Kentucky scores another victory in growing recruiting rivalry with Michigan after landing Marquise Davis

Jim Harbaugh has moved up to the National Football League. The national championship head coach is now the leader of the Los Angeles Chargers and brought former Kentucky defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale with him. Despite the personnel moves, Michigan and Kentucky have not stopped butting heads on the recruiting trail.

Dane Key and Deone Walker picked Kentucky in the class of 2022 despite having Michigan listed as a finalist. Jyaire Hill, Karmello English, Brandyn Hillman, Cameron Calhoun, Jason Hewlett, and DJ Waller Jr. all picked Michigan in the 2023 recruiting cycle despite all having serious interest from Kentucky. The Wildcats responded in the 2024 cycle by flipping twins Jacob Smith and Jerod Smith II from Michigan in addition to beating out the Wolverines for top-150 recruit Brian Robinson. Terhyon Nichols also was receiving interest from Michigan, and Jaden Smith was a Michigan signee who landed at Kentucky after getting released from his National Letter of Intent. However, the Wolverines signed Dominic Nichols.

The two programs are trading blows on the recruiting trail. More times than not, most of these battles are taking place in Ohio with Vince Marrow going head-to-head against Michigan. We saw two significant battles go Kentucky’s way in the last five days.

After competing with Jyaire Hill for the starting cornerback job during spring practice, DJ Waller Jr. entered the transfer portal and quickly landed at Kentucky. The Youngstown native is reuniting with a Youngstown-heavy staff at Kentucky. That development was not a huge surprise. The biggest surprise came Wednesday morning when top-200 tailback Marquise Davis jumped on Kentucky Sports Radio with Matt Jones and committed to the Wildcats.

The Cleveland (Ohio) Heights junior has taken multiple unofficial visits to both Kentucky and Michigan during the spring semester. In recent weeks, a ton of picks rolled in for the Wolverines after Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore hired running backs coach Tony Alford away from Ohio State. Despite the heavy steam, Marrow just arguably pulled off his biggest head-to-head recruiting win against the Wolverines.

Marquise Davis is now the highest-ranked recruit in Kentucky’s 2025 class and will be the highest-ranked tailback prospect to sign with the Wildcats in the Mark Stoops era if that ranking holds. After a tough run in 2023, Kentucky has flipped this recruiting rivalry and is on quite the run in head-to-head recruiting battles against Michigan.

I have a feeling this will not be the final time these two schools meet on the recruiting trail.