Michigan’s recruiting has taken a great deal of criticism over the past four cycles for good reason. Despite the historic success of the team, the Wolverines have not been able to sign top-rated prospects.
The causes for this are pretty simple. Michigan has failed to put a convincing name, image and likeness plan in place, and Jim Harbaugh’s annual flirting with the NFL makes it difficult for recruits to trust that he will stick with the program in the long run.
Of course, none of these losses seem important given the national title, but it’s worth looking back on what players around college football could have been taking the field for Michigan on Saturdays.
Worthy was one of the craziest recruitments in recent memory. The speedster from California chose the Wolverines over Alabama and Texas on national signing day, but was released from his national letter of intent and flipped to Texas before he enrolled.
At the time, this felt like a dagger. Worthy was set to join J.J. McCarthy and Donovan Edwards as one of the best QB-RB-WR trios in the country, but he spurned the Wolverines late. Oh, what could have been.
Worthy lived up to the expectations placed on him as a top-100 player in the country.
He was a major part of Texas’s offense in each of his three collegiate seasons and totaled 197 catches for 2,755 yards and 26 touchdowns in his career.
Worthy would have gone down as the best receiver during Jim Harbaugh’s tenure in Ann Arbor.
Worthy has declared for the draft and is considered a late first/early second-round pick.
VanSumeren hurt when he left. He was following his brother, Ben, to Michigan State, which gave Michigan’s in-state rivals a talking point for months. The 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive tackle was graded as the 200th player nationally and third in Michigan, so his favoritism of Sparty was tough to swallow.
The good news is this ended up being mutually beneficial. VanSumeren had just three tackles in four games this year and is fighting for playing time heading into next season.
Michigan hit big on Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, so it’s tough to imagine the in-stater would have seen much playing time for Michigan anyway.
