It has been a yearly tradition ’round these parts to count down to the season with a full accounting of every scholarship player and several walk-ons. This year will be no different. In the coming weeks, you will see a countdown of roughly 100 Michigan football players, from least important to most important for 2017 team success. Here’s a link to last year’s countdown, if you’re interested (LINK).
This is my annual caveat: The countdown looks at players from a perspective of value, so a good player at a deep position may not be ranked as high as high as an equally good player in a shallow position. Michigan doesn’t have many options at safety this year, so that bumps up the importance of the top few guys. On the other hand, there are a bunch of wide receivers available – none of whom have really separated themselves – so their value dips a bit.
Feel free to make your case for your guy(s) here.
The countdown begins on May 1, 2017.
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Yes!!!
Channing Stribling needs to be number 1. Denard Robinson 2. Ty Isaac number 100.
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Channing Stribling will be no higher than #82, Denard Robinson won’t be included because he was a Rich Rod recruit, and Ty Isaac will not drop outside the top 3.
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One of my favorite segments here. Looking forward to Lanknows’ three paragraph rebuttal for each guy ranked!
GO BLUE
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I’m going to go for 4 this year but with Strib out, reality setting in with Isaac, and me thinking our starting RB might be a difference-maker I’m guessing I’ll have fewer things to disagree about than in years past. But we’ll see!
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I probably miscounted to 100, but here’s my guess:
1. Hurst, Gary, M. Cole, Mone, Kinnel, Bredeson, McCray, D. Bush, Winovich, Metellus, Peters, K. Hudson, Speight, Onwenu, Kugler, Peoples-Jones, Solomon, Evans, O’Korn, Higdon, Crawford, Wheatley, Bushell-Beatty, Bunting, Ulizio, Dwumfour, Runyan, Long, Ruiz, Vilain, J. Glasgow, K. Hill, Nordin, L. Hill, Washington, Poggi, Isaac, Wroblewski, McDoom, Furbush, Samuels, Robbins, Kemp, Gentry, Jeter, McKeon, A. Thomas, Watson, T. Black, Mbem-Bosse, Ways, R. Jones, Drake Harris, Woods, Uche, St-Juste, Kelly-Powell, Walker, Gil, Filiaga, Singleton, Spanellis, R. Johnson, J. Hudson, Marshall, Collins, A. Robinson, Schoenle, J. Anthony, Ross, Hawkins, O. Martin, Eubanks, B. Mason, Hart, Jared Wangler, N. Johnson, Seychel, Stueber, Hall, McCaffrey, Tice, Paye, Foug, Moores, Honigford, Paea, Vastardis, Malone-Hatcher, Irving-Bey, Myers, K. Taylor, Sessa, T. Wilson, Hewlett, Cheeseman, Beneducci, Offerdahl, Jokisch, P. Bush, 100. Grodman
Next 25 (not counting first year walk-ons): Edmunds, G. Robinson, S. Smith, Kay, J. Dunaway, Froelich, M. Mitchell, Brenner, West, Jack Wangler, Cochran, Krupp, White, J. Martin, Kaminski, Mauricio, Robertson, Luby, Volk, Chu, Ferris, Files, Char, Deeg
Maybe gone or currently injured: Perry, Malzone, G. Miller, Hirsch, Dalimonte, Drobocky. Wish I had a roster.
Injured: Newsome.
My top 100 will radically differ come October. I put three QBs in the top 20 because this young OL will cause injuries.
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wow thats impressive…quite incorrect in several instances but still very impressive to put together.
ill just point out a few that seem significantly misplaced, though i do agree with some of your list. mccaffrey immediately jumps out, he should be at or near 100 (he prob the frosh least likely to play). as does samuels, i dont think any RBs or WRs should be too highly rated given the depth chart but samuels is too high (kemp, jeter, thomas, watson, mckeon, etc should all be ahead of samuels at this point). some others stand out too but i dont wanna rip your list too badly bc (a) its fairly decent, at least at the top and overall and (b) its pretty cool you took the time to put it together and share.
youre correct in listing several position groups at the top given the depth chart situation – bottom line, many of the key OL, DL, DBs and LBs should all make the top 25 or whatever along with QB
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I don’t think this reply came off as anything but a “Well done, sir, I don’t agree with everything you’ve written, but I appreciate the work done.”
Disagreements are more interesting than agreements and in my view, if an average youtube comment is a 2 on a scale from 1-10, then yours was a solid 8.
(Btw, grading motivates more when you always leave room for improvement. Eg. to female colleague: “You’ve been to the hairdresser? Very nice. 6/10.” or “Nice dress. High 5! No, don’t slap my hand, I mark it a high 5 out of 10.”)
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You know, there are obviously some differences, but I’m always impressed when someone takes the time to put a list together.
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yeah no doubt. my reply came across as more dickheadish than i intended. totally agree, its cool putting that together and the effort, and i think most agree with much of that list in principle. simply wanted to point out a handful are way off, even with generous expectations.and just came across more harshly than i intended
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I’ll be honest, I stopped reading when you put Peters over Speight. But yeah, kudos for thinking through it.
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hudson, gary and bush need to be in top 5, imo. win with defense
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I’ll be rooting for our starting viper for the 1 spot
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Glasgow and Metellus both seem like they could step in, so Hudson (assuming he wins the job) is probably less mission critical than the “normal” safeties.
I’d go Gary #1 on talent, leadership and position value. M Cole #2 for similar reasons. Probably Hurst #3, then you get into a next tier where there are probably 10-12 players who are either elite talents or where the backups have very limited experience, mostly on the O-line and on the defensive side of the ball. McCray would be at or near the top of this list, due to his experience. Speight would be pretty high here, too, due to the positional value and the value of having an experienced starter, though Peters’ performance in the spring game and having a 5th year former starter on the books devalues him some.
I love your countdown, Thunder, I enjoy it every year. I’m more excited about where you rank walk-ons and freshmen than the order you rank the starters in, so my favorite part tends to be around 60-30. Also, these typically come at a time when there’s not as much other news coming out about football, so that may be a part of it. Thanks for doing it!
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Given the criteria — value relative to available talent — then it’s going to be interesting to see where the QB position falls this year. In the past two years the proven depth past the starter was a concern. Does the Peters optimism play a role here? Time will tell.
I would think roles like Cole and Bredeson on the OL will rank high for the same reason. Seasoned experience on the line is at a premium this year.
We have oodles of WR talent, so that position group should be relatively lower in the chart.
We have little proven depth at DL interior. That stock ticks up.
But #1 has to be long snapper since Scott S. Is gone after … what? … 18 years in that role? 🙂
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