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| Denton (TX) Ryan OT Ty Haywood |
2025
Ty Haywood - OT - Denton (TX) Ryan: Haywood is a 6'5", 285 lb. prospect who was previously committed to Alabama. He's a 5-star, the #4 offensive tackle, and #18 overall in the class. He has also taken official visits to Florida State, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech. A lot of insiders believe Haywood is Michigan's to lose at this point.
UMass transfer portal wide receiver Anthony Simpson committed to Michigan on Sunday. He has one season of eligibility remaining.
Simpson is a 5'11", 184-pounder. Last season he caught 3 passes for 16 yards while playing in just two games for the Minutemen before an injury ended his season. However, his career-best season was in 2023 when he caught 57 passes for 792 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Simpson was a 3-star, the #2 athlete, and the #5 overall prep school player coming out in 2021 after playing traditional high school ball at Pawling (NY) Bloomfield. He spent his first two years of college at Arizona playing for former Michigan assistant Jedd Fisch, who was the Wildcats head coach from 2021-2023. Simpson made just 8 catches for 102 yards while playing in eighteen games those first two years before transferring to UMass and playing for head coach Don Brown, who had been the defensive coordinator and Simpson's recruiter when Brown was Arizona's defensive coordinator.
Along with his receiving ability, Simpson has 14 carries for 108 yards and 1 touchdown throughout his career. He seems to be a bit of a screen and gadget guy, a little bit like current Michigan receiver Semaj Morgan. (I still think Morgan is capable of more based on his high school film, but Michigan has so far been unable to use him effectively as a downfield or intermediate receiver.) I think it's good to have multiple guys on the roster who have that skill set in order to keep defenses off balance, provide competition, and account for the possibility of injury. But it will be interesting to see how they dole out opportunities.
Michigan has now added two transfer portal receivers: one a quick slot guy in Simpson and the other a 6'5" outside guy in Indiana's Donaven McCulley. Meanwhile, they lost Tyler Morris to Indiana.
University of Louisiana-Lafayette cornerback Caleb Anderson committed to Michigan on Sunday evening.
Anderson is a 6'3", 200 lb. corner who started twelve total games as a Ragin' Cajun from 2020-2024 while playing in 39 total games. He made 18 tackles and 1 quarterback hurry this past season while earning a 63.7 grade from Pro Football Focus. He has 2 career interceptions, one of which he returned for a 54-yard touchdown against Rice in 2022 (video below):
Anderson will be a sixth-year senior in 2025. Coming out of Jackson (LA) East Feliciana, he was a high school quarterback who was a 3-star, the #67 athlete, and #1103 overall in his class. He got a COVID exemption in 2020 and then redshirted in 2021. He was coached by Michigan defensive backs coach Lamar Morgan when Morgan was at Louisiana-Lafayette in 2022-2023.
Michigan has been looking for help at cornerback after losing Will Johnson to the NFL and Aamir Hall to expired eligibility. The Wolverines have also lost a couple cornerbacks in the transfer portal, like Myles Pollard and Kody Jones, both of whom committed to Memphis. They did sign Tevis Metcalf from Arkansas, but he's very young and unproven.
Along with Morgan's experience coaching in Louisiana, Michigan also signed two Louisiana natives in the 2025 class (WR Jacob Washington and RB Jasper Parker) and has a Louisiana product in wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy.
Marietta (GA) Kell safety Tony Forney, Jr. (247 Sports 3-star, #49 safety) was offered by Michigan. He's a 5'11", 175 lb. prospect with offers from Auburn, Georgia, and Pitt, among others.
Leesburg (GA) Lee County safety Lasiah "L.A." Jackson (4-star, #18 S, #221 overall) was offered by Michigan. He's a 6'3", 167-pounder with offers from Auburn, Florida, Georgia, and others.
Cleveland (OH) Glenville linebacker Cincere Johnson (4-star, #8 LB, #108 overall) was offered by Michigan. He's a 6'3", 225 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Penn State, among others. Glenville is traditionally an Ohio State stronghold, so it will be tough to pull him away from there.
Hit the jump for more.
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.
Hit the jump for more.
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.
