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Michigan coaches traveled far and wide this past week during the bye, and one of the farther recruits offensive coordinator Josh Gattis went to visit was 2020 four-star wide receiver commit Roman Wilson.
The Wolverines have not landed many commitments from Hawaii natives, but they got one in 2020 and are now working on another in 2021 in wide receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala.
“I am blessed,” he told Maize n Brew. “A lot of tears a lot happiness — coming from the islands and as a wide receiver, this is huge opportunity.”
The offer was extended to him by defensive line coach Shaun Nua, which makes sense given he is Michigan’s head recruiter on the West Coast. He told Mokiao-Atimalala’s high school head coach the good news, who then relayed the message to him.
After the offer, it didn’t take long for Mokiao-Atimalala to receive a message from Wilson.
“How you feeling Michigan, bro? Too far for you or no?” Wilson messaged Mokiao-Atimalala.
“Naw, that’s too big of an opportunity to miss,” Mokiao-Atimalala replied.
With that said, Mokiao-Atimalala is interested in visiting Ann Arbor at some point in the near future, perhaps with Wilson accompanying him. But for now, he and his family have to make those plans together.
Mokiao-Atimalala holds other offers from Hawaii and Utah. He is also garnering interest from Washington State, Boise State and Oregon State.
His recruitment is just taking off, but he already knows what he wants in his future school.
“I’m looking for a school that me and my family feel comfortable at,” Mokiao-Atimalala said. “I want to go into business after football, so I would want to see how their business program is.”
If distance truly is not a factor for him, Michigan has as good a chance as anyone to land a commitment from Mokiao-Atimalala. He seems quite interested early on, but it’s early so anything can happen.
Mokiao-Atimalala is not yet ranked in the composite, but 247Sports has him as the No. 3 player in Hawaii, No. 59 wide receiver and No. 387 overall player in 2021.