Thursday Morning Brews: The Day Before

Happy Thursday, folks, and welcome to this morning’s Brews. With spring practices starting tomorrow, football recruiting is going to start heating up again. We also have a trio of recruiting updates and the latest on softball and baseball. To follow up on one item from Tuesday’s installment, Women’s gymnastics will compete in the Northeast regional this weekend against five other teams (#6 Alabama, #18 S. Utah, #20 George Washington, #23 W. Virginia, and #31 Kent State). The top two teams will advance to the national championships in St. Louis.

Let’s hit the links:

With spring ball right around the corner (first session tomorrow), football recruiting is set to emerge from the slow period that exists between the end of one season and the start of preparation for the next - so sayeth Allen Trieu in his weekly column for the Detroit News. To that end, Trieu reports that Michigan will host four star TE prospect Jeremy Ruckert for the first team practice, as well as 2019 DT prospect Jowon Briggs and 2018 OL prospect Jalen Mayfield. Trieu also reports that 2018 WDE four star prospect John Waggoner will visit Michigan on Sunday. With only three players in the 2018 class so far, expect things to start happening for the Wolverines on the recruiting front.

Scout’s Brice Marich reports ($) that Michigan has offered 2018 CB prospect German Green. According to the 247 Composite, Green is a three star recruit and holds offers from nine schools (including Michigan). Marich reports that Green specifically mentioned the school and facilities when asked what he likes about Michigan. Another thing that Green brought up is the difference in weather between his home state of Texas and Michigan. Green said that he likes the cold, implying at the very least that it wouldn’t be a factor counting against Michigan in his recruitment.

Brice Marich of Scout also reports ($) that 2018 DB recruit Trent Gordon recently visited Michigan. According to Marich, Michigan was one stop of many on a college tour Gordon undertook during his spring break. Gordon told Marich that the visit “was great” and that he was able to see everything but a practice during his time on campus. Gordon also mentioned that he spent time speaking with second-year DBs coach Brian Smith who indicated that the staff projected Gordon at strong safety in college. Gordon is a three star recruit and holds offers from 31 schools according to 247Sports - including teams from the B1G, ACC, SEC, and Big XII.

Josh Newkirk recently interviewed 2019 QB prospect Grant Gunnell. Gunnell, rated as a four star prospect by 247Sports, already holds 20 offers - mostly from SEC schools. During the interview with Newkirk, Gunnell said that he first heard from Michigan last fall when Jay Harbaugh made contact. He also admitted that he doesn’t know much about Michigan other than, as Grant says, “Harbaugh is the dude.” While Michigan hasn’t (yet) offered, Gunnell also told Newkirk that he would visit if the Wolverines asked him to. He plans to make his commitment this summer.

Softball made it four straight wins on Tuesday afternoon with a 7-1 victory over the Falcons of Bowling Green. Having been to Bowling Green a handful of times, I’ve never see a falcon there - but hey, I’m willing to take their word for it. On Wednesday, softball stretched their win streak to five as the Wolverines won their game against the Eastern Michigan Eagles by the score of 8-2. The two wins move their record to 19-7-1. With Kent State’s mascot also being a bird (yes, they’re the Golden Flashes but their mascot is an eagle), the Wolverines have faced an aviary full of teams in the past seven days and have come away with a 5-0 record. Michigan next has three games against Penn. State this weekend.

While I have not until now spotlighted Michigan baseball in the morning Brews, the other program that calls the Wilpon Complex home is off to a good start. There are a number of ranking outlets for college baseball, and you can see four included in the tweet above. The Wolverines are ranked as high as #14 and as low as #23, but I’d say that the important thing at this early station in the season is that they’re ranked. The team owns a 16-4 record and bested Western Michigan at home yesterday afternoon by a score of 6-4. They’ll be back in action this weekend with three games against Maryland in College Park.