The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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42 THE WOLVERINE ❱ JUNE/JULY 2025 ❱ MICHIGAN RECRUITING NOTEBOOK Popper was 22 years old when a coach- ing change forced him to look elsewhere for work after one season with the Bison. He went on to hold positions at Oregon, Memphis and Akron before returning to Michigan nearly two years ago. Now, he's helping lead a Wolverine re- cruiting department that just signed the No. 1 recruit in the country as a part of its highest-ranked class in years. He recently joined a Twitter [X] Space interview with Brian Spilbeler, the head of sales for Tracking Football, to talk about his path back to U-M and what he loves about the job in the age of modern recruiting. "I think that the aspect of it all that I enjoy the most is going from somebody that you've never heard of to somebody that you know inside and out. You know he's a fit and then you can just go win the battle," Popper told Spilbeler. To win these recruitments, Popper fo- cuses on building the connection with the prospect before figuring out what's most important to him and hammering home how Michigan could fit what they're looking for. His job covers pretty much the entire recruiting process. Popper identifies and evaluates prospects. When recruits are on campus, he's playing a significant role in hosting them. He puts in a lot of effort behind the scenes to assemble Michigan's class. "With the events and stuff on campus, I just try to bounce around and spend time with everybody," Popper said. "I try to be a huge part in the relationship-building process, and part of that is obviously what you do with them in person. I try to spend a lot of time with the kids. I try to get to know the families." Marietta (Ga.) Kell High recruiting co- ordinator Chris Pack knows the process well, and he's also Top 100 linebacker Brayden Rouse's father. Michigan offered Rouse, the land's No. 99 prospect and No. 6 linebacker, in January, and the Wolver- ines started to surge in his recruitment this spring, in part thanks to Popper's ef- forts. "We want to make sure that we're go- ing somewhere where we're wanted, and Sam's done a good job of letting us know that we're definitely wanted," Pack told The Wolverine. College football recruiting looks a lot different than it used to. The transfer portal keeps college staff liable for any promises made in the recruiting process. Popper likes the increased transparency. It aligns with how he approaches the job. He believes "honesty is the best pol- icy" when it comes to interacting with recruits and their families. "What you communicate to the pros- pects in terms of how the process is going to go, how you showcase what life on your campus is going to be like when those kids arrive and kids enroll. That stuff needs to be genuine or else you may sign the kid now, but they're either going to leave or they're not going to be at their best when they're a part of your team," Popper said. Popper believes that statement has only become more important with col- lege football getting deeper into the transfer portal era. He emphasized that, regardless of the recruiting department's external perception, his primary goal is to help Michigan win football games. In modern recruiting, that comes down to being authentic and transparent with the recruits. "As much as it may hurt now to get a decommitment in terms of the percep- tion and how it's looked at and what your recruiting class ranking is in the middle of spring/summer, it can be a lot more help- ful in the long run to be honest with the guys, even if it hurts to tell them what it 'looks like' right now," Popper said. Some recruiting departments separate their college and prep recruiting depart- ments. Michigan does not. Sometimes Popper focuses more on high school pros- pects while director of player personnel Albert Karschnia locks in on the portal, but they work on both sides of modern recruiting. Underneath Popper, John Collins and Jack Dunaway are assistant directors of recruiting. Collins works with the defense, and Dunaway takes the offense. Michigan also assigns its recruiting analysts a coach and views them as the director of player personnel for that position group. A lot of work goes into assembling each class and, at the end of the day, Michi- gan's focus remains on recruiting at the prep level. "We're trying to make sure that we're building this thing up through high school recruiting," Popper said. — Ethan McDowell LATEST ON FLIP TARGETS Michigan is coming out of spring vis- its in a strong position with a couple of flip targets, namely Auburn commit Sha- One of Michigan's highest-rated targets on the board this cycle is five-star Mansfield (Texas) Lake Ridge offensive tackle Felix Ojo. The No. 4 overall prospect nationally told The Wolverine that the reported two-game suspension of head coach Sherrone Moore "doesn't impact my recruitment." PHOTO COURTESY ON3