Michigan Football: Rocco Spindler’s recruitment is two-horse race

Top Michigan football target Rocco Spindler released his top five Friday night, but the reality is that it could have probably just been a top two.

Top lists are all the rage for recruits and on Friday, one of Michigan football’s top targets for 2021, Rocco Spindler, released what he called his final top five.

As expected, Michigan football made the top five, along with Notre Dame, LSU, Ohio State and Penn State. All of those schools are big-time programs and you get the interest, but at the end of the day, this has been and continues to be, for all appearances, a two-horse race.

And that race is between Michigan and Notre Dame. Here’s what Spindler told Wolverines Wire last month about the Wolverines and Fighting Irish when asked if it was down to two:

"“Yeah, it’s very accurate,” Spindler said. “Those schools have been around me since my freshman year. They’re great academic schools, great football teams and they put a lot of guys in the NFL. The networking at both of those schools are unbelievable. You can’t get that anywhere else. Of course they would be at the top of my picks.”"

It’s not clear when Spindler is going to make his decision or if he will try to take any more visits before doing so. His crystal ball projections from 247 sports tell a story of tight recruitment, but one where Notre Dame seems to be leading.

Both Michigan and Notre Dame have four crystal ball projections each ($), however, with the new confidence ratings attached, you can see the picks lodged with the Irish are done so with much more confidence. Among the top experts, Notre Dame has a confidence rating of seven with its projections, while the confidence rating of experts projecting him to Michigan is a three.

In recruiting, sometimes all these little things add up and sometimes they don’t. But it’s accurate to say Spindler will likely wind up in Ann Arbor or South Bend.

Michigan football in contact with other key O-line targets

While Spindler’s top five caught the attention of Michigan football fans at the end of the day, offensive line coach Ed Warriner was also busy recruiting Friday as The Michigan Insider ($) reports that Warriner reached out to three targets Friday in Tristan Bounds, Garrett Dellinger and Nolan Rucci.

Bounds is a three-star tackle from Connecticut and the Wolverines have really pushed for him. He’s not Dellinger, who is a teammate of Spindler’s and a five-star recruit, but Bounds is also getting interest from Notre Dame and Virginia among others.

Obviously, Dellinger is probably the preferred take at offensive tackle along with Rucci, another guy Michigan keeps recruiting hard. Yet, with Dellinger, U-M has made progress at least, even though he still seems solid with LSU.

The offensive line haul in 2021 is already solid with Giovanni El-Hadi, Greg Crippen and Raheem Anderson. The Wolverines are also in a good position with top-100 offensive guard Drew Kendall, so adding someone like Spindler or Dellinger would be the perfect cherry on top.