Usually, Michigan football’s biggest recruiting month is June, but new Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham wasn’t content to wait around until official visit season to fill out the foundation of the 2026 recruiting class.
The maize and blue added most of the players who will likely be considered the cornerstones of the class in May, but the whole of the spring was impressive. From flipping quarterback Kamden Lopati from Illinois, to winning wide receiver Quentin Burrell, to flipping tight end Colt Lumpris from Alabama, there were some impressive moves made this spring.
And ESPN is taking notice.
In its summer recruiting primer, ESPN added a section that delineated the spring recruiting winners, and the Wolverines were one of five schools to be mentioned, along with Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Miami, and UCLA.
Four-star tight end Colt Lumpris was recruited by Sherrone Moore and his staff before he committed to Alabama last December. After Moore’s firing and the subsequent hiring of coach Kyle Whittingham, Lumpris started hearing from the Wolverines again … and again … and again.
Led by tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham, Michigan was persistent with Lumpris this spring all the way through to his flip from the Crimson Tide last weekend.
“The way that they’re recruiting is if they want a guy, they’re going to go get ’em,” said Lumpris, No. 218 overall. “They pushed hard for me. This new staff makes you feel like a priority.”
One of 13 additions to the Wolverines’ class since March 1, Lumpris’ pledge came as part of an aggressive push from Whittingham and his staff following their arrival from Utah in December.
The Wolverines made use of its Utah ties to pull off their biggest splash of the offseason, flipping No. 2 overall quarterback Lopati, of Salt Lake City, from Illinois in April. He’ll arrive on campus alongside recent offensive tackle additions Sidney Rouleau (No. 132 overall) and Jakari Lipsey (No. 265) as well as four-star wide receiver pledge Quentin Burrell (No. 56).
Four-star cornerback Tavares Harrington (No. 102 overall) and defensive end Xavier Muhammad (No. 132) followed Moore-era edge rush pledge Recarder Kitchen into the program’s incoming defensive class last month. Dobson (No. 7) and Blake Jenkins (No. 198) remain a pair of priority targets for the Wolverines, with both prospects scheduled for visits in June.
The only bad news of the past month was losing out on linebacker Ethan Hauser to Vanderbilt and safety Maxwell Miles flipping to Minnesota on Sunday. But otherwise, the maize and blue have done about as well as they could have done in the past two months.
Here is the current class as it stands, ranked by the Rivals Industry Ranking:
- Chicago (Ill.) Mount Carmel four-star WR Quentin Burrell (No. 85 overall)
- Houston (Tx.) South four-star DL Xavier Muhammad (No. 102 overall)
- Kalamazoo (Mich.) Loy Norrix four-star OT Jakari Lipsey (No. 104 overall)
- Salt Lake City (Utah) West four-star QB Kamden Lopati (No. 119 overall)
- Chicago (Ill.) Mount Carmel four-star S Tavares Harrington (No. 124 overall)
- Muskegon (Mich.) four-star EDGE Recarder Kitchen (No. 134 overall)
- Jackson (Miss.) Brandon four-star RB Tyson Robinson (No. 212 overall)
- Lawrenceville (N.J.) School four-star TE Colt Lumpris (No. 268 overall)
- Riverside (Calif.) Notre Dame four-star CB Darius Johnson (No. 311 overall)
- Indianapolis (Ind.) four-star EDGE Jayce Brewer (No. 361 overall)
- Gatineau (Quebec) Brook Hill three-star IOL Sidney Rouleau (No. 424 overall)
- Saline (Mich.) three-star IOL Louis Esposito (No. 601 overall)
- Orlando (Fla.) Lake Nona three-star S Charles Woodson Jr. (No. 617 overall)
- Buford (Ga.) three-star LB Brayden Watson (No. 787 overall)
- Grand Rapids (Mich.) Kenowa Hills three-star ATH Lundon Hampton (No. 970 overall)
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: ESPN names Michigan football a recruiting winner