Four-star defensive back flips from Tennessee to Michigan

Te’Cory Couch’s commitment to Michigan checks a couple of passion boxes for head coach Jim Harbaugh. Stealing a four-star prospect from an SEC school? He’ll like that. Snagging a priority commitment from the state of Florida? That’ll get him excited as well.

Consider that stuff, and it’s easy to imagine Harbaugh flashing an extra-large grin when Couch announced his intentions to flip his commitment from Tennessee to the Wolverines. Below, Rivals.com, which confirmed Couch's commitment with both Coach and his high school coach, takes a look at how Couch’s commitment flip helps Michigan and hurts Tennessee.

HOW IT HELPOS MICHIGAN:

Michigan has long wanted to recruit top players out of Florida and has had differing levels of success in doing so under Harbaugh. Snagging Couch, a Sunshine State-based player with plenty of options, counts as a victory … a big one.

Couch, who has long been committed to Tennessee, holds offers from Miami, LSU, Wisconsin and others. This is exactly the kind of thing Harbaugh had in mind when he started putting extra emphasis on mining Florida years ago. Coach plays for the same 7-on-7 team that produced current Michigan linebacker Devin Bush and attends Chaminade-Madonna High School, a powerhouse football factory in the state. That’s all to say that there are worse places to build pipelines if you’re the Wolverines.

Individually, Couch is a catch. What he lacks in size is made up for with coverage ability, as he’s proven his skill set against FBS-bound prospects during games and elite camps. He’ll need to add significant muscle before he’s ready for a Big 10 schedule, but he has plenty of time to do just that. Couch is a high-upside player that has every tool to shine in Ann Arbor.

HOW IT HURTS OTHERS:

Obviously, the loser here is Tennessee. The Vols held on to Couch’s commitment through their calamity of a coaching search, only to lose him when the new staff was firmly in place.

Pulling a player such as Couch out of South Florida despite him holding an offer from Miami would have been a huge victory for new coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff, but now it seems as though they’ll have to find recruiting wins elsewhere. Without Couch, the Vols’ 2019 class includes zero defensive backs and boasts just one four-star prospect. The Hurricanes also fit into the losers’ column here, as they offered Couch in mid-February and hoped any commitment flip would be to them.