Thursday Recruiting Roundup: Targets working to reschedule visits

Happy Thursday, and welcome to today’s Michigan Recruiting Roundup!

With in-person recruiting being shut down for the time being, coaches all around the country are having to call or FaceTime recruits. Michigan coaches are doing just that, so in today’s roundup, we’ll talk about some prospects they have kept close tabs on, despite not being able to meet with them face-to-face.

Warinner working to reschedule visits with two four-star OL

According to The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich ($), offensive line coach Ed Warinner has been in contact with 2021 four-star offensive lineman David Davidkov to try and get a new visit date in place. And according to 247Sports’ Brian Dohn ($), Warinner is also working on rescheduling a visit with 2021 four-star offensive lineman Drew Kendall.

Let’s start with Davidkov, the 6-foot-6, 295-pounder from Winnetka, Illinois. He has been one of the top targets for Michigan for a long time at his position in this class. Ranked the No. 144 overall prospect in 2021, he holds other offers from Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, LSU, Oregon and more.

“I talked to coach Warinner and he said I could most likely visit April 25,” Davidkov said. “He said Michigan will likely be open to recruiting around then and scheduling a visit around April 25 would be ideal.”

The Wolverines appear to be out in front in this recruitment. Both crystal balls are in their favor, and 247Sports’ Allen Trieu said in the comments of Marich’s story he is close to logging his crystal ball for Michigan. Things are looking real good here.

As for Kendall — the 6-foot-4, 255-pounder from Dedham, Massachusetts — things appear to be a bit more open. The schools in contention here include Michigan, Virginia, Boston College and Duke. There are three crystal ball picks for BC, but all three predictions came last August, so they are a bit outdated.

Before the in-person restrictions were in place, Kendall was focusing on which schools he wanted to officially visit. Now that he’s had some time to think things over, he has two schools in mind he will want to officially visit once he can.

“I am still finalizing some of those but I am pretty set on taking one to UVA and Michigan,” Kendall said. “I am still trying to figure out if my family wants to go back to Duke for an official because I’ve already been there three times, and then BC because I’ve been there a bunch, too.

Originally hoping to commit in early summer, Kendall said he is looking to push back his commitment date “maybe into August” so he can take his visits and make a clear decision.

Overall, these are two good updates for the Maize and Blue. Warinner is looking to lock in another great offensive line haul in 2021, so we will see if these two are a part of that or not.

2021 three-star LB still hopes to visit soon

A place Michigan doesn’t get too many commits from is the state of Alabama, but the coaching staff is working on at least one guy from Alabama in the 2021 class — three-star Christian Burkhalter.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pounder is listed as an athlete on 247Sports, but defensive line coach Shaun Nua, the coach who offered him, and the Wolverines are pursuing him at linebacker.

He was looking to visit Michigan this spring, but things may be changed now. As he told TMI’s Marich ($), he still wishes to take a trip to Ann Arbor at some point soon.

“I’m still hoping to take an official visit,” Burkhalter said. “The virus stuff is crazy with all official visits being canceled in April. It makes June tougher.”

Other significant offers include Ohio State, Ole Miss, Florida State, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Update on top in-state prospect

Before we wrap this up, let’s talk quickly about four-star Donovan Edwards, Michigan’s top target at running back and the top in-state prospect in the 2021 class.

There has been a lot of speculation Ohio State leads in this race. While that could be true, the Wolverines are not completely out of it just yet. He has not declared a verbal commitment and still wishes to take more visits.

The Buckeyes received a commitment from 2021 four-star running back Evan Pryor on Monday, and according to TMI’s Sam Webb ($), that may have changed some things regarding Edwards’ recruitment.

Here is what Webb had to say:

“I’ve gotten several questions in the last 24 hours about whether the commitment of the nation’s no. 5 running back, Cornelius (N.C.) Hough standout Evan Pryor to the Buckeyes would affect their standing with Edwards. Well, my strong gut feeling is it absolutely has. That doesn’t mean you should count OSU out. I don’t expect they’ll just concede here. But their perch definitely isn’t what it was just a couple weeks ago. My strong gut feeling is he isn’t as high on Ohio State as he was before that commitment.”

Now, this isn’t the only thing that will impact Edwards’ decision at the end of the day. Other things of importance in this recruitment, according to Webb, are his relationships with coaches, transparency from coaches and the way they use him out of the backfield.

Michigan is in a prime position to seize this opportunity. Will the Wolverines take advantage and get a signature from Edwards this December? Only time will tell.

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