Michigan’s top targets remaining heading into the 2021 early signing period

Heading into early signing day, most of Michigan’s 2021 class is solid and expected to sign their letters of intent. Even with most of the class locked in, there are still a handful of uncommitted targets Michigan coaches are pursuing to wrap up what could end up as a top ten class despite all the uncertainty surrounding the program. Here’s a quick preview on where the top guys still left on the board are leaning.

Donovan Edwards

Edwards has been maybe the top overall target on Michigan’s board throughout the entire cycle. The top 50 overall player, and one of the top running backs in the country, is in Michigan’s backyard and is a bonafide home run threat whenever he touches the ball.

There have definitely been ebbs and flows in this recruitment with Ohio State, Georgia and Oklahoma all looking strong at some point, but Michigan has stayed strong consistently throughout. The visit moratorium has actually helped Michigan with Edwards as he was unable to visit schools like Oklahoma or Alabama like he planned. All of the crystal balls remain on the Wolverines.

Edwards will be announcing his decision on Wednesday afternoon. With five-star Camar Wheaton getting recent crystal balls to Oklahoma, it looks like Georgia could be the biggest threat.

Drew Kendall

I know, I know. Michigan fans got tired of Kendall’s recruitment after he continually pushed his commitment back every month after having all of his crystal balls pointing to the Wolverines.

In September, after Kendall pushed back his decision date again, the crystal balls flipped from Michigan to Boston College, where he is a legacy. But again nothing happened. He was able to take a trip to Stanford which he was waiting for a while to do, but again it didn’t trigger him to commit.

Michigan never totally cooled on Kendall and has been maintaining communication throughout the fall. They’ve picked up interest a little more lately and could try to finally get him to make up his mind. There’s no word on when Kendall is going to announce. It could be during the early signing period or he could wait until February.

George Rooks

Rooks’ recruitment has been fairly similar to Kendall’s, except fans have been a little more tolerant because he plays at such a position of need at defensive tackle.

At one point Rooks also had all of his crystal balls pointing toward Michigan. He was supposed to make a decision before his senior season started, but then pushed it back indefinitely. There was word that a Penn State surge caused him to think twice, but lately it has been Boston College again receiving the crystal balls.

Considering the crystal ball movement has happened much more recently, it looks less likely Rooks will end up at Michigan, but the coaches are continuing to push. Rooks has said he plans to announce this week, but he could once again delay it.

Ceyair Wright

Another position of need in the 2021 class is cornerback, and adding a top 100 player like Wright would be a huge boost. Wright made his first trip to campus for the Wisconsin game and was planning to make it back again when he visited Notre Dame a couple weeks ago, but couldn’t make it work.

Despite all the crystal balls pointing to hometown USC, it looks like the Fighting Irish are surging in this recruitment following that visit. Wright isn’t planning to announce until Jan. 2 when the All-American Bowl was supposed to be played, so it will be a little while until we know how legitimate Notre Dame’s buzz is.

That delay does also give Michigan more time to get their staff sorted out and make a late push for the top defensive back.

Omarion Cooper

Also at the cornerback position, Cooper looked very likely to end up flipping from Florida State to Michigan before the latter’s season started. But since the turmoil on the field started for the Wolverines, talk about Cooper has cooled a bit.

In recent interviews, Cooper has still been up front about Michigan having the best shot to pry him from his pledge to the Seminoles. While Cooper was initially going to hold off and sign in February, he just switched his plans to sign in the early period after all, which isn’t a good sign for Michigan.

Michigan has a chance to pull this out at the last second, but the late change in his timetable make’s their chances slim.