The states Michigan football has recruited the most under Jim Harbaugh

Michigan’s football program has historically cast a wide net when it comes to recruiting. The Wolverines have mined states from coast to coast and even overseas to find high school talent. That has remained the case under Jim Harbaugh, who has coached at his alma mater since 2015. During his tenure, Michigan has landed recruits from 30 states, Washington DC and four countries. Although Harbaugh has served as the head coach, his assistants play a primary role when it comes to scouting and recruiting players and areas. With Harbaugh at the helm, there has been frequent turnover among assistant coaches, which can lead to shifts in recruiting. Just two coaches -- Jay Harbaugh and Sherrone Moore -- remain on staff from 2020. For instance, the Wolverines had a lull in recruiting Ohio from 2020-22, landing just one prospect from their rival state during that span. But with defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, an Ohio native, joining the staff in 2021, Michigan has had a resurgence. It signed four players from Ohio in the 2023 cycle and currently has four committed in the 2024 class. Beating Ohio State in back-to-back seasons helps, too. “He’s been the conductor of this orchestra,” The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich said of Clinkscale. “He’s got many connections, many ties within that state, and especially in the very fertile recruiting areas within Ohio. He knows the people to talk to, he knows where the players are and he knows what schools to really attack and really focus on.” While there has been an uptick in recruiting success in Ohio, the Wolverines have had a higher hit rate in two other states under Harbaugh: Michigan and Florida. Here’s a look at the number of recruits Michigan has landed by state plus a year-by-year graphic. Click here if you can’t see it. The list includes the 2015 class through the 2023 class. The Wolverines currently have 21 commitments in the 2024 class, but those players cannot sign their letter of intent until December. Michigan: 37 Florida: 26 Ohio: 18 New Jersey: 14 Georgia, California: 13 Connecticut: 10 Illinois: 9 Texas: 8 Alabama, Massachusetts: 7 Maryland: 6 Colorado: 5 Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Missouri: 4 Indiana, New York, Virginia: 3 New Mexico, Washington DC: 2 Iowa, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Oregon, Nevada, Rhode Island, Hawaii, France, Canada, Germany: 1 Trends/takeaways - At times, Michigan has been criticized for not being able to close with some of the top prospects in the state. The Wolverines certainly have had their misses, but they still are reeling in talent in their backyard at a high rate. They’ve signed at least two in-state prospects every year except for 2022, when they landed five-star cornerback Will Johnson out of Grosse Pointe South. Of the 37 in-state recruits Harbaugh has brought in, seven were rated as top-100 prospects in the country. With Ron Bellamy, the former head coach at Division I power West Bloomfield for more than a decade, on Harbaugh’s staff for the past two seasons, Michigan should remain a major player for in-state prospects moving forward. - The Wolverines signed six players from Ohio in the 2019 class, but former assistants and Ohio natives Ed Warinner and Al Washington both had a major hand in inking that class. Once they departed and the losing streak to OSU continued to extend, Michigan did not have as much of a presence in the region for a few cycles. - Former defensive coordinator Don Brown was born in Massachusetts and spent the majority of his coaching career in the northeast. It’s no surprise Michigan made the region a priority when he was on staff from 2016-20. During that period, the Wolverines signed seven players from Connecticut, five from Massachusetts, two from New York and Kwity Paye from Rhode Island. - Florida is arguably the richest state when it comes to high school talent, and Michigan has made the sunshine state a priority regardless of who has been on staff. The Wolverines had signed at least one Florida recruit under Harbaugh until last cycle. - Illinois is quickly becoming a hotbed for the Wolverines. All nine Illinois prospects have come since 2019, and that doesn’t include five-star quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who attended high school in Illinois for three years before spending his senior year at IMG Academy in Florida. - Will New Jersey becoming a priority again now that Chris Partridge is back on staff? He is a New Jersey native and coached high school at power Paramus Catholic before joining Harbaugh’s staff from 2015-19. But when he departed for Ole Miss in 2020, Michigan signed just two players in the state from 2021-23. With Partridge returning this offseason, the Wolverines snapped a two-year drought by getting a commitment in the 2024 class from four-star defensive lineman Owen Wafle.