Michigan Football adds more elite talent on Early Signing Day

With the addition of four-star recruits Derrick Moore and Darrius Clemons, it’s safe to say Michigan football hit a home run on Early Signing Day. 

The day didn’t start off great for Michigan football as Deone Walker and Ethan Burke sided with Texas and Kentucky.

Burke was a Michigan commitment leading up to Early Signing Day but once he got an offer from Texas, where he’s from, that was always going to be hard to pass up, especially with the way that the Longhorns are playing the NIL game right now.

Kentucky is playing it well too — as did it with Deone Walker. But that doesn’t put a damper on what’s turned into a spectacular Early Signing Day for the Wolverines.

This morning, Michigan football flipped Amorion Walker and landed Keon Sabb, a former Clemson commitment and top-100 recruit, over Georgia, Ohio State, and LSU.

Then, the Wolverines flipped Virginia Tech quarterback commitment Alex Orji. He’s ranked in the top 500 and is an intriguing dual-threat option with the ability to play somewhere else too.

Michigan football lands two more in the Top 150

Those three additions were good work by the coaching staff but the Early Signing Day fireworks were far from over. Darrius Clemons is an elite wideout. He’s 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, and runs a verified 4.37 in the 40, plus he’s now a Michigan signee.

Michigan football made a push late after Clemons was considered an Oregon lean. The Ducks and others including Auburn pushed hard too, but the Wolverines were able to win him over and after notching more explosive plays than any college football team in 2021, it makes perfect sense.

Clemons is one of many 2022 recruits who should have a chance to compete for playing time right away and four-star defensive end Derrick Moore could be another, who also will sign with U-M.

Moore is 6-foot-4, 250 pounds and Steve Wiltfong called him one of the best pass rushers in the entire class earlier today on the CBS Sports Early Signing Day show, which is high praise. He’s ranked 79th overall in the 2022 recruiting class and is a huge addition this late.

A couple of weeks ago, Clemons and Moore weren’t really even on the radar. No one would have predicted them to be in Michigan’s class even a month ago.

But success on the field, which means an incredibly stable head coaching situation and a program that has proven it can win championships, as well as make the College Football Playoff, will do that.

And despite all the concern about the 2022 class over the last year or so, Michigan football is going to wind up with a top-10 class with a blue-chip ratio that’s better than 50 percent if you include Andrew Gentry, who signed today but was originally a 2020 recruit.

That’s also just according to the 247 composite rankings, which don’t factor in On3.com. On3 has its own consensus rankings and in those rankings, Michigan football’s blue-chip ratio is even more impressive.

Regardless of all the rankings, this is an elite haul and we’ll have much more analysis to come.