The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/299859
MICHIGAN RECRUITING However, Crawford briefly consid‑ ered a trip to check out South Bend — offer in hand. Crawford looked at the April 12 weekend, the Notre Dame spring game, for a possible trip to Indiana. He confirmed to Rivals. com Midwest recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt that a trip was potentially in the works. Fortunately for Michigan, the crisis was averted with no intervention nec‑ essary from the Michigan coaching staff. Crawford elected to attend his track meet April 12 instead of tak‑ ing an unofficial visit to Notre Dame. While the Wolverines will have to keep their eye on Crawford, both fam‑ ily and prospect are likely to consider his recruitment over. OFFER WAVE Michigan's coaching staff was busy in mid‑April, issuing four new offers in the course of a week. Two of those offers went to 2015 prospects, while two of them went to players in the 2016 class — both wide receivers. Junior offensive lineman Henry Roberts was first to hear the good news from U‑M. The 6‑6, 255‑pounder is listed as a three‑star prospect, the No. 6 player in the state of Washington and the No. 47 offensive tackle in the land. He also holds offers from the entire Pac‑12, along with Miami and Wisconsin. While the Michigan offer will make him think — his Bellevue (Wash.) High School also sent 2006 of‑ fensive lineman Steve Schilling to Ann Arbor, a nice connection for the Maize and Blue — he is widely considered to prefer staying on the West Coast for his college days. He plans to make a spring decision between USC and Stanford, with hometown Washington also in the mix. Kaplan (La.) 2015 defensive end Jalen Bates also has a Michigan con‑ nection. The 6‑5, 220‑pounder is a cousin of former U‑M linebacker Jonas Mouton, and in fact plans to make a trip to Ann Arbor along with Mouton this summer. "Jonas is playing in the NFL now, but he's going to find some time to go up to Michigan with me this offsea‑ son," Bates explained. "We might go up there for the Michigan camp." Bates is an unranked sleeper pros‑ pect, but the Michigan offer came on the heels of Ole Miss and Texas Tech also throwing their hats in the ring for him. In time, it's likely that he will de‑ velop into a highly sought player. An offer from a school like Michigan will U-M has extended an offer to Bellevue (Wash.) High School product Henry Roberts, who is listed as the No. 6 player in Washington and the No. 47 offensive tackle nationally. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM