Michigan Football: Latest recruiting tidbits as new 2022 offer goes out

Michigan football is still looking to add about nine commitments to its 2022 class and on Wednesday, the Wolverines extended a new offer.

With the way recruiting has gone due to COVID-19 and everything else in the past year and a half, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see so many fast-rising recruits and late offers.

Michigan football made another on Wednesday and it went out to linebacker Jimmy Rolder, a 2022 prospect who is unranked in the 247 sports composite rankings.

However, Rolder has been getting noticed and not just by Michigan football. He’s received other Big Ten offers in recent days and is now a three-star recruit according to 247 sports own rankings. 247 sports has him rated as an 88.

Rolder is 6-foot-2, 220 pounds, and out of Chicago. He was offered by Illinois on Oct. 10 and then Minnesota before U-M joined the mix.

It’s not surprising for a couple of reasons. Yet, Michigan football did just take the commitment of Deuce Spurlock and the Wolverines also have Aaron Alexander, as well as Micah Pollard.

But remember, the Wolverines just lost edge rusher Mario Eugenio from the 2022 class, so it’s possible Pollard could be shifted to more of an edge rusher, which is one of his strengths. He’s versatile enough at least to play both positions.

Here’s what Rolder’s head coach Ron Dawczak told 247 sports about his recruitment and why it’s been so quiet.

"“He committed to baseball at Illinois as a junior and it was just a weird year with Covid so schools could not come out. We didn’t play in the fall and then it was abbreviated in the spring and college coaches were not on the road, so it was always just kind of an unknown because they couldn’t get eyes on him. We knew he had an ability to play at major D1 programs for football but it was a perfect storm of them not being able to come see him, and when they saw he had an offer for baseball, that may have scared away some schools.”"

He sounds like an intriguing prospect and as EJ Holland of Rivals wrote, you should trust Michigan’s evaluations with Courtney Morgan in charge.

Other rumblings on 2022 recruiting class

Michigan football continues to go hard after Lander Barton.

Barton is a four-star linebacker from Utah and Jim Harbaugh took a trip to see him play, along with Mike Macdonald this week. Barton was actually the first recruit Harbaugh visited when the dead period finally ended last summer and he was also in Ann Arbor for the Washington game.

The win over the Huskies was a great success and one recruit it helped win over, hopefully, was five-star offensive tackle Josh Conerly Jr.

Michigan is the crystal ball leader with the No. 20 overall prospect in the 2022 class and according to The Michigan Insider, the Wolverines will visit him on Friday too.

Dane Key, a four-star receiver from Kentucky who is deciding this month, also keeps getting attention from the staff and has visited Michigan football twice since this summer.

He continues to be a priority along with Amorion Walker, who is committed to Notre Dame but is expected to flip his commitment to Michigan.

The staff will see him this weekend and the biggest question is whether the Wolverines will take him at wide receiver or defensive back.