Michigan Football: Reason for hope with 4-star CB Ceyair Wright?

Michigan football would like to add another cornerback in the 2021 recruiting class and the top target remaining is Ceyair Wright.

When looking at Michigan football‘s 2021 recruiting class, there’s no question that cornerback is one of the positions the Wolverines still need to address.

As of right now, Michigan has just one cornerback committed in 2021 and that’s three-star pledge Ja’Den McBurrows out of Florida. He’s a solid prospect but all indications are that the Wolverines are looking to add at least one more.

Unfortunately, things haven’t gone quite as planned. Kamonte Grimes was a target at cornerback for a while but he committed to Nebraska. Some other top cornerback targets such as Omarion Cooper have also committed elsewhere too. He’s at Florida State.

That hasn’t stopped Michigan football from trying to flip certain commits, but nothing seems to be imminent and right now, the most realistic target on the cornerback is still Ceyair Wright.

Wright is out of Los Angeles and attended the same school as David Long. And as Michigan fans will remember, the Wolverines were able to get a late cornerback add in the 2020 cycle from California in Darion Green-Warren.

A visit would improve Michigan’s chances with Wright

Despite the fact that Wright is ranked 71st overall in the 2021 composite rankings and is a top-10 corner, his recruitment still seems fairly wide open. He has received a pair of crystal ball projections to USC in the past week, which came right after the dead period was extended.

The extension of the dead period really seemed to hurt the Wolverines, who haven’t been able to get Wright in for a visit, which is pretty important for a recruit on the West coast.

Others have committed without visiting campus and that’s happening this cycle out of necessity. But Wright has wanted to make a decision at the All-American Bowl in January, just like Green-Warren did last year.

Green-Warren also had some USC projections at this time too before Michigan was able to turn things around. Obviously, his visit to Ann Arbor helped. And the fact that Wright hasn’t been able to take an official visit has been a reason for pessimism in his recruitment.

However, in a recent interview with Brice Marich of the Michigan Insider ($), Wright talked about taking a self-guided visit.

"“I talked to coach about that and asked if that’s something I’m allowed to do and he said yeah, but I can’t go with the coaches or anything like that,” Wright said. “If it gives me the chance to see the school, atmosphere and environment, then that’s for sure something I want to do. But if I don’t have the chance, then it just won’t knock Michigan in my ultimate decision.”"

As we have seen with other recent commitments, such as Andrel Anthony or Marlin Klein, taking that self-guided visit be a good sign. It will be interesting to see if Wright follows through and if he visits any other schools, but U-M is also being aided in this recruitment by Long, who according to the interview, has spoken to Wright recently.

"“Yeah, I’ve talked to him a couple of times. He’s come backed to Loyola and I’ve worked out with him also when he was in California taking a break from school.  Yeah, (he’s also talked to me about Michigan saying) just that it’s a great school, but I already knew that. Coach Harbaugh is a great coach and I feel like I would fit in well.”"

Wright has long seemed like a USC type of recruit, especially with him being in their backyard. However, it doesn’t really feel like there is a true favorite at this point.

The expert picks from the Trojans seem to be more out of default than anything and tied to the fact that Wright may not be able to take official visits.

But a self-guided visit to Ann Arbor could change things and if he does make that trip, it would show, at the very least, that the Wolverines are a serious contender for his commitment.