Bloomfield Hills (MI) Brother Rice tight end Carter Dunaway decommitted from Michigan. A 2017 prospect, the Michigan legacy had committed to the Wolverines in April of 2015 (LINK).
Hit the jump for more on the decommitment.
Dunaway is the son of former Michigan tight end Craig Dunaway and the brother of walk-on linebacker/defensive end Jack Dunaway. As such I thought he would remain committed to the Wolverines if at all possible, but that appears not to be the case. His tweet announcing the re-opening of his recruitment has some hints:
Re-opening my recruitment: pic.twitter.com/UtfxgKVvzz
— Carter Dunaway (@c_dunaway50) September 9, 2016
Obviously, a conversation took place between Dunaway and Jim Harbaugh before the decommitment took place. This wasn’t something that happened off-the-cuff or without forethought. There are two strong possibilities that come to mind:
- Jim Harbaugh thinks he has bigger fish to fry at tight end in the 2017 class and/or honestly thinks Dunaway won’t get on the field at Michigan. Dunaway currently has a broken hand and will miss some time for his high school team, so after being a backup as a sophomore, maybe Harbaugh thinks Dunaway just won’t have enough developmental time on the field.
- Carter Dunaway saw the 2016 class produce three solid prospects (Devin Asiasi, Sean McKeon, Nick Eubanks) and figures he might get buried on the depth chart.
Regardless, the 6’6″, 231 lb. tight end is a 247 Composite 3-star, the #56 tight end, and #1289 overall. Even with everyone’s knowledge that Jim Harbaugh can develop tight ends, the recruiting sites didn’t bump him up much at all. Indiana, Nebraska, and Purdue have also offered, and maybe more will soon be on the way, but Dunaway hasn’t lit up the camp circuit or garnered a ton of interest from other elite programs. Personally, I have not been very impressed with what I have seen from him, and the positive things I’ve seen from recruiting sites are more along the lines of “Well, I thought he’d look like an offensive tackle, but he doesn’t look that bad.” Dunaway might turn out to be a fine player, but a school that can recruit the likes of Asiasi, Eubanks, etc. can get more athletic guys at that position.
Michigan now has 17 commits in the 2017 class, including zero tight ends. A couple players Michigan might continue to try to reel in are California’s Josh Falo and Texas’s Major Tennison. It’s a position where you want to take at least one guy per year, but with three good ones in the 2016 class, missing on the position in 2017 wouldn’t be totally devastating. Obviously, it would ramp up the position’s importance in 2018.
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I get the meritocracy — and believe in it 100% — but why accept a commitment so early? And with a legacy kid? Commits should know by now: continue to improve, or your spot in the class is yanked
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I don’t think that Michigan’s coaches “accept” a commitment in the way you may think. It only means something when they sign a LOI in February of their senior year.
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Thought that too. This is very diff from how Hoke recruited. Seems like Harbaugh and co. are ready to drop anyone who they change their mind on. This is cold, but also big boy football.
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I’m a bit surprised that Harbaugh would drop a legacy recruit, which is why I think this is probably more of a mutually agreed upon thing. Dunaway’s injury, the depth chart ahead of him, etc. might be problems.
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