Michigan Football: Why commitment of Collins Acheampong is huge for Wolverines

Michigan football landed its second four-star commitment in two days and the third in the month of July as Collins Acheampong pledged on Friday. 

All the news wasn’t good Friday, as Dante Moore committed to Oregon early in the day, but Michigan football fans certainly had something to celebrate later as Collins Acheampong announced his commitment Friday afternoon after a contentious recruitment.

Acheampong is the third four-star commitment for Michigan football this month and the second this week as Amir Herring, a four-star offensive lineman also committed on Thursday

Acheampong, who is ranked No. 298 overall is the 247 sports composite rankings, might not be the only commitment Friday as Enow Etta, another four-star could also announce.

However, the addition of the four-star athlete from California who stands 6-foot-7 and is 254 pounds, was still a huge addition, especially after Miami threw all it did at him.

It was a classic transformational vs transactional battle — everything Michigan football had to offer against Miami, which offered a lot of NIL on top of everything else.

But the Wolverines have proven they know how to develop edge rushers — see David Ojabo and Aidan Hutchinson — and that had to be a key selling point to Acheampong:

Acheampong came to the United States to play basketball and he’s an impressive athlete. He’s also the kind of guy that can eventually develop into an NFL talent and it’s going to be fun to see what defensive line coach Mike Elston can do with his development.

Either way, the addition of Acheampong to the 2023 recruiting class gives Michigan some palpable momentum on the recruiting trail. He’s the 10th commitment and the fourth four-star pledge.

Acheampong and Etta are also tight and it wouldn’t be shocking if Etta also pledged to the Wolverines which would give Michigan football another talented edge rusher in this class.

It’s still not where Michigan football fans want it to be, however, with more commitments likely coming this month, the recruiting class is looking much better heading into the July BBQ and the 2022 regular season.