INSIDE THE FORT (ITF): Good Portal News? Plus, Hoops Recruiting Is On Fire
The latest edition of Inside The Fort brings you significant intel on Michigan Wolverines football, including head coach Jim Harbaugh and Co.'s pursuits to land talent in the transfer portal — U-M is the leader for a defensive tackle from the Pac-12.
We also discuss new defensive passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, and how his hiring came to be, what kind of salary we expect him to make and more. Then, we provide some insight on Michigan basketball recruiting, on some 2021 signees as well as 2022 four-star big man target Donovan Clingan.
View an excerpt below and/or read the entire Inside The Fort by clicking here.
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READ THE ENTIRE INSIDE THE FORT
One of the most commonly asked questions asked here on The Fort is, ‘why isn’t Michigan looking for help in the transfer portal, especially at defensive tackle and linebacker?’
The answer — they absolutely are, but just as recruiting is cutthroat, so is trying to sign help from the portal. Teams have identified what they need, and while there are hundreds of kids transferring, only so many are capable of playing for the upper echelon teams.
We’ve explained what happened with Lance Dixon (PSU, now at WVU) … the same thing happened with another former highly rated linebacker who transferred to a Big Ten school. He wanted Michigan and U-M was certainly at least interested, but even the coaches knew they had no shot when they saw his transcripts.It wasn’t about grades, but the ‘classes’ he was taking. There was nothing close to equivalent at U-M, and while there have been complaints that the academic side has made it tougher to land some of these kids (and that’s true) … well, not in this case.
Another highly sought-after defender really loved Michigan and told the coaches that repeatedly, saying he wanted to come. He couldn’t convince his entourage to let him go, though, and he ended up at an SEC school.
On a positive note, the Wolverines are the heavy favorite at this point to land 6-1, 358-pound defensive tackle Jordan Whittley from Oregon State out of the portal. He didn’t play in 2020 and recorded only 13 tackles and three tackles for loss for the Beavers in 2019, but the former running back (yes, really) is big and agile, hard to move and takes up a lot of space.
The Richmond, California native played two seasons at Laney College in California, notching 35 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in helping lead the school to California's JUCO championship and an 11-2 record in 2018. The transcripts look good, and again, so do Michigan’s chances.
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