Over the last two seasons, the Michigan Wolverines have gone from an underperforming program looking to return to the glory days of yesteryear to one of the country’s top programs, making the College Football Playoffs in back-to-back seasons. Winning recruiting battles has been pivotal.
Recruiting Battles Key to Wolverines Success
A major reason that Jim Harbaugh’s program has had such success the last two seasons has been its ability to win key recruiting battles including those against its biggest rival, Ohio State. Not only are they winning these recruiting battles against Ohio State for recruits across the nation but they are also winning key recruiting battles against the Buckeyes for prospects from the state of Ohio itself. Whether you are a Buckeye fan or a Wolverine fan, Ohio sports bettors could use bet365 bonus codes when signing up to have even more money to use when playing your favorite casino games or betting on your favorite sports.
2024 Recruiting Class
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Currently, in their 2024 recruiting class, the Wolverines have four commitments from Ohio natives including several from top prospects. The leader of the pack is running back Jordan Marshall who is from Archbishop Moeller. A consensus four-star prospect, Marshall is one of the best high school running backs in the country and was a key target for Ohio State. The Wolverines coaching staff, however, overcame the Buckeyes’ in-state advantage to land the high-quality prospect.
They’ve also added a pair of offensive linemen in Luke Hamilton and Ben Roebuck as well as defensive end Ted Hammond. The Wolverines are not done in the Buckeye State either in the 2024 recruiting cycle as they’ve set themselves up in good posts for cornerbacks Bryce West and Aaron Scott as well as defensive end Brian Robinson.
Recent Recruiting Classes
The success in Ohio, however, is not just new to the 2024 recruiting class for Michigan. It’s something that has been happening for a few years now and as mentioned above has been a big part of the Wolverines’ recent success. In the 2023 recruiting cycle, the Wolverines landed four recruits in cornerback Cameron Calhoun, athlete Jason Hewlett, cornerback D’Juan Waller Jr. and linebacker Breeon Ishmail.
In 2021 they landed safety Rod Moore out of Clayton, Ohio while in 2019, they landed key players such as Erik All out of the neighboring state. All, of course, was a huge part of the team’s offensive success each of the last two seasons before transferring to Iowa this past offseason.
There is no sign that Michigan is going to slow down anytime soon when it comes to poaching talent out of the Buckeye State from their Big Ten rival. They’re already working hard on recruiting several members of the 2025 recruiting cycle out of the state including defensive end Justin Hill, offensive tackle Tucker Kattus, wide receiver Quintin Simmons Jr, wide receiver Dorian Brew, and quarterback Ryan Montgomery. While it’s too early to say who they have a strong chance of landing in that 2025 recruiting class, their recent success in the state will certainly make it an easier sell to those recruits to join the Wolverines.
Ohio Churning Out Top Recruits
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As Michigan continues to have success on the recruiting trail over Ohio State, especially for Ohio prospects, the Wolverines are going to continue to give themselves a strong opportunity at staying atop the Big Ten. While they may not always be the highest-rated recruits by the recruiting industry standards, the Buckeye State is routinely churning out some of the best talents in the entire United States with many Ohio natives every year realizing their dreams and playing in the NFL.
Success On the Field
On the field, the Wolverines are also finding their success against the Buckeyes. After struggling to beat Ohio State for much of the last 20 years, Michigan has won each of the last two matchups against Ohio State including the 2022 college football season’s November tilt, 45-23 in Columbus. For both programs, the game between the two, which takes place on the final day of the regular season each year is by the far their most important game. No matter what the rest of the season meant for either program, a win at the end of the season over the other would mean it was a good season. There’s no way around it, it’s simply the best rivalry in sports and is fittingly called “The Game”.
With Michigan’s success on the recruiting trail of recent in Ohio, the rivalry should only continue to grow as well. Ohio State players who grew up in Ohio and chose to stay home will certainly remember those who left the state for the Wolverines while those who did go to Michigan will want that win over their “hometown” team all the more.
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