Michigan Football: Wolverines named in top 11 for son of Jerry Rice

Michigan football needs some good news at wide receiver in 2020 and Wednesday, the Wolverines found of they are a finalist for Brenden Rice.

Things have started to get a little scary when it comes to Michigan football, wide receivers, and the 2020 recruiting class. So, there is no harm in being intrigued by the fact Brenden Rice put the Wolverines among his top 11 schools Wednesday.

Rice was recently offered by Michigan football and he’s a guy that the Wolverines have been making a push ($) with according to 247 sports since things haven’t gone as well with some of their other targets.

Rice, the son of NFL Hall-of-Famer Jerry Rice, is a 6-foot-2 wide receiver from Chandler, Arizona. He’s a three-star prospect and is 69th among wide receivers according to the 247 composite rankings.

Rice released his list of top schools on Twitter earlier Wednesday and the Wolverines were among them, although landing him is going to take work.

So far, Rice has just one crystal ball projection from 247 sports and that has him headed to Oregon, another team he mentioned Wednesday. Some of the others included Nebraska, Ole Miss, Colorado, Washington State, Arizona State, Arizona, Texas A&M, UCLA and USC.

It’s hard to gauge where the Wolverines stand with Rice but there is no doubt that he is one of the guys they are focusing on. There will be a lot of competition from Pac-12 schools, but Michigan has done well in Arizona recently and already got a commitment from JD Johnson, one of the top quarterbacks in the state.

While Rice may not be a four-star or a five-star, he has more than his last name going for him. He has good size and is the kind of physical receiver that Michigan football will need on the outside once guys like Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins and Tarik Black go to the NFL.

Rice is the second receiver from the West that Michigan is battling for. The other is Roman Wilson, a four-star from Hawaii that took a visit to Ann Arbor over the weekend. Wilson followed that up with a visit to Oregon, according to 247 sports.

It’s clear that new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis is looking for more slot guys such as A.J. Henning or Eammon Dennis, yet big targets on the outside are needed too and that’s where guys such as Rice and Wilson come in, which explains the recent push with both.