Michigan Football isn’t out of the running for CJ Carr

Why Michigan football shouldn’t give up in its pursuit of CJ Carr.

While missing out on what seemed like a “sure-fire” commitment in 2024 five-star QB CJ Carr is disappointing for sure, especially to a rival, Michigan football is not out of the running for his services long-term.

I know what people are thinking: if CJ Carr doesn’t want to come here, then forget about him! Waste of time!  Good riddance! Turn up the heat on Dante Moore! 

I’ve heard grumblings from fans saying pretty much all of these things. We should just forget about him and move on.

Well, what I would say to that is, you don’t just give up on recruiting a prospect because you initially miss out.

Why Michigan football should keep recruiting CJ Carr

Again, many of the people here probably just want to forget about CJ Carr, but I for one am not one of those people. Recruiting a prospect never stops. Even if you think you have no shot at winning that recruit over.

I’m not saying Michigan needs to focus on Carr as their primary target for the class of 2024, but Michigan’s staff still needs to check in on CJ occasionally, and at least make it known that they haven’t given up on him.

Again, this doesn’t mean that Michigan football has to prioritize CJ any longer.

Until proven wrong, that ship has sailed (for the time being). Michigan can and should focus their attention on the recruitments of class of 2023 five-star QB recruit Dante Moore, who we’ve written a lot about on this site, and also, a relatively less talked about, but equally intriguing five-star QB recruit in 2024 in Jadyn Davis.

Getting either of those QB recruits or both would be a tremendous coup for Michigan and would cement Michigan’s QB room as elite for the foreseeable future.

Jadyn Davis is the #2 ranked recruit in the nation in 2024, and is even higher rated than CJ Carr, so it’s not the end of the world if Michigan still fails to secure a CJ commitment.

Getting back to my main point, recruiting never sleeps. When a player says they are 100% committed to a school, it is generally untrue more times than not. We can look at Michigan’s own top-100 ’23 LB commit Raylen Wilson as an example right off the bat.

I don’t want to totally speak for the young man, but the fact he is visiting all of these other southern schools has to at least make the Michigan staff and fans nervous, as players that are 100% sold on a school generally focus on recruiting other players to that school instead of focusing their attention on other visits.

Obviously, it is good for recruits to want to get the full experience of a recruitment, and take all their visits and get treated like VIPs, but they could’ve done that prior to committing.

I don’t want to rain on Raylen’s parade too much, as he’s the crown jewel of Michigan’s class right now, but that was just an example.

With all of that being said, CJ Carr is literally a class of 2024 prospect. To say that this recruitment is 100% over is really premature in my opinion (unless he re-classifies).

There is still a ton of time to convince him to decommit, and it would be wise for Michigan football to stay on him, just in case the recruitments of Dante Moore and Jadyn Davis don’t work out (because recruiting is a rollercoaster of ups and downs).

Carr has stated that Ann Arbor and Michigan still have a special place in his heart, so it’s obvious that he loves the school, the community, and the fans.

See, the thing is, not everything in recruiting is black and white, or as easy as it seems.

When seemingly everyone else zigs, Michigan football zags. It’s frustrating to no end. The team fights their butts off to finally make a playoff, momentum and excitement from the fanbase and media is at an all-time high, and what happens?

The team struggles to build on the momentum in recruiting and hasn’t had a new commitment since March. When’s the last playoff team that struggled in momentum and recruiting? I sure can’t think of one. Michigan football might’ve made this a first-time occurrence.

Yeah, expert predictions have come in for a bunch of prospects in the last few weeks for Michigan to seize, but before all that, where was the momentum? It was just dull and anticlimactic.

I mentioned the black and white, but sometimes there’s that little gray area that we need to take into account once in a while. The CJ Carr recruitment is one of those times.

There are many times where a diehard Sparty or Buckeye recruit or even some legacies have committed to the Maize and Blue in the past. Jake Butt was a diehard Buckeyes fan, they never offered, and the rest was history.

Some of those recruits might not love the team they grew up rooting for as much as they used to, because they went to Michigan, (Charles Woodson, Chase Winovich, even Daylen Baldwin, to name a few) the Sparty’s, and Buckeyes, but they probably still hold at least a piece of the heart from the memories they had growing up as fans of those schools. That’s one thing that will never die.

Did I mention college football hasn’t even started yet? We don’t even know how good Notre Dame will be this year. They have a new head coach.

Their first game is against Ohio State. I can see them taking an “L” right off the bat. They also still have to play Clemson, in what could be a bounce back year for the Tigers. Another potential “L”.

If Michigan has another 10-12+ win season, the recruitment may open back up. You never know. Remember when Darrius Clemons didn’t even have Michigan on his radar prior to the start of the 2021-22 season and committed to Oregon?

Well, lo and behold, he magically decommited from Oregon a little bit after Michigan’s magical season ended. Coincidence? I think not.

I can also talk about former Clemson DB commit Keon Sabb, but you get the point.

So we need to hold our horses on this CJ Carr hatred or saltiness, because Michigan football has more than enough time to make a comeback.

The main focus shouldn’t be on CJ. It’s on Dante Moore first and then Jadyn Davis second and all the other recruits out there, like Nyckoles Harbor, etc. None of that means the staff shouldn’t still stay in contact with CJ just in case.