4-Star Safety From Chicago Commits to Michigan

On Tuesday night, 4-star safety Darrell Mattison has committed to Head Coach Kyle Whittingham and the Michigan Wolverines. He shared his commitment on X here. Mattison was a top target for this new staff, and according to 247 sports is a top 247 player in the country. Mattison hails from Morgan Park high school in Chicago, IL and is currently rated as the 23rd safety in the country and the 11th best player from Illinois. He committed to the Wolverines over Illinois, Cincinnati, Indiana, Iowa, and others.

Scouting Report

Darrell Mattison is an athletic safety, and listed at 6'2" and weighing 160 lbs. he's got good size for the position as well. You don't have to watch very far into his highlight tape to recognize his superior coverage ability and ball skills. So far in high school he's played a lot of deep safety and that's what he projects to play in college as well. He's got the look of an excellent coverage safety who also has the frame to add weight and be able to hold his own in the box as well.

As far as tackling goes, Mattison is instinctive and aggressive despite only weighing 160 lbs. He will need to wrap up better and more consistently to tackle college level players but he's got plenty of time to work on that before he makes his way to Ann Arbor. He certainly doesn't lack for physicality in tackling, and that can often times be the hardest thing to teach a young defensive back. With his all-around skill set, this is a recruit I could see rising up the rankings quite a bit before the end of this 2027 recruiting cycle.

Michigan's 2027 class

Mattison now joins a class that ranks 36th overall in the country in the way-too-early recruiting rankings. He is the second highest rated commit in the class now behind Recarder Kitchen, who is ranked 137th nationally. A big part of why Michigan's class of 2027 is only ranked 36th is because Mattison is now just the 4th member of the class. Needless to say, there's a long way to go in terms of this 2027 recruiting cycle for the Wolverines, but with more additions like Darrell Mattison it should end up being a good recruiting class for the Wolverines once it's all said and done.

Darrell Mattison is a big time addition for this class and can hopefully help build out a nice overall class for the Wolverines now that he's committed. Picking up talented kids from Chicago is always a nice win on the recruiting trail given the proximity to Ann Arbor, and hopefully he can help recruit other talented Chicago area kids to Michigan with him as well.