Michigan football recruiting momentum has stalled

Michigan football had some tangible momentum on the recruiting, but the first few days of July have all but wiped that away for the Wolverines.

It started with some decisions early in July that went against Michigan football. The Wolverines were the leader and crystal ball favorite to land four-star defensive lineman Maxwell Roy, as well as four-star offensive lineman Hardy Watts.

Yet, Roy committed to Ohio State. Watts committed to Wisconsin of all places and the Wolverines missed on two very winnable recruitments. That was followed by a miss on four-star EDGE Marco Jones out of Texas.

More bad news for Michigan football recruiting

Michigan was never the favorite there, but still, it was another bit of negative news. Unfortunately, even more came on Friday. SJ Alofaituli is a top-100 offensive lineman and Michigan football was in the top three, however, the Bishop Gorman lineman (Las Vegas) chose Miami.

It was a similar story with Douglas Utu, another top-100 lineman from Bishop Gorman. Michigan football was in the mix before he pledged to Tennessee.

Alofaituli wasn’t that painful on Friday because Miami was the expected destination. However, when four-star linebacker Kamar Archie committed to Rutgers, that was a blow.

Not a good day at all for Michigan… pic.twitter.com/Iu6FtZuvJ5

— 〽️oose (@Jason_Moose313) July 5, 2024

Archie is ranked No. 279 overall in the 2025 class according to the 247 Sports composite rankings. He’s 6-foot-1, 225 pounds out of Trenton, New Jersey. I get that Rutgers is the in-state school, but Archie just took an official visit to U-M and said he could see himself at Michigan.

Yet, the blue-chip linebacker chose Rutgers, which has been emblematic of this week. Four-star tight end Andrew Olesh is expected to announce in the coming days and after a series of recruiting misses, landing a top-5 tight end in 2025 and the No. 130 overall prospect would be a huge boost of much-needed momentum.

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