Tuesday Recruiting Roundup: Late rising targets figuring out visit plans

The Michigan Wolverine’s 2022 board is being whittled down as the days approach the December early signing period. The staff is hoping to parlay their expectations-exceeding season into momentum on the recruiting trail with some late risers.

Latest on red-hot four-star LB

After visiting Michigan for the Northwestern game, 2022 four-star Jimmy Rolder has also taken trips to Ohio State and Wisconsin. 247Sports’ Midwest analyst Allen Trieu spoke to Rolder’s father following the visit to Madison ($).

In regards to Michigan, the elder Rolder said academics will play a large role to his son, who maintains a 4.5 GPA in high school.

“When Michigan offered, (Jimmy) said, ‘look, they have one of the top business schools in the country,’” said Rolder’s father.

The previous update about Rolder urged caution that Ohio State could get another visit before the season ended, but his high school team will be playing this Saturday, preventing him from making it to Columbus again. He could still visit in the first few weeks of December, but it looks like Michigan has dodged that bullet so far.

Trieu himself said he thinks “Michigan could have the inside track here,” but he’s not ready to put in a Crystal Ball prediction yet.

JUCO DL figuring out visit schedule

The Wolverines don’t recruit the junior college ranks often, but this cycle they have found a prospect they think they can get past admissions in defensive lineman Jeffrey M’ba. M’ba has received a lot of attention on the trail the last two months, and he spoke to 247Sports’ East Coast analyst Brian Dohn about how he’s sorting everything out ($).

M’ba just received an offer from Oklahoma, and will be taking an unofficial visit there this weekend. After that, he’ll officially visit Michigan for The Game against Ohio State, and then take officials to Tennessee and Oregon.

It’s a good sign Michigan will get M’ba up for a game so he can experience the atmosphere, but schools do usually like to have the last visit. With M’ba’s connection to Biff Poggi in his brief stop at St. Frances Academy, Michigan does have the benefit of long-standing relationships as well.

Those could be enough for Michigan to land the 6-foot-6, 305-pounder, who should make an instant impact in the trenches.

Three-star CB commit takes visit elsewhere

In less stellar news, 2022 three-star Michigan commit Myles Pollard surprisingly took a trip to Auburn last weekend. He witnessed Auburn blowing a 28-3 lead to Mississippi State at least, but he said he still had a good time when speaking to On3’s Jeffrey Lee ($).

“It was my first game at Auburn and it went well,” Pollard said. “The environment was there, the culture. Everybody was bought in. They just didn’t get the win. They played real well the first half, but they slipped up the second half.”

While he enjoyed the visit, he told Lee he doesn’t “really know what it would take to change” his commitment to Michigan. He added, “I’m still committed to Michigan, but Auburn is a good program. I like the coaches there. I like the players and people committed. I just don’t know what it would take (not to sign with Michigan).”

It’s never great to have a commit visit other places, and with him and Kody Jones taking visits elsewhere, pursuing defensive back targets like five-star Domani Jackson and four-stars Zeke Berry and Austin Ausberry becomes that much more important.