Michigan Football: Wolverines first to offer 2022 quarterback

The Michigan football program has now offered 15 quarterbacks in the 2022 class with a new offer going out on Christmas Day.

While there is still work to be done on the 2021 recruiting class and hopefully in the transfer portal looking ahead to the 2021 Michigan football season, much of the recruiting focus turns to 2022.

In just eight days following early signing day, Michigan football has landed two verbal commitments to its 2022 class. Three-star defensive tackle Davonte Miles committed just a couple of days after and on Christmas Eve, three-star offensive tackle Connor Jones did the same.

Neither Miles or Jones are jumping out at you with their rankings, but with offensive lineman, we have reason to trust the scouting ability of offensive line coach Ed Warinner and Jones has all the tools at 6-foot-7, 285 pounds. Miles is also going to be a big body and could be close to 300 pounds when he arrives in Ann Arbor as a defensive tackle.

And now the Wolverines are using their scouting skills again as they extended an offer to 2022 quarterback DeQuandre Smith, who had not had any other offers up to this point.

Smith isn’t ranked right now according to the 247 sports composite rankings but that may not be the case for long if you look at some of the other programs showing interest which are Clemson, Georgia and South Carolina, which makes sense because he’s from South Carolina.

Smith is a dual-threat quarterback and he stands at 6-foot-1. He’s been starting to draw praise from the scouting services and even though he doesn’t have any offers at the moment outside of Michigan football’s, it likely won’t stay that way for long.

What does it mean for 2022 QB recruiting?

With Smith’s offer coming on Christmas, the Wolverines have now offered 15 quarterbacks in 2022 and it’s hard to say who the top target of the group is.

Certainly, Michigan football would love to get the five-star or high-ranking four-star recruits such as Maalik Murphy, MJ Morris, Gavin Wimsatt and Ty Simpson. Another name to know is that of four-star signal caller Nicco Marchiol.

It seems like much of the focus has shifted in recent months to Marchiol, who was trending with crystal balls to Michigan at one point, only to later shift towards Florida State.

So it will be interesting to see how things progress with Smith and after landing a five-star quarterback J.J. McCarthy, it always makes following it up with a top-ranked guy a challenge.