3 thoughts on Owen Wafle’s commitment to Michigan football

Michigan football completed the flip of former Notre Dame commitment by landing three-star defensive lineman Owen Wafle. Here are three thoughts. 

If you are following along on social media, there has been a groundswell of posts about how Michigan football has had a big weekend on the recruiting trail.

Brice Marich of The Michigan Insider has been busy placing crystal balls all morning and one of them was for three-star defensive lineman Owen Wafle.

As it turns out, it didn’t take long for that prediction to come true. Wafle who was committed to Notre Dame last month, announced his pledge to Michigan football on Sunday, completing the flip.

Here are three thoughts for the Wolverines.

A versatile prospect

It’s always nice to beat out Notre Dame for a recruit and we’ll get to that in a second. Michigan football has done a stellar job in the 2024 class and Wafle is another versatile addition along the defensive line.

Wafle is listed as an EDGE by 247 Sports but he’s 6-foot-2, 290 pounds, and is expected to be a three-technique at Michigan according to EJ Holland of The Wolverine.

Basically at this point, I trust Mike Elston anytime he wants to take a recruit and he did an outstanding job of stealing Wafle away from his former school. Out of Princeton, New Jersey, he’s ranked 406th overall in the 2024 class by the 247 Sports composite rankings.

Notre Dame fans will probably say the Irish didn’t want him anymore, but that’s just an excuse. I actually love Wafle. Guys that can play inside and rush the passer are extremely valuable and Holland was already mentioning Mason Graham.

Not saying he’ll have that same kind of impact as Graham right away, but I think he’s going to be a sneaky-good interior pass rusher.

Another win over Notre Dame

It’s funny that a year ago, Notre Dame fans were going on and on about how dominant they were over Michigan football on the recruiting trail.

Yet, things have changed a lot in a year. Michigan football has found a way to overcome NIL (pay for play from other programs) and the culture, as well as the winning, are also helping.

Cole Sullivan was a kid that could have easily gone to Notre Dame. Jerod Smith was viewed as a Notre Dame lean and so was Jacob Smith, who is also starting to trend to Michigan football.

Things are going well right now for Michigan football and Wafle is just the latest example of the Wolverines beating their rival in a recruitment.

It doesn’t seem like Michigan football is close to done

Recruits have been posting pictures and emojis about how well the weekend has gone. All of the Michigan football recruiting reporters are hinting at a big weekend.

Marich put in four crystal ball projections by himself and more could follow. Bennett Warren, the No. 13 offensive tackle overall, was also projected to Michigan by Steve Wiltfong.

The momentum is tangible. We’ll see if Michigan did enough to turn things around with Boo Carter, Bryce West, Ryan Wingo, Justin Scott, and others. But it seemed like the Wolverines knocked it out of the park this weekend.

My hope is that Wafle was just the first domino.