Michigan Football: Elite corner Domani Jackson trending hard to USC

Domani Jackson is announcing his commitment later this month and it appears that USC will be the choice over Michigan football and others.

At one time, there appeared to be a very real possibly that Michigan football was going to win the recruitment of five-star cornerback Domani Jackson, but that time has since passed.

Jackson’s dad played for the Wolverines and so even though Jackson plays at Mater Dei out in California, he did feel a strong connection to Michigan football and even took a self-guided visit.

At that point, Michigan did seem to have a strong pull over him and there was even talk about Jackson and another five-star cornerback, Will Johnson, an in-state prospect in Michigan, being a package deal. They both visited Ann Arbor on the same weekend.

But that was before some of the upheaval with head coach Jim Harbaugh, at least before the contract rumors and everything got out of control. Then it took about a month for Michigan and Harbaugh to negotiate the deal.

On top of that, Mike Zordich, the Wolverines cornerbacks coach, is not expected to return and a new one hasn’t been hired. Heck, a new defensive coordinator hasn’t even been hired officially, although it’s expected to be Mike Macdonald.

For all these reasons, it’s pretty clear that Michigan isn’t in a great spot with Jackson, who is set to announce his commitment Jan. 23.

The Wolverines never picked up a crystal ball for Jackson but he’s had them placed for Ohio State and USC, but now, the trend is fully to USC which now controls 93 percent of his projections.

And while it will be a big disappointment if Jackson does wind up choosing USC, it will be much better for the Wolverines than Ohio State.

As I said, Johnson and Jackson talked about being a pair and if Jackson went to Ohio State it seems like that would only be more likely, making it even hard for Michigan football to land Johnson.

But even if the Wolverines got their staff in place on defense, I just don’t have much optimism about them making a move with Jackson, although I’m sure they will still recruit him beyond his commitment.

The focus should now turn to Johnson, as well as the transfer portal and other key targets in 2021 such as Rayshaun Benny.

But until Harbaugh’s full defensive staff is announced, it’s going to be hard to make much headway recruiting and Jackson’s recruitment is a great example of that.