Michigan Football trying to flip Duke commit at corner in 2021

Michigan football expanded its recruiting board in the 2021 class on Thursday as the Wolverines offered a new cornerback in Cameron Bergeron.

It’s not a big secret that Michigan football is looking to add more defensive back help to its 2021 recruiting class and on Thursday, a new target emerged at the position.

Right now, the Wolverines have just one cornerback committed in the 2021 class and that’s three-star prospect Ja’Den McBurrows out of Florida. McBurrows was recently in Ann Arbor, along with other recruits, taking self-guided visits, so he feels secure.

But one cornerback certainly isn’t enough and the Wolverines have been pushing to add another and the new target on the board is Duke commit Cameron Bergeron, who reported the offer on his Twitter account.

Bergeron is a 5-foot-11 cornerback out Albany, Georgia. He’s 180 pounds and in the 247 composite rankings for the 2021 class, he is No. 695, as well as the 57th-best corner.

While Bergeron’s decision came down to Duke and Vanderbilt, there were some Big Ten schools previously involved in his recruitment such as Purdue and Minnesota. Tennessee also offered at one point, as did West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Missouri.

What the offer means for 2021 recruiting

It’s hard to gauge what the offer would mean for Bergeron who committed to Duke back in August, but the Wolverines are a high academic school and could be a fit that way too.

Certainly, Michigan football has a stronger tradition than the other programs on his offer list, so we will see if that moves the needle at all.

It’s curious though because for months, we have talked about Maxwell Hairston out of West Bloomfield, Michigan, a three-star corner currently committed to Kentucky and even though he’s fast and right in U-M’s backyard, they won’t offer him.

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EJ Holland of Rivals (subscription required) said he checked in with Hairston Thursday, but unfortunately, the 6-foot-1, 175-pound prospect who runs 4.4 hasn’t heard from the Wolverines lately. Holland also indicated he thought Michigan could flip Hairston with an offer still.

Hairston also plays for the same program as Donovan Edwards and while that’s not a reason to offer a kid, he’s committed to play in the SEC, while Michigan just offered a recruit committed to Duke and is kicking the tires on another currently committed to Howard in Jadon Canady.

Hairston is ranked outside the top 1,000 in the 247 composite rankings, while Canady isn’t ranked at all, so that obviously doesn’t matter and it shouldn’t. Hairston knows how to play man and has the kind of speed Michigan is clearly lacking. Not recruiting him is a mistake, period.

Now, if Ceyair Wright, a top-100 corner out of California ends up committing, then no harm, no foul. But outside of that or flipping Omarion Cooper, offering Hairston still seems to make the most sense.