Michigan Football: Handicapping upcoming decisions for Wolverines

Taking stock of where Michigan football stands in a slew of upcoming announcements from 2022 recruits. 

A trio of Michigan football targets will be announcing their commitments in the next week or so as Sebastian Cheeks, Jeremy Patton, and Ja’Kobi Albert will be announcing soon.

Albert won’t be making his choice public until next week, but Cheeks is making an announcement on July 28th, followed by Patton on July 31st.

The question for Michigan football fans, is will the Wolverines win any of these commitments? Right now, it’s looking iffy, and here’s handicapping who Michigan has the best chance with.

Sebastian Cheeks (confidence low)

According to the crystal ball projections, there is zero reason to have confidence in Sebastian Cheeks choosing Michigan football this week. He appears headed to North Carolina, which has really made him a priority.

Mack Brown really wanted to beat out Texas for this one and it appears as though he beat out Jim Harbaugh and Michigan too.

Part of the issue with Cheeks and Michigan has been an inconsistent push by U-M throughout. He was a top priority for the previous defensive staff but it took a while for the staff to re-engage. Cheeks did make a stop to Ann Arbor over the weekend, so who knows but don’t hold out hope.

Ja’Kobi Albert (confidence low)

While Dillon Tatum is a priority target at safety for Michigan football, the Wolverines are also making a strong push for Alabama three-star athlete Ja’Kobi Albert.

Albert is 5-foot-11, 175 pounds and Michigan likes him so much as an athlete that it wouldn’t mind having him as a DB or a wide receiver.

However, the No. 358 player in the 2022 class is from Fairfield, Alabama, is trending away, and with Auburn making a strong push, including hosting him this weekend for the Big Cat — something similar to Michigan’s recruiting BBQ, it doesn’t seem likely he will commit to Ann Arbor, especially if the distance is a factor.

Jeremy Patton (medium confidence)

Of all the three targets that Michigan football is hoping to land in the next week, the Wolverines have the best shot of landing Jeremy Patton, a three-star linebacker from Texas.

Baylor and Texas have both been pushing hard for Patton and it’s honestly hard to see Michigan football pulling the kid out of Texas, however, Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider put in a crystal ball prediction for the Wolverines with a confidence level of six (on a scale of 1-10).

Texas has three crystal ball predictions for Patton and Baylor also has one. Yet, the one for Michigan was the most recent and on the Michigan Insider Podcast, Webb said that the Michigan staff “felt really good” about Patton.

EJ Holland, the Michigan expert at Rivals has his pick in for the Longhorns, but this has been a tough one to read and if the Wolverines are going to win out in any of these three recruitments, this seems to offer the best chance.