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2020 Season Countdown: #99 Lucas Andrighetto

Name: Lucas Andrighetto
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 202 lbs.
High school: Mountain View (CA) St. Francis
Position: Running back
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #49
Last year: I ranked Andrighetto #108 and said he would miss the season due to injury (LINK). He played in one game on special teams.
TTB Rating: N/A

Andrighetto’s 2019 season – or lack thereof – must have been frustrating. During the spring of 2019, Michigan was met with bad news after bad news about its running back depth chart. Chris Evans got suspended, Zach Charbonnet had knee surgery, other running backs were getting dinged up, etc.

The beneficiary? Lucas muthaf***in Andrighetto.

And then he tore his ACL right before spring ball ended.

It’s very unlikely that Andrighetto would have stolen carries from Michigan’s top couple backs (Charbonnet, Hassan Haskins), but you never know if maybe he would have grabbed a few in mop-up duty like Tru Wilson (44 carries) or Nicholas Capatina (2 carries). Instead, Andrighetto had to settle for waiting until the bowl game to play some special teams against Alabama.

This year things don’t look too promising for him, either. Everyone ahead of him returns except Wilson (who’s transferring to Northern Colorado), but Evans returns from suspension and the team recruited Blake Corum in the 2020 class. But the coaches spoke highly of him, and he’s the type of guy who can play a fair amount of special teams in 2020.

Prediction: Backup running back, special teamer

2020 Season Countdown: #100 Jordan Morant

Name: Jordan Morant
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 212 lbs.
High school: Oradell (NJ) Bergen Catholic
Position: Safety
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Morant was a senior in high school (LINK). He made 12 tackles, 1 pass breakup, and 1 kickoff return for a touchdown.
TTB Rating: 87

Morant had the unfortunate luck of suffering a foot injury early in his senior season, leading to a truncated high school career. I’m sure it was disappointing for Morant and his teammates, but it also would have been fun to watch his senior highlights, because his junior year looked great. He was selected for the All-American Bowl and the Polynesian Bowl, but he couldn’t participate in either. He finished as the #10 safety and #165 overall player. His high school head coach was Vito Campanile, the brother of former Michigan linebackers coach Anthony Campanile (now with the Dolphins).

Don’t let the ranking fool you into thinking I like Morant any less. I am concerned about his recovery from the injury (there were rumors floating around that this was on the verge of being a career-threatening injury), and missing most of his senior season could diminish his ability to be ready as a freshman. If the spring and spring football had been allowed to play out, I might have moved him up the list since he was an early enrollee, but missing (most of) his senior year and then spring ball puts him a little behind where he should be in order to play this year. I’m expecting him to redshirt, but I admit I could be way off if his recovery has gone well.

Prediction: Redshirt

Hit the jump for Morant’s short senior highlight clip.

Site News: The Corona Effect

I know posting has slowed a bit in recent days. I will admit that the general slowdown of everything has quelled my motivation to write. I’m still getting site traffic, so that’s something, but the bottom line is that an ad glitch with AdSense and the crappy economy have sucked dry almost all monetary reward. And while I started this blog twelve years ago for nothing but fun, my priorities have changed since 2008.

This post isn’t about asking for donations. Some of you are already very generous, and everyone’s taking a financial hit during quarantine. This post isn’t a “farewell” because I intend to continue the blog.

This is only meant to be an insight into a) the financial effects of coronavirus and b) an explanation for the posting slowdown.

Here are a couple more detailed looks, starting with Amazon:

As of May 23, the earnings for Amazon in May are at $9.17. That’s about $0.42 per day (through 22 days of reporting).

AdSense is more productive, but you can see in red the downward trend – after a couple months of downward trends. April was down 32% from March, and May is down 25% from April.

We’re 22 full days into the month, and the site is taking in less than $5 per day, so I just can’t justify cranking out article after article wh

There are admittedly flaws in my business plan. I don’t seek out ads, and random Russian businessmen often e-mail me with offers I ignore. Maybe they could make me rich, or maybe I end up with a guy wearing a thick gold chain named Boris shoving a Glock in my nostril.

So. Don’t send money. Don’t cry.

Please just keep this post in mind if you visit the site and don’t 2-3 new articles per day.

2020 Season Countdown: #101 Kris Jenkins, Jr.

Name: Kris Jenkins, Jr.
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 239 lbs.
High school: Olney (MD) Good Counsel
Position: Defensive end
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Jenkins was a senior in high school (LINK).
TTB Rating: 65 77

Jenkins is the son of former Maryland and NFL defensive tackle Kris Jenkins – who played at Belleville – and the nephew of former Central Michigan and NFL defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins. The pedigree is there for Jenkins to be successful, and it’s hard to imagine a Jenkins being bad at defensive tackle. If you know of a big dude with the last name of Jenkins, sign him up for DT.

Kris Jenkins, Jr. is a 3-star, the #21 strongside end, and #511 overall in the 2020 class. Notice he’s ranked as an end. I think his future is at 3-tech defensive tackle, and I’m not the only one. His future should include adding about 50 pounds from his listed 239 and moving inside. This is a tough one to peg for his career, because it requires his acceptance of a position change and the long process it might take to add a bunch of good weight. But for this particular 2020 season, I don’t see him having the athleticism to stay at end and he definitely doesn’t have the size to play inside right now.

Prediction: Redshirt

Hit the jump for Jenkins’s senior highlights.

2020 Season Countdown: #102 Isaiah Gash

Please feel free to use the Amazon links here if you go shopping for, say, a Tom Brady shirt (LINK):

Name: Isaiah Gash
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 185 lbs.
High school: Green Bay (WI) Bay Port
Position: Running back
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Gash was a senior in high school.
TTB Rating: N/A

Gash is the son of Sam Gash, who is considered one of the best fullbacks in modern football history. Michigan came in with a preferred walk-on offer, and Isaiah bought in. He ran the ball 213 times for 1,916 yards and 30 touchdowns as a senior and probably could have played at a lower level, but Michigan has shown that walk-ons can get on the field, from the Glasgow brothers getting drafted to Tru Wilson getting a lot of run at tailback.

Gash looks like a guy who could slip onto the field as a freshman special teamer. There might be more opportunity as his career goes along, and we’ve seen people like Wilson (Northern Colorado) and Jordan Castleberry (Maryland) move on to greener pastures. While Michigan has plenty of depth at running back, that does open up the door a little bit for some opportunities to show off his skill in drills and on the scout team. He also has the pedigree to potentially be a good student of the game who might be willing to do dirty work and pick up blitzes. He will be an interesting guy to watch as his career goes along.

Prediction: Redshirt

Hit the jump for his senior highlights.