Michigan Football’s commitment drought is ended by 4-star TE

Michigan football finally saw its commitment drought end on Sunday as Deakon Tonielli announced his verbal pledge to the Wolverines. 

At times, it felt like it was never going to end but Michigan football’s commitment drought, which dated back to March of this year, is finally over following the pledge of Deakon Tonielli.

Tonielli’s commitment shouldn’t come as a shock. He was one of our six candidates to commit in the month of June and it turns out that the 6-foot-5, 200-pound tight end is the first of the summer and hopefully the start of Michigan building some actual recruiting momentum.

https://twitter.com/DeakonTonielli/status/1538618017910870020

Tonielli is ranked as a three-star recruit by both the 247 sports composite rankings and the On3 consensus rankings and in the latter, he’s ranked No. 472 overall in the 2023 class.

However, it’s easy to call Tonielli a four-star prospect because both 247 sports and On3 rank him as such in their own specific set of rankings. Those are the most respected recruiting services and both rank him as the 17th-best tight end in the 2023 class.

Michigan’s tight end development should have been able to sell itself and the Wolverines have been a growing presence in the state of Illinois and Tonielli is another from the Chicago area.  According to what Tonielli told EJ Holland of The Wolverine, Grant Newsome played a key role in getting him to officially be part of the class.

"“At first, I was a little worried because I really liked Coach Jay (Harbaugh). It was a little heartbreaking. But I talked to Coach Newsome for a while after that, and we’ve built a connection. It’s nice to get that structure back. I might not be able to talk to Coach Jay as much, but I’m building a great connection with the coach that I could be with at my position. Coach Newsome is just a great guy. I feel really comfortable with him.”"

Tonielli is more of a pass-catcher than a true in-line tight end. He’s a track athlete and basketball player in addition to playing football. He high jumped 5-7, threw the shot put, and was also a sprinter on his high school relay teams. Here’s his scouting report from Allen Trieu of 247 sports:

"“Tall, longer prospect. Plays as an outside receiver as well as a slot in high school. Uses height, length and leaping ability well and shows a big catch radius. Good athlete with basketball and track and field in his background as well. Appears to have some top end speed, but can still improve burst and suddenness. Tracks the ball in the air well and can put himself in position to make plays on the ball without losing speed or balance. Will grow into a tight end in college but his experience being unattached offers a lot of possibilities. Shows some physicality but would need experience as an on the ball blocker if schools try to do that with him.”"

What it means for Michigan’s 2023 class

U-M is now ranked 17th according to the On3.com team rankings for the 2023 class thanks to its seventh commitment. Tonielli is the third-highest-rated commitment and just two of the seven are ranked as composite four-stars at this time.

Yet, the best news for Michigan football is that it has finally ended its commitment drought and while some will offer the refrain of “three-star U” Tonielli is well within four-star range and just needs some of the other recruiting services to wake up.

Rivals has him ranked 44th among tight ends, while ESPN has him 14th among tight ends but still ranked as a three-star prospect. At any rate, any top-500 commitment is a good one and hopefully, this is just the start of a big summer for Michigan football recruiting.