The Michigan Wolverines had been on a roll as far as making the top list for recruits in the 2019 class.
“Had” being the key word there.
The nation’s top defensive tackle in the 2019 class, Ishmael Sopsher, cut Michigan from his top list Monday afternoon. Instead, he put in Alabama, Florida State, LSU, Ole Miss, Oregon, Texas and Texas A&M.
Lucky 7 pic.twitter.com/vfCkdgSi58
— ishmael sopsher (@isopsher) July 30, 2018
Sopsher is the sixth-ranked overall player in the 2019 class, per 247Sports’ composite. The Amite, Louisiana native is listed at 6-foot-3.5 and a whopping 334 pounds.
This isn’t surprising news. The Wolverines never got Sopsher on campus and were not recruiting him as hard as some of the other defensive linemen in the country.
While it always sucks missing out on top prospects like Sopsher, Michigan still has an extremely strong defensive line class in 2019. With 5-star Chris Hinton, 4-star Mazi Smith, 4-star David Ojabo and 3-star Gabe Newburg, the Wolverines look pretty set with their defensive line in this class.
The only other defensive lineman in this class I could see committing to Michigan is 5-star Zach Harrison. The Wolverines are in a heated battle with the Ohio State Buckeyes and Penn State Nittany Lions to acquire his services, and it doesn’t look like his recruitment will be over any time soon.
In the meantime, Michigan will continue to recruit Harrison and other top prospects like 5-star safety Daxton Hill, 5-star athlete Quavaris Crouch, 4-star safety Lewis Cine and 4-star offensive tackle Trevor Keegan.