Four-star quarterback Kamden Lopati flips commitment from Illinois to Michigan

Salt Lake City (Utah) West quarterback Kamden Lopati just announced his commitment to Michigan.

Lopati de-committed from Illinois Monday morning and announced he’ll play his college ball for the Wolverines moments ago.

“I have great relationships with the entire Michigan staff and that was big for me,” Lopati said. “All of those coaches were recruiting me when they were at Utah and picked things right back up when they got to Michigan.

““Coach Detmer and coach Beck are great guys and great coaches and I really think Coach Whitt (Kyle Whittingham) will be able to have a lot of success right away at Michigan. He’s a great coach and I’m excited to play for him.”

Lopati talked up the tradition and the opportunity to play on the big stage in the Big House as other factors.

“Growing up, I’ve always liked Michigan and their football tradition,” Lopati said. “When they offered, that was big deal for me because it’s a schoolI always followed when I was younger.

“The game day atmosphere there is incredible and the fan base is so passionate. I love the culture of the program and it’s just a  special place. The Big House is incredible, the facilities are as good as you’re going to see and it’s just different there. When you combine all that with my relationships with the staff, it really helped put them over the top.”

Lopati’s recruitment was an interesting one to track. He committed to Illinois last July but is recruitment really took post junior season. Tennessee offered in December and then schools like Duke, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Michigan all jumped in as well.

Notre Dame was the dream school and the program many felt had the best shot to flip him. He visited South Bend the last weekend of March and really raved about the visit.

“My visit felt intentional and more detailed compared to the previous trips,” Lopati told Rivals.com immediately following the trip. “Before, it was more about getting familiar with the program and the environment, but this time it felt like they really focused on me.

“This time, the focus was who I am as a player and as a person and how I fit into the Notre Dame family and how Notre Dame fits into my family and that was important to me.”

A week later, Lopati visited Michigan and the Wolverines were able to seal the deal shortly after the trip. From then, it was just a matter of making all the tough calls and waiting for the right time to announce.

Lopati is one of the nation’s top quarterback prospects, checking in as the No. 122 player nationally in the Rivals Industry Ranking, an equally weighted average that utilizes all three major recruiting services as well as the No. 9 signal caller in the country.

We had a chance to see him in action at the Adidas Polynesian Bowl Combine last month and he was as good as advertised.

He flashed the kind of next level tools you want to see from a player rated so highly and his game is trending in the right direction.

Lopati has a big, strong frame at 6-foot-2, 230 pounds but carries his weight well and has excellent mobility. Mechanically, he showed off a smooth, easy delivery and had arguably the strongest arm in the camp.

His release was tight, he doesn’t need a big wind up to get the ball down the field and he was accurate and decisive. He just looks like a Big Ten quarterback