The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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40 THE WOLVERINE MARCH 2017 2017 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE Linebacker Jordan Anthony Has A Chance To Be Elite BY CHRIS BALAS Landing five-star prep prospects can be like winning the lottery — there are so few each year that sign- ing even one is cause for major cel- ebration. Michigan pulled in three from the 2017 class, and one — linebacker Jor- dan Anthony of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy by way of Olney (Md.) Our Lady of Good Counsel — has a great chance to play early at a position of need. The 6-0, 235-pounder totaled 79 tackles, including five for loss, for an undefeated IMG Academy squad as a senior. He took home the linebacker MVP award at Nike's The Opening regional camp in Orlando, Fla., in 2016 to earn his huge bump in the rankings and found everything he was looking for at Michigan on an Oct. 1 visit. "From even the first time I got up there, it felt like the place for me to be," Anthony said. "The academic side is everything I'd want. The foot- ball staff is great, the coaching staff is great and everything about it seemed like a perfect fit. "And the first time I talked to Coach [Jim] Harbaugh … he is defi- nitely an outgoing person. He's not afraid to say what's on his mind. When I really sat down and talked to him, we didn't even talk about foot- ball. We talked about life, school, girls and stuff like that. Getting to know what kind of person he was … he is just a great overall person, definitely somebody I can go to in times of trou- ble to talk to and tell things." Harbaugh wasn't the only one responsible for landing him. Line- backers coach Chris Partridge, too, bonded with Rivals.com's No. 26 player nationally and convinced him he'd be a great fit in defensive co- ordinator Don Brown's attack-style defense. A former running back (and a very good one) before moving to line- backer full-time, Anthony has the instincts and ability to play sideline to sideline and an athleticism to rival former Michigan greats like Ian Gold (1996-99) and Dhani Jones (1996-99), both of whom spent years in the NFL. He's also become somewhat of a man of the world, thanks to his days at IMG Academy. The decision to leave home to spend two years in Florida wasn't an easy one — it was hard on both him and his family initially — but it's given him a great taste of what college life will be like at U-M. "I get to talk with people from all over the country, all over the world — Venezuela, the Ukraine — learn- ing culture from them. It's been a pretty cool experience," Anthony said. "At first, both my parents didn't know about this decision, sending me off to school early, but all in all it's been a great idea and fit." It's also allowed him to explore an- other passion outside of football. "I don't exactly know what I'll do after football, but I'm definitely inter- ested in art," he said. "That's some- thing not a lot of people know. I took an art class last year, and I've got- ten to know my teacher even better through projects I've been working on outside of class. "I like to paint sometimes in my free time, so I've been able to do that." He plans to study business or fi- nance at Michigan initially and see where it takes him. First, though, he's going to see how far he goes in football, and by all ac- counts it could be a long, long way. IMG Academy and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman went back and forth as the No. 1 and No. 2 prep school teams in the country, and Anthony was one of the best players on an absolutely loaded defense. Twenty-three play- ers from the school signed letters of intent to play in college, and some surmised IMG would have finished in the top 10 in the recruiting rank- ings if it were a college. "We came together and completed the task at hand, had a great season together," Anthony said. Along the way he continued to rise up the recruiting rankings to earn coveted five-star status. "I'll be honest … I worked my whole life to get that," he said. "It's great, but I've got more things I want to accomplish. But I'm definitely happy I got to achieve it. "I'm ready for the next step. I love Coach Brown. He's a great coach, has great schemes and definitely uses his linebackers a lot. It's a system I'm definitely excited to get into." He won't have to wait much longer, scheduled to arrive at U-M in June as one of the Wolverines' top prospects in a loaded 2017 class. ❏ Rivals.com ranks Anthony as a five-star recruit, the No. 6 prospect in talent-rich Florida, and the No. 1 inside linebacker and No. 26 overall player nationally. PHOTO BY BRANDON BROWN