The Wolverine

April 2015

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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  PREP PROFILES Mechanicsville (Va.) Atlee safety Jaqui Givens reeled in an offer from Michigan in mid-February that caught him completely off guard. The 6-1, 165-pound three-star pros- pect had just four offers at the time and had never heard from the staff at U-M. " E v e r y t h i n g w i t h M i c h i g a n all just kind of h a p p e n e d l i k e right now," Giv- ens said with a laugh. "It sounds crazy, but it just happened. "Coach [Chris] Partridge [who is the recruiting operations coordi- nator at U-M] followed me. I said 'Okay, University of Michigan, Go Blue.' Then he DM'd me and told me to call him, and then I got of- fered. It just happened really fast." The abrupt connection shocked Givens, but has given him a lot of confidence and optimism moving forward in his recruitment. "Now that I have an offer from the University of Michigan, I just feel like my recruitment is really going to get rolling," he explained. "I'm just going to leave everything on an even playing field because I'm still trying to decide when I want to commit. I'm just going to keep working and keep establish- ing connections with the coaches. "I already can't wait to build a connection with the coaches at Michigan." In addition to the Wolverines, Givens now has offers from Ari- zona State, Indiana, James Madi- son, Michigan State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and West Virginia. N o t r e D a m e , Ohio State, Lou- i s v i l l e , M a r y - land, Duke and North Carolina State are also ex- pressing strong interest in him, and he expects more schools to enter the picture as his recruitment continues to blossom. With new schools getting in- volved weekly, Givens knows that visits will be paramount to help- ing him make a decision. To date he's checked out Virginia Tech, Vir- ginia, Wake Forest and James Mad- ison. He hopes to possibly check out Michigan for the spring game April 4, but hasn't locked that in yet. He isn't looking to rush a deci- sion, but he has thought about mak- ing a verbal pledge by the end of the summer in order to focus solely on football his senior season. "But that's not set it stone," Giv- ens said. — Brandon Brown Virginia Safety Picks Up Interest After U-M Offer ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ Atlee High School Mechanicsville, Va. Class: 2016 Position: Safety Ht.: 6-1 • Wt.: 165 Rivals.com Rankings: No. 13 player in Virginia and No. 31 safety nationally Jaqui Givens

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