Michigan Football: Confidence rising with Will Johnson, Dillon Tatum

The confidence of recruiting experts continues to rise that Michigan football will end up landing both Will Johnson and Dillon Tatum. 

As we close in on the decision date of five-star cornerback Will Johnson, Michigan football has to feel confident about where it sits with just a few days to go.

Johnson, the top recruit in the state of Michigan and a priority in the 2022 class, has a final three of the Wolverines, Ohio State and USC and he’s expected to make his choice on Sunday.

Johnson’s father was a Wolverine and there has always been a strong connection to the program. He’s from Grosse Pointe and even though there have been some staff changes, co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach Maurice Linguist had made a solid connection with Johnson.

Linguist also went out and landed two four-star defensive backs in Taylor Groves and Kody Jones and kept Johnson updated throughout that process. So when Groves tweeted on Tuesday that Michigan wasn’t done, many took it as a reference to Johnson.

In his latest podcast, EJ Holland of Rivals discussed Johnson’s recruitment and once again reiterated that he believes the pick will be Michigan. USC is the school he said he would worry about more than Ohio State, which has been the general feeling, but overall, U-M is in a good spot.

However, there seems to be some positive traction with another in-state defensive back and that’s four-star Dillon Tatum out of West Bloomfield.

Tatum was teammates with Donovan Edwards and played under Ron Bellamy. Bellamy was going to coach receivers but his switch to safeties coach, the position where Michigan football is recruiting Tatum could have a huge impact on this recruitment.

And it appears that the confidence level of Tatum to Michigan among recruiting experts is only growing. He did have one crystal ball projection to the Wolverines prior to this week, but just recently he picked up two more, one from Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider.

The Wolverines also hold the crystal ball lead with Johnson just days ahead of his commitment. They have six picks with a confidence level of six on a scale of 1-10. That’s an average confidence level but Steve Wiltfong has a pick for U-M rated as a nine.

With Tatum, the level of confidence is seven. We don’t know when he will make his commitment, but the way he was talking about 2022 recruiting and there not being as many spots, I feel like it will be sooner rather than later, which is also a good thing for Michigan.

Right now, I’m bullish on Michigan getting both.