Michigan Football: Loading up on three stars instead of waiting on four stars

The debate will rage on whether to recruit proverbial backups who are three stars or wait patiently and save the spot for five-star game changers who can change the outlook of a program.

Cole Sullivan was the latest three-star commitment to Michigan football this past week. However, he’s not your ordinary run-of-the-mill prospect who snags a spot from a potential four or five-star recruit.

Sullivan had a laundry list of interested schools and is a very productive kid who the coaches will love the challenge of developing him into a high draft choice. He also fits the mold of a Michigan football linebacker to a tee.

Fans always want the four or five-star guys because it looks sexier on paper. Taking an abundance of three stars has been the case in the past, but 2024 has been an anomaly to that. Coaches and scouts alike, who put in the work and study these kids for a living, could care less.

They see the raw talent and what they can become over time, believing they can bring that out of them over the next three to four years. Plus the fact that some of these less-appreciated young men have better work ethic than the four or five stars themselves.

Michigan football is still in the hunt for a number of blue-chippers. Keeping the momentum going will depend upon how long they can go undefeated.

Bringing a national championship home during a time when the SEC has dominated can shift the course of history in college football and ring in a new force outside of a league that has been running the summit over the last 20 years or so.

Michigan keeps finding success

Michigan’s success, in the Jim Harbaugh era, is a prime example of that with guys like Hassan Haskins, Jake Moody, Kwity Paye, and more. They all left their positive respective marks when they finished their careers in the maize and blue uniform, by doing it in different ways.

With their willingness to work hard and be coached up, the same can be done by youngsters like Sullivan, Michael Barrett, Ben Hall, and whoever else earns that prestigious moniker.

Of course, that won’t always be the case with three stars, or five stars for that matter. With every three star bust, there is a surefire five-star right behind.

Michigan football has had its fair share of them as well including Aubrey Solomon and to an extent Chris Hinton, in the Harbaugh era and others over the decades. It’s safe to say that this current staff knows how to get the most out of a high percentage of signees that stay in Ann Arbor.

Nonetheless, kids will flock to Michigan football whether they are preferred walk-ons or a ca n’t-miss prospect. That will never change as long as the sport exists and for as long as the brand of Michigan football remains.

The proof is in the recruiting rankings and a lot more cause for celebration is along the way on what can be a pothole-filled path everyone is trying to avoid like the plague.