Michigan lands first commit of Kyle Whittingham era in 2027 class

Michigan football has landed its first official recruit of the Kyle Whittingham era.

Darrell Mattison, a four-star safety out of Chicago (Morgan Park), committed to the Wolverines on Tuesday, March 24, marking the first player in the 2027 class to pledge to U-M out of high school with the new coaching regime.

Michigan and Whittingham did also land four-star Salesi Moa in the 2026 class, but that was more of a flip as he was recruited to Utah originally, then decommitted when Whittingham and much of the staff left, before re-pledging to a familiar coaching staff in a new place.

Mattison comes to Ann Arbor with impressive tape, ranked No. 14 in Illinois, No. 38 at safety and No. 410 among all 2027, recruits according to 247Sports composite rankings.

Mattison finished with 47 tackles, five interceptions, three pass breakups and a fumble recovery in his 2026 campaign, per his profile. He is U-M's fourth commit in the class of 2027, which now ranks No. 24 in the nation, despite going through an offseason coaching change and landing just one pledge since August of 2025 prior to Mattison.

He joins four-star DL Recarder Kitchen, three-star OL Tristan Dare and three-star OL Louis Esposito, son of former defensive line coach Lou Esposito. The expectation is Michigan will heat up on the recruiting trail this summer. It’s something Whittingham spoke to earlier this month, expressing the importance of the right fit.

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“We want to build the best group we can,” Whittingham said last week of Michigan’s recruiting class. “It’s still really early in the process. We don’t have a lot of commits right now, but that’s OK. We feel like we’re on a lot of good players.

“We think that it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish. Even though we’re not as far along as some schools, you really look at the bottom line when you finish and what you came away with, and we think we’re going to be OK in that regard.”

Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football lands 4-star safety Darrell Mattison