As soon as Mike Macdonald and George Helow joined Michigan’s defensive staff, two names emerged right at the top of their recruiting board at Edge, both of them three-stars from Florida. The first, Mario Eugenio, committed last week. Today, Michigan secured the other one, as well as their sixteenth commit of the class, fourth linebacker of the summer, third edge prospect in three weeks, and second guy named M. Pollard since Wednesday. Auburn thought they had this in the bag coming off their official visitation two weeks ago, when Pollard’s 4-star DE/DT cousin Caden Story said he and Pollard were likely to go to the same school. Pollard’s dad also grew up in Lanett, AL, near Auburn. But Michigan had their own bloodlines; Pollard is the nephew of Braylon Edwards, and the son of former Colts and Lions TE Marcus Pollard, who played with Harbaugh in Indy. Edwards was reportedly key in this recruitment, which I’m sure will be recognized by all the media shills who’ve been fanning “Braylon is feuding with Harbaugh” talk since the 2018 outburst. This is also one of those recruitments that get the fans to hate us nearly as much as the more conservative elements of college football hate Harbaugh, because the rankings and program have such vastly different opinions. The rankings suggest the kind of guy Tom Allen usually pulls to Indiana, IE as far below the four stars as he is above the average MSU recruit. The offers are that plus Auburn. Meanwhile they’re popping champagne in Schembechler Hall over a recruitment that for Pollard’s future position coach dates back to Maryland. Agents Edwards and Ty Wheatley were dispatched to whisper sweet winged helmet nothings. The drift towards Auburn that the recruiting industry shrugged at set off a five-alarm fire on State Street. They did NOT want to lose this one. What they've won is a pure edge; 247Sports’s Steve Lorenz called him “a perfect fit for the database shift” from their old DE/OLB/ILB categories to DL/Edge/LB. Apparently that has yet to reach the 247 scouts, who still have Pollard in the linebacker category: GURU RATINGS
Arrows show trend of recruiting rankings. An arrow is like a third of a star. That works out to a 3.72* in my scale, right next to Kevonte Henry. The other edge guys in the 3.70 to 3.80 range were Glen Steele (3.80), Shantee Orr (3.72), Noah Furbush (3.71), Taylor Upshaw (3.70), and Charlie Stumb (3.70). From there it goes Kwity Paye (3.66), Josh Uche (3.61), Frank Clark (3.59), and Jake Ryan (3.59), so it’s not exactly unheard of for a guy with Pollard’s recruiting profile to blow up. None of those guys were 200 pounds, but Clark was 205, Uche was 212, and Pollard has another year of high school left. For what it’s worth his Twitter profile says 6-2.5/210. Pollard is still mostly a blank to two of the sites. ESPN added a profile recently but not a ranking. 247 gave him the “87” last February and left him there. Rivals didn’t have him ranked until December, and it’s been a roller coaster since. He moved up from a 5.6 (medium 3-star) to a 5.7 (high 3-star) this summer. [Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]