Elite 2026 QB Kane Archer looks back on phone call with Jim Harbaugh, early Michigan offer

One of the top quarterback prospects in the 2026 class, Greenwood (Ark.) High’s Kane Archer, was hanging out with his father at the family’s place of work nearly 15 months ago when a phone call was received. On the other line was Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh.

Harbaugh would place an early offer to the pocket passer just a few short weeks after he led the Wolverines to their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance.

“It was cool,” Archer told The Wolverine. “I was actually sitting in my dad’s dealership and I had about a 30-minutes talk with (Harbaugh). He was truly interested and didn’t want to get off the phone. He really wanted to talk to me so that was a cool memory.”

Archer holds the distinction of being the first 2026 quarterback to announced an offer from Michigan as he’s now joined by three others – Bolingbrook (Ill.) High’s Jonas Williams, Newbury Park (Calif.) High’s Brady Smigiel and Carrollton (Ga.) High’s Julian Lewis.

The Wolverines were also the third program at the Division I level to pull the trigger on Archer, succeeding Arkansas and Florida State. The 6-foot-1 and 201-pounder, who was one of the standout performers at last Sunday’s UC Report Camp in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, has picked up more Power 5 interest from Tennessee, Arizona, Missouri, Louisville, Ole Miss and Texas A&M.

“(Michigan was) a top ten in the country at the time that they offered me,” Archer said. “I really felt like that was a really good offer for me because I was only 13 years old then.”

Only Arkansas has had the opportunity to bring in Archer on campus for multiple unofficial visits over the years. Outside of USC, who hosted Archer once, no other schools on his offer sheet or on his radar have brought him to their respective city.

But that doesn’t mean Archer is unfamiliar with the success of Michigan these past two seasons.

“One thing that really stands out to me about Michigan is the fact that they do everything,” Archer said. “They don’t just run the spread or just go under center. They do a mix of everything and are really balanced.”

When asked what he thought about Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy, Archer’s answer was concise.

“JJ is a dog,” Archer said.

Archer has an On3 NIL Valuation of $48K with 27,000 followers across Twitter and Instagram. The On3 NIL Valuation is an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.

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