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Early enrollees impressing already at Michigan, Jim Harbaugh says

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Making the adjustment from high school to college cane be a difficult one for student-athletes. Sometimes, players who enroll early with a program might run into some trouble as they begin their new journey.

It doesn’t sound like that is the case in Ann Arbor with Michigan’s 2021 early enrollees. This winter, 10 of the program’s 23 commits in the Wolverines’ 10th-ranked recruiting class are on campus and ready to start preparing for the upcoming season.

So far, those early enrollees have caught the attention of head coach Jim Harbaugh. He’s been really impressed with their maturity and their transition from high school to college over the past few weeks.

Harbaugh pointed to a number of players in particular who have done well since arriving on campus. Among those names were heralded recruits like 5-star quarterback J.J. McCarthy and 4-star running back Donovan Edwards.

“We do have quite a few mid-year players, new players that have come in. J.J.’s doing extremely well. And I can say that, really [about anyone],” Harbaugh said on Thursday. “It’s been impressive.

“It’s been off to a really good start. They’re taking care of business in the classroom, getting to know college. Really just doing a good job taking care of their business on and off the field.”

Michigan added 23 high school recruits to the roster during the latest recruiting cycle, and nearly half enrolled early. The Wolverines had the nation’s No. 10 recruiting class and is No. 2 in the B1G, behind only Ohio State.

This past season was an ugly one for the Wolverines, finishing with a 2-4 record, the only losing record of the Harbaugh era. The squad is looking to re-establish itself as a power in the B1G in 2021.

Having those high-level recruits get a few extra months of practice should help in their development and getting Michigan back into the spotlight.

Michigan started spring practice on Monday.

Dustin Schutte

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