Michigan Football: Wolverines eye another 2021 DB, in mix for elite OT

The Michigan football coaches are recruiting a 2021 athlete as a defensive back for a possible Jabrill Peppers role plus more on an elite offensive tackle.

It’s hard to argue that any player has been better for Michigan football during the Jim Harbaugh era than Jabrill Peppers was.

Peppers time with Michigan football was somewhat short or at least felt that way, because his freshman year was lost due to injury. However, his final two years under Harbaugh were spectacular and wound up with him being a Heisman finalist following 2016.

Obviously, finding another player with Peppers’ ability is going to be difficult, yet, the Wolverines are eying a recruit they feel could do some of the same things, at least defensively.

The player in question is three-star athlete Kamonte Grimes out of Florida. He’s 6-foot-2, 185 pounds and is ranked 508th is the 247 composite rankings for the 2021 class. Grimes is undoubtedly, one of the better athletes in the class, but most teams want him on offense.

Not Michigan though, as Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider reported ($), the Wolverines are the lone school pushing for him on defense. Here’s what Grimes told Webb:

"“Coach (Brown) wants me to play a little bit of (corner and safety). Corner, safety, and some viper for them. So, he wants to move me around in the secondary and play multiple positions for them.”"

As we know, Peppers was the first viper and the guy who the position was created for by Don Brown back in 2016. Grimes would be a taller version but that’s something the Wolverines have sort of been pushing for and either way, they could experiment to find the best spot.

Grimes also said he prefers to play offense, so Michigan may need to offer that possibility down the road, but if the three-star prospect could be convinced, it could help fill a hole at corner and safety, with just one player committed at each position right now.

Ohio State has been in the mix, along with Kentucky and some others like Maryland. It sounds like this will come down to visits but the Wolverines should get one and if so, they will have a shot.

5-star 2022 offensive tackle puts Michigan football in his top 10

While there is a strong push to close out the 2021 class, coaches have also turned their attention to 2022 and one top target on the offensive line, Julian Armella included Michigan in his top 10 released this week.

Armella is rated as a five-star prospect by Rivals and a four-star recruit by 247 sports, which ranks him as the 127th-best player in the 2022 class. Along with Michigan, LSU, Florida, Miami, Alabama, Georiga, Tenneesee, Clemson, Ohio State and Florida State also made the cut.

Florida State is holding the only crystal ball projection for Armella right now on 247 sports. He’s a Miami kid but he’s hearing from the Wolverines on a daily basis ($) and the kid also had high praise for Ed Warinner, which, who doesn’t right now?

We’ll take a deeper look at some of Michigan’s 2022 pursuits soon, but Armella, who is 6-foot-6, is one to keep an eye on.