Michigan-Cal battling for Richards

North Hills (Calif.) Monroe defensive back Chris Richards took an official visit to Cal this past weekend. The Michigan commit said he loved his visit to Berkeley but was it enough to overtake the Wolverines?

Richards, 5-10, 155 pounds committed as a grey shirt to Michigan back in the summer, before his dream school, the Cal Bears ever got involved with him.

"I camped at Michigan and just loved it there," Richards said. "The grey shirt thing, for me that's a positive. I'm only 17 and I think the extra half year to get bigger, stronger and to mature more is a huge plus. If they asked me what I would rather do, come in for the fall or grey shirt, I would choose to grey shirt."

During the recent CaliFlorida Bowl, Richards told us Cal had gotten involved and since that was the school he grew up watching, he had to check them out.

"My dad played there and I always thought I would be going to Cal," Richards said. "They didn't recruit me early on though so I jumped on the Michigan offer. They started to recruit me a few months ago and I took my official visit this past weekend.

"The visit was great. It was just me there so I spent a lot of time with the coaches and players and really hit it off with everyone. I enjoyed hanging out in Berkeley and I have a lot of respect for J.D Williams, their DB coach. Cal is rated the No. 1 public school in the country and is in the top three in the country in what I want to major in which is Law.

"They offered me and like I said, I had a great time there. Saying all that, Michigan still has an edge for me. There is something to be said about being loyal and Michigan was on me from the beginning. Ron English, their DB coach is my godfather and I've known him my whole life. He actually played at Cal with my dad.

"Like Cal, Michigan is a great academic school as well. I think they're rated right behind Cal, No. 2 or 3 for public schools and their law program is #7 in the nation I believe. Both are very good football programs but the real difference for me is just Ann Arbor. That place is special and I still haven't gotten over the feeling I had on my visit there when they played Iowa in front of 107,000 screaming fans. There is nothing like that, that's big time college football and that's what I'm looking for.

"Coach Carr will be coming over to the house tomorrow and then Coach Tedford will be coming over on Tuesday. I know I need to make my final decision pretty soon here because Signing Day is just two weeks away. It really snuck up on me, I didn't realize it was so close. So most likely, I'll have my final decision later next week but Michigan is still where I think I'll end up."