Michigan Recruiting Roundup: Targets impressed by annihilation of MSU

Welcome in to the Monday edition of our recruiting roundup. Today we take a look at how Michigan whooping Michigan State has impacted the Wolverines on the trail. It sounds as if one top target moved the maize and blue up because of their showing. Let’s roll.

Michigan still firmly in play for Theo Johnson

2020 four-star tight end Theo Johnson planned on announcing who he’d be committing to today, but announced last week that he has decided to postpone the decision and reflect on things a while longer.

Johnson’s final four consist of Michigan, Penn State, Georgia, and Iowa.

Many have previously pegged Johnson committing to Penn State, but it sounds like the Nittany Lions loss to Minnesota could have played a role in his hesitation. Rivals analyst Josh Hemholdt said “the reason he’s delaying is because as he thought through it more, he’s less sure about his decision than he was a week ago. My interpretation of that is it’s not good news for Penn State.”

Combine the delay with his visit this weekend to Ann Arbor, which went quite well according to what 247’s Brice Marich gathered($). Johnson was able to take in Michigan’s hoops game on Friday and then the destruction of Michigan State at The Big House on Saturday. Marich’s intel indicated that Johnson thoroughly enjoyed his visit and the collective word is Michigan made a move up in his recruitment.

As far as when he’ll announce where he’s headed? That could come as early as next month. “I see in my brain like December 18th being the latest date,” Johnson told Dawg Nation. “But at the same time, if you asked me when I was going to commit last year, I would have said October of this year. As the process has gone on, I have slowly backed it up so I don’t really know for sure what is going to happen.”

The 6-foot-6 target from Windsor, Ontario is ranked as the No. 3 TE and No. 95 overall prospect in the 2020 class.

2020 OT has ‘amazing visit’

Chantilly (Va.) 2020 offensive tackle James Pogorelc made his first visit to Michigan over the weekend and had himself a good time.

Pogorelc told The Michigan Insider ($) that the players and coaches are the kind of people he would want around him at college and that the gameday atmosphere was incredible.

Pogorelc said he got to spend a lot of time with Jim Harbaugh and offensive line coach Ed Warinner during his “very good visit”. The 6-foot-7, 270-pound prospect is currently ranked as the No. 31 OT in the 2020 class and each of the six crystal balls to this point have been for Stanford.

Four-star OL loved Michigan’s domination

Cass Tech (Detroit) 2021 four-star offensive lineman Raheem Anderson made a visit to Ann Arbor over the weekend, and he told 247 Sports ($) that what stood out to him the most was the fact Michigan didn’t show mercy against the Spartans.

Anderson told 247 that he loved the pure domination “by those Maize and Blue guys.” All seems to be really well between Anderson and Michigan and he’s trending toward becoming a lock to commit to Michigan. There are currently five crystal balls in for Anderson, and all five have him committing to the Wolverines.

Anderson is the No. 2 center in the 2021 class and No. 191 player overall.