Michigan Football’s 2022 recruiting class is a learning lesson

What we learned about the Wolverines from Michigan football’s 2022 recruiting class. 

What a week it has been for the Michigan Wolverines. They just killed it on the recruiting trailing, signing basically everyone they wanted and needed, and it has resulted in a top-10 class for 2022.

Michigan football was able to secure one five-star, with the potential for two (with Josh Conerly in February), 10 four-stars, and 12 three-stars.

The fact that Michigan only had three or four four-star players a few months ago speaks volumes to how good Jim Harbaugh and his assistant coaches finished the job.

No, Michigan’s class isn’t perfect, as they probably lost out on Kavonte Henry, Aaron Alexander just decommitted yesterday, Deone Walker committed to Kentucky, and Ethan Burke flipped to Texas. All of that doesn’t matter though.

Every recruiting cycle, Michigan football misses out on a few targets, or a recruit or two flips to another program on Early Signing Day. It happens, so it’s not like it’s abnormal or anything. Other programs deal with the same exact thing, especially Clemson this year, who saw a mass exodus of players leave, and their class ranking is reflective of that.

The point is, these fans owe Harbaugh and the staff an apology (at least for now). Obviously, fans would like sustained success, and making the Big Ten championship, winning that, and making the CFP should almost be a yearly thing, but for now, we have to enjoy this special year, and with that, come to the realization that we were wrong about this team during the off-season.

Time to trust Jim Harbaugh

They proved us wrong by completely exceeding expectations this year, in a year when everybody thought this was a “bridge” year or rebuilding year.

A lot of fans didn’t believe in the direction that this program was going, but not the players and definitely not Harbaugh and his staff.

It was the same story with the recruiting class. Everybody was complaining (including myself) about how this 2022 class would be so underwhelming, with way too many three-stars, and how the direction of the program was reflective of the class ranking (bad direction, so bad recruiting class).

Once again though, the staff proved us wrong and got the last laugh. Yes, weird circumstances (coaches and coordinators leaving and getting different jobs) helped Michigan reel in a few guys like Darrius Clemons, Keon Sabb, possibly Amorion Walker, and Derrick Moore, but that doesn’t matter if Michigan wasn’t on those players, in their ears constantly, and still recruiting them.

Some other programs would have swooped in and plucked those players away, but Michigan acquired their services.

Nobody thought that Michigan football would be in the playoff this year during the off-season, and nobody thought 2-3 months ago, much less, a few weeks ago, that Michigan would finish with a top-10 recruiting class in December. See the pattern?

So this recruiting class is symbolic of trust — meaning that we need to put a little bit more faith moving forward in Jim Harbaugh and the staff’s ability to finish strong. Trust is earned on the field, for the level of play that is done, and off the field, in the recruiting world.

I’d say, with both situations, trust was earned, and the program has all the momentum moving forward.