OG Zach Carpenter (Indiana): Carpenter is a redshirt junior who is expected to start at center for the Hoosiers.
RB Zach Charbonnet (UCLA): Charbonnet ran for 1,137 yards and 13 touchdowns last season and returns for his senior season.
Sammy Faustin (UMass): Faustin transferred to UMass this off-season and will battle for playing time under former Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown, who is now the head coach of the Minutemen.
OG Chuck Filiaga (Minnesota): Filiaga is a sixth year senior who is expected to start at guard for the Gophers.
CB Darion Green-Warren (Nevada): Green-Warren is a redshirt freshman who is in contention to start at cornerback for the Wolfpack.
Tallahassee (FL) Lincoln linebacker Raylen Wilson decommitted from Michigan’s class of 2023 on Tuesday. He had been committed to Michigan since December.
Wilson is a 247 Composite 4-star, the #5 linebacker, and #73 overall in the class. His decommitment brings Michigan down to #55 overall in the team recruiting rankings for the class.
Wilson’s decommitment had been a long time coming, and he is much more likely to stay in the south. He took an official visit to Michigan earlier this month after visiting Florida and Georgia. Naturally, the hope was that the official visit would solidify his love for Michigan, but that was going to be a tough pull for a kid who just seems to want to play in the SEC.
Michigan now has zero linebackers in the 2023 class. They received an official visit from Perkasie (PA) Pennridge 3-star Phil Picciotti and Philadelphia (PA) Imhotep 4-star Semaj Bridgeman, the latter of whom has picked up some commitment buzz. News also recently came out that Lake City (FL) Columbia’s Jaden Robinson has Michigan in his top four and wants to take an official during the season.
Wilson is the third decommitment of the class, joining tight end Andrew Rappleyea (Penn State) and defensive tackle Joel Starlings (North Carolina).
Rising junior safety Jordan Morant has entered the transfer portal. Morant played eight games in 2021 and made 1 tackle on special teams.
Morant committed to Michigan in the 2020 class out of Oradell (NJ) Bergen Catholic. At the time he was coming off of a stellar junior season where he made 60 tackles and 4 interceptions. He was an Under Armour All-American and seemed headed for stardom. Unfortunately, he suffered a lower body injury early in his senior year that was rumored at the time to be potentially career-ending and led him to redshirt as a freshman.
By the time Morant got on the field in 2021, he was behind in his development, having been passed up by classmates (R.J. Moten, Makari Paige) and at least one younger player (Rod Moore). He has a lot of physical talent at 6’0″ and 210 lbs., but competition is stiff for playing time at Michigan. It’s unfortunate for him – and for someone like defensive end Braiden McGregor – that injuries during their senior year have hampered their development here at the next level.
Michigan has plenty of safeties left on the depth chart, so this is not a huge factor for the program. It also frees up a scholarship for Michigan, as the Wolverines currently have 88 scholarship guys slotted to be on the roster in the fall and need a few guys to disappear before then.
Eight players from the 2020 class have entered the transfer portal, where Morant joins Andre Seldon (New Mexico State), Darion Green-Warren (Nevada), Cornell Wheeler (Kansas), Dan Villari (Syracuse), Osman Savage (Alabama A&M), William Mohan (Tennessee), and Aaron Lewis (Rutgers).
Lawndale (CA) Leuzinger outside linebacker/defensive end Kevonte Henry committed to Oklahoma on National Signing Day after having been committed to Michigan. Henry committed to Michigan back in June 2021, but the departure of recruiting coordinator Courtney Morgan was a big development. After Morgan left to lead Washington’s recruiting department, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Henry would not be in the class, and Michigan did not pursue him very much over the past month or two.
I gave Henry a TTB Rating of 82 when he committed (LINK). He ended up ranked as a 3-star, the #33 edge player, and #396 overall. I think Henry has a chance to be a pretty good player, but recruiting kids from California is tough because a lot of them get homesick. If Morgan wasn’t going to be a part of Michigan’s program to give him an anchor, then even if Henry had stuck with Michigan initially, he very easily could have ended up in the transfer portal and closer to home in a year or two, anyway.
Michigan signed a total of 22 players in the class, including a couple defensive end/outside linebacker types in 4-star Derrick Moore and 3-star Micah Pollard.
Richmond (VA) Benedictine defensive tackle Joel Starlings decommitted from Michigan on Sunday.
If you read my commitment post, you know I wasn’t a huge fan of Starlings (LINK):
With that review, I’m sure you can guess that I’m not sold on Starlings. He has a lot of potential because of his athletic profile, but if he were to go up against a college line right now, he would get donkeyed 15 yards down the field and planted on his back. Whether he becomes a good player or not seems entirely dependent on how much he buys into coaching, and it would be nice if he starts that buy-in during his senior year in 2022
One reason could be that defensive line coach Shaun Nua left for USC, but another reason could be that Starlings just wasn’t that determined to attend Michigan. After all, he tweeted shortly after committing that his recruitment was open, and that was when Nua was still seemingly firmly entrenched in Ann Arbor. So the writing had been on the wall for a couple months.
Michigan now has zero defensive linemen committed in the 2023 class, but there’s plenty of time to address the position group.
