Michigan Wolverines football coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff have been racking up 2021 pledges in the last several days. Casey Phinney became the third in two days when he chose U-M over Boston College (offer from previous staff) and others following a FaceTime conversation with Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Don Brown.
Brown, of course, is from the U.S. Northeast and well respected in the area, having helped the Wolverines pull several of the area’s top recruits over the last few years. Phinney was the latest.
“They offered me back in 2017 … my first offer,” he said. “They’ve been recruiting me all through the years. It was coming down to where I was trying to make a decision sooner than later. I had a FaceTime call with Coach Harbaugh and Coach Brown a couple days ago, and they made it clear they wanted me, really, to be one of the guys in the 2021 class.
“I wanted to make things easier for them.”
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So easy that he didn’t even wait to see campus before pledging.
"I haven’t been there once,” he said. “I was supposed to about a few days ago, last weekend, but it got canceled, of course," Phinney said. "They sent me a virtual tour of Schembechler Hall, I looked online to learn about the campus. It felt right."
Especially given his relationship with Brown, he continued.
"Him being from Massachusetts, he gets me. I felt he understood me from the beginning, believed in me to continue to keep the opportunity there for me. He was in charge of my recruitment, and he’s the favorite coach I’ve met so far. I just love him. He’s awesome, and he can really connect with me.”
Phinney, an outstanding student, was being recruited by Northwestern and others, but nobody made an impression like Brown and Harbaugh. A self-proclaimed “big, physical linebacker" at 6-2, 225 pounds, Phinney offered that he’s good in the box but “underestimated athletically,” something he “can’t wait to prove at the next level.”
“That’s one of the knocks on me, I guess,” he said, adding a lot of people critical of him haven’t seen enough of him to judge.
His Noble and Greenough team plays a 4-3 defense with four down linemen and two true inside linebackers, and Brown expects him to play one of the two inside positions (MIKE or WILL) at U-M.
“He said they love my size, and they want to get some more size with my athleticism,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to carve out a spot in the lineup in the future.”
Michigan coaches are confident he will. They were “amped” when he pledged, he said, and he plans to visit Ann Arbor as soon as he can once restraints are relaxed.
In the meantime, he’ll continue to work out in his garage, sidelined like everyone else by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, while finishing his junior year of school online. He’ll do it as a future Wolverine.
“I’ve followed college football, and everyone who knows football knows Michigan,” he said. “It’s the winningest program of all time.”
One he can’t wait to join next year.
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