Michigan Football: Detailing a new WR offer and other 2022 tidbits

Michigan football needs to add more offensive weapons in its 2022 recruiting class and the Wolverines offered a new wideout on Thursday.

As far as Michigan football‘s 2022 recruiting class goes, wide receiver isn’t as big a need as some other positions as the Wolverines have a pair of four-star recruits already committed.

Tyler Morris, the No. 83 recruit overall in the 2022 class according to the 247 sports composite rankings is committed along with four-star receiver Tay’Shawn Trent, who is ranked 276th overall.

That’s a really solid start but with just two receivers signed in the 2021 class, thanks to Xavier Worthy asking out of his letter of intent late, U-M needs probably a couple more in 2022.

Darrius Clemons has been one candidate and is set to visit Michigan football on June 18, but the Wolverines are listed as “cool” on his 247 sports profile and seem to have dropped off a little.

So it’s not a shock to see Michigan expand the receiver board with an offer to four-star receiver Tobias Merriweather.

Merriweather is 6-foot-4, 185 pounds, and is out of the state of Washington. However, his dad is from Detroit and is someone Michigan recruiting reporter EJ Holland has mentioned in the past. He’s ranked 125th in the 247 sports composite rankings for 2022 and 78th according to 247 sports.

Here’s another tweet from Holland with some highlights of Merriweather, who could be a great addition to U-M’s 2022 class.

Merriweather does have two crystal ball projections to Oregon, with one of those coming back in February. But when you look at his list of official visits, it’s just Notre Dame and Stanford.

The Ducks aren’t even listed as “warm” on his 247 sports profile, although there is still a long list of suitors that also includes Tennessee, USC, UCLA, and Washington.

The first objective is to get Merriweather on campus. But his dad has ties to the state of Michigan so it’s possible the Wolverines might have an in.

Edge rusher likes Michigan visit

Another prospect from the West that recently visited Michigan football is three-star edge rusher Kevonte Henry. Henry is ranked 808 overall in the 2022 class but has offers from top Pac-12 programs such as Oregon, USC, Arizona State, Utah, and Boise State.

The Wolverines hosted Henry for a visit recently and here’s what Adam Gorney wrote in his recent update on the recruitment for Rivals.

"“The three-star defensive end from Lawndale (Calif.) Leuzinger took his first visit to Michigan last weekend and now the Wolverines are the front-runner heading into his other trips. What stood out most to Henry was the coaching staff’s ability to find out what he was interested in and tailor the visit to those specifics instead of it being a generic official visit.”"

Henry joins Micah Pollard and Hayden Schwartz as prospects who recently visited and could be on commitment watch.

The new staff seems to really like Henry and even though he’s ranked a little lower, there is still plenty of time for changes to the 2022 rankings, so we can’t get obsessed with rankings.

Latest on QB recruiting

As I said in my five questions for 2022 recruiting, landing a quarterback is essential and Michigan football needs to get it done sooner rather than later.

Nate Johnson looks like the top target at the position and here’s the latest on his recruitment from Greg Biggins of 247 sports of the Michigan Insider Podcast:

"“He was gonna try to throw for UCLA on Thursday… the day before (the official to Michigan). I don’t think that’s going to happen right now. He may visit ASU in July. But honestly, I think right now it might just be a two-horse race with Michigan and Utah.”"

Michigan is also after Cal commit Justyn Martin who recently visited and some others such as Conner Harrell, but Johnson makes the most sense and even though he’s a low-ranking three-star prospect right now, he’s got upside and just jumped more than 200 spots in the rankings.

Johnson is even ranked ahead of some other notable QB commits in the class according to the 247 specific rankings. Here’s more from Biggins:

"“I think he’s a quarterback. Now, is he a hyper-athletic kid? Absolutely. I mean, shoot… how many kids in the country run 10.49? 10.49, as a junior. California is a pretty decent state for athletes. That’s gonna be a top five time in the state this year. So, he can run. Saying that, mechanically, he is really, really good.”"

Biggins just watched Johnson at the Elite 11 Regional in California so that’s a pretty solid endorsement. He’s going to be on campus on June 18 and it’s a chance for Michigan to establish itself as the leader.

We’ll see what happens but it would be a shame to miss on the kid because he wasn’t prioritized at the right time.