{"id":768973,"date":"2026-07-17T21:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/768973\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:00:16","slug":"the-non-savion-hiter-freshmen-to-watch-for-on-michigan-football-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/768973\/","title":{"rendered":"The non-Savion Hiter freshmen to watch for on Michigan Football in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 recruiting class for the Michigan Wolverines is one of the better classes they have had in recent years. 247Sports<\/a> and On3<\/a> both have it ranked just outside the Top 10 nationally, coming in at No. 11. While five-star running back Savion Hiter is obviously the headliner, there is depth and quality throughout the class.<\/p>\n

So which incoming freshman other than Hiter are you most excited about?<\/p>\n

A popular answer could be fellow five-star Carter Meadows. The edge rusher from Washington D.C. actually surpassed Hiter in both 247\u2019s and On3\u2019s rankings, but he isn\u2019t talked about as much since he wasn\u2019t an early enrollee. Meadows possesses the sought-after NFL frame for an edge rusher \u2014 once he puts on some weight, he could be a star.<\/p>\n

Titan Davis is another highly sought-after player out of St. Louis, Missouri. The four-star defensive lineman fits in the Mike Morris\/Kris Jenkins mold and should fit into Jay Hill\u2019s defensive scheme excellently.<\/p>\n

My personal favorite player in the recruiting class is offensive tackle Malakai Lee of Honolulu, Hawaii. Lee was a Top 100 overall prospect is a whopping 6-foot-7, 349 pounds. While there\u2019s a logjam in front of him on the depth chart, he could be the next great left tackle in Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines also picked up a stud wide receiver in Travis Johnson. The big-bodied receiver out of Chesapeake, Virginia was a four-star, and outside of Andrew Marsh, Michigan has had trouble recruiting wide receivers in recent years. To gain a commitment like Johnson\u2019s is impressive and could be a good sign moving forward.<\/p>\n

Another personal favorite of mine is defensive lineman Alister Vallejo. My favorite Wolverine of the past decade has been Mason Graham. Conveniently, Graham is the most similar comparison to Vallejo\u2019s game. Even if Vallejo can only produce 80 percent of what Graham could, I would take that in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n

For many fans, their favorite recruit may just be a lower-rated recruit who has potential to pop and surprise. This class is certainly not short on options in that regard. We didn\u2019t even mention cornerback Jamarion Vincent, edge rusher Tariq Boney, offensive lineman Marky Walbridge or quarterback Tommy Carr. Despite the influx of the transfer portal, recruiting is still the lifeblood of college football. Developing every player in a class is imperative to long-term success.<\/p>\n

Who is your favorite freshman this year? And how do you see this class playing out? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 recruiting class for the Michigan Wolverines is one of the better classes they have had in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,579,128352,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-768973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-michigan-football","tag-michigan-football-opinion","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768973","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=768973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}