Washington offensive guard Joshua Garnett has committed to Stanford. Garnett announced his decision during a press conference on Thursday at his high school that was actually attended by the mayor of Puyallup, his hometown. Garnett picked Stanford over Michigan, Oregon, Washington, Miami, Cal, USC and UCLA. He held offers from several other schools, but those schools made up his top eight. Stanford and Michigan comprised his top two, and the Cardinal ended up being his choice.
Garnett is a four-star offensive guard on three of the major recruiting sites and has five stars on Scout, so this is a tough one to swallow for Michigan fans. Had the Wolverines landed Garnett, they would have gone into signing day with the top offensive line class in the nation for 2012. Instead, with Garnett headed to Stanford, Michigan now has an extra spot to fill on the offensive line.
Currently, the Wolverines have four offensive line commits: Kyle Kalis, Ben Braden, Erik Magnuson and Blake Bars. Tight end A.J. Williams could end up playing on the offensive line in college, and Michigan is still in the mix for offensive linemen Jordan Diamond, Alex Kozan and Chris Muller, who is committed to Rutgers but may be back in play with head coach Greg Schiano being hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The bright side for Michigan is that it will still likely finish with an outstanding offensive line class, but landing Garnett would have put it over the top.