After securing some impressive wins on the recruiting front, Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham has lost in the race for a 4-star offensive tackle. The international player snubbed the Wolverines’ interest in favor of an SEC team, which has players from his academy in London on its roster.

On July 17, four-star offensive tackle Niko Kampas made his commitment to the Tennessee Volunteers, as announced by Red Envelope Sports, the agency he is signed to. Besides Michigan, Auburn and Vanderbilt were two other programs the German national snubbed in favor of Tennessee.

“At the end, it pretty much came down to Vanderbilt and Tennessee,” Kampas told GoVols247. “And, obviously, the academics at Vanderbilt were awesome. If you ask my father, he wanted me to go to Vanderbilt. But we both agreed, at the end, I’m going over to America, it’s a big step and everything, for football, right? And the academics I take with me are a huge upside, but they’re not the main reason, obviously.”

Kampas is proof of the National Football League’s international expansion. He attends the NFL Academy in Loughborough, England, which is part of the NFL’s global initiative to develop international high school athletes to play football. 247Sports has him ranked as the No. 27 offensive tackle and the No. 226 overall prospect in the 2027 class. He stands at 6-foot-7 and weighs 270 pounds.

He had Tennessee tight end Luca Wolf in the 2026 class on his NFL Academy team in England and will be the second player the Volunteers have recruited from England in back-to-back years. And together, they join edge rusher Emmanuel Okoye in the 2023 recruiting class as Tennessee’s recruits from the academy. Okoye recently transferred to the California Golden Bears after three seasons with the Volunteers.

Michigan hosted Kampas for an official visit in May. After the OV, the offensive tackle even posted some photos in Michigan gear on his Instagram. Offensive line coach Jim Harding was leading his recruitment for Whittingham, but eventually, he chose Josh Heupel’s team.

According to On3, Kampas devised an innovative method to arrive at his final decision. He formulated a 46-question matrix, and he ticked each of his four contenders against the metrics. Tennessee and Vanderbilt outscored Auburn and Michigan. But the OT chose the Vols because Heupel’s staff gave him a clear technical plan about his transition from England to the SEC.

Michigan’s 2027 recruiting class

Kyle Whittingham was brought to Ann Arbor to rewrite the program’s narrative, and he has been doing just that with the 2027 recruiting class. This month, Kyle Whittingham flexed his recruiting muscles when Michigan won the commitment of an Ohio State native who had three predictions projecting his landing spot in Columbus.

”I chose Michigan because, from the moment I stepped in the building, it felt like home,” Torbert told 247Sports’ Tom Loy. “It is the people who make the place. All of the staff and recruiting staff had open arms to my family. My mom never tells me that school feels like home, but she said that about Michigan, so I knew it was different. Also, Michigan’s new defensive staff is a group of defensive gurus. They cause havoc and turnovers on the backend.

The class is now ranked very close to the nation’s top 10, at No. 11, and No. 3 in the Big Ten, per On3. Despite missing out on Kampas, the program’s recruitment continues.