Michigan Football: Wolverines in pole position with 5-star Will Johnson

As far as the 2022 recruiting class is concerned, there is no target that’s more important for Michigan football than five-star cornerback Will Johnson.

And after his announcement on Thursday that he will decide on Jan. 28, Michigan football will find out very soon if it’s able to keep home the top in-state prospect in this class.

Johnson has already narrowed his lists of finalists down to Michigan, Ohio State and USC. The Buckeyes did appear to have some momentum recently, but the hire of Maurice Linguist and some strong recruiting effort from Jim Harbaugh kept U-M in it.

Now, with some serious momentum in the secondary, with Linguist landing two four-star recruits already in 2022, the Wolverines have a legit chance to land another, this time a five-star recruit on Jan. 28. Here’s what Johnson said about U-M to Steve Wiltfong of 247 sports:

"“Obviously that’s the hometown school, my dad played there and it would be nice to go there and try and change the program.”"

Johnson is 6-foot-3, 190 pounds and is ranked as the No. 8 prospect in the 2022 class, as well as the No. 4 corner and the top player in the state of Michigan from Grosse Pointe. He’s an elite talent and his addition would be monstrous for a program trying to catch Ohio State.

Having an elite corner like Johnson and I mean truly elite, as in this kid would walk in day one and be a starter, could truly change this defense.

What are Michigan’s chances?

About a month ago, Ohio State seemed to be moving in the right direction with Johnson, but the Buckeyes never got to the point where they got any crystal ball projections. All of those (six total) are still with Michigan, although the confidence level is just a four on a scale of 1-10.

That being said, Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider just increased the confidence of his pick this week, which should be taken as a positive sign.

Over at Rivals, Michigan has 100 percent of the Futurecast picks (three of them), including one from Michigan recruiting expert EJ Holland, who has said he sees no reason to change that pick.

For a long time, it seemed like Ohio State was the biggest threat but that could have changed with Domani Jackson committing to USC. The 5-star cornerback and Johnson have talked about teaming up and Johnson visited USC, just as he did Michigan and Ohio State.

If it wasn’t for the presence of Linguist, I’d be much more concerned about this recruitment and while it’s not a sure thing, Michigan’s new cornerbacks coach should bring it home in the end.