Michigan Football: Wolverines ramping up operations despite shutdown

No one said you couldn’t pick up the phone and the Michigan football staff did just that to snag a couple of key 2021 recruits.

Smack dab in the middle of a pandemic causing the world to effectively pause, the Michigan football staff ramped up their recruiting operation – while abiding by the social distancing measures – and their efforts paid off as just this week two prospects committed to the 2021 class.

Greg Crippen, a 6-foot-4 285-pound guard who plays for renowned IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, was the first virus commitment and later that day, Dominick Giudice, a 6-foot-4 262-pound (per his Twitter) defensive end from another renowned high school (Mater Dei), made his pledge. Crippen is a four-star with a 9173 composite score; Giudice is three-star with an 8054 composite score.

Dominick committed shortly after receiving his offer from the Wolverines, which made his college decision easy as he said in his commitment Tweet: “I’m so blessed to announce that I am committed to my childhood dream school, The University of Michigan!!!”

Coronavirus has clearly had little impact on the recruiting front as others announced their offers via social media. On Thursday, a big TE prospect, Trent McGaughey, from Pearland, TX, made the Michigan fanbase aware of his excellent news.

Per E.J. Holland from Rivals, Michigan has also been “coming hard” after the highly ranked defensive lineman Kelvin Gilliam. No matter where you look, Kelvin is rated within the top 150 athletes in the country.

E.J. also reported that Jim Harbaugh personally got on the phone with the King brothers who attend Cass Tech in Detroit just last week. Kobe King, not to be mistaken with the Wisconsin shooting guard, is projected as a Power 5 starter by 247 sports Allen Trieu and his brother, Kalen King, is the 10th best football player in Michigan, per Rivals.

That’s not all.

Brice Marich of The Michigan Insider ($) reported that Lorenzo Styles Jr., a Notre Dame commit, was the subject of more than just a phone call.

“Yes, I talked to them,” Styles told Marich. “Got on FaceTime with coach Harbaugh and coach Gattis on Monday.”

Read more about that here.

Matt’s musings

As we all settle and hunker down to battle with and eventually eradicate the virus around us, the Michigan football staff’s recruiting efforts will begin to ramp up even more than they already have. Since the end of the season, the recruiting trail appeared largely untraveled as no one had committed since May of 2019 when the staff landed their dream candidate in J.J. McCarthy, a five-star quarterback with a rocket arm and unmatched accuracy.

The Wolverines were falling behind big time up until the Michigan-related social media scene exploded with Crippen and Giudice picking UM and others revealing their scholarship offers/communication effort.

It seems it’s only the beginning of a successful, albeit strange, offseason.