Michigan’s top-ranked overall player in the 2025 class just flipped his commitment to Auburn. Here is what reportedly went down with top-50 four-star DL Nate Marshall:
The Michigan Wolverines just lost their top-ranked player in the 2025 class, as four-star defensive lineman Nate Marshall flipped his commitment from Michigan to Auburn.
BREAKING: Four-Star DL Nate Marshall has Flipped his Commitment from Michigan to Auburn, he tells me for @on3recruits
The 6’4 250 DL from Oak Park, IL had been Committed to the Wolverines since April
“What Cam say? Indeed ”https://t.co/q6SSwqOBGY pic.twitter.com/k91PiUtZNX
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) August 23, 2024
On3’s Steve Wiltfong ($) reported late Thursday night that Michigan was still working on keeping Marshall in the class, but Auburn “has moved back to the forefront.” Ultimately, he put in a flip prediction for Auburn, and he was quickly joined by insiders across networks.
Over on 247Sports, Midwest Recruiting Analyst Allen Trieu ($) reported that Michigan will continue to recruit Marshall, but will also evaluate other defensive linemen moving forward. Additionally, Trieu said “NIL is a factor” for Marshall’s flip — you don’t say?! — but Trieu also pointed out that Auburn’s defensive tackles coach, Vontrell King-Williams, is a native of Chicago and that, “the area connection certainly helped as a starting point.”
Marshall committed to defensive line coach Lou Esposito and the Wolverines back in April, which was viewed as a big surprise at the time considering Esposito had been on the job for less than a month. However, despite being committed, Marshall made an official visit to Auburn earlier this summer and nearly visited there again for its BBQ event in July before ultimately visiting Ann Arbor instead.
At the end of the day, this is a brutal loss for Sherrone Moore and company. Marshall was Michigan’s highest ranked player (No. 46 overall) on 247Sports’ composite and was a key piece to the future of the defense. What’s even worse is the Wolverines have swung and missed on other key targets along the defensive line this summer — four-star edge Marco Jones and four-star defensive tackle DJ Sanders both committed to Texas A&M, while four-star defensive tackle Maxwell Roy picked Ohio State (after Michigan led for him and had predictions at one point) and four-star edge Mariyon Dye chose Tennessee.
Luckily, Marshall wasn’t the only committed defensive lineman, as Michigan still holds verbals from four-stars Julius Holly (edge) and Jaylen Williams (flex), and three-star Bobby Kanka (interior).
We’ll see how the Wolverines rebound from this and if they are still able to effectively recruit Marshall moving forward, but there’s no sugarcoating how bad it is to lose a top-50 overall player to an inferior college football program.