Gary Yerden will be one of the biggest and strongest players in the Michigan football team’s weight room next season. He’s 6-foot-6, 330 pounds and set a Michigan high school state record by deadlifting 630 pounds. Twice.

Those numbers aside, it’s Yerden’s recruitment -- or lack thereof -- that makes the Wolverines' preferred walk-on an intriguing story.

Gary Yerden will be a preferred walk-on with the Michigan football program after coaches took notice of his state-record, 630-pound deadlift.

John A. Lacko | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette

A Kalamazoo Gazette profile of Yerden, who played one season of high school football at Parchment High School, describes how he went from being ignored by programs like Ferris State to courted by Michigan after a single text message to Wolverines defensive coordinator Greg Mattison.

Yerden is a Jehovah’s Witness and his mother, Loise Hampton, didn’t want him to play football. That opinion changed when Parchment’s weightlifting coach, Wayne Hinton, became the school’s football coach prior to Yerden’s senior year.

Still, Yerden wound up on few college recruiters’ radars. Until one day at a powerlifting competition when he set that state record.

The following is an excerpt from Graham Couch’s story for the Kalamazoo Gazette, which can be found in its entirety here.

The day Yerden lifted 630 pounds at Jenison, Portage Northern football coach Pete Schermerhorn was watching. Schermerhorn had received a call a couple weeks earlier from new Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison to inform him that he'd be the Wolverines' recruiter for Southwest Michigan and ask that Schermerhorn let him know when and if there were players worth considering.

"I had met Gary in the fall and didn't think anything of it other than, ‘Boy, there's a good looking kid, obviously a big, strong kid,'" Schermerhorn said. "I was actually talking to Parchment's principal at the weightlifting meet and he just mentioned that (Yerden) was going to try to play college football and I offered my assistance to pass his name on to recruiting coaches who recruit Southwest Michigan, which is really all I did.

"I sent a text to coach Mattison, just giving him a name and some information about Gary."

Information like 6-6, 330 and 630 — the sort of criteria that catches a college coach's eye, though Schermerhorn said he sent the same message to a number of other college coaches, none of whom responded.

Mattison did within 30 minutes, calling Hinton.

After three consecutive Tuesday visits to Michigan's campus, Yerden accepted the offer from new head coach Brady Hoke to join the program as a preferred walk-on, which assures Yerden a spot on the team but no financial assistance from the athletic department.

Michigan's coaches can't comment on Yerden, per NCAA rules, until he arrives at fall camp, though Yerden said he'll be in Ann Arbor for summer conditioning.

"In my 21 years of coaching football and varsity basketball, it's probably the most attention I've seen given to an athlete, especially one that's going to be a preferred walk-on," Hinton said.

"To quote coach Mattison and (offensive line) coach (Darrell) Funk and (head coach) coach (Brady) Hoke, they said, ‘Gary, we need you. We need a guy like you, somebody who's going to be able to come in a make an impact on our team. Not just from a size and strength standpoint, but also from a character standpoint.'

"In many cases, you come in as a preferred walk-on, you might be No. 6, 7, 8, 9 down on the depth chart. Well, they only have a handful of tackles. He's going to get a chance to run with the 2s and 3s.

"Like coach Funk, the O-line coach, said, ‘You're coming in, you're strong. Now we just have to work on the technique and we have to teach you,' because he's only had a year of football. A lot of times freshmen come in and they don't have that. They can't squat 500 pounds. And Gary doesn't just squat it, he can rep it."