Tuesday Recruiting Roundup: 2022 four-star takes self-guided tour of Michigan

Welcome back to another Tuesday Michigan Recruiting Roundup! This week’s roundup is focused on the defense, with spotlights on three 2022 four-star prospects that are considering Michigan strongly.

Michigan one of the schools recruiting top 100 LB the hardest

The linebacker room at Michigan is set to be stacked for the next few years, but that doesn’t mean the coaches are going to stop recruiting top talent to Ann Arbor. One target they’ve set their sights on for 2022 is South Carolina four-star Jaylen Sneed.

The Michigan Insider’s Steve Lorenz traveled to the Palmetto State to pick up some intel on the top 100 stud ($).

Sneed said Michigan was “one of the schools recruiting him the hardest,” listing Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia as other schools high on his list. If Virginia seems like an odd inclusion on that list, Lorenz reports Sneed is a 4.0 student and wants to attend business school in college.

Brian Jean-Mary is unsurprisingly Sneed’s lead recruiter, but he also has a conversation with Jim Harbaugh scheduled for this week.

There are no crystal balls for Sneed yet. He said Clemson, Ohio State and LSU are all recruiting him but haven’t offered. If any of those three, especially Clemson, offer it could shake up his recruitment in a big way.

2022 four-star takes unofficial trip to Ann Arbor

In recent weeks, Michigan has been hosting a handful of 2022 prospects on campus for self-guided tours. The latest prospect to make the trip is Indiana four-star defensive lineman Joe Strickland, per TMI’s Brice Marich ($).

“It went pretty good,” Strickland said about the visit. “Just went around and looked at the place from the outside. Drove past the stadium and practice fields to just see it from afar. It was pretty nice honestly and I’ll definitely be back.”

Asked about his impressions of campus, Strickland said, “Everything is close. I saw a lot of students probably five minutes away from the stadium and it seemed to be where everybody goes to eat and etc. Yeah, it’s nice (that it’s close).”

Shaun Nua is handling Strickland’s recruitment, and he says they speak “around every week.” Strickland said he has “spoken on the phone with him plenty of times and it is nice to do that early on.”

Notre Dame has an early crystal ball in for Strickland, but Michigan looks to definitely be one of his top schools so far.

Michigan trying to pull four-star DE from Alabama

Another defensive end Michigan is pursuing strongly is Alabama four-star Justice Finkley. TMI’s Marich was in Alabama last weekend to get Finkley’s thoughts on Michigan in person ($).

“I say I talk to them about three days a week,” Finkley said. “I do talk with the recruiting coordinator a lot, not necessarily the coaches, so (defensive analyst) Aashon Larkins. He’s a great guy. We can talk about the same things and just relate and touch base on a lot of things.”

Nua has also been in frequent contact with Finkley.

“He’s a very cool guy,” Finkley said of Nua. “He’s very funny. He seems like he’s big and tough, but he’s a little softy. I really like him and I feel like he puts guys to the next level.”

Pulling a blue chipper from Alabama when the Crimson Tide are also pursuing is going to be a tough ask, but Michigan has been prioritizing him early on and is in frequent contact with him, as you can tell from his comments.

That concludes this week’s Tuesday Michigan Recruiting Roundup at Maize n Brew. Make sure to check back again soon for more of the latest news from the recruiting trail.