Michigan Football: Shaun Nua keeps showing off his recruiting skills

Michigan football has had a number of recruits visit over the past few days, but two edge rushers from 2021 seemed particularly impressed with Shaun Nua.

When Shaun Nua was hired as the defensive line coach for Michigan football, one of the key questions was about his ability to get it done on the recruiting trail.

After all, the sample size on Nua was relatively small. He coached at the Naval Academy for a number of years and obviously developed some skills there, but recruiting for Navy and for Michigan football are two very different things.

Nua got a glimpse of power-5 recruiting in 2018 with Arizona State and even in his one season with the Sun Devils, there were some positive signs. At the very least, it was clear that Nua was good at building strong relationships with recruits, an essential skill.

And so far, it has opened doors for the Wolverines and one player that comes to mind is Logan Fano, a BYU commit that visited Ann Arbor and received an offer from Michigan Saturday according to Brice Marich of the Michigan Insider ($).

Fano called his visit a “surreal experience” and it seems possible that Michigan was helped by Nua’s previous knowledge of Fano from his time at Arizona State, which offered him last May.

When Fano announced the offer, he mentioned coach Nua on Twitter and now that Nua is coaching the Wolverines, it’s not a surprise that Fano got an offer just a couple of months after he was hired.

That makes me think Nua has a legitimate chance to flip Fano from BYU, where he committed when he was still in middle school. He has obviously kept his recruitment open but the 2021 outside linebacker from Provo, Utah (where BYU is located) hasn’t wavered yet.

However, Michigan is in a different league than the other schools currently offering Fano, which also includes Utah and Utah State. Stanford has also had an interest. Fano has been linked to all Western schools except for the Wolverines and Nua is an obvious reason why.

He’s also a reason why Michigan might have a decent chance of flipping the 6-foot-4, 220-pound linebacker.

While Fano seemed impressed with his visit, he wasn’t the only edge rusher/defensive lineman that had positive things to say about Michigan football as another recruit from the 2021 class, one of the top defenders, in fact, Brayden Wood visited Friday.

In Wood’s words, Michigan was “something else” and he tagged Nua who he likely spent most of his time with as the defensive line coach. Wood, who is from Boulder, Colorado, is a big-time prospect, ranking 34th nationally and third among weak-side defensive ends in 2021.

Wood visited Colorado recently too and has an interest in his hometown school but he also talked about making a name for himself beyond just the next four years, which could mean he is thinking beyond Boulder.

Michigan is one school he has in mind but there will be competition from plenty of others including USC and Clemson. The best thing to say right now is that Nua seems to have developed a positive relationship with Wood and as long as that continues, the Wolverines should be in the running.

Another key thing about Fano and Wood though is their connection with Nua. Certainly, he has a lot more to prove and we will know more about his recruiting prowess as he stars signing guys. But so far, d-line recruits seem really impressed with him.

Seeing if they are impressed enough to commit to Michigan football is the next step, but so far, it’s hard not to feel good about what Nua has brought to the recruiting trail.