All recruiting news for Michigan football and Michigan State football will be moving into separate national signing day StoryStreams later today, but before that happens there are two pieces of news to catch up on for the schools:
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- Flint running back Thomas Rawls committed to Michigan on Monday night. Rawls played at Flint Northern for Fred Jackson Jr., the son of Michigan running backs coach Fred Jackson. Jackson Jr. said that as high school backs, he would rather have Rawls over Mark Ingram, who played at Flint Southwestern before going to Alabama and winning the Heisman Trophy. Obviously Jackson Jr. is biased since he coached Rawls, but the newest Michigan commit did break Ingram's single-game rushing record last season. Perhaps it's not too wild of a comparison when you talk about them as high school players.
As far as what the recruiting services have to say about Rawls, he is a consensus three-star running back. Because his academics were a bit of a concern, many believe he is ranked lower than he should be. It is believed that his offer list includes only Michigan, Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Toledo for this reason. Whatever the case, he is Michigan's 18th commit and could see playing time as a freshman (if he qualifies) since he is pro-style back that is a good fit for Brady Hoke's system. ↵ - New Jersey defensive tackle Marquise Wright decided to attend college in his home state, picking Rutgers over Michigan State on Tuesday. Wright is a four-star recruit on Rivals and Scout and is the No. 4 player in the state of New Jersey, according to Rivals. ↵