Thursday Recruiting Roundup: Michigan a top school for pair of four-star recruits

This week has been a big one on the Michigan football recruiting front with some key recruits visiting Ann Abor this weekend for the spring game, along with the Wolverines landing their second running back of the 2023 class in Benjamin Hall.

Before the spring game kicks off on Saturday, let’s take a look at some other developments along the recruiting landscape for the Michigan Wolverines.

Michigan a top school for four-star linebacker

Four-star class of 2023 linebacker Phil Picciotti from Pennridge High School in Pennsylvania recently listed Michigan in his top 12 schools.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pounder took an unofficial visit to Michigan on March 20, a day after visiting East Lansing to visit the Michigan State Spartans. Clearly, the visit to Ann Arbor went well enough for Piccioti to list Michigan among his top schools, but it remains to be seen which direction this goes with many schools still seeming to be in the mix.

He currently has two Crystal Ball projections to stay in his home state and play at Penn State, with those predictions coming in September. Picciotti hasn’t visited the Nittany Lions since last October, although he has been there twice total.

Recently, Picciotti has explored more schools and has taken two trips to Michigan State in the last few months, while the March 20 visit was his first to Ann Arbor.

Last season, Picciotti finished with 144 tackles, 19 tackles for loss while recording one sack and two forced fumbles.

Michigan in top 7 for class of 2023 four-star DL

Will Norman, an 2023 four-star defensive lineman from IMG Academy (Fla.) recently listed Michigan in his top seven schools.

The 6-foot-5, 290-pounder was offered by Michigan back in September by former defensive line coach Shaun Nua. Since then, Mike Elston has taken over that role, so it seems clear Elston has continued to recruit Norman and that some type of relationship has formed since the coaching change — at least enough for Norman to still be considering Michigan.

Norman has not taken a visit to Ann Arbor yet, so it will be interesting to see if that is on the table in the near future. On March 19, Norman did visit one Big Ten school in Penn State, which is where the one Crystal Ball projection from 247Sports has him ending up.

Nation’s No. 2 ATH in 2024 class visits Michigan

Quinton Martin, the nation’s No. 2 athlete in the class of 2024 and a five-star recruit, according to 247SSports, visited Michigan earlier this week.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound athlete was offered by the Wolverines in mid-February and didn’t waste much time getting to Ann Arbor.

He holds other notable offers from Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, Wisconsin, Kentucky and others. Martin hails from Belle Vernon in Pennsylvania and is the No. 1 ranked player in the state and the 14th ranked player in the class overall.