Michigan Football: Things are looking good with Donovan Edwards

While we are still waiting for Donovan Edwards decision on Wednesday, there are reasons to feel good about Michigan football and its chances.

Two very important Michigan football recruits will be making their decision on early signing day Wednesday and with Donovan Edwards at least, there is reason for optimism.

Edwards is the No. 2 player in the state of Michigan according to the 247 sports composite rankings for the 2021 recruiting class and he’s ranked as the No. 4 overall back.

In short, winning his recruitment would be a gamechanger for Michigan football. If you pair Edwards with J.J. McCarthy and hopefully, Xavier Worthy, that’s the kind of talent you need to win.

Of course, Jim Harbaugh’s contract situation looms large over signing day, but in his communications with recruits, Harbaugh said Monday he is telling them he plans to be the head coach at Michigan. Here’s what he said via 247 sports:

"“That question does come up. Tell them my plan is committed to Michigan. I have been and will remain. As far as the (contract talks), we’ll sit down, Warde Manuel and I will talk at the end of the season on the current contract. That’s the truth. That’s where it stands Been having conversations as we always do.”"

Hopefully, it will be enough for the verbal commitments to stick, and just in the last couple of days, Christian Dixon, a four-star receiver out of California and Louis Hansen, a four-star tight end out of Massachusetts, put on Twitter they would be signing with Michigan on Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/Louiehansen20/status/1338274473846460419

They haven’t been alone. McCarthy, the Wolverines five-star quarterback commitment has also been vocal about signing with U-M. Andrel Anthony and Tristan Bounds have also put on Twitter that they will be signing.

https://twitter.com/andrel_jr/status/1338569115972333574?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmichigan.rivals.com%2Fnews%2Ftristan-bounds-on-signing-day-virtual-in-home-recruiting-donovan-edwards

There are some questions about Branden Jennings and Jaydon Hood, who will not sign during the early period, but outside of those guys and of course, Worthy, U-M’s commitments look solid.

As far as Edwards, the confidence levels are increased from 247 sports as Steve Lorenz of the Michigan Insider ($) details here. Tom Loy of Irish Illustrated, who covers Notre Dame, also raised the confidence level on his crystal ball from a one to a six.

That’s important because many believed that Notre Dame could be the biggest threat to the Wolverines. Camar Wheaton has been trending to Oklahoma, so the Sooners are probably out of the mix, which leaves Georgia as the only other real contender.

Besides that, we are just two days away from his decision and Michigan football still controls all eight of his crystal ball predictions and the confidence level of all picks is six.

93 percent of the Futurecast picks from Rivals are also projecting Edwards to the Wolverines. EJ Holland of Rivals has his pick in for Michigan and he’s going to be covering Edwards announcement, which generally means good things for the Wolverines.

It wouldn’t be shocking if Edwards tipped him. He didn’t make the trip to cover Isaac Thompson’s recruitment, so just something to keep in mind, since he’s so plugged into the U-M scene.

The fact that Ronald Bellamy is Edwards high school head coach and a former Wolverine certainly seems to have helped and it doesn’t seem like his decision is tied to Harbaugh or anyone at Michigan, like Worthy is tied to offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.

Edwards has visited Georgia, but multiple analysts have said they expect him to land in the Midwest and right now, if he does, that program is Michigan.

Nothing is a sure thing in recruiting, especially in this environment, but all the signs are pointing to Michigan in this one.

As far as Worthy, I’d say I’m more optimistic than I was. There hasn’t been a migration of crystal ball picks to Alabama yet and that could just be a signal that Worthy himself doesn’t know.

It seems like Edwards has made up his mind, but with Worthy and everything up in the air with Harbaugh, it’s hard to predict. Still, it seems like Michigan has a better chance of holding his commitment than previously thought.

Either way, it’s going to be a wild 48 hours.