The Michigan Wolverines' football program dropped slightly in Rivals.com's national team recruiting rankings, despite an action-packed Signing Day that saw head coach Jim Harbaugh hold onto key commits in Fresno (Calif.) Central four-star receiver Xavier Worthy and Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas four-star athlete Jaydon Hood, while also reeling in a new pledge in West Bloomfield (Mich.) High four-star running back Donovan Edwards.
U-M began yesterday with the No. 8 class in the nation, but now sits at No. 12 as the dust begins to settle on the early signing period action. USC, Miami (Fla.), Texas A&M and Notre Dame were the programs who jumped Michigan in the standings.
RELATED: Football Podcast — Balas and Skene on Signing day, More
RELATED: Wolverine TV: Why Landing Edwards is Massive for Michigan
While Edwards' addition was a big one for Harbaugh and company, the Maize and Blue were undoubtedly hindered by the defections of two four-star commits, in Jacksonville Sandalwood linebacker Branden Jennings and Scottsdale (Ariz.) Saguaro defensive end Quintin Somerville.
The former signed with Maryland and the latter with UCLA. Neither form of attrition came as a surprise, but hurt Michigan in the national rankings nonetheless. At No. 12, the Wolverines still own the second-best class in the Big Ten, behind only Ohio State's class that is ranked No. 2 nationally.
Finishing with either the best or second-best class in the Big Ten has not only become routine for Harbaugh, but has oftentimes been the case since Rivals.com began its rankings back in 2002.
Since 2002 (a span of 19 recruiting cycles), Michigan has finished with a top-two class in the conference in 14 of those years. The five exceptions were in 2006, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2018.
Here's how the rest of the conference currently stands in the recruiting rankings, with each club's national ranking listed in parenthesis below:
• No. 1 — Ohio State (No. 2)
• No. 2 — Michigan (No. 12)
• No. 3 — Wisconsin (No. 15)
• No. 4 — Nebraska (No. 19)
• No. 5 — Michigan State (No. 23)
• No. 6 — Maryland (No. 24)
• No. 7 — Iowa (No. 27)
• No. 8 — Penn State (No. 28)
• No. 9 — Rutgers (No. 31)
• No. 10 — Minnesota (No. 32)
• No. 11 — Northwestern (No. 63)
• No. 12 — Indiana (No. 72)
• No. 13 — Purdue (No. 76)
• No. 14 — Illinois (No. 80)
***
These rankings are certainly not set in stone yet with uncommitted prospects still on the market and February's late signing period to come, but it's also worth noting they're unlikely to change significantly.
Michigan's class is all but wrapped up, though the Wolverines potentially adding another player or two isn't entirely out of the question. Harbaugh has already signed three top-10 classes during his time at U-M (2016, 2017 and 2019), but it would likely take the addition of another highly valued recruit to vault this year's Wolverine class into the top 10 (or perhaps some defections from Notre Dame, Texas A&M or Miami's classes, seeing as how they're the three programs who reside directly above Michigan).
This year's recruiting class is right on par with where Harbaugh's past hauls have finished. The average national ranking of his first five full recruiting classes at U-M has been 10.6, with four of the five finishing inside the nation's top 12 (the No. 24-ranked class in 2018 was the outlier).
Fans would undoubtedly prefer the Maize and Blue's classes to conclude in the top five the way Harbaugh's 2016 and 2017 crops did, but a quick look back throughout history proves just how difficult that is to to achieve.
Since Rivals.com began its rankings in 2002, only four of U-M's recruiting classes have wound up in the nation's top five, with the 2004, 2013, 2016 and 2017 hauls making the cut.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
