Michigan Recruiting Roundup: More targets planning spring trips

As the dead period drags on for football recruiting, prospects continue to map out their visit schedules despite having no communication with coaching staffs.

On today’s Recruiting Roundup, more Michigan targets are planning visits to Ann Arbor. We’ll also discuss a couple players who are trending up for Michigan.

Four-star TE looking to visit in April

A position Michigan will likely look to take a couple guys at in the 2021 class is tight end. So far, Sherrone Moore and company are going hard after a few really talented players, including four-star Moliki Matavao.

The 6-foot-6, 240-pounder from Henderson, Nevada recently spoke with The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich ($) and detailed his intentions to visit Ann Arbor this spring.

“Yes, I do (plan on visiting Michigan),” Matavao said. “Hopefully the second weekend of April.”

This would be Matavao’s first trip to Michigan, and it would count as an unofficial visit.

Along with Matavao, the Wolverines are also going hard after four-star tight ends Brock Bowers and Thomas Fidone.

The lone crystal ball is in favor of the Washington Huskies, so this recruitment seems to be pretty open. We will certainly know more about where Michigan stands here after his potential visit in April.

Matavao holds other offers from Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Texas, USC and more.

Four-star DE locks in U-M visit

Don Brown loves his dudes from the east coast, and he is planning on hosting another east coast dude this spring, as 2021 four-star defensive end Kechaun Bennett told 247Sports’ Brian Dohn ($) he will be unofficially visiting Michigan March 27.

While in the area, Bennett will also swing by Notre Dame for an unofficial visit March 28.

Michigan was actually the first school to offer Bennett last year. Since then, the 6-foot-4, 220-pounder from Suffield, Connecticut has received other offers from Nebraska, Penn State, Tennessee, West Virginia and more.

He has visited Penn State a couple times already, so the Nittany Lions may be out in front at the moment. However, there are zero crystal ball predictions, so this seems like another open recruitment for the Wolverines to take advantage of, if they choose to do so.

New assistant coach doing work on ‘crootin trail

Michigan’s two new assistants — linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary and safeties coach Bob Shoop — haven’t been talked about much since their arrival in Ann Arbor. They came in just shortly before the recruiting dead period, so they didn’t have a ton of time to get to work on the recruiting trail, but Jean-Mary, at the very least, has hit the ground running.

According to TMI’s Sam Webb ($), Jean-Mary has the Wolverines trending up with 2021 four-star linebacker Junior Colson. Webb also reports ($) Jean-Mary is putting in work with 2021 four-star cornerback Ishmael Ibraheem.

Let’s talk quickly about Colson. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder from Brentwood, Tennessee is someone Michigan has been going after before Jean-Mary’s arrival. Colson has visited campus a couple times already, so he was already interested. But now, according to Webb, Jean-Mary has hit it off with Colson. There are also potential plans for Colson to visit in April, so that is certainly more good news for the Maize and Blue.

Meanwhile, Ibraheem is someone we have not talked a ton about. He lives and plays football in Texas, so it already seemed like it’d be impossible to reel the kid away from the south. However, Jean-Mary has been chatting with Ibraheem recently. The communication has been positive, and apparently Ibraheem has a “more open recruitment than ever,” according to Webb.

More good news with Ibraheem is he isn’t even from Texas — he was born in Detroit, and his mom still lives in Detroit. Having a family connection in the area, especially considering it is his mother, could be huge news down the road for Michigan. All it takes is one good visit to convince a kid that has family in the area it wouldn’t be so bad to play away from your current state of residence.

Both would be huge defensive additions to Michigan’s 2021 class. As always, we will bring you all more info when available.

That’s all for this week! Come back on Tuesday for another roundup.