Michigan Football: Rocco Spindler is a conundrum, will he pick UM?
Michigan football is hot on the tail of four-star guard Rocco Spindler, but are the Wolverines winning the battle with Notre Dame for his services?
Rocco Spindler is projected as a first-round pick when he eventually leaves college career as a professional football player. It seems that Michigan football is going to be the team that will develop him into the monster college star he’s destined to be or is it?
Head on over to Rocco’s Twitter page and you’ll see a homage to Michigan…and the Fighting Irish. Retweets of Notre Dame commitments from friends followed by a proclamation of his favorite graphic that just so happened to have been created by the University of Michigan.
It’s UM, then it’s ND. There is no indication of a favorite.
https://twitter.com/RoccoSpindler92/status/1250582416206573579
Rivals analysts are nearly split down the middle with their Future Casts, albeit slightly leaning towards South Bend.
247 sports has a more substantial lean for the Wolverines, 75 to 25.
How good is Rocco Spindler?
Michigan football is well known for its offensive lineman. Year-after-year, the big men in the trenches find their way onto an NFL roster. The same can be said for Notre Dame, however, and that’s when you know you have one talented target, there’s a knock-down, no-holds-barred battle between those two schools.
According to 247 sports, Spindler, the son NCAA and NFL star Marc Spindler, is ranked 47th overall, the third-best OG, and the third highest-ranked prospect from the state of Michigan. Letting in-state beasts out of their cage and into the arms of a rival like Notre Dame would be crushing, especially when that beast has four-stars and a 9761 composite rating.
Here’s Allen Trieu’s evaluation:
"Does not carry a lot of bad weight. Naturally stocky. Has room to add weight, but frame and style of play suggest he will not need to add a lot more mass. Could play offensive or defensive line in college. Has played varsity against strong competition since his freshman season. Will come into college ready to work and compete at that level. Plays tough and aggressive. Has a wrestling background, and that shows in his strength and ability to use leverage. A good athlete who can pull and make blocks in space on offense and track plays down on defense. Adding more weight to his frame will be the key for him in playing early, but he has all the other needed qualities to be an impact player in college and a potentially early impact player. Guard, center or defensive tackle are all possibilities in college. He has the potential to hear his name called in the first round of the NFL draft."
Rivals ranks Rocco third in-state, the second-best guard, and 55th nationally with four-stars. ESPN dropped him to eight positionally and 76th overall.
Clarkston connection
If Michigan were able to sway Rocco in their favor, it would help immensely with the recruitment of his high school teammate Garrett Dellinger, who’s fifth in-state and a top target for Ed Warriner and company. Garrett currently has nine crystal balls, and all of them are placed with the LSU Tigers, not a good omen for UM.
The two teammates have been inseparable since they were four-years-old and Rocco has, in the past, stated they could be a package deal. The pair of guards that have a combined weight of well over 500-pounds are highly sought after by everyone from the non-majors to the blue bloods, and are both predicted to become starters early on in their college career. Both would make an immediate impact on the Wolverine offense, not to mention the bragging rights over Brian Kelly and his staff.
If allowed, Dellinger has a scheduled visit to Ann Arbor in early June, and with cross-state travel potential restricted for awhile and in-state travel restrictions likely coming to an end in the near future, Michigan might have the one-on-one time needed to convince UM is the right school for Garrett and his best friend, Spindler.