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After driving 15 minutes, A.J. Henning had the car turned around to commit to UM in person
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A.J. Henning couldn’t wait. After taking a visit to Ann Arbor, the four-star wide receiver knew he wanted to commit to Michigan and play for Jim Harbaugh and Josh Gattis. But he didn’t want to inform his new coaches through a phone call or text message.
Henning wanted to commit in person.
Last weekend, Henning took an official visit to the University of Michigan. After the top 100 star was on campus, he felt like it was home. Although he had taken visits to Notre Dame, Penn State and Georgia, he said Ann Arbor was the place he “needed to be.”
“They wanted me to go home and reflect on it a couple weeks. And I just knew in my heart that this was the place that I needed to be,” Henning told WolverinesWire.com.
Henning and his family had started to head back home for him to reflect on the options he had in front of him. But the wide receiver was so impressed with Michigan that his mind was made up. So, after spending a few minutes in the car, Henning had the vehicle turned around so he could return to campus and commit to the staff in person.
“We were already on the road for 15 minutes, and I was just telling my parents, ‘I want to do it in person. I want to have that experience of doing it in person,'” Henning said. “They asked the driver – we got a driver to take us back home – and they asked the driver if he could turn around and could we do it? And he had no problem doing it, so we turned around and did it. It was really exciting.”
Henning became the top player committed in Michigan’s 2020 recruiting class. The Frankfort, Illinois native is the No. 16 wide receiver and overall ranked as the No. 80 player of the cycle. To say his pledge was a huge addition for Harbaugh and Gattis is an understatement.
And it’s a pretty cool story of how Henning decided to join the Wolverines.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB