Michigan Football: What’s up with 2020 WR Brenden Rice?

Brenden Rice, a three-star wide receiver in the 2020 class hinted that he would commit to Michigan football Wednesday but never did. What’s going on?

Wednesday was supposed to be a good day for Michigan football recruiting and it certainly wasn’t all bad when three-star defensive end Kris Jenkins committed to the Wolverines.

However, many expected another 2020 recruit to commit to the Michigan football program Wednesday and that was three-star wideout Brenden Rice, the son of NFL Hall-of-Famer Jerry Rice.

Rice never set an official day or time for an announcement but on Tuesday, he teased something on Twitter that felt like a Michigan commitment.

Only that something special never came. Rice didn’t mention anything on his Twitter account about Michigan after that tweet, except for saying congratulations to Roman Wilson, a four-star wide receiver from Hawaii that committed Tuesday.

Is it possible that Wilson’s decision impacted Rice? Maybe but even if the Wolverines added both players to their 2020 class, that would still only be four wide receivers and one wideout, Eamonn Dennis, feels strictly like a slot guy.

So it’s hard to say Rice not committing to Michigan football had anything to do with Wilson. The two west-coast products seem to be somewhat friendly and for the last few days leading up to Wednesday, experts had been projecting both players to the Wolverines.

Yet, suddenly, Rice posted a picture of him wearing an Arizona State uniform, which seems like an odd thing to post if you are about to commit to another school.

He also got in a conversation with Chad Johnson Jr. who is an Arizona State commit. Johnson was trying to convince him to come and Rice responded by telling he could play Robin to Rice’s Batman.

Rice is still pictured wearing a Michigan uniform in his profile picture and his background is of him and the University of Colorado, so it’s all over the map but that’s typical. The Wolverines have all six of his crystal ball projections and until he didn’t commit Wednesday, he seemed like a solid Michigan lean.

Of course, he still could be. People thought A.J. Henning was going elsewhere multiple times and he wound up a Wolverine. Deciding what school to play for can be tough, especially when you are getting pulled in so many directions.

Rice, who is 6-foot-2 and ranked 396th overall in the 2020 class, as well as 68th among wide receivers, is the No. 12 player in the state of Arizona, so certainly fans in the state want him to stay.

Now we will have to sit back and see what happens. But at the very least, it seems like a new contender in Arizona State has entered the fray for Rice.