Thursday Recruiting Roundup: Moving on to new safety targets

Happy Thursday and welcome to another Michigan Recruiting Roundup!

With 17 verbal commitments, the Wolverines’ 2021 class is really starting to take shape. With several top targets still uncommitted, they are bound to have another pretty large class. Let’s start today’s roundup with a position I didn’t think we’d have to talk about too much about heading into the summer — the safeties.

New S target talks with Harbaugh, Shoop; U-M evaluating in-stater

The Wolverines didn’t waste much time reaching out to new 2021 safety targets after missing the cut on Monday for three-star Donovan McMillon, as head coach Jim Harbaugh and safeties coach Bob Shoop had a FaceTime call with three-star Daymon David on Tuesday, according to Brice Marich at The Michigan Insider ($).

David is a 6-foot-1, 172-pound prospect from Reisterstown, Maryland, and someone we haven’t talked a ton about. The Wolverines recently jumped into this recruitment, offering him a scholarship on May 20.

Currently, David is ranked the No. 1,079 overall prospect in his class, per 247Sports’ composite. Despite his low ranking, he holds solid offers from programs like Michigan, Miami (FL), Oklahoma, Louisville, Arkansas, Indiana, Purdue and more. We will certainly see how these talks progress, but they clearly like him enough to get Harbaugh on the call.

Marich also reported ($) the Wolverines are evaluating in-state three-star Saborn Campbell. Shoop has been chatting with the 6-foot, 180-pounder, who attends Detroit Country Day.

Campbell is committed to play baseball at Stanford, so it will take not only some convincing, but also a scholarship offer to pry him away from the Cardinal. His only football offers as of now are from Michigan State, Cincinnati, Dartmouth and Columbia, according to his Twitter account.

With this recruitment, it seems like Shoop is just doing his due diligence and keeping up with the talent inside the state at this point. Nothing serious to report here so far, so we’ll see if this develops any further.

But it does look like Michigan wants one more safety to pair up with three-star Rod Moore in this class. After taking several blue-chippers the past two cycles, this is a bit surprising for me. If Michigan only takes one safety in 2021, it would not be the end of the world by any means, in my opinion.

2022 OL grew up fan of U-M

Michigan is loaded at the offensive line position in 2021 with a couple guys still left on the board. But let’s look ahead a bit to 2022. One guy who was recently offered by the Wolverines, and a guy they will likely be a real player for, is Drew Shelton.

Shelton is 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds. He hails from Downingtown, Pennsylvania. He picked up the offer from Ed Warinner on Wednesday, and detailed his conversation with Warinner to Maize n Brew.

“(Warinner) seems like a great guy — he kept it real with me, which I liked, and obviously he’s a great coach. He had four of five offensive linemen drafted last year, so he has to be doing something right. I believe we will have a good relationship in the future,” he said.

Despite being out of state, he grew up a fan of the Maize and Blue.

“Both my aunt and uncle went there and I have been a fan (of Michigan) since I was young,” Shelton said. “I’ve been to the Big House one time. I think I was around 12 and I can’t remember who they played, but it’s the only college football game I’ve ever been to and I can’t wait to get back up there this fall.”

The fact Shelton has two family members who attended the university, as well as growing up a fan of the program, The Wolverines look to be a big threat early on in this recruitment. They have already offered 21 offensive lineman in 2022, so I’d imagine things will begin to pick up pretty soon in this class, especially since their 2021 haul is nearly complete.

Shelton is not ranked just yet, but he is likely to rise up the rankings by the time it’s all said and done. He already holds offers from Michigan, Maryland, Oregon, Penn State and more, so I would look for him to be a candidate to see a big bump in the rankings.

That’s all for now! Come back Tuesday for another roundup.