Ted Hammond says he’s ‘beyond blessed’ to commit to Michigan

Hammond had offers from 20 other schools.

Despite getting interest from several NFL teams with head coach openings, Jim Harbaugh says he’s staying at Michigan. While it won’t get him out of trouble with the NCAA over alleged personnel violations, the program is going full steam ahead with their recruiting.

One thing they’ve become quite good at is finding and developing talent along the defensive line – and that work is ongoing. The Wolverines’ latest commit comes from Ohio, where St. Xavier Junior defensive lineman Ted Hammond announced his intentions on Wednesday.

In a statement on his Twitter page, Hammond thanked God and his high school coaches and said he’s beyond blessed to join Michigan.

“First off, I would like to thank God for all the opportunities, gift, and talents that he has blessed me with. I wouldn’t be in this position without him. Secondly, I would like to thank my family for being with me throughout this recruiting process by always supporting and love me. I love you all. Lastly, I would like to thank my coaches. For pushing me to be the best version of myself every day. Also, Coach Elston and Coach Harbaugh for believing in me and giving me this amazing opportunity. With that being said, I’m beyond blessed to commit to the University of Michigan!”

Hammond (6-foot-5, 258 pounds) had offers from 20 other schools, including Big 10 rivals Iowa, Minnesota and Northwestern. He is ranked No. 31 among defensive linemen in his class and No. 357 nationally in the consensus rankings. Both Rivals and On3 have him as a four-star recruit.

Michigan’s recruiting class of 2024 now has five members. They currently rank No. 9 in the country.

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Watch: Notre Dame’s latest commit scores game-winning touchdown

Look for the players, not the plays.

It’s an incredibly easy concept but one that gets away from even the best of football coaches in the heat of the moment.  Your team is trailing late and you need a score desperately.  How many coaches go to the back of the playbook to find something crazy to go with in hopes of getting that score?

“Look for the players, not plays” is a saying that’s been around football for a long time and how many times did we hear Drew Brees say that during Notre Dame games last fall – specifically the early season ones?

That was the case Friday night in Ohio as Lakota West was trailing traditional powerhouse St. Xavier 13-9 with under 30 seconds to play.  Lakota had the ball deep in St. Xavier territory on first down and instead of doing something crazily creative, they decided to get the ball in the hands of [autotag]Ben Minich[/autotag], who recently committed to Notre Dame.

A well-defended play and the star just makes a play.  This game really isn’t as complicated as we like to make it out to be sometimes.

Also, shoutout to the folks at Lakota West for that light display and a big sorry to [autotag]Kyle Rudolph[/autotag] for his high school’s tough loss.

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