At a program that recently celebrated a national title, being compared to a hero from that championship team carries serious weight. For freshman Salesi Moa, that weight just became a reality. His teammate Jyaire Hill watched the freshman in practice, and he couldn’t help himself from seeing parallels with a Wolverine great.

Salesi—real nice. I was just comparing yesterday to like Roman Wilson or something like that. He real nice,” CB Jyaire Hill said, singling out Moa when talking about the Wolverines’ wide receivers. “And they got like every level stacked with wide receivers. They looking real good. They real nice. They real good—freshmen to older guys.”

Such overblown comparisons are quite expected for a five-star prospect who was ranked the No. 1 player in Utah and the No. 45 overall player according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. But Moa has provoked such accolades and comparisons in such a short time, especially considering he is not the only five-star talent in the recruiting class. Alongside Moa, running back Savion Hiter and edge Carter Meadows make up the five-star trio in the 2026 class.

However, Moa’s talent makes him special. He is a two-way player who played as a wide receiver and defensive back at Fremont High School, Ogden, Utah. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound athlete caught 63 passes for 1,272 yards as a senior.

But to reach the heights of Roman Wilson, who now plays in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Moa must be ready to lead the Wolverines into an era of victories. Before being picked with the 84th overall pick in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft, Wilson won three Big Ten Conference titles and a national championship. In the national championship-winning season, he started 15 games and had 48 receptions for 789 yards and 12 touchdowns. 

Hill wasn’t the only Michigan defensive player who was mesmerized by what the WR unit had been showing in the practices. CB Zeke Berry, a veteran presence in the backfield, also chimed in with his words of praise.

“Shoot, I mean, we got a dude right there, Andrew Marsh. He’s been challenging us a lot,” Berry said. “JJ’s been giving us a challenge. Kendrick Bell. Some of the freshmen—Salesi (Moa); he’s pretty good. (Travis) Johnson has been giving us some problems.

“I feel like we have a really deep receiver room, and I feel like all the guys, no matter if it’s a fourth-year guy, third-year guy, they’re all going to give us some work.”

Salesi Moa’s move to Kyle Whittingham’s Michigan

Moa had quite a turbulent commitment journey that delayed his arrival at Michigan. In January, Michigan became the third program to earn his commitment in the span of a few months, after he flipped from two other programs. 

At first, he committed to the Tennessee Volunteers amid interest from the Utah Utes, who have the advantage of proximity to him and are the same program his father played for.

Eventually, the Utah Utes used their advantage to sway him away from Tennessee. He joined Kyle Whittingham, who was the assistant coach during his father’s playing days. And once Kyle Whittingham moved to Michigan, it was a no-brainer to have him flip, joining four other players who left Utah for Michigan with Whittingham.

“The head coach over there and the wide receiver coach, and also the D-line coach, my uncle, coach Lewis (Powell)—all of them recruited me from Utah,” Moa said on the NFL Network broadcast. “When they went over to Michigan, I just wanted to go there with them.”