Michigan Football: Elite TE commits elsewhere, Daymon David update

Michigan football misses out on a top target, plus an update on one of the Wolverines top remaining targets in safety Daymon David.

Michigan football did its best to land elite 2021 tight end Thomas Fidone, but in the end, it wasn’t mean to be as Fidone wound up committing to Nebraska Wednesday.

Fidone is a legit top-100 recruit. According to 247 sports own rankings, he’s 37th overall in the 2021 class and the No. 1 tight end.

Even in the 247 composite rankings, he’s 97th overall and No. 2 among tight ends.

Michigan football was certainly in the mix and not being able to bring him in for a visit hurt. But Nebraska did a really good job and this is a good win for Scott Frost.

For U-M, this recruitment would have been nice to win, but with four-star tight end Louis Hansen already in the fold, it’s not a huge loss. Hansen may not be ranked as highly by 247 sports, where he’s just a three-star prospect, but on Rivals, he is the No. 70 player.

And if you have watched him workout lately, you’d probably tend to agree with the Rivals assessment. Don’t get me wrong, Fidone would have been the cherry on top. But as far as tight ends go, Hansen will do just fine in the 2021 class.

Another Daymon David tidbit

As far as recruits still on the board, Daymon David is at the top of the safety board for Michigan football but after Oregon jumped in with an offer last week, this recruitment is muddled.

Brian Dohn, a recruiting expert for 247 sports, joined the Michigan Insider Podcast this week and spoke about the whirlwind with David last week:

"“Yeah, well I thought he was Michigan / Boston College. He and I spoke about it late last week. Low and behold maybe about four or five hours after he and I spoke, Oregon offers. He hits me up and I said, ‘Oregon… are they in it, is it just nice to get the offer, or what?’ He goes, ‘oh no…. they’re in big time!’"

According to Dohn, David has had a good relationship with the Ducks but he didn’t want to mention them as a favorite school until he got the offer, which he did last week.

I noted then that David called Oregon his “dream” school, which isn’t something he’s ever said about Michigan or even Boston College, the other contender.

Now, the recruiting battle for David, who was recently upgraded to a four-star prospect at Rivals, is really heating up.

And Boston College isn’t a school to just scoff at either. The Eagles have been in the mix since the beginning. If the distance is a factor, then BC may also have an advantage since David is from the Baltimore area.

But at the same time, the Wolverines have done really well in the DMV. And their ability to send defensive backs to the NFL regularly with Don Brown should also help.

We will see if David sticks to his mid-September timeline or if he pushes it back hoping to get a chance to take visits. For Michigan, earlier still seems better.