Thoughts on Nate Marshall flipping from Michigan football to Auburn
It's hard to sugarcoat when you lose the top-ranked commitment in your recruiting class, which is what happened to Michigan football on Friday.
Nate Marshall, a 6-foot-4, 260-pound defensive lineman out of Illinois, who is ranked No. 49 overall, flipped his commitment to Auburn.
The Tigers tried to flip Marshall earlier in the cycle and Michigan football was able to hold onto that commitment but it was only temporary. It's hard to know exactly what happened. Marshall visited over the summer after committing in the spring and said he was solid.
Landing Jaylen Williams seemed to help and this decommitment, at least right now, is a surprise. Nothing should shock anyone in recrutiing, but I didn't see this happening a few days ago.
Thoughs on Nate Marshall decommitment from Michigan football
The good news for Michigan football is that the Wolverines already have three defensive line prospects committed in the 2025 class. There are two four-star EDGE prospects, as well as three-star defensive lineman Bobby Kanka.
Williams is kind of a hybrid EDGE/DL, sort of like Marshall, and his presence also makes me feel better about the decommitent. He's ranked No. 243 overall in the 2025 class according to the 247 Sports composite rankings but he has huge upside and reminds me of Mike Morris.
There are plenty of defensive line prospects for Michigan football to target, according to Allen Trieu of 247 Sports, so I'd expect the board to expand at some point in the next few weeks.
The Wolverines team ranking dropped to 14th in the 247 Sports team rankings. Michigan has 16 commitments and 12 of them are blue-chip prospects, giving them a blue-chip percentage of 75 percent in the 2025 class.
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Michigan is in the thick of it with five-star Andrew Babalola too. He's expected to decide on September 6. Marshall is a stud and it stings to lose his commitment, but Michigan still has some solid EDGE/D-line prospects committed in 2025, and I'm certain the Wolverines will add at least one more.