The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/130469
michigan recruiting "Coach [Brady] Hoke offered me," he said. "I was really excited about the offer; it caught me by surprise." Though Cornell grew up follow‑ ing Notre Dame, and comes from a school that has sent numerous play‑ ers to the Irish over the years, the 6-3, 235-pounder plans to give serious consideration to Michigan. Also receiving a U-M offer May 7 was Lakewood (Ohio) St. Edward defensive back Shaun Crawford. Whereas Cornell grew up a Notre Dame fan, Crawford has had maize and blue running through his veins practically since birth. He visited Ann Arbor multiple times during the 2012-13 academic year — once for a football game, and once more for a basketball game —and picked up his offer this spring. The 5-9, 165-pound Crawford may not wait long to pounce on his Michi‑ gan offer — and could end up as the first U-M pledge in the 2015 class. In a busy week for the Michigan coaches, a third player who didn't grow up a fan of any program picked up a Michigan offer just a day af‑ ter Cornell and Crawford. Hjalte Froholdt is a native of Denmark who has play just one season of organized football, but that one year — as a 6-5, 275-pound sophomore for War‑ ren (Ohio) Harding in the fall — was enough to net him a Michigan offer. "They offered him as a defensive player, an inside lineman," said Harding coach Steve Arnold. "It's about toughness with him: he's only been in the United States since last August. He's still a puppy with this. He's going to be special." Cleveland Benedictine linebacker Jerome Baker entered his May 11 visit to Ann Arbor with an offer as the ex‑ pectation, and it came as no surprise that the Wolverines pulled the trigger at that time on the 6-1, 205-pounder. Although he grew up favoring the rival Ohio State Buckeyes, he insists that he will seriously consider Michi‑ gan during his recruiting process. The recent string of U‑M offers shows some of the players that Mich‑ igan plans to pursue heavily in the class of 2015. Jabrill Peppers Nears Decision Although he had initially planned to make a college decision during or after his senior season of high school football, the nation's No. 2 prospect, Paramus (N.J.) Catholic cornerback Jabrill Peppers, seems to be accelerat‑ ing his commitment timeline. That's good news for Michigan, the early favorite for Peppers. He has backed off of definitely taking a visit to Stanford — another school near the top of his list — and will try to schedule something later in the sum‑ mer. Instead, he will visit Penn State in mid-May and potentially make his pledge in early June. The late run by the Nittany Lions is somewhat troubling. Peppers saw Happy Valley in March and mak‑ ing a second trip shows that PSU is seriously in the mix. However, head coach Bill O'Brien and his assistant coaches will have plenty of work to do in order to catch Michigan.