Michigan Football: Latest on Jadyn Davis and another 5-star target

Michigan football’s top recruit in the 2024 class, Jadyn Davis, opened his season on Friday and the Wolverines seem to be in a strong spot. 

There’s no doubt who the most important recruit is for the Michigan football program and regardless of class, it’s five-star QB Jadyn Davis.

After Michigan football whiffed on in-state five-star QBs Dante Moore and CJ Carr, who have committed to Oregon and Notre Dame, respectively, Davis is a must-get for Michigan.

He’s ranked as the No. 2 quarterback in the 2024 class and out of Providence Day in Charlotte, a school that has former Michigan player Jonathan Goodwin coaching, as well as a number of other high-priority targets.

They all showed out with Davis on Friday. Jordan Shipp, a wide receiver, caught a touchdown pass, as did Channing Goodwin. Chris Peal, a four-star cornerback in the 2023 class, also doubled as a wideout and caught a touchdown too from Davis in an easy win.

EJ Holland of The Wolverine put in an expert prediction for Davis to land with the Wolverines earlier this summer and Michigan currently has a 79-percent chance according to the On3 prediction machine.

Rivals also has a number of Futurecast picks in for Michigan football dating back to June.

The key will be closing. Michigan is expected to get Davis back on campus for a gameday visit this fall and hopefully, like it did with J.J. McCarthy, the Wolverines can secure an early commitment.

McCarthy didn’t commit until the spring after his junior season but after fall visits — it sounds like Davis could also visit Georgia, Clemson, and North Carolina — the onus will be on Michigan football to get a commitment and according to Holland (subscription required), U-M is in a good spot still in large part because of the strong relationship between Davis and Harbaugh.

We all know that the relationship between Harbaugh and Dante Moore wasn’t as strong as it needed to be, so this is a really good sign.

With Davis, I’m also not as worried about NIL. Michigan football is getting that figured out and just like McCarthy, if Davis winds up in Ann Arbor, he’s going to make bank from day one.

Latest on five-star 2023 athlete Nyckoles Harbor

In terms of the 2023 recruiting class, Michigan football has one five-star target left on the board and that’s Nyckoles Harbor out of Maryland.

Harbor is a freak athlete that runs the 100 in under 10.3 seconds. He could be a wide receiver, an edge rusher, or basically whatever he wants.

But track is playing a factor in his recruitment and while Michigan football has been among the leaders throughout, LSU and South Carolina are gaining momentum.

Those are the two programs that will get official visits along with the Wolverines this fall. Harbor has two other visits and is considering his other finalists such as USC, Maryland, and Georgia.

Harbor has been to campus before and seems to value everything that Michigan football has to offer but LSU is another big-time program and probably also has the edge in track.

The warm weather doesn’t hurt that aspect of things either. Yet, the visits are going to make a huge difference and Michigan football will host Harbor on Sept. 25 against Maryland.

The On3 prediction machine still has Michigan football leading 34 percent to 29 percent over LSU with South Carolina sitting in third. But the SEC threats are rising and Michigan will need to gain build momentum again at some point to hold them off.

With all of his focus on track, it feels like this recruitment has stagnated a bit. It should pick up heavily this fall and the Wolverines should at least feel good about being near the top of the leaderboard heading down the stretch.