Trieu: UM seeks upper hand in recruiting Onwenu
Michigan has an important basketball game against rival Michigan State on Tuesday and several key football recruits will be in attendance.
Detroit King's Donnie Corley, considered by many to be the state's top prospect, will be there. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound wide receiver's presence on campus is an important one, as it will be his first opportunity to spend extended time with the new coaching staff. He recently named a top five, which did not have Michigan in it, and he has built good relationships with schools like Ohio State and Michigan State, so this visit will be one in which the Wolverines look to establish themselves with Corley.
The same can be said for Farmington Hills Harrison defensive end Khalid Kareem, who was one of the first juniors Jim Harbaugh offered when he took over as head coach. Kareem, who added an offer from Alabama on Monday, was briefly committed to Michigan State, but has since decided to take a closer look at other schools before making another decision.
Detroit Cass Tech has been a school Michigan consistently recruits and gets players from, and three of their top prospects will attend the game. Offensive lineman Michael Onwenu already holds a Michigan offer, one he received last July, shortly after performing at the Wolverines' summer camp. A powerful interior prospect, Onwenu also received a recent Alabama offer.
Onwenu will be joined at the game by fellow junior Demetric Vance, who had an excellent season as a safety and now holds offers from Michigan State, Tennessee, Iowa and more, and explosive wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones, arguably the state's best prospect in the 2017 class. Peoples-Jones has offers from Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State, Tennessee and more. He does not have a Michigan offer yet, but it would not be surprising to see him land one eventually.
Athletic DT offered
Naquan Jones, a 6-4, 295-pound defensive tackle from Evanston, Ill., was offered by the Wolverines on Monday night. Michigan joins Penn State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and others on his list.
"Yes, I plan on visiting," he said. "Hopefully I can get down there next month."
South Carolina was the most recent offer for Jones. He was one of the top performers at the Adidas Showcase in Pontiac last November.
Wolverines hit Lone Star State hard
Michigan has extended several new offers in Texas. McKinley North defensive end Justin Madubuike, a national top-25 prospect on Scout, was offered. Michigan joins a who's who of schools on his list, which includes Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, Texas A&M and more.
Houston Manvel offensive lineman Austin Meyers (6-4, 280) was offered by Michigan. He has addditional offers from Arizona State, Missouri, Oklahoma, TCU and more.
Two others in Houston -- Alief Elsik linebacker Dontavious Jackson and Aldine Davis linebacker Jeffrey McCulloch -- were offered last month. Jackson is looking to visit Ann Arbor, possibly as soon as this spring. He says the engineering program is among the reasons he will give the Wolverines a hard look.
McCulloch, who referred to the Michigan offer as "incredible," says he would also like to visit in the spring. Both Houston-area linebackers have said that distance will not be a factor in theiir decisions.
More information
Allen Trieu began covering the state of Michigan for Scout.com in 2005 and began managing the entire Midwest in 2009. He has been featured on the Big Ten Network on its annual Signing Day Show. His Michigan and Michigan State recruiting columns appear weekly at detroitnews.com.