Michigan Football: An in-depth look at new Wolverines commitments

The Michigan football team held a grandiose weekend for some of the top football players from around the country. Their efforts paid off with several new commitments to the 2020 class.

2020 commits were scarce for Michigan football prior to May. The fans, opposing colleges, and even some in the media began to criticize the team’s efforts to gather the best of the best.

Well, they were wrong, very wrong.

To the contrary, the Michigan football staff was only getting started. May came along and with it, a commitment from Braiden McGregor, ranked No. 2 in-state and top 100 nationally.

Before Braiden made his pledge, Nikhai Hill-Green Tweeted out his commitment video and the week before him, Zak Zinter decided Massachusets was not the state for him when he picked Michigan football over Notre Dame and Boston College.

Overall, summer has been a fast-paced and fertile hunting ground for the Wolverines as they now sit atop the Big Ten and No. 5 nationally. According to Rivals, Michigan is even higher nationally as they have UM sitting at No. 4 in the nation.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at those new additions to the 2020 class.

(Rankings according to 247Sports unless otherwise noted)

Matthew Hibner

Hailing from Virginia, the 6-foot-4-inch 230-pound tight end committed in early June joining Shea’s brother Nick Patterson as the lone TE’s for the class. Prior to his Junior year of high school, Hibner packed on some weight gaining the attention of the Michigan coaches.

https://twitter.com/MatthewHibner/status/1137878762761129989

“I said, I’ll tell you something that contradicts my philosophy, because I want kids playing as many sports a possible,” Hibners high school head coach Mike Dougherty said, referring to Hibner needing to give up basketball for football, “but they only way coaches are going to give you scholarship money is if we get you up around 215-220 pounds.’

Matthew Hibner and his parents listened and now he sits at home 40 pounds heavier than he was just a year before. Outside of sports, Hibner has a reported 4.3 GPA and 1400 SAT earning him the attention of Ivy league schools but ultimately a short conversation with Jim Harbaugh was all he needed to choose Michigan.

“We go in and meet with Coach (Jim) Harbaugh and about 30-45 minutes in, Matt literally jumps out of his chair and committed.” Dougherty said, “He and his dad sort of whispered it between themselves earlier, so I wasn’t surprised, but you could not find a better fit than he found that day.”

Hibner is the No. 47 TE, No. 22 out of VA, and No. 1088 nationally while holding a composite score of 8485.