With 126 days until the 2026 regular season begins for Eastern Michigan, it’s time to use this spring time to do exactly what these football programs are doing: and that’s to start looking at the next class of high school recruits.

Even with the transfer portal’s existance giving teams a new-school way of building teams and starting lineups with guys already out of high school, it’s still a wise move to still rely on high school talent as a way to build and sustain the program coaches might want to have long-term.

But not every team is the same. Western Michigan, which just won the MAC with a third-year coach, did so with a giant class of transfers. The front six of its defense was largely in and out of the starting lineup in less than 12 months. But Miami on the other hand, also made it to Detroit by doing things closer to the more vintage approach: signing most of its guys out of high school and keep them in-house for most, or all, of their college lives.

And this year’s prep recruiting cycle shows that those two programs are still as apart on roster-building philosophies. WMU has three high school commits. Miami’s already up to 15 guys committed to sign with the team in February 2027! That’s far and away the largest class in the MAC.

EMU is coming off an offseason where it has brought on 49 offensive and defensive newcomers to its team — 27 were signed out of high school, and 22 came as transfers.

The Ypsilanti Eleven recently caught up with two out-of-state high schoolers who were first to make their decisions to commit to EMU this cycle. One is a defensive lineman who knows former EMU Eagle Peyton Price quite well, and the second is a defensive back who plays his high school ball about an hour away from Atlanta.

Christian Hardy, a defensive tackle from Lafayette Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Ind., was the first to announce his commitment to Eastern back on March 24.

Hardy picked EMU over Cincinnati, his other held offer.

If the name of that high school sounds familiar, then that’s because you’ve been paying attention to this team’s defensive line room. That’s where Price went to high school before coming to EMU and graduating with 19 games played, 148 tackles recorded, and 10.5 career sacks made (12th all-time), along with his older brother Brian. Brian Price, who played for former EMU defensive coordinator Neal Neathery at UTSA before having an NFL life from 2016-2021, is somebody Hardy looks up to.

The two spend time together training two times a week, sometimes three.

“I feel like I'm just better now.” Hardy said. “I can't wait to show that now this year, to show what I got, all the work I've been putting in with B.P., my hips are way more fluid. I'm way more fluid. I'm stronger, faster, lighter, and that's okay. I can't wait to show what I got, though. I really can't.”

EMU head coach Chris Creighton’s familiarity with Hardy and Price’s high school goes beyond the 13 years now spent recruiting players to Ypsilanti, though. He used to have to recruit local kids to play at the Division II level at Wabash College, which is just a short, 40-minute drive away from Jefferson.

When Hardy visited EMU, he said the detailed work from the team’s D-line room stood out to him when he watched the players do drills in the springtime.

“Something I had seen in their drills is the D-line’s hips. Hips are important on D-line, and when I saw every single D-linemen’s emphasis on hips, I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to come here.’”

Hardy also noted that he was able to build a good relationship with defensive tackles coach Zac Sias.

As for what this EMU recruit expects of himself as a high school senior, Hardy’s putting a lot of emphasis on having a dominant start to the year. After his team went 10-2 last year with four defensive shutouts (two in the playoffs), Hardy wants to wreak havoc on his first two opponents of the 2026 season: Bishop Chatard and Merrillville. The first team went 9-3 last year, the second went 11-3 and clinched to the Class 5A state championship game (fell 38-17).

“The first two games are our hardest games,” he said. “For those first two, we want 10 sacks, 10 (tackles for loss)… if I can get 10 sacks, 10 TFLs in those two games, I'll be more than satisfied.”

Obi Duru, a cornerback from Dallas, Ga., chose EMU over Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, and Miami OH on April 10.

And with that, a sigh of relief came through the North Paulding High School recruit.

“It feels great, there's no more stress. I'm not worrying about who really wants me or who wants to take me seriously. I feel good knowing I can go into my senior season, play my game, knowing that I have a home and a team and coaches that want me,” Duru said. “As soon as I'm done, I can come up and do the same exact things I've been doing, and make an impact for my new team.”

Duru explained that he made two trips to EMU in his recruiting journey. Once for a two-day event where he got to meet Creighton, cornerbacks coach Antreal Allen, and the entire EMU coaching staff. Other visits Duru has been on, he said, didn’t have the full-team inclusion like EMU’s visit.

Said Duru, “They treated us as if we were players just going in and being with them for a day or two… I already felt like I was just one of them.”

What was it about Duru’s profile that made him attractive to Eastern?

To this athlete, his tape had to have clearly stood out. He’s an interesting cornerback on tape with highlights of him making plays on an island with a receiver, and even some more clips of him blitzing the quarterback.

His off-the-field leadership didn’t hurt either.

“I spoke to coach Creighton (with Duru’s family, via Zoom) and he was just telling me how much he loved the way I played, as well as my character, because he also spoke to my head coach, and my head coach told him about my character, my effort on and off the field.”

“I like to be a role model for younger guys as well. I like to help them, lead them verbally, but of course, lead them with my game as well. I like being an example, just by the way I play my game as well.”

Miami’s class, as I said earlier, already has a respectable class at this point in the cycle. Having 15 commits through April in any year is an admirable job, and Miami’s putting its money where its mouth is on the recruiting trail this year.

Fifteen commits is a heavy class. But if your class includes the son of Jared Lorenzen, then by law, I must refer to it as a hefty one.

Tayden Lorenzen, a bigger-bodied athlete himself at a listed 235 pounds, is committed to play tight end for the RedHawks. Tayden, just like his dad, wore the iconic #22 for Highlands High School in Kentucky, but will instead wear red and dark grey rather than blue and white to begin his college career.

At times, Jared played quarterback at some 300 pounds. He wasn’t just a stand-back-there-and-chuck-it kind of QB either. Famously nicknamed “The Hefty Lefty” and “The Pillsbury Throwboy”, the guy could run around a little bit, too.

In 2019, Jared’s lifelong battle with controlling his weight tragically caught up to him, and died at the age of 38.

Said Tayden, to The Athletic, of his commitment to Miami:

Ball State

Bowling Green

Central Michigan

Kent State

Miami

Ohio

Western Michigan