Michigan Football: Latest intel on Rocco Spindler, new expert picks
Michigan football will hear from one of its top targets August 8 and here’s the latest on Rocco Spindler.
As far as Michigan football fans are concerned, the wait for Rocco Spindler‘s decision is almost over. The problem is that we are no closer to knowing what he will do.
At this point, I feel good about Spindler choosing Michigan football. That’s been my prediction for a while now. EJ Holland of Rivals has had a Futurecast pick in for Spindler for a long time and he confirmed he won’t be changing that.
At 247 sports. the crystal ball selections are split 50/50. The one thing you will notice is that people picking Spindler to go Notre Dame are more confident than the Michigan folks. All of the Irish crystal balls have a confidence of six or higher on a 1-10 scale.
None of the Michigan crystal ball picks are rated higher than a 6. Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider rated his as a five, which is what he said his lowest confidence level will be. If he’s lower than a five, he won’t place a crystal ball selection. Allen Trieu of 247 sports favors U-M at a one.
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Holland also reported ($) that Spindler has yet to inform either staff of his decision. And Brice Marich of the Michigan Insider ($) also noted the staff was in touch with the four-star recruit Sunday, but also that Spindler was “torn” and hadn’t made a decision yet.
While Spindler included LSU, Ohio State and Penn State in his final five, the decision is between Michigan and Notre Dame. Everyone knows that. The Notre Dame side is confident, but they were in 2020 in the recruitment of Braiden McGregor too.
McGregor was a very similar kid. A top in-state player who narrowed his choice to Michigan-Notre Dame. In the end, he went with the Wolverines and Sunday, he posted a picture of Matt Dudek, the Wolverines director of recruiting, delivering him a birthday cake.
You might wonder what that has to do with Spindler? Well, a lot.
If you remember, Dudek is also close with Spindler and texted him at 12:01 a.m. the morning of his recent birthday. He was also instrumental in the virtual birthday day which meant a lot to Rocco according to Holland.
Dudek and Spindler also have a very close relationship. It helped Michigan football win over McGregor and Dudek is trying to do the same with Spindler. Seeing this could help, because I don’t see Notre Dame putting in this same effort. They haven’t with Spindler and I think that will matter.
On another front, the fact that Spindler is set to decide Aug. 8 could be helping with Drew Kendall. Holland noted that Kendall was set to talk to coaches this week. If he decides soon, that will be a good thing for Michigan. But a delay could mean Kendall is getting weary of joining a six-man offensive line class.
At the very least, Michigan wants to stay in it with Kendall until Rocco decides. If he chooses Notre Dame, then Kendall will almost certainly be a Michigan pledge. I think he would have been before if it wasn’t for the numbers game and Spindler’s recruitment sort of overshadowing things.
Michigan football gets expert projections in 2021 and 2022
As we wrote Saturday, Michigan has begun trending with Rayshaun Benny, a top defensive tackle target for the Wolverines in 2021. He now has three crystal ball projections from 247 sports and Sunday night, Holland added a futurecast pick at Rivals following Benny’s visit to campus.
That means that Holland, Steve Lorenz and Sam Webb, probably the three-most trusted Michigan recruiting experts have projected Benny to Ann Arbor. That’s a very encouraging sign.
Furthermore, the Wolverines continue to build momentum with the 2022 recruiting class as Holland also placed a Futurecast pick for Tyler Morris, a four-star wide receiver ranked 56th nationally via 247 sports.
Next. 5 Predictions for Michigan's 2021 recruiting class. dark
Morris is a big-time player who used to be a teammate of J.J. McCarthy. Josh Gattis has established a solid relationship there and being the early leader with a top-60 recruit is a promising start.