Mike Martin is a Wolverine

He's the man I referred to as this year's Dexter Larimore. A guy who just looks real bad ass and who is someone you want in the trenches. He has been rocketing up the charts and gaining significant national attention recently. He is on everybody's top 5 players in Michigan list. He is a member of the Rivals 250 and a Rivals 4-star. He is on ESPN's top 150 watch list.

Martin is one of the strongest players in the country. His stat line reads as follows:

6-foot-1

Wt: 295 lbs

Forty: 4.9 secs

Bench max: 420 pounds

Squat max: 550 pounds

Martin is a "two-gap" defensive tackles. He's not going to explode up the field and make a lot of plays in the backfield; however, he is going to stop a lot of plays at the line of scrimmage. Usually these type of college recruits are fat guys who need to get stronger. Martin is an already very strong guy who needs to get fatter. He is a state track and field champion as well as the state's heavyweight wrestling champ (as a junior) (and Dan O'Neil lost in the quarterfinals).

The '08 DT depth chart is now as follows:

NT- T. Taylor (Sr), M. Slocum (So), J. Kates (So), M. Martin (Fr)

DT- W. Johnson (Sr), J. McKinney (Jr), J. Ferrara (S0), R. Sagesse (R-Fr)

It would have been nice to have added O. Hunter, a one-gapper who complements Martin well. Hunter claimed to be a lifelong UM fan who was coming up to Ann Arbor with his dad to commit over the past weekend and that he was "just stopping by Notre Dame on the way." But when he saw how pitiful Notre Dame's DT depth chart is, Fat Charlie was able to convince him to shock everyone and pick Notre Dame. However, looking at the above depth chart, Omar wasn't really needed. Plus, we are still very much in on several other 4-star one gappers if we decide to indeed take a 2nd DT in this class.

(photo by Rivals.com)