Oak Park offensive lineman Marquan McCall is a top recruit for 2018.
The Michigan football coaching staff has taken a Midwestern approach to many of its recent recruiting moves. That might not seem newsworthy, but Jim Harbaugh’s first full class included just three Michiganders and zero from Ohio — for the first time since 2007.
Despite their focus on recruiting hotbeds such as Florida, Texas, California and Georgia, four of the Wolverines’ 11 commitments to the 2017 recruiting class hail from the Great Lakes State and another from Canada. While U-M doesn’t yet have a 2017 commitment from Ohio, both players committed to U-M’s 2018 class come from the Buckeye State.
Some of the top remaining targets in each group are closer to home, too. Detroit Cass Tech five-star receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones could be the top player still on the board for U-M in 2017, while Oak Park offensive lineman Marquan McCall is among the top 2018 prospects being pursued by Harbaugh and Co.
This Michigan coaching staff received early criticism for recruiting too well nationally; after Brady Hoke’s focus on in-state prospects, perhaps the pendulum had swung too far in the other direction. But the Wolverines added two in-state players — defensive back Lavert Hill and kicker Quinn Nordin — to the 2016 class on National Signing Day and haven’t looked back since.
A reinvigorated focus on the Midwest hasn’t seen the staff sacrifice anything nationally, either. U-M’s other 2017 pledges come from Massachusetts, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Georgia and Alabama.
But the pendulum of in-state recruiting has swung back and, this time, could settle right at a happy medium.
Full list: Michigan’s recruits (with highlight videos)
Tim Sullivan is the football recruiting editor of The Wolverine magazine and thewolverine.com. He is also a contributor to national football recruiting coverage on the rivals.com network. You can follow him on Twitter @tims_wolverine.