Michigan Monday: The Chase is Over, He is Blue

Jefferson Hills (PA) Thomas Jefferson linebacker Chase Winovich picked Michigan over Ohio State and Pitt on Saturday afternoon.   Chase had visited Pitt on Tuesday and there were rumblings he had committed to the Panthers.   That obviously was in-correct and Chase becomes the second LB and 11th Wolverine commit to the 2014 class.  Which has all of sudden has become a class with only 5 or 6 spots left in early June (some expect the class to eventually get up to around 20 but right now, I believe there are only 16 total spots in the class).

Michigan recruited Chase as a SAM linebacker and he comes in a very similar size (6'3 220) and style of play as Jake Ryan.   Some of Greg Mattison's recruiting magic was to splice some tape of both Jake and Chase and put them side by side to show Chase that they have similar styles and will have similar success at Michigan.  

Chase is a 3 star LB to all the services (it's rare to see all the services in agreement) but has an impressive list of offers which include Stanford, OSU, Arizona, BC, MSU, FSU, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Va Tech and many others (21 total offers).   He was clearly Michigan's #1 choice at LB to join Michael Ferns.   It will be interesting to see if Chase star rating goes up after he committed to one of the top classes in the country.

With Chase on board, Michigan continues to focus 2014 recruiting on Mr. Hand and Mr. McDowell.  They would also like to get another CB (Parrker Westphal?), one more WR, a RB and probably just one more offensive lineman. 

• Hand doesn't seem to be a huge fan of OSU.  Regarding his visit this weekend (he was in town for a Nike Camp):  "It was straight, we talked," Hand said. "But I was with Tim (his teammate) , and he's a beast, and it was kind of his visit. Everyone knows that my first visit wasn't all that, but this visit was better. Still, I don't want to get anyone's hopes up."  He did earn his Opening invite, which is his second.  He made the Opening as a junior last year as well.   Regarding Michigan:  "But my favorite coaching staff is Michigan," Hand said. "With Michigan, what you see if what you get. It's professional. With some, you feel like when you get to college it might change, but with Michigan, everyone says they're straight.

• Michigan's 2015 schedule is now out, don't forget they are opening on a Thursday at Utah.

Date	Opponent
Sept. 3	at Utah
Sept. 12	OREGON STATE
Sept. 19	UNLV
Sept. 26	BRIGHAM YOUNG
Oct. 3	at Maryland
Oct. 10	NORTHWESTERN
Oct. 17	MICHIGAN STATE
Oct. 24	Bye
Oct. 31	at Minnesota
Nov. 7	RUTGERS
Nov. 14	at Indiana
Nov. 21	at Penn State
Nov. 28	OHIO STATE
Dec. 5	Big Ten Championship Game