Michigan Football: It feels like ball is being dropped with recruiting

Over the weekend, Michigan football hosted its annual spring game, as the Blue team defeated the Maize team 20-12, which we wrote about here. Overall, the game was a defensive battle, on a cold and windy day, with a few explosive plays sprinkled in.

There were some standouts like Davis Warren, the walk-on QB from LA, who showed accuracy and poise, going 12/23, with 175 yards. There were also standouts like Darrius Clemons, Amorion Walker, Donovan Edwards, and Kris Jenkins.

Darrius Clemons had a crazy 35-yard diving TD grab from QB Alan Bowman in the second half. Walker hauled in a 39-yard catch. Edwards had a 39-yard grab of his own, and Jenkins notched a sack of Alan Bowman.

The on-field product was fine. I didn’t have a problem with the plays, or the final score, or any of that. My issue is with the crowd, or lack thereof, specifically in reference to the number of recruits in attendance.

Unfortunately, class of ’23 recruit (and priority) Nyckoles Harbor Archbishop Carroll was unable to attend the spring game due to his track schedule, which was a bummer.

His teammate Joseph Mupoyi was able to attend, but not getting the most prioritized recruit of the spring game attendees was unfortunate, because that’s one of the only times Harbor would’ve been able to see Michigan football in a live-game setting.

In total, there were six confirmed recruits that attended the spring game. Let me repeat that. Of all the guys that Michigan has been actively recruiting, some for over a year, Michigan was only able to get six (!!) confirmed recruits up to campus for the spring game.

There were four class of ’23 and two class of ’24 recruits that were able to make it up to the game. ’23 DeMatha Catholic (MD) four-star DL Jason Moore, ’23 East St. Louis (IL) four-star OT Myles McVay, ’23 Mars Hill Bible School (AL) three-star OT Koby Keenum, and lastly, in the class of 2023, Christ the King (NY) three-star DL Tyriq Blanding.

In the class of 2024, there was Lipscomb Academy (TN) unranked LB Edwin Spillman, and New Palestine (IN) unranked IOL Ian Moore.

Now, there were probably at least a few more recruits that attended the spring game that took unofficial visits just to go and were unconfirmed, but even still, that is a very low number for what should’ve been an event packed with recruits.

I mean, this is literally the one event (besides seeing a practice) where recruits would be able to at least get a basic understanding of how Michigan football runs its offense and defense (because the play calls are very vanilla in spring games).

Instead, after coming off of a historic 12-2 season, with a team that could potentially make another playoff appearance, we go this dud of a recruiting event.

Michigan finally broadcast their game on live TV (Big Ten Network), Colin Kaepernick was in the building throwing around passes at halftime, Spike Lee was in attendance, and so were fellow former U-M alums Jake Butt and Devin Gardner, and it was an unfortunate flop.

Now, there were probably reasons for this of course. First of all, Michigan hosting their spring game on April 2nd is probably the earliest they’ve had a spring game in a very long time.

Usually, their spring games are held towards the mid-to-late part of April, so this might have messed up some recruit’s traveling plans, as, depending on the school, spring break is around this time, and high schoolers love going on vacation to somewhere warm.

The next possibility is maybe Michigan’s staff is waiting (which I don’t know why they would wait if they have a chance to bring in a lot of recruits now) to have their biggest recruiting event of the year, as they always seem to do, for the BBQ at the Big House, which is always in July.

I don’t know if Michigan noticed either, but last year’s BBQ at the Big House was also a flop, as Michigan hosted a number of recruits but only got a few commitments out of it.

Maybe this year is different, as Michigan did just have a fantastic season, but you never know. The BBQ at the Big House hasn’t hit home with recruits as much as it used to in Harbaugh’s earlier years at Michigan, so, we’ll see how big of an impact that will have on recruits.

Michigan football needs to build momentum in recruiting

Lastly, maybe Michigan was just unlucky, and the day they picked, with it being cold and windy, and recruit’s schedules just didn’t line up. That’s certainly more than possible and is probably the most likely of the three scenarios, but as a Michigan fan, we are all still thinking it feels like a missed opportunity.

No, I did not expect a bunch of recruits to commit just after seeing a spring game, but still. Michigan should’ve had lots and lots of recruits (and even verbal commits) up at the game, taking it all in. It obviously can’t hurt Michigan’s chances to host these recruits for the spring game.

It just feels like Michigan has been slacking on the recruiting trail lately, as we’ve already written about the Dante Moore situation, among various other recruiting flops.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s not super surprising that Michigan football was unable to get a ton of recruits up for the spring game because, throughout Harbaugh’s tenure, Michigan has never started spring on a strong note in terms of crystal balls and commits, but this could’ve potentially really changed some things for certain recruits.

Michigan typically builds momentum in the summer, with their BBQ (as mentioned earlier), and, if not the BBQ, then really builds momentum in the fall, leading all the way into National Signing Day, but, I’d love for things to be sped up in the spring, even just a little bit.

Let’s hope Michigan makes up for this lackluster effort with strong recruiting efforts elsewhere on the trail. As always, Go Blue!