The Michigan Wolverines’ season continues in the College Football Playoff, but roster construction for 2024 is well underway.
Around this time last season, the maize and blue earned their first commitment out of the transfer portal — now starting left tackle LaDarius Henderson.
With the portal officially open, Michigan has already begun contacting players to help fill spots for next season.
We’ve combed through the portal and made a wishlist of some guys who could step in and play a role for the Wolverines in 2024. Here are a handful of guys we like early on.
Slackman — from the University of Pennsylvania — will be a graduate student next year, and Michigan has already offered him.
He was an All-Ivy League first-team selection and has gained offers from Washington, Colorado, Miami, USC, Wisconsin, Oregon and more.
He has eight sacks and one forced fumble in his career. He’s listed as the No. 7 player in the transfer portal, per 247Sports, and posted a 90.1 PFF this season for the Quakers.
Kris Jenkins and Cam Goode will be moving on after this season, and the Wolverines would love to replace them with quality players. At 6-foot-4 and 300 pounds, Slackman could make an impact for a contender next season.
He was a state champion wrestler in high school and is a bit of a late bloomer to the football scene, joining the Penn football team after enrolling.
The Martin Luther King High School product feels like the perfect player to bring home. Michigan was heavily involved in the former five-star’s recruitment before he went out west and got caught in Hollywood.
Moore’s freshman campaign did not go as intended at UCLA. The Bruins didn’t name him the starter out of camp, but did start six games midway through the season, going 3-3.
Moore completed 53.5 percent of his passes and threw nine interceptions, including several pick-sixes. It was clearly not a good fit for Moore, as he is now in the portal.
Many assume both Michigan and Michigan State will be involved in this recruitment, while Oregon will likely be a favorite as well.
Despite 2023 being a poor start to his college career, Moore is still the top-ranked quarterback in the portal and the Wolverines will very likely need a new signal caller assuming J.J. McCarthy goes pro.
We’re going to stick at quarterback and go south for a guy who has had a ton of success in his career, Grayson McCall.
He’s started the last four seasons for Coastal Carolina and accrued 10,005 yards and 88 touchdowns to just 14 interceptions. The Chanticleers went 7-5 in 2023, but an injury limited McCall to just seven games.
This will be McCall’s second time in the portal, as he withdrew his name from the portal after testing the waters a season ago.
That very well could happen again this year, but this is the kind of guy Jim Harbaugh could fall in love with. He’s a three-time Sun Belt Player of the Year, takes care of the football and completes 70 percent of his passes.
If Harbaugh wants to take the veteran option at quarterback and prep Jadyn Davis to be the starter as a sophomore, McCall would likely be the best option for a gap year in 2023.
The Wolverines took Josaiah Stewart from the portal out of Coastal Carolina last offseason, who’s to say they can’t do it again?
Texas A&M had the No. 1 recruiting class in the 2022 class, and Walter Nolan was the crown jewel as the top-ranked recruit. Now, Jimbo Fischer has been fired, the Mike Elko era has begun and Nolan entered the transfer portal on Sunday.
In his two years at A&M, Nolan has been one of its best players. He has 66 tackles, five sacks and a forced fumble. At 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, Nolan is one of the most physically imposing defensive linemen in the country.
The Wolverines have a need at defensive line for next season, and Nolan would be a huge addition. He’s the No. 1 player in the transfer portal currently and had Michigan in his top-five list when he was recruited out of high school.
Per 247Sports, Mike Macdonald and Shaun Nua were the leaders in his recruitment at that point, but the sustained success of the Michigan defense since then has to be appealing to Nolan, and Harbaugh has shelled out several NFL talents on the defensive line. Nolan could be the next if he reconsiders Ann Arbor.
He was a member of the Fighting Irish team that made the College Football Playoff in 2020 and he started in a blowout loss to Alabama due to an injury.
Michigan will lose Trevor Keegan, Zak Zinter and Drake Nugent after this season. While there is plenty of depth already in Ann Arbor, the strategy has always been to keep it that way under Harbaugh. Correll would be a great option to be the anchor.
