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Right now, Ohio State is on a tear on the recruiting trail, raking in four-stars and five-stars like no other team in the country. Naturally, that’s a problem for Michigan, considering its struggles against the Buckeyes in recent years.
But one of the principal recruiting sites on the internet foresees the Wolverines faring just fine on that front.
As of this writing, Michigan has just four commitments in the 2021 class — one five-star, two four-stars and a three-star — whereas OSU already has 15 — three five-stars, ten four-stars and two three-stars. But the maize and blue are in for a lot of big time prospects still, and should climb up the rankings once many of them make their pledges.
That’s the way that Rivals national recruiting experts Mike Farrell and Adam Gorney see it, as they asked and answered the question: would Michigan finish second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State in the 2021 recruiting rankings?
Farrell’s take: FACT. This isn’t an easy answer because Penn State has been recruiting at such a high level, but give me Michigan this year to finish second to Ohio State. Why? The pool of in state talent for Michigan is excellent this year and rare and they will land the majority of those guys. The Wolverines already have one in Giovanni El-Hadi and they will get more. Penn State will do just fine but finish third in the conference.
Gorney’s take: FACT. In the last few recruiting classes, Michigan has actually done poorly at the top-end with in-state recruiting, but my bet is that the 2021 class looks more like the 2017 group where the Wolverines landed the top-three players from the state. The recruitments of DT Damon Payne, OL Rocco Spindler, RB Donovan Edwards and OT Rayshaun Benny could still go a lot of ways, but the Wolverines could clean up and it should propel them toward the top of the Big Ten rankings.
A lot of the aforementioned prospects are certainly Michigan leans, and the Wolverines are in on some other big names from out of state.
While it’s disconcerting to see Ohio State pull in so much top talent so fast, the months of April, May, June and July are now when the maize and blue have generally built their classes with the new recruiting schedule. Who knows if that will still hold with everything on hold due to coronavirus, but it should just be a matter of time before the proverbial stars start rolling into Ann Arbor.