Michigan Football: Breaking down the addition of Rayshaun Benny

On Tuesday, we had a feeling that national signing day was going to be good for the Michigan football program, but we had no idea it was going to be this good.

Very early on Wednesday morning, crystal ball picks and other rumors started picking up that four-star defensive tackle Rayshaun Benny was going to flip from Michigan State to Michigan and not long ago, Benny made the official announcement on his Twitter account.

The top-200 defensive tackle from Oak Park will be signing with the Wolverines.

The addition of Benny to the 2021 recruiting class for U-M is just massive. It’s really hard to overstate what it means. Benny is 6-foot-5 and he’s ranked as the No. 195 player overall in the class of 2022, 16th among defensive tackles and sixth in the state.

This is also a huge recruiting win for defensive line coach Shaun Nua, who went from not having any defensive tackles in the 2021 class to now what looks like three additions in a week.

He was also huge in flipping Benny and here’s what the defensive tackle told EJ Holland of Rivals about the man that will now be his D-line coach:

"“I love the (Michigan staff),” Benny said. “Coach (Shaun) Nua, Coach (Sherrone) Moore and everybody. I’m in contact with all of them. That’s really why. My relationship with Coach Nua is really raw. I like him a lot He’s one of the first few coaches to stay engaged with me and recruit me for defense. He believed in me. He has good contact with my family, including my mother. My mom really likes him. He’s very down to earth. You get that feeling when you’re around him.”"

Jim Harbaugh signing his extension obviously helped and then when the new staff was put in place, that allowed Michigan football to make the final push. Certainly, the new defensive hires helped and so did Ron Bellamy, who’s going to be huge for in-state recruiting.

Benny also talked about what the head coach said that helped make the difference via Holland and Rivals:

"“(Harbaugh and I) just talk about the difference at Michigan,” Benny said. “He tells me the difference between them and other universities and what they can do for me. He has NFL experience, so he knows what it takes me to get there.”"

This national signing day was supposed to be kind of boring for the Wolverines, but now they are expected to sign three defensive tackles and already, the future is looking brighter in Ann Arbor.