Michigan Football: Is a 2022 commitment on the horizon?

Michigan football is now being projected to land a defensive tackle Tawfiq Thomas in the 2022 recruiting class which could mean a commitment is imminent.

Three-star defensive tackle Tawfiq Thomas took an official visit to Michigan football last month and named the Wolverines among his top teams recently.

But now it appears that the Wolverines have become the favorite for the big defensive lineman out of Tampa, Florida as EJ Holland of Rivals put in a Futurecast pick for Michigan football on Sunday night.

Thomas is 6-foot-5, 345 pounds (6-3, 359 via Rivals), and is ranked No. 1,026 overall in the 247 sports composite rankings for the 2022 class. He’s also a teammate of current Michigan commit Mario Eugenio.

Late last week, Eugenio tweeted that he had some good news for Michigan football fans, who wondered what that meant.

Eugenio is close to four-star defensive tackle Deone Walker and the two were both on campus for the Big House BBQ, so there was some thought that Eugenio was referring to him or even Kenneth Grant, another defensive tackle at the BBQ who is a priority target.

But now it seems clear that Eugenio was referring to someone closer to home in Thomas, who is also being pursued by Iowa State, Kansas, Louisville, and Arkansas.

Thomas plays 6A high school football in Florida and he’s got 18 offers total following a junior season that saw him rack up 53 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, and three sacks.

What this would mean for the 2022 class

Michigan football fans are obviously going to gripe about the ranking as Thomas isn’t among the top 1,000 in the composite rankings right now.

But he’s a 5.7 according to Rivals, which is a high-ranking three-star and is ranked 53rd in the state of Florida by that service which is much higher than the composite which has him 138th in the Sunshine State.

Michigan is known for having strong evaluations and honestly, so is Iowa State — the other team that was probably viewed as the slight favorite before the Wolverines moved to the front.

There have not been any crystal ball projections yet for Thomas and it’s also fair to wonder how a commitment from Thomas would impact Grant or Walker.

In my opinion, it wouldn’t have any impact on those guys. The Wolverines lost a commitment from Davtone Miles earlier this month and if the staff is higher on Thomas, he would essentially take that spot.

Michigan is still in a strong position with Walker, although Alabama could throw a wrench into things and it’s clearly a U-M/Ohio State battle for Grant, who has said he could decide in the next week or two according to The Michigan Insider Podcast.

It seems like Michigan wants to take three or four defensive tackle types in 2022, so even if the Wolverines get a commitment from Thomas, I don’t think it will drastically change their pursuits of Grant, Walker, or even Isaiah Hastings.