Wednesday Michigan Recruiting Roundup: Updates on two 2021 top-100 recruits

Welcome all, to another Wednesday Michigan Recruiting Roundup. We’re so close to another season of Michigan football starting in a few days, so whet your appetite in the meantime with the latest from the recruiting trail.

Three-star WR target sets return visit

After landing four-stars AJ Henning and Roman Wilson and three-star Eamonn Dennis in 2020, Michigan is looking to finish off its wide receiver class with one more piece. The most likely candidate is Arizona three-star Brenden Rice, and the chances of him joining soon got much greater when he announced his plans to visit Michigan again on his Twitter.

Rice is one of the few prospects who visited, but did not commit, during the crazy June recruiting weekend. Since he used his official during that trip, this upcoming one will be an unofficial visit, further showing Rice’s interest. All nine of the Crystal Ball predictions point towards the Wolverines, indicating that a commit watch could be on to help kick off the 2019 season.

In-state 2021 four-star RB has serious Michigan connections

It’s early, but the state of Michigan looks to be absolutely loaded for the 2021 class. One of the top prospects is top-100 running back Donovan Edwards, out of West Bloomfield. His coach, former Wolverine Ron Bellamy, spoke with The Michigan Insider’s Sam Webb about Edwards growing bond with the program ($).

Bellamy said Edwards checks all of the boxes, raving about his ability on and off the field: “He’s an awesome teammate and a high-character kid. He has a super personality. Very personable. (He’s also) a 3.0 kid. You’re getting a great kid.

Edwards also really likes Michigan, as evidenced by an anecdote shared by Bellamy.

“The kid drove himself to Ann Arbor 45 minutes to be at this camp. And he paid money to be at the camp. He’s flying out the next day to go to LSU, Alabama, Georgia and Clemson. But he thought it was important for him to be at Michigan,” explained Bellamy.

Also helping Michigan’s cause are his teammates, Makari Paige and Cornell Wheeler. Bellamy calls Edwards and the pair of Michigan commits “brothers” and that their influence will be “huge” in this recruitment.

Adding all of this up and it looks like Michigan will be hard to beat for the stud local running back. There’s no timetable set for Edwards’ recruitment, but you can bet that you’ll see him on the sidelines at least once this season.

Michigan makes top 8 for 2021 four-star DT

Defensive tackle is definitely a position where Michigan could use a couple of dudes, and 2021 is shaping up nicely for the staff so far. One of the top prospects still considering Michigan is Pennsylvania 4-star Elliot Donald, who put the Wolverines in his top eight list on Monday night.

Donald, who is the nephew of NFL superstar Aaron Donald, has a who’s who of top schools on his list. However, the notable inclusion on this list to look out for is Pittsburgh, his hometown school and the place where his uncle starred earlier this decade.

Michigan has been able to pull legacies away from the favored school before, though, so if they keep the heat up they could restock their defensive line move with another top 100 player.

That concludes this edition of the Wednesday Michigan Recruiting Roundup. If you want to hear more about Michigan recruiting in both football and basketball, check out the debut episode of the Future Brew podcast hosted by your author and Von Lozon that’s out today!