is named Charles Woodson Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\nCharles Woodson Sr., the 1997 Heisman Trophy winner, is one of Michigan\u2019s all-time greats and most prominent ambassadors. For a staff that didn\u2019t have a lot of previous connections to Michigan, keeping the Woodson name affiliated with the program was an early test that Whittingham and company passed without a lot of difficulty.<\/p>\n
Charles Jr. got an offer from Michigan\u2019s previous staff, and the new staff closed the deal. The comparisons to his father are both unfair and unavoidable. Like his dad, Charles Jr. is a three-phase player who has highlights as a defensive back, wide receiver and punt returner. At 5-11 and 170 pounds, he\u2019s the No. 65 player in Florida and the No. 669 prospect in the Rivals industry rankings. He\u2019s not a mega-prospect, but he has talent to go along with the nostalgia factor.<\/p>\n
It could take time for that talent to show up on the field. No pressure, kid.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the strength of the class?<\/p>\n
A player I really like is Xavier Muhammad, the four-star defensive lineman from Houston. He appears to be a favorite of defensive line coach Larry Black, who offered him a scholarship at Vanderbilt last May and then offered him again at Michigan in February.<\/p>\n
At 6-4 and 275 pounds, Muhammad is a big guy who can really move. He\u2019s a multi-sport athlete who excels on the basketball court, and you can see the athleticism when he lines up at wide receiver. Muhammad, Kitchen and four-star edge Jayce Brewer from Indianapolis give Michigan three promising defensive line prospects to build around.<\/p>\n
Michigan is off to a good start in the secondary, too, with commitments from Harrington, Woodson and four-star cornerback Darius Johnson from Riverside, Calif., though three-star safety Maxwell Miles flipped to Minnesota on Sunday. Landing Johnson, the No. 313 player in the industry rankings, showed that Michigan\u2019s new staff can compete with the likes of Oregon and USC for West Coast prospects.<\/p>\n
The crown jewel would be five-star cornerback Joshua Dobson, who recently dropped LSU from his official visit list and added a trip to Michigan instead. Dobson, the No. 9 player in the industry rankings, could be the headliner of Michigan\u2019s 2027 class if the Wolverines can beat Texas A&M, South Carolina and Auburn.<\/p>\n
Where are the needs?<\/p>\n
Michigan added its first linebacker to the class Friday with a commitment from Brayden Watson, a three-star prospect from Buford, Ga. That\u2019s a position Michigan should look to fortify given the depth situation of the current roster.<\/p>\n
Burrell is the only wide receiver committed at the moment. That could change depending on Guerrant\u2019s decision, but Oregon appears to be a strong contender. Michigan could look to fill out its class at wide receiver with a player like Charles Britton, a three-star prospect from Belleville, Mich.<\/p>\n
Aside from Lipsey and Esposito, Michigan\u2019s only other offensive line commitment is from Sidney Rouleau, a three-star prospect from Canada who is projected to play on the interior. Michigan signed four offensive linemen in its previous two classes and five in 2024, so there\u2019s room for at least one more offensive line prospect.<\/p>\n
The Wolverines often sign at least one high-ceiling tackle prospect with size in hopes of developing him into a starter a few years down the line. (Think Tommy Fraumann, a 6-7, 250-pound tackle who flipped from Miami (Ohio) in last year\u2019s class.)<\/p>\n
One candidate for that spot is Niko Kampas, a 6-7, 270-pound prospect from Germany via the NFL Academy in England. Kampas, the No. 268 player in the industry rankings, was scheduled to visit Auburn and Michigan on consecutive days last week. Michigan\u2019s previous staff had an eye for international players like Manuel Beigel and Julius Welschof, and Kampas would continue that theme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beginning of June is usually the \u201cdon\u2019t panic\u201d phase of Michigan\u2019s recruiting cycle. In previous years, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,1777,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-677903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}