Michigan Football: Are Wolverines leading with 4-star DE Quintin Somerville?

Michigan football has been in continued contact with four-star defensive end Quintin Somerville and it seems now that the Wolverines are a favorite.

You always have to be careful making predictions about recruiting, but when it comes to Michigan football and four-star defensive end Quintin Somerville, there are a few reasons to feel good about things as a Wolverine fan right now.

For one, Somerville recently released his list of top eight schools and Michigan football made the cut, which was positive. However, another good sign in the battle for Somerville, at least from a Michigan perspective, is that Oklahoma, the only program with a crystal ball projection for the defensive end out of Arizona, didn’t make the list.

And while Somerville put Michigan football in his top 8 last week, when speaking with the Michigan Insider following his visit, the four-star recruit said U-M was among his top five ($). He also had some other interesting things to say:

“Michigan is definitely in my top 5 schools in mind,” Somerville told Brice Marich. “They’re going to be hard to beat with the mix of both education and sports. The culture at Michigan is unlike any in the country and it’s a place I’d love to play in.”

Remember, that wasn’t recently that he said that, but it still matters, especially the part about Michigan being hard to beat with what it can offer both on and off the field. The other contenders include some heavyweights though and feature Washington, Vanderbilt, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona State, Georgia and Florida State.

Somerville was first introduced to Shaun Nua, who has been his primary recruiter when the coach was at Arizona State. The two have built a strong relationship and Nua, as well as head coach Jim Harbaugh communicated with Somerville on Facetime recently via Brice March ($).

Somerville is the kind of elite pass rusher that the Wolverines need and the 6-foot-3, 230-pound defender is ranked as the No. 4 strongside defensive end in 2021 and the No. 70 overall prospect according to the 247 sports composite rankings.

Certainly, schools like Washington, Utah and Georgia can’t be counted out, but the fact that Vanderbilt made the top eight shows he’s serious about academics and if that’s true, Michigan football could have an advantage.

His brother was once on the staff at Arizona State, which could have given the Sun Devils an edge, but he’s now at New Mexico and in general, it’s tough to get a read on Somerville. Yet, for the reasons laid out, Michigan football has to be among the favorites to get his commitment.