Michigan offers Wake Forest transfer wide receiver Jahmal Banks
The Michigan Wolverines offered Wake Forest wide receiver transfer Jahmal Banks on Friday morning, throwing their name into the mix for some pass-catching help on the market. Banks announced the offer via social media after telling our Clayton Sayfie this week U-M had been in contact.
Banks (6-4, 205) entered the transfer portal on Dec. 8 and has been on a visit tour that included Wisconsin earlier this week and Notre Dame on Friday. It remains to be seen if he will go to Ann Arbor while in the area.
This season, Banks caught 59 passes for 653 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Demon Deacons in both catches and yards. During the 2022 campaign, he grabbed 42 receptions for 636 yards and nine touchdowns.
Banks hails from St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, home to Michigan stars Blake Corum, Derrick Moore and others. U-M has another transfer portal offer to a St. Frances alum in Maryland linebacker Jaishawn Barham. As a recruit, Banks was the No. 1,190 prospect in the 2022 class and 197th-ranked wide receiver. On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings list him as the No. 29 available wideout.
“Jahmal Banks is an experienced and productive WR with great size and length allowing him to be a weapon near the goal line,” NFL Draft Diamonds writes about Banks’ skillset. “[His] inability to consistently create separation is concerning, but his body control and ability to make tough catches allow him to succeed.
Michigan also has an offer out to the former Indiana quarterback/wide receiver Donaven McCulley, who led the Hoosiers in catches (48), yards (644) and touchdowns (6) by a wide margin this season. McCulley (6-5, 200) also threw a 44-yard touchdown in the 52-7 loss to the Wolverines.
Time will tell if Roman Wilson will return, but Michigan still lacks a proven big-bodied wide receiver to round out the room with Cornelius Johnson on the way out the door. Players like Darrius Clemons and Peyton O’Leary could be launched into larger roles, but the Wolverines appear to be searching the market for help there in place of in-house options.
Michigan added nine transfers to the mix last offseason in offensive tackles Myles Hinton and LaDarius Henderson, center Drake Nugent, tight end AJ Barner, quarterback Jack Tuttle, linebacker Ernest Hausmann, EDGE Josaiah Stewart, cornerback Josh Wallace and kicker James Turner.
The Wolverines are next in action on the field on Jan. 1 in the Rose Bowl semifinal of the College Football Playoff against the Alabama Crimson Tide. The winner will head to Houston for the national championship game on Jan. 8.
