in his career. I like the shuffling of ends and think it will benefit Michigan greatly in the long run; the pass rush could be cured in no time if Charlton retains his explosiveness and the Clark/Ojemudia/Marshall package works out this season.

Sam also got interviews with Wilton Speight and Maurice Ways:

General Notes and Multimedia Items

ESPN managed to put up a paid article about four-star gunslinger Jarrett Stidham without actually saying anything about his recruitment. Here's the most fruitful part of the "story"($):

"There's a lot of things, good coaches, some of them I've been fortunate enough to meet in person," Stidham said. "They all have great offenses, and they like to perfect what they do. I feel like it's a really good list for me.

Michigan's offense isn't going to be anything like that of Baylor or Texas A&M; Stidham is looking at Michigan because its offensive coordinator is one of the better quarterback coaches in the country.

Check out the junior tape of five-star CB Minkah Fitzpatrick:

That's a corner worthy of five-star status. Michigan has a very real chance here, especially with Jabrill Peppers in his ear about coming to Michigan.