There’s no doubt the 2014 Michigan football season really hurt with the Wolverines’ recruiting efforts. Although Michigan was still able to hold on to several commits from the Brady Hoke era, it at first appeared the 2015 class was going to be filled with several top-end recruits.
We compiled a list of all the players who had either committed to Michigan at one point but eventually decommitted, and those that had Michigan finishing in a close second place in their recruitment.
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Michigan commits at one-point:
RB recruit Damien Harris – Decommitted from Michigan after the bad 2014 season. The nation’s top running-back in the 2015 class ended up signing with Alabama.
WR recruit George Campbell– When Campbell pledged for the Wolverines he was Rivals’ top WR recruit. Since then, he has fallen off a bit, but Campbell is still a five-star prospect. Campbell eventually signed with FSU.
RB recruit Mike Weber – Weber flirted with Michigan in the end but eventually stuck with Ohio State. A former Michigan commit, Weber opened up his commitment due to Michigan’s bad season and news Brady Hoke wasn’t returning. The drama with Weber, however, hasn’t apparently stopped.
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TE recruit Chris Clark – Once a Michigan commit, Clark decided on UCLA over Michigan on signing day. The nation’s top overall TE said that if he had to choose between the two schools, Michigan would have been his pick ‘if he was only picking for football’ but UCLA had ‘everything else’.
DE recruit Darian Roseboro– A one time Michigan commit, the four-star decommitted after the poor season and eventually signed with North Carolina State.
LB recruit Darrin Kirkland Jr – Another four-star former Michigan commit, Kirkland also fled the class after the bad season and signed with Tennessee.
CB recruits Shaun Crawford & Garrett Taylor– One of the first commitments of the 2015 class, like Roseboro, Kirkland, Weber, Campbell and Harris, both four-star CBs decommitted from Michigan. Crawford signed with Notre Dame while Taylor is headed to Penn State.
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Targets who had Michigan in top 3
LB recruit Roquan Smith– Smith picked UCLA on signing day but hasn’t sent in his LOI to the school after it was found out that the school was about to lose their DC to the NFL. He took a visit to Michigan, apparently is still considering the Wolverines, but if I had to guess he stays in-state and goes to Georgia.
DE recruit Keisean Lucier-South– Michigan wanted this five-star prospect badly, but after the awful start to the season, Lucier-South decided to stay in California and picked UCLA. Michigan finished a close second.
WR recruit Van Jefferson – It was reported on signing day that Jefferson was a lock to pick Michigan. The Detroit native, who visited the weekend before NSI, stuck with his previous Ole Miss commitment, however.
CB recruit Iman Marshall – Michigan had Marshall on campus and made a last minute push to get the five-star CB, but there was no keeping the Southern California prospect away from his home-town team USC (Marshall also had a commitment video made up for Michigan but it never got used).
