Michigan Football: D-line targets projected to rivals; thoughts on offers in Ohio

A couple of Michigan football’s top targets on the defensive line have been projected to Notre Dame and Michigan State, plus a look at recent offers in Ohio. 

Notre Dame has become a growing threat on the recruiting trail for Michigan football and the Irish have grabbed the lead for another top target in the 2023 class.

Michigan hosted defensive lineman Devan Houstan a few weeks ago and the Wolverines seemed to be in a strong position for the 6-foot-4, 270-pounder out of Maryland. He also happens to be the brother of Michigan basketball player (for now) Caleb Houstan.

Houstan is ranked 191st overall according to the 247 sports composite rankings and just recently received a couple of crystal ball projections to Notre Dame.

The Wolverines have a bunch of other defensive line options and have been expanding the board, but it’s still not what you want to see. Enow Etta, a really talented edge rusher from Texas, also received a projection to Michigan State.

The Wolverines have less than a 2 percent chance with each recruit according to the On3.com prediction machine. Michigan has been gaining traction with five-star athlete Nyckoles Harbor, so all is not lost, but it’s not looking good with Etta or Houstan.

Michigan football active with offers in Ohio

The Wolverines have handed out a number of offers in the state of Ohio recently and one of them went out to three-star defensive end Kamari Burns out of Columbus.

Burns is ranked 14th in the state according to the On3.com consensus rankings, as well as the No. 505 recruit overall. He’s 6-foot-4, 245 pounds, and following the offer a few days ago, Michigan football has moved the top of his recruitment according to Brice Marich of The Michigan Insider:

Another offer in the state of Ohio went out to Sid Kaba. Kaba doesn’t have an offer list as impressive as Burns, but the Columbus product is someone the staff seems to be higher on than the rankings (he’s outside the top 1,000 in the consensus rankings).

Cameron Frazier is a 2024 defensive back and also received an offer recently from Michigan, which was his first from a power-5 conference.

While it’s true that Michigan might be offering some lower-ranked prospects in Ohio, it’s good to get back into the state, and Rod Moore was a similar recruit. He was ranked outside the top 1,000 in the rankings before U-M offered him and we all know how that worked out.

The board still seems pretty fluid as we head into the spring and there should be even more offers coming in the next few weeks as coaches hit the road.