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Michigan Football: 6 Top in-state recruits with heavy Wolverine interest

By Matthew Helmkamp

ANN ARBOR, MI - OCTOBER 11: Fans cheer during a game between the Michigan Wolverines and Penn State Nittany Lions on October 11, 2014 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MI - OCTOBER 11: Fans cheer during a game between the Michigan Wolverines and Penn State Nittany Lions on October 11, 2014 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Michigan football was only able to convince two of the top in-state recruits from the 2019 class to come to the football team: 2020 is very different.

Having the No. 1 recruiting class in the Big Ten is a huge accomplishment even for a storied program like Michigan football; however, only two of the incoming freshman are from in-state.

Logan Brown – the No.1 2019 prospect from Grand Rapids – will farm his services out to Wisconsin this season. The next two on the list, guard Devontae Dobbs and defensive back Julian  Barnett, will be attending Michigan State in the fall.

Michigan’s top in-state commit, defensive tackle Mazi Smith, came in at No. 4 with a .9536 composite ranking.

Linebacker Lance Dixon at five will be heading to Penn State and Anthony Bradford – the four-star guard from Muskegon – is flying all the way down to the Bayou to employ his talent at LSU.

That leads us to the only other Michigan commit, Karsen Barnhart – who is ranked seventh coming out of the state of Michigan.

The list continues with so many deciding to take their services out of state and, in several cases, out of the conference.

This was not the case in 2018 when Michigan football landed three of the top five in-state recruits. Aidan Hutchinson, Jalen Mayfield, and Ryan Hayes are all competing or starting at their respective positions.

In 2017, the Maize and Blue took all of the top six recruits and seven of the top eight. You may recognize the names: Donovan Peoples-Jones, Ambry Thomas, Josh Ross, and Jaylen Kelly-Powell.

The other three from that list are JaRaymond Hall and Deron Irving-Bey who left for the Chippewas and Corey Malone-Hatcher who medically retired.

Having only two in-state recruits hasn’t happened since 2016 and even then both prospects were top five.

Yet 2020, so far, isn’t shaping up to be a rough year for harvesting the Michigan-based talent. The Wolverines lead with six of the top ten in-state guys according to 247sports.

Here’s a look at those six prospects who favor Michigan.

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