Can Michigan Football flip a commitment from Indiana?

Michigan football finally expanded its recruiting board in the class of 2021, offering Indiana commit Maurice Freeman. Can the Wolverines flip him?

At some point, Michigan football was going to have to extend some new offers in the 2021 recruiting class and on Tuesday, a new target emerged.

With just one safety and one cornerback committed in the class of 2021, Michigan has been looking for more defensive backs and recently missed out on safety recruit Daymon David.

Well now, there is a new safety Michigan is recruiting and his name is Maurice Freeman. He’s a three-star safety ranked outside the top 1,000 in the 247 composite. He’s also committed to Big Ten rival Indiana, announcing his decision back in August.

Freeman is out of Virginia and even though he’s ranked just 1,169 in the 247 composite rankings, as well as the No. 97 safety prospect, 247 sports own rankings have him much higher. In fact, he is the No. 39 safety and at this point, we should trust Michigan’s evaluations.

In terms of scouting reports, Michigan does as good as job as anyone. And with all the work the Wolverines do in the Northeast, it’s essential. But with David, Rod Moore and former commit Markus Allen, each was outside the top 1,000 when Michigan offered.

Now, each of those kids is ranked around the top 500 of the 247 composite rankings for 2021, so don’t get caught up in Freeman’s ranking. The staff wouldn’t offered this late if it didn’t like what it saw. Freeman posted about the offer on Twitter with a picture of Jabrill Peppers.

https://twitter.com/757reese/status/1313508620861149184

Now, comes the key question, is Freeman willing to flip?

What are Michigan football’s chances?

Actually, they might be better than you think and that’s just not because Freeman is committed to Indiana. That’s not a knock on the Hoosiers, but they aren’t Michigan, so the offer is significant.

Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Ole Miss were also in the mix when Freeman made his decision in August, which is notable since former U-M coach Chris Partridge is at Ole Miss.

But one thing that should help Michigan in this recruitment is that in terms of visits, its on level ground with Indiana, as Freeman didn’t visit Bloomington before making a decision according to Brian Dohn of 247 sports. Dohn also noted Tuesday ($) that Freeman is at least interested:

"“He is a big hitter who comes off the edge. Chris Partridge was on him before going to Ole Miss, and while at Ole Miss he started recruiting him heavily until the Rebels landed a transfer.I am hearing he has a lot of interest.”"

Looking at Freeman’s highlights, he strikes me as a viper or at least a candidate for that position. He played both linebacker and safety during his junior year and recorded five sacks.

His ability to tackle and blitz are two of his stronger attributes, which would serve him well in a Don Brown defense. I didn’t see him covering much during his highlights, but surely Michigan has been able to evaluate that.

I would think with Junior Colson coming in as a guy who is perfect for that viper role with exceptional size and speed that Freeman is viewed as at least someone who can do both.

It will be interesting to follow this recruitment and see where things go, but if say Michigan could get him on a self-guided visit, a flip is certainly possible and even without it, the Wolverines appear to be in good position.