It’s the first week in April, so obviously now would be a really great time to overanalyze recruiting rankings…right?
The Michigan Wolverines are coming off of an incredible 2023 season, a season that included a third consecutive win over Ohio State, a third consecutive Big Ten championship, a Rose Bowl victory over Alabama, a national championship victory over Washington, and a perfect 15-0 final record (the best in program history).
Given the tremendous amount of success that Michigan achieved in 2023, you would think that the Wolverines would be absolutely killing it on the recruiting trail for the 2025 class. That isn’t the case. As of this writing, Michigan currently ranks No. 42 nationally in recruiting rankings for the 2025 class according to 247Sports. That places the Wolverines at No. 12 in the Big Ten conference, trailing teams like Rutgers, Northwestern, Illinois, and Maryland. As is often the case, Ohio State currently holds the No. 1 spot within the conference for the 2025 class – followed by Penn State at No. 2, USC at No. 3, and Wisconsin at No. 4.
Should the current recruiting rankings leave Michigan fans feeling a little bit concerned? The short answer is no.
It’s true that Michigan’s success on the football field in 2023 should lead to success on the recruiting trail, but it’s also true that the football program is at the tail end of a massive transitional period. After nine seasons in Ann Arbor, former head coach Jim Harbaugh has departed for the NFL – and he took nearly his entire defensive staff along with him. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, defensive line coach Mike Elston, defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, and strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert all joined Harbaugh’s staff out in LA.
Overall, first year head coach Sherrone Moore needed to fill nine positions on his 10-man staff this off-season. Wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy was the only coach on staff who kept his same position from the 2023 season. Moore promoted quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell to offensive coordinator, tight ends coach Grant Newsome to offensive line coach, and analyst J.B. Brown to special teams coordinator. The rest of his staff consists of entirely new faces to the program, including Wink Martindale at defensive coordinator, Lou Esposito as the defensive line coach, Brian Jean-Mary as linebackers coach, Lamar Morgan as defensive backs coach, Steve Casula as tight ends coach, and Tony Alford as running backs coach.
That’s a TON of change for one off-season.
Given the fact that there were so many moving pieces with the coaching staff over the last two months, it should come as no surprise that the recruiting rankings look a little underwhelming for Michigan right now. When you take into account other critical factors like NIL, the transfer portal, and the fact that we’re over 9 months away from the early signing period in February, there’s absolutely no reason for Michigan fans to feel any level of concern with the current recruiting rankings in April.
We discuss below:
