Michigan Football: Wolverines could have loaded D-line haul in 2022

After “Victors Weekend” Michigan football is trending with a slew of top defensive targets and if the experts are correct, the 2022 D-line class will be filled with talent.

If you look at the best teams in college football, year in and year out, most of the time, they are extremely talented on the defensive line.

Football is becoming more and more about the quarterbacks, but you still need to win in the trenches — something Michigan football didn’t do in 2020 and it showed.

The Wolverines went 2-4 and the inability to stop the run, as well as a lack of a pass rush, were two big reasons why.

Michigan football took some solid steps forward with its 2021 recruiting class and if some recent crystal ball predictions prove to be correct, the Wolverines are putting together an impressive defensive line haul in 2022 too.

Victors Weekend was huge for D-lineman

Michigan football hosted a number of top targets over the weekend including second-ranked prospect in 2022, Walter Nolen.

While the Wolverines haven’t picked up any projections for Nolen, who is being recruited hard by just about everyone in the SEC, U-M does look to be the favorite with three other four-star recruits on the D-line.

One of those is four-star defensive lineman Justice Finkley, a top-200 recruit out of Alabama. Finkley is 6-foot-2, 255 pounds, and ranked 129th overall in the 2022 class. He visited Ann Arbor this past weekend and on Monday, he was projected to the Wolverines by Sam Webb and Brice Marich of The Michigan Insider with confidence levels of six (on a scale of 1-10).

Finkley would be a huge get for the Wolverines. There’s no question about it but there is more good news as Webb also put in a prediction for Deone Walker, a top in-state target and four-star recruit according to Rivals, to land at U-M too.

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Walker is 367th overall in the 247 composite rankings for 2022 and the 6-foot-6, 340-pound defensive tackle has been a priority for Michigan dating back to last summer. Now, according to Webb and others, Michigan football is the favorite.

One recruit who has been connected to Walker in terms of them teaming up is four-star defensive end Mario Eugenio, a 6-foot-3, 240-pound edge rusher who is a terror on the edge. There were positive vibes coming from what he posted after his visit and he now has three crystal ball projections to Michigan including from Webb and Steve Lorenz.

Eugenio is ranked 285th overall and if all three committed, it would give Michigan three in the top 367 and I feel strongly that Walker will be near the top 250 when it’s all said and done.

None of this even mentions the fact that Michigan seems to have a very real chance of landing Walter Nolen too. People always want to critique Shaun Nua and this isn’t all him, but either way, you have to be impressed with U-M’s D-line recruiting right now.

The question is, can they finish?

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