Wednesday Michigan Recruiting Roundup: In-home visit season has begun

Now that the college football regular season has wrapped up, the recruiting calendar flips to a contact period. This means coaches can go visit prospects and their families wherever they want. They can meet in person at most once a week, up to six times before signing day.

Most of this contact is in the form of in-home visits, where coaches stop by the houses of recruits and meet with the families. The Michigan staff wasted no time in spreading across the country to check in on their top remaining targets, as well as their current commits.

Let’s run down who the staff has visited and plans to see this week.

A pair of elite defensive ends get visits from Greg Mattison

The biggest fish left to reel in is 5-star defensive end Zach Harrison, who Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider confirmed was visited by Al Washington and Greg Mattison on Tuesday ($).

Before Saturday’s massive debacle, it was reiterated the result of The Game would not have a significant impact on Harrison’s decision. Nevertheless, the blowout did “jolt him a bit.”

Michigan commits already on board did some great work assuaging his concerns in the immediate aftermath, but this visit is still extremely important as he gets to hear straight from the coaches.

Webb said he is still comfortable on his crystal ball to Michigan, but this one will be a roller coaster until the very end. Penn State’s James Franklin has also been in to visit Harrison, and Ohio State will get the last in-home.

Harrison is not the only elite defensive end the staff has the ability to land, though. It’s still a waiting game for top-100 recruit George Karlaftis, who Michigan would be the favorite for if Jeff Brohm were to leave Purdue.

Greg Mattison will be visiting Karlaftis in West Lafayette today to keep Michigan’s excellent relationship with the 4-star open, per 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong ($). A Purdue assistant will be at their home the next day, and he still has his official to the Boilermakers scheduled for Dec. 14.

The story remains the same here; if Jeff Brohm leaves, Karlaftis will probably go to Michigan. If he doesn’t, then he’ll stay with Purdue.

Southern 4-star LB gets visit from the head man

Besides defensive end, the position the staff is in the best shape to land a top prospect is linebacker. A handful of 4-star or higher linebackers have been receptive after Michigan’s 10-game win streak during the season.

One of these players is Georgia prospect and Florida State commit Kalen DeLoach. According to TMI’s Steve Lorenz, Jim Harbaugh and Al Washington will be seeing him on Thursday ($).

Besides the Seminoles, the main competition for DeLoach is Auburn. In a twisted way, the Ohio State loss may not actually affect him much, considering his top three schools all got crushed in their rivalry games this past weekend.

Commits who were visited by the staff

The staff also took the time to visit the players already in the fold and make sure they’re 100 percent blue. There hasn’t been anything to worry about with any of the recruits they visited, so I’ll just give a quick list of who the staff visited and what coaches were on hand.

Monday

TMI’s Brice Marich confirmed Ohio 3-star Gabe Newburg was visited by Al Washington ($). Newburg relayed he will enroll early and the staff is picturing him as an anchor on the defensive line.

Also in Ohio, Sherrone Moore stopped by 4-star Erick All’s house for a visit. If you want to see a mature young man, read All’s response to the last reply on this post. Don’t tweet at recruits!

Jim Harbaugh spent Monday night in Paw Paw, where he watched Karsen Barnhart in his basketball game. Steve Lorenz reported this visit is in place of an in-home and Barnhart is locked up with Michigan ($).

Tuesday

Don Brown was in Connecticut to see 3-star linebacker Charles Thomas. Thomas is coached by Jeff Moore, who played under Don Brown at UMass and was clearly excited to see his old coach.

Locally, 4-star Mazi Smith was visited by Michigan coaches, although he didn’t tell Steve Lorenz who specifically ($). Smith will be enrolling early as well.

Wednesday

Harbaugh is down in Florida today for an in-home visit with athlete George Johnson III.

Later in the Week

Georgia 4-star Chris Hinton will be visited by Jim Harbaugh Saturday, per Steve Lorenz ($).

Nevada 4-star Cade McNamara will be visited by Pep Hamilton by the end of the week, but the date isn’t set yet, per Steve Lorenz ($).

This is already a busy week, but there will be plenty more visits made by the coaches across the country as they aim to put the final touches on the 2019 class.

2020 4-star quarterback set to make decision

Finally for today, Michigan should be expecting good news tomorrow at 2:45 p.m. as Georgia 4-star quarterback Harrison Bailey is set to announce his college commitment.

Bailey is ranked as No. 3 pro-style quarterback and 59th overall in his class. Previously, TMI’s Sam Webb went over Bailey’s recruitment and what has made Michigan the overwhelming favorite to land him ($).

But what I found interesting is the impact Bailey could have on the rest of the class. Georgia insider Rusty Mansell tweeted other big-time players want to play with the talented quarterback.

Steve Lorenz supported this fact by saying Michigan would become immediate factors for 5-star tight end Arik Gilbert and 4-star wide receiver Jermaine Burton, who either are or were once teammates with Bailey.

As we’ve seen with Cade McNamara, and the Daxton Hill and Giles Jackson recruitments, having a stud quarterback commit who is a leader can have a massive effect on a recruiting class.

That was a lot of information, but the news will only start to pick up more as the early signing day gets closer and closer. Stay tuned with Maize n Brew to get the latest news about Michigan recruiting!