Michigan football is heating up on the recruiting trail. The Wolverines have beaten out Notre Dame for defensive line commitments on back-to-back days.
On Monday, the Wolverines landed McHale Blade, who is ranked No. 155 overall in the 2026 class, according to the On3 Industry rankings. He was viewed as a Notre Dame lean until he wasn't.
The same can be said about Tuesday's verbal commitment, Alister Vallejo. Notre Dame and Kansas were the other top contenders, but the Irish felt like they had this locked down.
The 6-foot-3, 310-pound defensive tackle has 17 sacks over the past two seasons, in high school, and frankly, he is eerily similar to Mason Graham in ranking and play style.
So those were massive additions to the Wolverines' 2026 class, which now features nine commitments. For a while on Tuesday, it looked like a 10th might be on the way, as Michigan football was projected, for a time, to flip four-star Georgia wide receiver commitment Brady Marchese.
There were multiple expert projections of it happening. However, in recruiting, nothing is ever a done deal. The Georgia Bulldogs clearly didn't want to lose the commitment of Marchese, who took an official visit to Michigan football last weekend, and UGA was able to get him to shut down his recruitment via Hayes Fawcett.
BREAKING: Four-Star WR Brady Marchese has shut down his recruitment and will stick with Georgia, he tells me for @on3recruits
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) June 10, 2025
“Georgia is Home. Go Dawgs!”https://t.co/wK4VVElsHw pic.twitter.com/FWCpIAuzZ4
What's next at wide receiver for Michigan Wolverines?
It's a blow for Michigan football. The Wolverines were in the driver's seat for the explosive wideout. However, there are some other great options on the board, including four-star wideout Zion Robinson out of Texas.
Robinson is 6-foot-3, 180 pounds, and ranked No. 132 overall in the 2026 class, according to the 247 Sports composite rankings. Michigan football knocked it out of the park on his official visit. TCU was considered a threat, because his dad is the director of the track program.
However, Robinson said he wouldn't visit TCU. Stanford and Miami are scheduled to get official visits, so it's not a done deal by any means, but the Wolverines are in a great spot for the dynamic wideout.
Robinson will announce his commitment on July 1st, setting a date right after his visit to Ann Arbor.