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Welcome to another Michigan Recruiting Roundup. It has been busy on the recruiting front over the last week for both football and basketball, but we are going to focus on the gridiron in this edition of the roundup. Let’s start off with the big news of the week.
Top 2021 WR target set to make decision
In case you have missed our previous coverage, 2021 four-star wide receiver Xavier Worthy is set to make his collegiate decision tomorrow at 4 p.m.
The 6-foot-1, 160-pounder from Fresno, California was originally going to commit last month, and was a big Oregon lean at the time. But he decided to push back that commitment date and the door opened up for Josh Gattis and company to do more work on the speedster. Now, 94 percent of the crystal balls are in on the Wolverines, so good news appears to be on the horizon.
Worthy is a big time target for the Wolverines. He is a pure athlete that can stretch the field in more ways than one and is built for today’s college football. Gattis would be able to utilize him in multiple ways, and is the perfect type of player to put in his offensive scheme.
I said on a previous edition of Future Brew, even before he was a Michigan lean, that I believe he has the chance to be a very special player in college football. If Michigan is truly in the driver’s seat and lands his commitment, I think fans should be very excited about what he could do as soon as his true freshman season.
But even if he commits to Michigan, Gattis and the other coaches involved in his recruitment will continue to have to recruit him. This is a weird cycle where kids are unable to take proper visits due to the pandemic. Worthy has not yet visited Ann Arbor, so there should be some sense of urgency to continue to recruit the heck outta the kid and, quite frankly, all the kids currently committed to the class who haven’t visited yet.
For now, Michigan fans should go into tomorrow with cautious optimism. Optimistic he commits to Michigan, but cautious given the unique circumstances of the 2021 cycle and kids not being able to take official visits.
If Worthy commits to Michigan, he will join two other receivers in the class — four-star Cristian Dixon and three-star Markus Allen. Remaining targets include four-star Jayden Thomas, four-star Notre Dame commit Lorenzo Styles and three-star Andrel Anthony.
2021 DT sees U-M up close
Despite everything I just said, if kids want to visit campus, they can do so. The only catch is they cannot interact with anyone associated with the program. Three-star offensive lineman Tristan Bounds visited U-M in that capacity before committing on June 1, and the coaching staff tried to do the same with Ryan Barnes before committing to Notre Dame.
The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich ($) reports 2021 four-star defensive tackle George Rooks took a visit to Michigan last weekend, and it reportedly went well.
“All indications I’ve received on this latest trip to Michigan was overall, it went great and was another solid experience as well,” Marich wrote.
Michigan is looking at a few guys to close on what would be a pretty solid haul along the defensive line. Rooks is definitely one of the staff’s top targets, as is in-state four-star Rayshaun Benny. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out with the Wolverines currently at 19 commitments, but as of today, I think they land at least one of those guys.
That’s all for this week! Again, be sure to be locked in to Maize n Brew tomorrow afternoon, as we will have full coverage on Worthy’s announcement. Until then, be well and stay safe.