The Wolverine

March 2020 Issue

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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2020 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE BY CHRIS BALAS Michigan head coach Jim Har- baugh vowed to leave no stone un- turned on the recruiting trail when he took over as the Wolverines' head coach in 2015. He proved it again this summer, locking up the program's fourth-ever pledge from the state of Hawai'i in class of 2020 wide receiver Roman Wilson. The 6-0, 175-pounder out of Ho- nolulu St. Louis earned high praise from Rivals.com after an outstanding week leading up to the Jan. 18 Poly- nesian Bowl in his home state. He was excited to show what he could do in the company of some of the best prep players in the world. "This is a great opportunity for me, and I'm very excited to get out there in my hometown," Wilson said heading into the game. "It's a great advantage for me. I'm very excited to get out there and show the world what I can do." He had a great week in practice and finished the game with four catches for 29 yards on six targets. That came on the heels of a senior season in which he hauled in 61 receptions for 1,025 yards and 11 touchdowns, in- cluding eight catches for 171 yards (with an 86-yard touchdown) in the state championship game and nine catches for 74 yards with two scores in the semifinal. Rivals.com Southeast recruiting analyst Woody Wommack first saw Wilson in a seven-on-seven camp last spring, at which point Wilson looked like a talented but undersized receiver. Several months later, Wom- mack covered him again at the Poly- nesian Bowl. "He looked like he kind of filled out his frame a little more," he said. "Obvi- ously, he's not a very big guy, but he's always been more wiry-strong than he is skinny and small. It looked like he put on some weight, 10 pounds or whatever, and he carried it well." He excelled all week by catching everything thrown his way, Wom- mack added, one of the more impres- sive performers in that area among all receivers. "The thing that always stands out about him is his hands," he said. "He has huge hands, and because of that his catch radius is way bigger than you'd think for a guy his size. He'll make the shoestring catch, but then he can go up, too, and climb the lad- der to get to the ball. "He plays bigger than his size be- cause of that. I don't know if he has long arms, but he plays like a guy who does." Roman Wilson Is A Hawaiian On The Rise Wilson helped prep powerhouse St. Louis High School in Honolulu win four state titles and fin- ish his career on a 38-game winning streak. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM 54 THE WOLVERINE MARCH 2020 2020 Projection Wilson, like fellow U-M signee A.J. Henning, will add an extra dimension of speed to the Wol- verines' receiving corps. With up- perclassman talent ahead of him, Wilson will not start, but will likely be in the receiver rotation and contribute through special teams immediately. His speed and ball- catching ability will be hard to keep off the field. ROMAN WILSON WIDE RECEIVER 6-0 • 175 ST. LOUIS HONOLULU RANKINGS STARS NAT. POS. STATE ✪ ✪ ✪ — 75 5 ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ 217 37 3 ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ — 54 3 STATISTICS Year Rec. Yards TD 2019 61 1,025 11 2018 32 803 7 HONORS • Played in the 2020 Polynesian Bowl in his hometown of Honolulu, where he recorded four catches for 29 yards. • Helped lead his team to a 12-0 re- cord and an Open Division state title in 2019. St. Louis was ranked as the No. 4 team in the nation and the No. 1 team in Hawai'i by MaxPreps. RECRUITMENT • Committed to Michigan on July 2, 2019. • Also had offers from Arizona, Ne- braska, Oregon, Washington and Wis- consin, among others. • Recruited by offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.

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