Michigan Football: 2022 targets trending in wrong direction

There are a few Michigan football targets in 2022 who have started trending to other programs, including one which flipped from U-M to Penn State. 

It’s about that time in the 2022 recruiting cycle when things are going to get a little less muddled. Players are going to start taking visits and that will lead to more decisions.

Michigan football and most programs around the country are jam-packed with visitors in June as the NCAA recruiting dead period will finally end on Tuesday.

This will lead to some commitments for the Wolverines, who have added the bulk of their players over the last two classes in the spring and summer months.

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Many players want to decide before the season starts and this year, with fewer scholarships expected due to the free year of eligibility leading to smaller classes, there’s a good chance recruits start taking up more of those spots.

Some trending the wrong way

Michigan is set up really well with some of its official visitors, but with other key targets, things are starting to trend in the wrong direction.

One such recruit is Jaedeon Gould. Gould is a four-star prospect out of New Jersey and is ranked in the top 150 (No. 145), as well as the 17th-best corner according to the 247 sports composite rankings for 2022.

For a long time, Michigan was the crystal ball leader for Gould, but all of those predictions have flipped for Penn State, which has six crystal ball projections with a confidence level of seven.

Gould could be a corner or safety at 6-foot-2, 190 pounds but Michigan football isn’t even listed as “warm” anymore on his recruiting profile. It’s Rutgers, USC, and Penn State.

Kaleb Brown, a top target and wide receiver in 2022, and another recruit that U-M had a crystal ball lead with, also picked up more crystal ball projections to Ohio State.

Sebastian Cheeks is a linebacker Michigan was recruiting hard yet he got a crystal ball to Texas. Jeremy Patton, another U-M linebacker target, picked up two, and so did Ish Harris who has two crystal ball projections to Texas A&M.

As we’ve seen, that doesn’t necessarily mean game over in these recruitments, but at the very least, the Wolverines have ground to make up.