Raylen Wilson (#5 on right, image via Dawg Nation)
Here's a roundup of the former Michigan commits and how they did this past season.
FORMER COMMITS
DE Collins Acheampong (UCLA): Acheampong has yet to play any college snaps after two years, one with Miami and this past season with the Bruins.
LB Aaron Alexander (Michigan State Arkansas State): Alexander made 3 tackles this past season playing for the Spartans and has since transferred to Arkansas State.
WR Markus Allen (Eastern Michigan): The former Wisconsin Badger was EMU's second leading receiver with 43 catches for 651 yards and 3 touchdowns. He is now in the transfer portal.
Ferris State transfer offensive lineman Lawrence Hattar committed to Michigan.
Hattar was listed at 6'5" and 335 pounds for Ferris State this past season, his redshirt junior year. He redshirted in 2021, played two games in 2022, then became a starter in 2023 and 2024. He played in all fifteen games this past season as the Bulldogs won a Division II national championship, and he was named a Division II All-American.
Coming out of Livonia (MI) Churchill in 2021, Hattar was a 6'4", 280-pounder who wasn't athletic enough for the FBS level. His feet were pretty slow and he tended to lean on people as more of a waist-bender. There's been significant improvement since then, and Michigan will be getting a fifth-year senior with 27 games of experience, as well as the growth and development that comes along with playing for a multiple-national championship-winning program.
I think Hattar is a good depth piece for the program, but after watching some Ferris State highlights of him starting at left guard this past season, I'm not sure he will rise to the level of a starter. He will be limited to playing on the interior of the offensive line, likely competing for time at left guard, a position Josh Priebe is vacating. At his significant size, he may be able to help out on the extra point/field goal protection units. He does not change direction particularly well to find work on the second level, but his heft and strength could be effective on down blocks and at the point of attack.
Hattar is the second lower-level offensive lineman to pick Michigan, following FCS Cal Poly offensive lineman Brady Norton. While they need to replace left guard Priebe and left tackle Myles Hinton, the coaching staff seems to like rising redshirt sophomore Evan Link and rising redshirt freshman Andrew Sprague; Link was a full-year starter, mostly at right tackle, and Sprague started the bowl game against Alabama at right tackle. The program also signed 5-star offensive tackle Andrew Babalola and is trying to land blue-chip tackle Ty Haywood in February. The biggest question mark is that left guard spot, because Michigan's next best internal options (Dominick Giudice, Raheem Anderson) transferred, leaving a bunch of totally unproven players.
Michigan has now landed ten transfer commitments for 2025. This is Michigan's first Division II transfer in my memory. Hattar would be the first player from Churchill to play for Michigan since middle guard Rod Vaughn back in 1978.
Clemson transfer defensive tackle Tre Williams has committed to Michigan.
Williams is a 6'2", 315 lb. defensive lineman who had an overall grade of 66.3 from Pro Football Focus this season. He ended the year on a low note, notching grades of 46.1 and 43.1 against Texas and SMU, respectively. Overall, he played in 44 games over the past five seasons, making four starts, 44 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, 3 fumble recoveries, and 2 pass breakups.
Michigan recruited Williams when he was coming out of Washington (DC) St. John's back in 2020, but Williams understandably picked Clemson, which had won national championships in 2016 and 2018. The Wolverines had landed safety Quinten Johnson from St. John's in the 2019 class, and that was reportedly an important connection in this second attempt to recruit Williams.
The Michigan program is losing Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant to the NFL this off-season, as well as true freshman Owen Wafle, who entered the transfer portal. Alabama's Damon Payne has already signed with Michigan this off-season and might be one of the starters on the interior. Number three defensive tackle Rayshaun Benny is likely to return but has not made an announcement yet, and others in the mix to play a lot include Trey Pierce, Ike Iwunnah, and Enow Etta.
The 2026 Under Armour All-American Game will be played in January of 2026. The following participants have committed to or signed paperwork to play for Michigan:
2025 Kaden Strayhorn, C - Bradenton, FL
2024 Jeremiah Beasley, LB - Belleville, MI
2023 Karmello English, WR - Phenix City, AL Amir Herring, C - West Bloomfield, MI
2022 Will Johnson, CB - Grosse Pointe, MI Derrick Moore, DE - Baltimore, MD Keon Sabb, S - Bradenton, FL Amorion Walker, WR - Ponchatoula, LA
2021 Giovanni El-Hadi, OT - Sterling Heights, MI Jaydon Hood, LB - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
2020 Blake Corum, RB - Baltimore, MD Micah Mazzccua, OT - Baltimore, MD Braiden McGregor, DE - Port Huron, MI# Andre Seldon, Jr., CB - Belleville, MI
2019 Zach Charbonnet, RB - Thousand Oaks, CA Quinten Johnson, S - Washington, DC Trente Jones, OT - Loganville, GA Nolan Rumler, OG - Akron, OH Mazi Smith, DT - East Kentwood, MI Anthony Solomon, LB - Fort Lauderdale, FL
2018 Mustapha Muhammad, TE - Missouri City, TX Myles Sims, CB - Atlanta, GA
2017 Jaylen Kelly-Powell, S - Detroit, MI Kwity Paye, DE - Warwick, RI Cesar Ruiz, C - Bradenton, FL Luiji Vilain, DE - Alexandria, VA
Rising second-year player Owen Wafle has entered the transfer portal.
Wafle was listed as a 6'2", 298 lb. defensive lineman on this year's roster. He did not play in any games. He was a 4-star, the #50 defensive lineman, and #445 overall in the 247 Composite for the class of 2024. Michigan flipped him from Notre Dame.
I gave Wafle a TTB Rating of 73 when he committed (LINK) and said this:
Wafle is not as athletic as [Maurice] Hurst, more talented than [Brady] Pallante, and perhaps as versatile as [Dan] Klecko. I could see Jim Harbaugh wanting to line Wafle up in the backfield on goal line situations and letting him make a linebacker or two explode.
Linebacker Jeremiah Beasley (Missouri) was the first player to transfer out of Michigan's 2024 class, and Wafle is now the second.
Wafle's brother Luke is a 2026 prospect with a Michigan offer, so this development may hurt Michigan's chances there. The younger Wafle is a 6'5", 240-pounder and he's a 4-star, the #28 defensive lineman, and #221 overall.
Surprise, surprise, surprise! For the second game in a row, almost nobody gave Michigan a chance to win. And for the second game in a row, almost everybody was wrong. The mighty Alabama Crimson Tide, who almost made the College Football Playoff with a 9-3 record, fell to 9-4. And when all is said and done, on paper that's not far from where Michigan finished at 8-5. Alabama had lost some players to the transfer portal, but Michigan was missing ten starters (Myles Hinton, Colston Loveland, Kalel Mullings, Tyler Morris, Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, Josaiah Stewart, Will Johnson, Makari Paige, Tommy Doman) and the guy who was on the cover of NCAA '25 (Donovan Edwards) and still won the game.
