The Wolverines have pulled in their first commit from what sounds like a productive Victors Weekend, with GA 4* (by way of IMG) Donovan Johnson shutting down his recruitment.
Johnson has been a top prospect in his class since the start, a track star who qualified for the AAU Junior Olympics and participated in the Freshman All-American Bowl before transferring to IMG Academy. He had an elite offer list until suffering a knee injury that forced him to miss last season. The elites wanted to wait and see how that will affect him; Michigan, as well as Colorado and Duke, didn’t have such reservations. Before the injury he was considered a top physical prospect with high marks for size/speed/acceleration/tackle-breaking, but most of that’s from before his sophomore year, when he was mostly buried on a deep IMG depth chart. Since the injury, uh, his feet move pretty fast.
This is Tony Alford’s second commit since coming to Michigan from Ohio State. Stargazers and the OSU water-carriers will also be quick to point out Johnson is the second commitment who isn’t #1 target Jordon Davison (an M-OSU-Oregon battle) or Marquise Davis, who surprisingly committed to Kentucky a few weeks ago. I should note people were also mad at this point in the Class of 2023 cycle, when Mike Hart came in with an ace recruiter reputation and took 3-star Benjamin Hall out of Georgia. It’s a reasonable assumption that Michigan moved on Johnson after getting some of their own testing this weekend.
Michigan is of course very interested in a bunch of IMG players, including former Detroit CB Alex Graham, who’s committed to Colorado. Johnson visited this past weekend with teammates Kaden Strayhorn and Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng. Owusu-Boateng is a Michael Barrett-esque LB/hybrid prospect and the half-brother of former 2nd rounder/ND linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. Strayhorn is a center prospect with a suite of elite offers, and the son of MSU radio play-by-play announcer Jason Strayhorn. All four of the aforementioned players missed IMG’s spring game-like substance, and have reportedly been working closely together in their respective rehabs.
I have a 2025 recruiting board here that I’m currently in the process of updating. Alex Drain will try to come up with some scouting on Johnson next week, if he’s not buried under a bunch of other commits from Victors Weekend. Recent crystal balls (and their On3 equivalents) came in for Strayhorn, elite TX WR Andrew Marsh, elite TE Andrew Olesh, MA 4* OG Hardy Watts, and GA 3* LB Chase Taylor. Michigan is also awaiting the results of scheduled July announcements from PA 4* NT Maxwell Roy, TX 3* WR Taz Williams, and elite NC safety JaDon Blair.