Why Howell 4-star DL committed to Michigan football

8/2/2023
Michigan defensive line coach Mike Elston oversees drills before the spring game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 1, 2023.
Howell class of 2025 four-star defensive lineman Bobby Kanka has many memories of Michigan football.
From watching games on TV to attending the annual spring scrimmage or seeing former Wolverines standout Aidan Hutchinson celebrate a 42-27 win over Ohio State in the snow two years ago, Kanka has cherished those moments as a fan.
Now he can call himself a future Wolverine. The No. 315 overall prospect nationally and No. 4 in the state, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, announced his verbal commitment to Michigan on Tuesday.
“I’ve always known for a long time that Michigan was home and just kind of made it official,” Kanka told MLive. “I didn’t want to wait any longer. It felt right. It felt right for a while now.”
When Michigan offered Kanka in February 2022, he knew it would take a lot for another program to unseat the Wolverines at the top of his list. The 6-foot-4, 260-pounder was receptive to other interested schools and racked up 12 other offers, including Penn State and Michigan State, but Michigan continued to impress him.
Kanka has been a regular visitor to Ann Arbor in recent years, with his latest coming last weekend for the BBQ at the Big House, Michigan’s largest recruiting event of the year. He was one of more than 20 prospects in the 2025 class to attend and also had the opportunity to bond with several commits in the 2024 cycle.
At the event, he saw everything he needed to in order to make a decision.
“Just the relationships,” he said. “You can obviously tell the coaches value relationships. Going there more than one time, they continue to build those relationships. That’s what means a lot. When you see Denard Robinson (former Michigan QB and current assistant director of player personnel) one year and he remembers your name the next, it just speaks to the culture they have over there. It’s a culture I want to be a part of.”
Leading the charge in his recruitment was Michigan defensive line coach Mike Elston.
“Every time I see him, you can tell he’s a big family guy,” Kanka said. “That’s really important to me and my family – going somewhere I know I’m going to develop as a football player and a person. Just watching Coach Elston interact with his family and his girls and his wife and all his players and his players’ families, it’s really eye-opening.”
(Highlights embedded with permission from Hudl)
Kanka plays defensive end and tight end for Howell but said Michigan views him as an interior lineman with versatility, similar to 2024 four-star commit Ted Hammond and current defensive tackle Kris Jenkins.
“Coach Elston likes my length, my size,” he said. “Me and Ted, he sees two 6-4, 6-5 guys that can put on weight and use our length. I think he likes those big, tall guys that can use their frame to dominate the o-line.”
Last season, Kanka was an all-state honorable mention despite missing three games because of injury. He said he is 100% healthy heading into 2023 and has set high expectations for himself.
As Michigan’s third commit in the 2025 class, he also hopes to start building a strong class around him.
“It’s really cool because now I can help recruit other guys I know that I want to be around on the field and in the classroom,” he said of committing early. “That’s kind of my job now is to go find guys that I want to play with and Coach Elston wants to coach and Coach Harbaugh wants to coach.”