VOLVERINES HAS FINALLY OWNED THE RACE BY SIGNING.

Michigan will be inspected by one of the most highly regarded and sought-after players on the 247Sports transfer portal.

Joey Slackman, a defensive tackle transfer from Penn who graduated, has confirmed to The Michigan Insider that he will be visiting Ann Arbor this weekend.

This coming weekend, I will be visiting,” Slackman said to The Michigan Insider. They rank among the best, and I’m doing a lot of research on them. eager to talk more with the staff.

Since registering on the transfer portal last month, the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Slackman has received over 20 scholarship offers, including one from the Wolverines in late November.

The former Ivy League standout is ranked as the No. 22 overall prospect and the No. 3 defensive lineman in the 247Sports Transfer Portal Ranking, earning him a four-star rating.

Slackman, a Long Island native from Commack, New York, originally enrolled at Penn in 2019 to wrestle. However, following an injury sustained during his freshman year and the cancellation of Ivy League athletics for 2020–21, he decided to switch back to football. After participating in nine defensive line games in 2021 and recording 16 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss, he really started to shine as an upperclassman. Slackman played in 19 games during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, tallying 99 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, and 8.5 sacks.

According to Pro Football Focus, he was also credited with 44 run stops and 49 quarterback pressures during that period. He was the top-graded defensive tackle this season and had the 12th-highest grade among FCS defensive tackles in 2022, according to PFF.

Naturally, entering the NCAA Transfer Portal does not indicate that a player is leaving because they have the option to leave the portal at any time. Having said that, hundreds or even thousands of players are anticipated to transfer to other FBS teams over the course of the next few weeks. This is the first cycle of transfer portal windows, which for the FBS run from December 5 to January 18 and again from April 15 to 30. Players can no longer access the portal whenever they want, though there are still instances where the rules are broken. Athletes have already begun logging into the portal because they are exempt from these rules, as are graduate transfers and players whose head coaches have left the program.

Additionally, schools are no longer restricted to signing 25 initial counters every cycle. Programs can therefore actively reorganize their rosters in order to fill their allotted 85 scholarships. Many people across the nation think that this will result in players being cut from the roster. Additionally, the NCAA passed a rule requiring colleges to maintain transfer athletes on scholarship until the end of their undergraduate program or until their eligibility clock runs out. Because they are guaranteed a spot on the roster regardless of what happens, taking an undergraduate transfer carries greater risk than it has ever done.