Wednesday Michigan Recruiting Roundup: Spring visits being planned

Welcome back to another Wednesday Michigan Recruiting Roundup!

The football staff has been busy hosting a bunch of targets in the month of March, and now they’re setting their sights on more in the spring. Several prospects will be making their first visit to campus in the upcoming months, so let’s see who will be experiencing Ann Arbor for the first time soon.

Utah 3-star DE Van Fillinger

After receiving an offer from Michigan last month, the Wolverines immediately jumped out in front of Fillinger’s recruitment, who has family in the Detroit area.

Fillinger told The Michigan Insider’s Steve Lorenz he’ll be making a trip soon to check out the program up close ($).

”I am taking an unofficial visit to Michigan on May 18,” he said.

The trip being an unofficial is significant, meaning Fillinger could come back to campus on an official visit paid by the program. This signifies this likely won’t be the only visit of the cycle for Fillinger.

The Utah prospect is ranked No. 476 in the country, but recently got a bump to 4-star status by 247Sports. All nine crystal ball picks read Maize and Blue.

Nebraska 3-star WR Xavier Watts

Michigan is trying to pull off another under-the-radar wide receiver coup in the Plains States. This year their target is Xavier Watts, who is ranked No. 789 in the country, yet has offers from Notre Dame, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Purdue, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa and more.

Luckily, Michigan got in early, and Watts also told TMI’s Lorenz about his future visit plans ($).

Watts will be visiting campus April 27 for an unofficial visit. He added Michigan will “very likely” receive an official visit as well later on.

There are no crystal ball picks for Watts yet, but Michigan is near, if not, the top school on his list.

Indiana 4-star OL Blake Fisher

We’re moving to the 2021 class for our third prospect, Indiana offensive lineman Blake Fisher. Fisher has been identified early as one of the elite players in his class, ranking No. 88 in the country as of now.

Fisher talked to TMI’s Josh Newkirk about his eagerness to see Ann Arbor for the first time ($).

“I can’t wait to get (to) Michigan, (meet) coach (Ed) Warinner, the whole coaching staff, both Harbaughs, the running backs coach and head coach have played a big factor in that,” Fisher said.

Unsurprisingly, Ed Warinner is killing it in this recruitment, according to Fisher.

“Coach Warinner will definitely have the capability of putting me in the NFL. But yeah, he’s a good guy. And he definitely stays on me and makes sure I’m doing good at all times.”

Fisher said he plans on enrolling early at whichever school he ends up choosing. Right now, the most likely destination appears to be in-state Notre Dame, who has two crystal ball picks.

Maryland 3-star DE Mitchell Melton

Mitchell Melton is a 3-star prospect from Maryland who was just on campus last weekend. That visit apparently went very well, considering he already locked in an official visit, per 247Sports’ Brian Dohn ($).

“We talked to coach (Jim) Harbaugh about it. We said we wanted to do official visits and that was the date we talked about, so we set it,” Melton said.

That date is June 21, which is the first day of summer, so I’m cheating a bit here, but it’s close enough!

The 3-star hasn’t been talked about much as a prospect of interest to the staff, but considering these visit plans, he definitely should be considered one now.

His offer list belies his national ranking of 633rd, considering Ohio State, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Maryland, Nebraska, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin and several others have extended offers, in addition to Michigan.

Hometown Maryland holds the one crystal ball prediction right now.

That wraps up this week’s Wednesday Recruiting Roundup! Keep your eyes out for more tidbits from the recruiting trail from Maize and Brew coming soon.