The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/111015
football recruiting issue ���So it really kind of stopped right there. But when Coach Funk messaged me on Facebook almost a year later, I was really surprised. I was happy, because Michigan was my top choice when they came to see me in February.��� Although he had already been committed to two different programs, Samuelson knew he had to jump at the chance to commit to the first program that had really piqued his interest. And, given his first experience when the window closed so quickly, he acted fast, committing immediately. ���It was probably a combination of them being really close to Plymouth,��� Samuelson said. ���There are a lot of Michigan fans around here. Obviously, they are very high academically. It was really cool to say, ���Michigan came to visit me today.������ Samuelson is very excited to join a position group that has obviously been a priority amongst the Michigan coaches in recent years. In addition to the plethora of top offensive line talent the Wolverines brought in with the 2013 class, they also have an impressive corps of rising redshirt freshmen who joined the team in 2012: five-star Kyle Kalis, four-stars Erik Magnuson and Blake Bars, and three-star Ben Braden. For some players, that level of completion might seem daunting. But Samuelson is ready to fully embrace it. ���I���m definitely excited,��� Samuelson said. ���It���s going to be pretty awe- some to see how we jell as a group.��� And he has some big goals that he wants to accomplish in the next few years. ���I would obviously love to start at some point,��� he said. ���There���s going to be a lot of competition to get to that point. Right now, making the travel team early would be a big goal. And I want to learn the offense, get stronger, which will definitely happen.��� Although Samuelson was a relatively unheralded recruit ��� the only three-star offensive line prospect in a class chock-full of four-star offensive linemen ��� his high school coach, John Barron, thinks he is ready to play at the next level. ���He���s pretty refined right now,��� Barron said. ���He has a really good skill set right now for a lineman. My thing for him is just going to be experience: I think when you go to a school like Michigan and you play at that level, you���re playing against grown men, and they���re the best in the country. ���The thing that separates Dan from a lot of the other kids is he wants to be good. Sometimes you get a big kid that���s a superior athlete at the high school level, they���re 17 or 18 years old, and they don���t have a real strong work ethic. Dan wants to be good, he wants to prove himself. I think that���s something that���s going to carry him over when he gets into that program and into that strength training program, I think he���s going to do really well.��� ��� Andy Reid