Michigan Football: Concern about CJ Carr is legitimate

How concerned should Michigan football fans be about some recent developments in the recruitment of CJ Carr?

If Michigan football fans weren’t at least a little concerned about the recruitment of quarterback CJ Carr, then they haven’t been paying attention.

Notre Dame recently received a crystal ball projection from Steve Wiltfong of 247 sports to land Carr, the grandson of former Michigan football head coach Lloyd Carr, and while the Wolverines lead the crystal ball count and according to On3.com’s prediction machine, there are reasons to be worried about Carr that go beyond the recent crystal ball.

Michigan football has a 55-percent chance right now of winning Carr’s recruitment according to On3.com and that’s way too low.

There has been plenty of talk about how Dante Moore’s decision will impact Carr and some have felt that if one chose Notre Dame or Michigan, the other could make the opposite choice.

However, that’s a pretty large assumption. Both are national recruits. Oregon and Texas A&M are among the programs trending up for Moore, along with LSU, while Carr is also seeing attention from big-time programs such as Alabama and LSU, which recently offered.

Georgia is also in the mix, as are Florida and Kentucky and according to Wiltfong’s latest report for 247 sports on Carr, his interest in those teams is growing and he wants to visit.

Carr also talked about visiting Michigan, Notre Dame, and the other schools from the Midwest in the mix, but it’s clear that a commitment to the Wolverines is far from a sure thing.

Notre Dame is still viewed as the leader for Moore and while he’s expected to visit Michigan this month, the Wolverines still have a lot of work to do.

And according to a teammate of CJ Carr’s, the Michigan legacy doesn’t plan on choosing the Wolverines, at least according to a thread that was posted on social media.

This could be a high school kid messing around but Ethan Cotsonika is a teammate of Carr’s according to this Twitter account in the class of 2025.

Who knows what kind of information he has, but if he’s Carr’s friend, he could definitely have some insight on the process. Who really knows? But CJ talking about his growing relationship with Alabama and Georgia is concerning.

Alabama doesn’t hand out offers for fun. They are serious offers and if Nick Saban decides he wants to take CJ Carr, would you blame him for passing on Michigan?

Maybe that’s why the Wolverines are showing interest in some other 2024 quarterbacks. They don’t have any other options in 2023 outside of Moore and it shows.

One reason for that is Carr. If Michigan football gets him in 2024, it won’t even need a quarterback in 2023 unless it’s Moore or just a guy for more long-term depth.

Clearly, the Wolverines have work to do with Carr and Moore and any concern about Michigan’s ability to land either at this point is legitimate.