Michigan Football: Breaking down a pair of walk-on commits for 2020

Michigan football added two preferred walk-on commits over the weekend with a quarterback and wide receiver. Here is a breakdown.

Not every player can be a four or five-star recruit and over the weekend, Michigan football added some more numbers its roster in the way of preferred walk-ons.

A preferred walk-on is different than someone who just walks on the team for a tryout or whatever. A preferred walk-on generally has other scholarship offers but is asked by the staff to walk-on and the idea is that if the player develops, he earns a scholarship down the road.

This doesn’t happen often but it does happen. Tru Wilson was a former walk-on for Michigan football, so it’s worth noting when these guys are added to the roster and over the weekend, two players announced they would be part of the 2020 class as walk-ons.

One is two-star quarterback Peyton Smith. The 6-foot-3 quarterback from Traverse City, Michigan is ranked at No. 153 for his position according to 247 sports and he had little in the way of offers and nothing else from a Division I program.

However, according to Allen Trieu of The Michigan Insider ($), the Wolverines think they might have something in Smith, who impressed them in workouts and the coaches couldn’t believe a MAC program hadn’t offered him.

Smith visited over the weekend and committed to the Wolverines. His other offers were Davenport and Northwood University, which I have never heard of before, yet it’s possible he’s a diamond in the rough.

More than anything, he has some traits worth developing and he can add another arm for practice purposes.

Yet, Smith wasn’t the only new player to join the Wolverines over the weekend as 2020 wide receiver Kyle McNamara also announced he would be joining Michigan football.

McNamara is the younger brother of 2019 commit, Cade McNamara and that seemed to help get him to Ann Arbor. McNamara is just a two-star prospect just like Smith and he will have a lot of work to do to ever see the field, although McNamara did at one time have an offer from Ohio State and also one from Central Michigan.

That’s the case with most preferred walk-ons, but it’s another way to add players and if a kid wants to pass up other scholarships offers to try and earn a spot at Michigan, it can’t hurt and sometimes, every once in a while, it pays off in a big way.