What they're saying about Michigan football's 2023 recruiting class after National Signing Day
Signing Day is in the books, and Michigan Wolverines football finished strong, landing top-200 wide receiver Karmello English out of Alabama and four-star cornerback Jyaire Hill out of Illinois.
The Wolverines’ haul is ranked No. 20 in the nation and has been described by some as “disappointing.” However, seven transfer portal additions have softened the blow.
Here’s a look around the internet at what they’re saying about Michigan’s haul.
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• Power ranking Michigan’s 2023 offensive signees
EJ Holland, The Wolverine: Five biggest Michigan recruiting takeaways from National Signing Day
Ron Bellamy pulls Karmello English out of SEC country
Michigan was in a heated battle with Kentucky down the stretch for four-star Phenix City (Ala.) Central wide receiver Karmello English. At the end of the day, relationships won out here. Kentucky pitched NIL hard and put together a strong package, but English simply felt more at home at Michigan. He vibed really well with Michigan wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy, who remains one of the most personable recruiters on staff. He also built a strong relationship with Jim Harbaugh, who wowed him and his family on his in-home visit. At the end of the day, Bellamy was able to do more than enough to overcome distance and climate concerns. In English, Michigan is getting a guy that can make an early impact in the slot or out wide.
Big picture
This class is disappointing coming off back-to-back Big Ten titles and College Football Playoff appearances. There are zero Top 100 signees and only four in the Top 200 (Consensus) with English, Hill and Cole Cabana being ranked in the 190-200 range. Michigan whiffed on a chance for an elite class. The good news is Michigan has done well in the portal and boasts the No. 1 transfer class nationally. There are also some big glue guys in the class like Semaj Morgan and Amir Herring as well as some true gems like Trey Pierce and Jason Hewlett.
Jimmy Watkins, Cleveland.com: National Signing Day suggests Jim Harbaugh’s reign over Ohio State and the Big Ten won’t last
Fans love college football for its perceived parity – zany upset alert! – but the playoff era has proven that this sport is more predictable than we’d like to think. Five-star recruits are like top-10 draft picks – many pan out, even if the misses sting hard. Stack those players, you’ll likely win big.
Harbaugh knows this. As much as he touts development (which he should) and rejects star counts (which he’s incentivized to), he offered 27 of the 35 five-star recruits in this year’s class. But for the fourth cycle during his tenure, Michigan didn’t sign any.
Contrast that trend with Ohio State, which signed about three five-star prospects per cycle and ranked no lower than fifth in roster rankings during the same period, and you see why it took UM so long to beat the Buckeyes. In fact, Harbaugh deserves a ton of credit for finding advantages in player development, style of play and mental toughness to close the gap created by Michigan’s recruiting deficit.
Still, the best way to beat talent is, well, talent. After next season, the Big Ten will add another budding stud factory in USC. UCLA is on pace to sign its best recruiting class in five years after flipping five-star quarterback Dante Moore from Oregon this week. And even though OSU only signed — gasp! — one five-star recruit Wednesday, the Buckeyes’ 2023 class still ranks fifth overall.
Andy Staples, The Athletic: Dear Andy: Texas, Oklahoma recruiting classes are atop Big 12, but what about the SEC?
Is Jim Harbaugh’s recent transfer portal success an indication of how he wants to build his program or is it an indictment of how he has struggled in high school recruiting and being forced to pick up transfers? With his well-known pursuit of the Vikings job, it could be a one-off year where he utilizes the portal more to make up for the loss of high school recruits. — Joe
I’d argue that the change in the transfer rules — plus hitting upon an ideal schematic identity — has allowed Harbaugh to bridge the gap that separated Michigan and Ohio State. But that wouldn’t have happened if Harbaugh hadn’t also been acquiring high school talent at an acceptable rate that becomes more-than-acceptable when combined with timely and appropriate portal additions.
Who were the two biggest offensive stars of Michigan’s win against Ohio State? Quarterback J.J. McCarthy and tailback Donovan Edwards. According to the 247Sports Composite, McCarthy was a five-star recruit in the Class of 2021. Edwards was Michigan’s highest-ranked four-star in the same class. At No. 42 in the nation, Edwards was seven spots away from a five-star ranking. (In fact, 247Sports did rank Edwards as a five-star at No. 33 overall; other services had him only slightly lower.)
The performances by McCarthy and Edwards were made possible by the play of center Olu Oluwatimi, the 2022 Outland Trophy and Rimington Trophy winner who joined Michigan this season after graduating from Virginia. Oluwatimi was the final piece Michigan offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Sherrone Moore needed to build a Joe Moore Award-winning O-line. Michigan’s other four offensive line starters (Ryan Hayes, Trevor Keegan, Zak Zinter and Karsen Barnhart) were all signed out of high school by Harbaugh and his staff, and all were four-star recruits ranked between No. 176 and No. 335 overall. While this doesn’t match the sheer star power of Ohio State’s linemen, with good evaluation and development it’s quite possible to create a dominant line manned by future NFL players with this sort of raw material.
As of this writing, Michigan’s 2023 class was ranked No. 17 in the 247Sports Composite. But the 2022 class ranked No. 9, the 2021 class ranked No. 13 and the 2020 class ranked No. 10. Michigan’s current team talent composite ranks No. 13 and — most importantly — is above the Blue Chip Ratio cutline. This Michigan team has 51.8 percent blue-chip recruits on the roster.
Is that going to be enough to win if the Wolverines face Georgia in the national title game? Maybe not. The Bulldogs rank No. 2 in the talent composite and have a Blue Chip Ratio of 80 percent. But Ohio State ranks No. 3 and has a Blue Chip Ratio of 77.6 percent, and Michigan whipped the Buckeyes in Columbus.
The doubts about Michigan against Georgia have as much to do with how Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart and his staff develop their talent as they do the talent deficit itself. If Ohio State upsets Georgia in the Peach Bowl and the national title game winds up being a rematch of The Game, I’d pick Michigan to win.
In other words, the new transfer environment combined with Michigan’s existing high school recruiting has allowed Harbaugh to get Michigan into the national title conversation. It might need to improve some to actually win the title, but suggesting Michigan’s high school recruiting is inadequate is plain wrong. The Wolverines are choosing wisely and developing those players, and they’re supplementing them with excellent choices out of the transfer portal. The commitment of Arizona State offensive line transfer LaDarius Henderson is another great example. I wrote about Henderson when he was a 17-year-old freshman, and he likely will make Moore very happy next season as a grizzled veteran who finally gets into a program that has a talent advantage against most opponents. (Henderson also will be a delight to interview for Michigan beat writers.)
This feels like a sustainable model for Michigan. Again, the Wolverines will still need to reel in the occasional five-star for it to work. But if they keep winning like they have the past two years, that should happen.
Sam Spiegelman, On3: Early Signing Day superlatives
Wolverines strike in the South
It’s a trend for Jim Harbaugh to win a few recruiting battles down in the South each year. This time, the Wolverines beat out Kentucky for Consensus top-200 WR Karmello English. English, the No. 25 wide receiver in the country out of Phenix City (Ala.) Central, is a one-time Auburn commitment. He vaulted Michigan to the No. 18 class in the country.
The last time Harbaugh plucked an explosive wide receiver from SEC territory was Nico Collins. I like this get, too.
Craig Haubert, ESPN.com: 2023 football recruiting: Ranking college teams on signing day
Early on, the Wolverines secured a commitment from one of the top in-state prospects in Cole Cabana, a slashing runner who can also be a productive receiving target out of the backfield. Four-star Under Armour All-American WR English was a significant commitment on signing day given his excellent top-end speed. He joins in-state WR Semaj Morgan, has a compact build and a strong lower body to break tackles. ESPN 300 DL Enow Etta, out of Texas, will be another factor along the line of scrimmage with his length and strong redirection skills. Late in the process, they strengthened the depth in two high-three-star former Cincinnati commits: CB Cameron Calhoun and LB Jason Hewlett, a versatile and rangy player. The Wolverines have a quarterback in this class in Kendrick Bell, whose brother Ronnie has been a top wideout at Michigan. Bell is an intriguing prospect to develop and could potentially contribute in other roles over time.
Austin Meek, The Athletic: Michigan recruiting thoughts: A bit of suspense, a ‘dream school’ for RBs
Michigan didn’t sign a top-100 player from the high school ranks, and if that’s the framework for evaluating a class, this one is going to look underwhelming. Of course, the Wolverines have signed and developed some terrific players who finished outside of the top 100: Aidan Hutchinson, Blake Corum, Nico Collins, David Ojabo and many others. This class will need similar results to be considered a success by Michigan’s standards.
Perhaps more than any other class in Harbaugh’s tenure, this one is going to hinge on Michigan’s evaluations trumping the scouting service rankings.
Angelique Chengelis, The Detroit News: Michigan assembles ‘quality class’ of recruits, including several transfers
But, because of the Wolverines’ success the past two seasons under coach Jim Harbaugh, many have wondered why the class isn’t rated higher and why the Wolverines didn’t get a haul of five-star recruits. Michigan has nine four-star commitments in the class. In the overall class, there are four players from Michigan and four from Ohio. As the landscape of college football changes, ESPN director of recruiting Tom Luginbill said it’s important when evaluating recruiting classes to also now include the class of transfers.
“Personally, I don’t find it to be a bad class,” Luginbill said. “I don’t find it to be a down class. I find it to be a quality class. When I say that, I mean, top to bottom. If we’re going to include high school kids, we’re gonna include the transfer portal guys. That’s kind of how you sum up a class now. It didn’t used to be that way, but you’re re-recruiting oftentimes, and that obviously takes away from some of your high school efforts.”
