Michigan football's 2027 class earns high ESPN praise

Often, when it comes to Michigan football recruiting, ESPN has tended to be the outlier, with the worldwide leader often not having given much thought to who the Wolverines are bringing in. Whether the players that the maize and blue had targeted any given year were either underscouted or not well thought of is unclear, but such is not the case for Michigan in the 2027 recruiting cycle.

Usually, ESPN is the lowest on the players that the Wolverines bring in. More often than not, in this cycle, the opposite is true.

While ESPN doesn't do constant team rankings as do Rivals and 247Sports, once it does, you'd have to expect that Michigan will be ranked rather high. Here are the committed Wolverines that are listed in the ESPN 300, by ranking:

• Salt Lake City (West) four-star QB Kamden Lopati (No. 46 overall)
• Chicago (Ill.) Mount Carmel four-star WR Quentin Burrell (No. 57 overall)
• Jackson (Miss.) Brandon four-star RB Tyson Robinson (No. 114 overall)
• Gatineau (Quebec) Brook Hill four-star IOL Sidney Rouleau (No. 123 overall)
• Houston (Tx.) South four-star DL Xavier Muhammad (No. 132 overall)
• Muskegon (Mich.) four-star EDGE Recarder Kitchen (No. 152 overall)
• Kalamazoo (Mich.) Loy Norrix four-star OT Jakari Lipsey (No. 265 overall)

Only edge rusher Jayce Brewer, offensive lineman Louis Esposito, and safeties Charles Woodson Jr. and Maxwell Miles don't have a numerical ranking via ESPN. Lopati, Burrell, Robinson, and Rouleau each have their highest rating on ESPN, whereas 247Sports is highest on Lipsey and Kitchen, while Rivals is highest on Muhammad and Brewer.

Michigan doesn't have the most ESPN 300 recruits committed, but it's up there. Texas A&M and Oklahoma lead with 11, has 10, and each have eight, Michigan has seven, along with Miami, , and , has six, while , , , and each have four.