Latest on Michigan football recruiting efforts in 2023

Michigan football isn’t quite done in the 2023 recruiting class and here’s the latest on some top targets the Wolverines still hope to land. 

Now that head coach Jim Harbaugh has announced that he will return to the Michigan football program for the 2023 season and hopefully, well beyond, the focus can return to recruiting.

Michigan football didn’t put together the best 2023 class in terms of the rankings, but the Wolverines closed strong. I believe the staff likes their class more than the recruiting analysts and we’ll see long-term who was right about that.

But at the same time, Michigan football isn’t finished in the 2023 class, not by a long shot. Obviously, Nyckoles Harbor is the big target left on the board. Michigan, LSU, South Carolina, Oregon, and Maryland all feel like they could win his commitment.

A decision will be coming soon but man when you look at what Oregon can offer on the football field and in track and field, the Ducks might be tough to beat.

Yet, even if Harbor doesn’t commit, Michigan could still be adding players in the late-signing period and one of those is Cameron Brandt, a four-star EDGE committed to Stanford.

Michigan is recruiting him as an EDGE and the 6-foot-4, 260-pounder will be on campus for an official visit this weekend as the Wolverines try to complete their flip attempt.

Adding Brandt would be huge, especially with Collins Acheampong flipping his commitment to Miami late in the process. Brandt would fill that void in the class at EDGE and in terms of defensive lineman, he might not be the last addition in 2023 either.

Michigan football still pushing for Jamel Howard

The Wolverines have been working on three-star nose tackle Jamel Howard, who is 6-foot-3, 320 pounds. Michigan football doesn’t really have a defensive tackle like that in class, at least one with sure-fire nose tackle ability and Howard fits the bill.

He’s out of Illinois and went to the same school as Jimmy Rolder. Howard ranks outside the top 1,000 according to the On3 consensus rankings, yet he’s getting lots of interest late in the process and not just from Michigan football, but also Illinois, LSU, and Ole Miss.

The Wolverines have been trending with expert projections and have been viewed as the leader for a couple of months but didn’t close and didn’t land him in the early signing period. According to EJ Holland, Jim Harbaugh stopped by for a visit this week.

Howard is expected to visit LSU after being at Illinois last week and we’ll see if Michigan football can land not just one, but two D-linemen before the 2023 class is wrapped up.