Michigan Football: Wolverines offer SEC commit, top WR target to visit

Michigan football has offered an in-state recruit committed to Kentucky in Jeremiah Caldwell, plus good news with wide receiver Darrius Clemons. 

Defensive back recruiting has been interesting, to say the least for Michigan football in the class of 2022 and the Wolverines added another offer to their board this past week.

That was to Jeremiah Caldwell, a three-star recruit from Belleville, Michigan, but one who is actually committed to Kentucky and has been since January.

https://twitter.com/j_caldwell7/status/1382749342235308034

Kentucky has been able to pull recruits from the state of Michigan the past few cycles and especially from Belleville, where the Wolverines haven’t had a ton of success.

Yet, there was some hope that the addition of Ron Bellamy to the staff would go a long way towards helping with in-state recruiting. We’ll see how this impacts the recruitment of Caldwell, who was not only offered by Michigan football but Michigan State as well recently.

The Wolverines do have ties to Caldwell in that his former teammate Andre Seldon is on the roster. Plus, Caldwell used to be coached in 7-on-7 by Chris Evans, the former Wolverine running back.

Caldwell is 6-foot-3, 170 pounds, and ranked 378th overall in 2022 according to the 247 sports composite rankings. He’s also ranked 12th in the state of Michigan.

Obviously, Caldwell is a big corner at 6-foot-3 but he’s been performing well in recruiting events recently and at a recent Under Armour Camp in Ohio, Allen Trieu of 247 sports said this about Caldwell:

"“Jeremiah Caldwell and Brownsburg’s Kalen Carroll were two of the best 2022 corners in 1-1s. We do not remember seeing either beaten and both got their hands on passes during reps.”"

Michigan has a commitment from Will Johnson at corner in 2022, as well as four-star Kody Jones, a guy who could be perfect in the slot as a nickel guy.

The Wolverines are also strongly in the mix for guys like Dillon Tatum, Myles Pollard, and Jaeden Gould, among others. It will be interesting, as I said to see how it all plays out.

With Caldwell specifically, getting him away from Kentucky won’t be easy, but it seems like he does have an interest in staying close to home if U-M or MSU can make a push.

Key note on a wide receiver visit

It was an absolute gut punch to lose Xavier Worthy, as he asked out of his NLI this week. That makes landing elite talent at the wide receiver position even more important in the class of 2022 and one of the top targets is Darrius Clemons.

Clemons is out of Portland but is originally from the state of Michigan. He’s 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, and ranked No. 151 overall in the 2022 class.

Not only is Clemons the top-ranked recruit in Oregon, but he’s also the 19th-ranked receiver in 2022 and his frame offers an intriguing fit for the Wolverines because he has blazing speed: His 247sports profile lists his 40 time as 4.37.

Here’s a look at his scouting report via 247 sports:

"“Has terrific body control and ability to adjust to all passes, both low and high, with strong hands able to catch everything in traffic. Polished route runner with the ability to catch passes in tight spaces. Tough over the middle. Consistently gets separation. Projects as multi-year Power 5 starter and projects as a second-day pick.”"

Michigan football is the favorite to land four-star wide receiver Tyler Morris in 2022 and if you throw in Clemons too, that would be huge.

The four-star receiver is set to visit Michigan and is doing so on June 18, which is the big recruiting weekend. He will also visit Penn State, USC, and Auburn right now.

Penn State leads with two crystal ball projections. Oregon also has one but doesn’t have a visit scheduled and if the Wolverines can sway him on his visit, they could have a good shot at a commitment.