The recruiting impact of Michigan Football’s loss to Michigan State

Michigan football suffered an embarrassing loss Saturday to Michigan State and here’s a look at the recruiting aftermath.

Two days later, it’s still hard to believe that Michigan football laid a gigantic egg against arch rival Michigan State last Saturday.

While there has been some debate, it’s clear that the loss was one of the worst in the Jim Harbaugh era and maybe the most consequential.

Obviously, we all know what this means from a football perspective. It’s very damaging in the Big Ten East race and right now, with Indiana, Wisconsin and Penn State, as well as a trip to Rutgers in the next four weeks, it’s hard to know what the record will be after six games.

But from a recruiting perspective, the game on Saturday certainly hurt, especially when thinking about in-state recruits.

Michigan State looked bad against Rutgers and the Wolverines had already won two in a row in this rivalry. Also, Mel Tucker was struggling on the recruiting trail and a convincing win could have crushed the Spartans and hurt their recruiting efforts even more.

What this means for Rayshaun Benny and others

Now, MSU has something to sell to those in-state recruits again and it could have a real impact starting with Rayshaun Benny who is expected to announce his commitment on Sunday.

The Wolverines also had a number of 2021 commits in town, as a bunch of recruits took self-guided visits together on the same weekend. You may have seen the cardboard cutouts of recruits too, which was a brilliant idea, only the team followed it up with a disaster on the field.

The good news is that the signing period is a month away and unless Michigan football really goes off the rails, I don’t see guys moving out of the 2021 class. At least not many.

The problem I see more are the final pieces of the class and also looking ahead to 2022.

The loss may not cost Michigan Benny but it certainly had to give Michigan State some momentum. He was already thinking more about the Spartans and now that they have shown something on the field, it will be easier to make that choice.

Watch for crystal ball movement, because I felt like this was a 50-50 type deal anyways and now, it could really be up in the air. The loss can’t help in the recruitment of Donovan Edwards either, even though the Minnesota win seemed to give Michigan positive momentum.

Edwards has said he wants to win national championships and looking at the product Saturday, how could he possibly believe that will happen at U-M? Georgia, Oklahoma or Alabama could look like more appealing options right now.

In the grand scheme of things does one game matter that much? Probably not. And if Michigan rights the ship and wins this week in Indiana, it will ease a lot of concerns.

But if the Wolverines go down to Indiana, they could be looking at a 4-4 season and another ugly loss at the end of the year would probably be a death knell for guys like Will Johnson and Domani Jackson, two elite recruits who were going to be tough lands to begin with.

It’s amazing the difference a week makes and unless Michigan wins on Saturday, it’s only going to lose all the recruiting momentum it was able to build over the summer.