Rivals.com updated its class of 2021 prospect rankings for the final time today, and all six of the Michigan Wolverines' football signees who had been rated inside the nation's top 100 stayed there.

Four of the six also received significant boosts, with Brentwood (Tenn.) Ravenwood four-star linebacker Junior Colson jumping 12 spots from No. 94 nationally to No. 82, and West Bloomfield (Mich.) High four-star running back Donovan Edwards skyrocketing 16 spots from No. 74 to No. 58.

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None of the four other signees in the Rivals100 — Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy four-star quarterback J.J. McCarthy, Fresno (Calif.) Central four-star wideout Xavier Worthy, Needham (Mass.) Saint Sebastian's Country Day four-star tight end Louis Hansen and Sterling Heights (Mich.) Stevenson four-star offensive tackle Giovanni El-Hadi — moved more than three spots.

The reshuffling of the ratings saw Edwards leap Worthy from a rankings standpoint, and as a result claim the title of Michigan's second-highest rated signee in the 2021 class, behind McCarthy at No. 44 overall.

While U-M head coach Jim Harbaugh has consistently brought in excellent recruiting classes to Ann Arbor in recent years, one knock on his latest hauls have been a lack of top-end talent, or in other words, top 100 prospects.

This was most evident in the 2018 and 2020 classes, when the Maize and Blue only signed one Rivals100 recruit (linebacker Kalel Mullings in 2020) between the two cycles.

That trend was fortunately bucked in 2021, with Michigan's six top 100 players tied with the school's 2003 class as the fourth most of the Rivals.com era (which began in 2002). This year's haul finished just one Rivals100 prospect shy of tying the seven that the 2017, 2006 and 2005 classes brought in.

It's worth noting there is still a slight chance Michigan could match that total if it gets Oak Park (Mich.) High four-star defensive tackle and Michigan State commit Rayshaun Benny to flip.

Benny committed to the Spartans Nov. 9 but chose not to sign during the early signing period, and a potential flip to the Maize and Blue would mark U-M's seventh top 100 prospect in its 2021 class.

To further exemplify how impressive it is to sign six top 100 recruits in one year, consider this: from 2007-20, the Wolverines inked more than four Rivals100 prospects in a single cycle only one time — in the aforementioned 2017 crop that brought in seven.

For the first four years of Rivals.com's existence (2002-05), the outlet only rated the top 100 prospects in the nation numerically. They expanded to numerically include the country's top 250 players in 2006, and have been doing so ever since.

Harbaugh reeled in 10 prospects in this year's Rivals250, which ranks middle-of-the-pack for U-M when comparing it to the last decade and a half. The school record for the most Rivals250 athletes signed in one class was done by none other than Harbaugh, when he inked 15 in his 2017 haul that finished No. 4 in the nation.

The four Michigan signees who are inside this year's Rivals250 but outside the nation's top 100 are Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy four-star offensive guard Greg Crippen (No. 162), Detroit Cass Tech four-star center Raheem Anderson (No. 166), Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei four-star wide receiver Cristian Dixon (No. 201) and Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas four-star linebacker Jaydon Hood (No. 225).

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