Rocco Spindler decision day: Any hope for Michigan football?

Things have been trending in the wrong direction for Michigan football with Rocco Spindler and here’s where things stand ahead of his decision.

Rocco Spindler‘s recruitment has been a long and winding road for both Michigan football and Notre Dame. Tonight, this recruiting battle will finally come to an end.

Spindler will announce his decision on CBS Sports Network at 6 PM EST. But unfortunately, for Michigan football fans, all the signs are pointing towards a Notre Dame commitment.

If you take a look at where things stand with 247 sports’ crystal ball projections, it looks much worse than at the start of the week, when things were 50-50 between Michigan and Notre Dame.

Now, the Irish hold 70 percent of the crystal ball projections with an average confidence level of seven on a scale of 1-10. The Wolverines are at 30 percent with an average confidence of two.

Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider ($), dropped his confidence level down to a one and he said if he could still go foggy, he would. But, he also said he hasn’t heard anything directly from the camp of Spindler and that all the buzz was coming from the ND side.

Brice Marich, another recruiting expert at the Michigan Insider, also dropped his confidence level from six down to one, but kept his crystal ball with U-M. Allen Trieu flipped his over to Notre Dame with a confidence level of six.

EJ Holland of Rivals ($) talked about the movement and echoed the sentiments of Webb, that there was still nothing to make him change his pick. Here’s part of what he wrote Friday:

"“A lot of picks have come in for Rocco Spindler to land at Notre Dame. So is this one over? Not at all. Those picks seem to be ‘trendy’ and based on perceived momentum. Spindler has yet to inform either staff of his decision, so this is not a situation where reporters know where Spindler is going ahead of time.”"

Both Webb and Holland are basically saying there is a definite buzz but it’s not coming from anything solid that either reporter has heard directly from the staff or the Spindler’s.

So for now, we wait, but it’s not looking good.

Here’s another possible reason why. J.J. McCarthy took to Twitter and was tweeting at Drew Kendall Friday, which may mean nothing. McCarthy probably would be recruiting Kendall either way.

https://twitter.com/jjmccarthy09/status/1291452397710123049

But in light of Rocco’s decision, if it goes against the Wolverines, Kendall will be the focus as U-M tries to add a fifth offensive lineman and the fourth rated as a four-star recruit.

And while Michigan football fans shouldn’t feel overly confident about landing Spindler, there seems to be a strong chance of the Wolverines getting Kendall or Spindler at worst.

Kendall is ranked as the No. 4 guard according to Rivals and No. 8 in the 2021 class according to the 247 composite. So if that’s the consolation prize, that’s a pretty good one.

Spindler could go against the crystal balls and the Futurecasts, which are also heavily in Notre Dame’s favor and choose Michigan.

But when you see this sort of trending before a decision, things tend to go in that direction. It’s worth watching tonight, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.