sony michel

Today's recruiting roundup covers upcoming visitors, Gareon Conley's status, and more. Apologies for the lack of content from me this week—in the midst of an ill-timed move. Things will be back to normal next week.

McDowell Takes All Of The Visits?

2014 MI DE Malik McDowell is perhaps the top in-state recruit in the junior class, and both Michigan and Michigan State are in hot pursuit of the Detroit Loyola prospect. Tremendous reported on Tuesday that McDowell would visit Ann Arbor for this weekend's UMass game. Great news, right?

Not so fast, my friend.

Scout's Allen Trieu quickly refuted that report, saying he'd talked to multiple sources close to McDowell who said that he's actually be at Saturday night's Michigan State-Notre Dame matchup. Bad news, right?

Not so fast, my friend.

As it turns out, Ann Arbor and East Lansing are rather close, and not all college football games begin at the same time. Trieu cleared the air this morning, posting on the GBW's message board that McDowell will make it to both games this weekend ($). I'm guessing McDowell will have to leave the Big House a little early to get to EL in time for kickoff, but it's a very encouraging sign that he's willing to see Michigan play freakin' UMass at all, let alone go out of his way to check out the game.

McDowell isn't the only big-time 2014 recruit slated to visit this weekend, as Tremendous reports that 247Sports five-star FL RB Sony Michel will make the trip to Ann Arbor. Michel holds offers from a laundry list of national powers and will likely add one from Michigan when he's on campus. Again, anybody willing to visit for a game against UMass likely has serious interest, so this is big news. Michel missed last season with an injury, but played on varsity starting in 8th grade(!)—you can see his impressive freshman highlights above. There's also a short reel from his first game back from injury this season; let's just say he hasn't lost a step.

EDIT: Tim Sullivan gave me a heads up—as did several of you in the comments—that Michel's brother plays for UMass, which is the main reason he'll be at the game this weekend. Probably best to dial down expectations regarding his interest. Carry on.

The Michigan State game continues to shape up into the biggest recruiting event of the fall for the Wolverines. 247's Steve Wiltfong details the official visit plans of 2013 FL S Leon McQuay III—his visit for that weekend is set($), and he's also planning to check out Vanderbilt, USC, Oregon, and Florida State. USC is believed to have the edge for McQuay, but there are concerns that they won't have an available spot for him due to their NCAA-mandated scholarship crunch. Also visiting for MSU will be 2014 OH OL Nathaniel Devers, high school teammate of Gareon Conley, according to Scout's Bill Greene ($).

Conley Taking Visits?

2013 commit Gareon Conley caused a stir last week when he posted a couple tweets—which he later deleted—suggesting that he had committed to Michigan too soon and may be looking to take visits. Bill Greene made his way to Massillon Washington to further investigate and was told by both Conley and his head coach that he's still committed to Michigan ($). Not all appears to be settled, however, as Greene says that Conley's family believes he committed too quickly and is encouraging him to take visits—his mother lives on the West Coast and reportedly would like for him to check out some schools out there.

This shouldn't come as a huge surprise; Michigan represented the first major interest in Conley as a recruit and he committed almost immediately upon receiving an offer. Since that time, his stock has exploded, both as a cornerback and more recently at wide receiver. It's entirely understandable that he may be rethinking how he went about his recruitment.

I don't think there's cause for major concern until we get word from Conley directly that he'll take visits—remember, we've been through this before with guys like David Dawson and nothing came about from that situation. That said, Brady Hoke has been steadfast in his policy regarding commits taking visits—if they do, they're no longer a commit—and I don't expect him to soften that stance. It sounds like Conley still wants to end up at Michigan, but he'd like to see a few schools to make sure he didn't rush into a choice—it's entirely possible that a meeting with the coaches is all it takes to settle this issue, as it did with Dawson.

If Conley takes visits and is dropped from the class, McQuay becomes a higher priority—while he projects more as a safety than a corner, Michigan should still be set at CB with Jourdan Lewis, Ross Douglas, and Channing Stribling.

Etc.

Tremendous introduces you to 2014 Detroit Country Day WR Moe Ways, who is 6'3", 185 pounds, and most importantly named Moe Ways. He's received interest from Michigan State and Northwestern and really wants to hear from the Wolverines. Also, Moe Ways. Moe Ways.

Potential high school transcript malfeasance regarding a former SEC commit? Well, I never.

Potential booster malfeasance regarding a former SEC recruit? I'm shocked at the very notion.