Michigan Football Recruiting: Scout ranks U-M’s 2016 class No. 1, for now

With the recent commitment from Kareem Walker, Michigan football has the number one recruiting class according to Scout.com

Thanks to Thursday’s commitment (Dec. 17) from 5-star running back Kareem Walker, the Michigan football team now has scout.com’s No. 1 national team ranking.

Walker first committed to Ohio State nearly a year ago, but wavered this past season and eventually reopened his recruitment.

Until the last few days, Walker was also considering Alabama, Auburn, Arizona State and Florida State, but few were surprised that the Wayne (NJ) DePaul Catholic star chose Michigan instead. Walker will most likely enroll early, allowing him to participate in spring practice and compete for a running back slot next fall.

National Signing Day

While the Wolverines might not retain the No. 1 ranking when players (who don’t enroll early) can officially sign letters of intent (National Signing Day) Feb. 5, U-M coach Jim Harbaugh’s first full recruiting class will be termed a huge success.

Michigan is still in line to land the nation’s top overall prospect, defensive tackle Rashan Gary, of Paramus (NJ) Catholic, the same school that current Wolverines Jabrill Peppers and Juwann Bushell-Beatty attend.

Incidentally, Harbaugh just happened to hire previous Paramus Catholic head coach Chris Partridge (now Michigan’s interim linebacker coach) to an administrative job last spring.

Jersey Guys

Walker is hoping to help land Gary, making New Jersey a true pipeline to excellent high school talent. Commits Ahmir Mitchell, Brad Hawkins and Ron Johnson all prepped in New Jersey.

“There are Jersey guys there (Michigan),” Walker told scout.com. “I will tell him, ‘You know what (coach Jim) Harbaugh is capable of, you know what you’re capable of on the field. You know you’re capable of coming in there and playing. Let’s do it together. We were both big stars, we were both the top two recruits (in New Jersey) coming out of high school, so let’s do this thing together.'”

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Recruiting service 247sports.com and rivals.com has Michigan at No. 2, while espn.com ($) has the Wolverines No. 9.

Landing Gary and a few more 4- or 5-stars players could assure Michigan the top 2016 class unanimously.