Jordan Diamond Announcement: Can Michigan Afford to Lose out on Him?

Michigan coach Brady Hoke has to be extremely proud of the 2012 recruiting class he brought in, as most major recruiting services in the country ranked the Wolverines' class as one of the ten best in the country this year. 

The fun part?

Michigan is still in play for one of the top overall prospects in the country, OT Jordan Diamond, who will be announcing his college decision tonight at 7 pm central. 

Diamond lists Michigan as one of his four finalists, with the others being Arkansas, Auburn and Wisconsin.

For a long time, many believed that the Wolverines could be a front-runner to land his services, but Diamond had given no true indication yet as to where he's actually leaning. 

When top SEC schools come calling, they can often times be tough to say "no: to, so it wouldn't exactly be surprising if Diamond ends up signing with either Arkansas or Auburn instead of the Wolverines.

If that did happen, though, the question is: How big of a blow would it be to Michigan's 2012 class?  

What Jordan Diamond Offers Michigan

Diamond is considered one of the top offensive tackle prospects of the 2012 recruiting class, and with good reason. The 6'6'', 290-pound high school senior has the type of size, power and agility to develop into a monster offensive tackle at the collegiate level, and he's at a stage now physically where he should be able to step in early in his career and compete with the best competition in the country. 

Like most offensive tackle recruits, Diamond is still raw and rough around the edges, and his technique needs some work, but he's the type of athletic piece of clay that any offensive line coach would love to mold into a versatile bookend. 

During his time at Simeon High School in Chicago, Diamond proved that he's got the potential to be one of the rare elite tackles in college football, and if he keeps developing as expected, he could eventually transform into a dominating force in the trenches. 

Michigan’s Returning Offensive Linemen

Left tackle Taylor Lewan may not be the next Jake Long, but he definitely looks like he's going to be one of the best offensive linemen in not only the Big Ten, but the entire country next season. 

Lewan will be the leader of an offensive line that loses two key starters from a year ago—center David Molk and right tackle Mark Huyge, but one returns in starting guard Patrick Omameh.

Sophomore Michael Shoefield will likely be in the mix at either right tackle or left guard, depending on what happens with the center position, and there's plenty of room for some of the top-rated incoming freshman recruits to make a name for themselves as well. 

Michigan’s 2012 Offensive Line Recruits

Stanford may have built the best offensive line class in the country this year with standouts like Andrus Peat, Josh Garnett and Kyle Murphy, but Michigan also deserves a ton of credit for the linemen it brought in. 

Five-star tackle Kyle Kalis is the star of the show, but the other three signees—Blake Bars, Erik Magnuson and Ben Braden—are all very highly touted prospects who look to be prototypical Big Ten-type of linemen. 

Although the Wolverines lost out on Garnett to the Cardinal, they definitely did a terrific job adding some stability to the trenches, and it wouldn't be shocking to see Kalis and a few others develop into All-Big Ten caliber players over the next few years. 

So How Much Would It Hurt to Lose Him?

Obviously, anytime you lose a highly coveted 4-star recruit like Jordan Diamond, it's going to hurt, but given the talent that Michigan already has at the offensive tackle position, and given the type of top-notch prospects that the Wolverines brought in with the 2012 class, it certainly wouldn't be a significant blow. 

Diamond may be one of the top tackle prospects in the country, and the type of recruit who is capable of playing early in his career, but if he ends up choosing Arkansas, Auburn or even Wisconsin over Michigan, the Wolverines would still have plenty of depth and reinforcements to survive without him.