Michigan football was on fire in May on the recruiting trail, landing 11 commitments in the 2027 class, most of them ranking as four-star recruits.
The Wolverines surged into the Top 15 of the 247 Sports team rankings for 2027, where they now rank 14th. That ranking dropped after a recent decommitment, but the good news is that Michigan football's recruiting ranking should start trending up again, much to the chagrin of Utah.
Utah fans have had to deal with Michigan taking their head coach, after the Utes essentially kicked to the curb, before watching Whittingham take some of the best assistant coaches with him, along with some of the best players.
One of Michigan's top-ranked commitments in the 2027 class, four-star quarterback Kamden Lopati, who just finished up with an impressive showing at the Elite 11, is also from Utah. He was committed to Illinois before flipping to the Wolverines.
Michigan has five of the top 100 newcomers in college football, and four were Utah Utes at one time or another. Now, it looks like Whittingham will deny the Utes a commitment in the 2027 recruiting class.
Utah has been trending in the right direction with four-star offensive lineman Lincoln Mageo in the 2027 class. He just took an official visit to Salt Lake City. That moved Utah up near the top of this recruitment.
However, with a Michigan football visit scheduled for later this month, it doesn't seem like Utah's push is enough to overtake the Wolverines.
Michigan football projected to land four-star offensive lineman in recruiting battle with Utah
Ethan McDowell, who covers Michigan football recruiting for The Wolverine, has projected Mageo, who is ranked No. 385 overall, according to the Rivals Industry Rankings, to commit to Whittingham. McDowell is the first Rivals expert to make this prediction, giving U-M an 81-percent chance to win his commitment,
The 6-foot-3, 285-pound interior offensive lineman has been a top target of Jim Harding since the new coach was hired to be Whittingham's O-line coach. Out of Oceanside, California, there have been six visits total between Mageo coming to campus and the staff visiting.
Mageo was one of the three official visitors we said was most likely to commit to Michigan football during official visit season, and it looks like that prediction is going to come true. Utah and Washington are the other teams still in the mix. A commitment is expected to happen on July 11th.
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