DONE DEAL: Ethan McDowell break silence after inking new 4-years contract with Wolverine

Two days before my eleventh birthday, the Wolverines beat Virginia Tech in a Sugar Bowl overtime thriller.

Led by quarterback Denard Robinson, who would go on to taunt me on the front of the NCAA14 video game for the next decade, Michigan stifled a fourth-quarter comeback by the Hokies and added another trophy to a crowded case. That was the program’s most recent New Years Six bowl win before the National Championship run.

And for me, a 10-year-old Hokie fan watching the first season of college football where he was truly locked in on the sport, it felt like the end of the world. It’s an all-too-familiar feeling for an adolescent sports fan. Even the most trivial defeats can feel devastating.

It took a little more than a decade, but I have forgiven Michigan. I am fired up to join The Wolverine team.

I grew up a 15 minute walk from Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. My dad was a professor there for over 20 years. For the next decade after my hometown team lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Wolverines, I grew more and more enamored with the sport.

Despite the soul-crushing lows that this sport can offer up, the highs were worth chasing. Beating Ohio State, and doing so repeatedly, makes it all worth it, right? That feeling never gets old.

The destination can be glorious, like the scene of Jim Harbaugh hoisting the national championship trophy in Houston last year, but the path to that point has always been more interesting to me.

It all starts on the recruiting trail, and covering recruiting for The Wolverine, chronicling the journey of prospects all over the country from their early years of high school until the day they move to Ann Arbor, is the realization of a lifelong dream.

I used my dad’s login to follow recruiting insiders as soon as I was old enough to learn the concept that stars do matter. When the Covid pandemic hit my freshman year of college and canceled any potential internships, a close friend and I started a recruiting blog ourselves.

What started out as a way to keep my writing sharp between semesters of journalism school turned into a career path. Simply put, I love covering recruiting. Our two-person staff woke up most weeks around 4 a.m. to drive 4-5 hours to Richmond or Virginia Beach, interviewing whoever would talk to us. We built a website and a Twitter account that amassed a few thousand followers.

That led me to a brief stint covering high school sports for the Boston Globe and then my first full-time job with On3. I finished up my college coursework on weekdays of the 2022 fall semester. On weekends, I’d fly from Boston to North Carolina, driving to a high school game Friday before covering NC State’s college matchup Saturday.

This job rocks. I love every day of it. The same 10-year-old who cried because Michigan won would be bouncing off the walls to know this is what I get to wake up every morning and do for a living.

Chris, Clayton, Anthony and EJ are some of the best in the business, and I’ve enjoyed reading their work for a while now. This site already sets the industry standard. I’m just looking forward to coming in and adding what I can.

More than anything going into this new role, I’m thankful to be here. The opportunity to embrace the grind of recruiting coverage is not something I take lightly. My first batch of stories drops later today, and I’ll be on the road very soon to visit key Michigan targets, gather intel and keep you all updated on the future of this program. It’s going to be a whole lot of fun.