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The Michigan coaching staff is pursuing a bunch of guys along the offensive line, once again, in the 2020 class. And they have had great success building relationships early on and getting some of their top targets on campus.
One player that was near the top of the list at one point is 4-star Kevin Pyne, who committed to Boston College Monday evening.
I am thankful to have met some great people over the past years through recruiting, but I’ve made my decision to stay home and commit to play for the Boston College Eagles!! pic.twitter.com/gG8CUbn5Rf
— Kevin Pyne (@kevinpyne75) February 11, 2019
Pyne is from Don Brown territory — Millis, Massachusetts — so Brown was one of the main recruiters for Pyne, along with offensive line coach Ed Warinner.
He holds other offers from Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and other top-tier programs. Michigan is one program that stopped recruiting him heavily, and it is unknown how many of the other big programs did the same, but one thing that may have turned off programs is the fact Pyne was — at the very least — rumored to be attempting to reclassify to the 2019 class.
He never did reclassify, but it makes you wonder if that played a part in the Michigan coaching staff cooling down on him. Or perhaps it was his below-average junior season tape, which has been widely discussed on other boards around the web.
Due to that underwhelming junior season, 247Sports currently has him ranked as a 3-star — No. 288 overall and the No. 33 offensive tackle. The composite has him as No. 104 overall and No. 13 offensive tackle, but he may very well be due for a ratings decrease.
Luckily, Warinner and the coaching staff have been pursuing other offensive linemen hard in this class, including 5-star in-stater Justin Rogers, 4-stars Andrew Raym, Andrew Gentry, Geirean Hatchett and Zak Zinter. They also offered several other offensive linemen recently, so it seems they know what they want out of the position in the 2020 class.
Pyne unofficially visited Michigan in March of last year, so it had been a while since he was last in Ann Arbor. Of course, it’s always unfortunate to lose out on a player that has high potential, despite a poor junior season, but the Wolverines are still in it for a plethora of talent at the position in the class. Pyne heading elsewhere is nothing to fret about.
Follow @von_lozon on Twitter for more Michigan football recruiting news.