Is Michigan Football on the verge of landing a 5-star QB?

Michigan football suffered some brutal misses at quarterback this summer, but some recent expert projections suggest a 5-star QB is on the way. 

There’s no doubt that Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan football program have taken some hits when it comes to quarterback recruiting.

Since landing five-star quarterback J.J. McCarthy back in the 2021 class, the top-ranked QB recruit of the Harbaugh era, the Wolverines haven’t landed anyone in the top 200.

Jayden Denegal, a 2022 commitment, was a three-star prospect, one that has some upside and Alex Orji did wind up as a four-star but he’s more of an athlete than a pure passer.

The stage was set for Michigan football to knock it out of the park in the 2023 class as five-star Dante Moore was from right down the road in Detroit. Harbaugh offered him while he was in middle school and until this offseason, the Wolverines seemed like the favorite.

Then, Notre Dame made a strong push and was considered the leader for a big chunk of his recruitment. However, an official visit to Oregon and the Ducks’ addition of Kenny Dillingham was key and allowed the Ducks to take the lead and eventually win his commitment.

Jim Harbaugh certainly didn’t help matters with his interest in the NFL and QB coach Matt Weiss is still learning how to recruit and never really meshed with Moore.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Wolverines also missed on 5-star, in-state QB CJ Carr, the grandson of former head coach Lloyd Carr.

Carr went to Notre Dame and while it burned some Michigan football fans, the Wolverines have their eye on another 2024 quarterback and that’s five-star Jadyn Davis.

We talked about his visit to Ann Arbor earlier this week (he also visited Georgia) but since then, Davis has been projected to the Wolverines by EJ Holland, a recruiting reporter covering Michigan for The Wolverine.

Holland is as close to Michigan recruiting as anyone so that prediction carries weight. Adam Friedman, a lead analyst for Rivals projected Davis to the Wolverines after his last visit in June and now that he’s returning this weekend, Holland joined the six from Rivals in making a prediction in favor of Michigan.

Michigan football has to close

However, that also puts pressure on the Wolverines to seal the deal sooner rather than later. Michigan doesn’t necessarily need a commitment this weekend but it really needs to move the needle and push Davis towards making one.

He’s said he wants to take official visits and that’s not until the spring, which wouldn’t be a good sign for the Wolverines. The opposing argument could be that another strong season would help Michigan but Clemson and Georgia are the chief rivals so it’s going to be a battle.

Michigan has momentum now. It needs a home run to make up for missing on Carr and Moore and Davis seems very receptive to the pitch and seems to value what Jim Harbaugh brings to the table.

Ideally, for Michigan, a commitment would come soon after, but either way, the Wolverines need to take advantage of his opportunity.