Name: Makari Paige
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 192 lbs.
High school: West Bloomfield (MI) West Bloomfield
Position: Safety
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Paige was a senior in high school (LINK). He made 94 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 2 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries, and 7 pass breakups.
TTB Rating: 79

Paige was a pretty big question mark at one point, and his recruitment as an in-stater was somewhat similar to his 2021 teammate, Donovan Edwards. We knew Michigan was in the top group, but it seemed at one point that Paige was leaning elsewhere. It seemed like his recruitment dragged out a little longer than it did, but he ended up committing to the Wolverines in July of 2019. He ended up as a 4-star, the #25 safety, and #243 overall.

This year should be a learning year for Paige, but Michigan will probably need someone to step up in this freshman class to get some snaps. Paige has the size and some athleticism to play in the box, but I would not trust any of the freshman safeties in this class to manage a deep half or deep middle of the field. Someone will have to be prepped to take over for Brad Hawkins in 2021. I think Jordan Morant is a better overall prospect, but my concerns about his injury situation put Paige ahead in the race for 2020.

Prediction: Backup safety, special teamer

Hit the jump for Paige's senior highlights.

I had posted a poll asking what record Michigan will have in the 2020 regular season, but that's back in the day when I expected Michigan would have a 12-game regular season. Now it will reportedly be a 10-game, conference-only schedule, and we don't know which 10 opponents Michigan will play.

So here are the results of the outdated poll (1,503 votes), just for fun:

• 9 wins, 3 losses: 30%
• 10 wins, 2 losses: 28%
• 8 wins, 4 losses: 14%
• 11 wins, 1 loss: 12%
• 12 wins, 0 losses: 10%
• 7 wins, 5 losses...or worse: 6%

Name: Brad Robbins
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 199 lbs.
High school: Westerville (OH) South
Position: Punter
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #3
Last year: I ranked Robbins #83 and said he would transfer (LINK). He punted 4 times for 171 yards (42.7 yards/punt) and had 1 punt blocked.
TTB Rating: 70

Robbins is one of those rare examples of a player who entered the transfer portal and then removed himself from the transfer portal. Last year I ranked him at #83 and then had him in the portal, but he ended up filling in for Will Hart in two games. Unfortunately, Michigan had 2 punts blocked in 2019, and one of them was Robbins's against Alabama.

This year I assume Robbins will be Hart's backup yet again. How valuable is a backup punter? Last year Michigan had a little more wiggle room with George Caratan in the mix, but he has since transferred to Arkansas, leaving redshirt freshman Karl Kerska as the likely #3. Robbins will probably not be used very much.

Prediction: Backup punter

Fresno (CA) Central East wide receiver Xavier Worthy committed to Michigan on Friday afternoon. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Alabama and Oregon, among others.

Worthy is listed at 6'1" and 170 lbs. As a junior in 2019, he caught 54 passes for 992 yards and 16 touchdowns. He ran a 10.55 in the 100 meters as a high school sophomore, and he ran a 21.41 in the 200 meters.

RATINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 84 grade, #22 WR, #126 overall
Rivals: 3-star WR, 5.6 grade
247 Sports: 4-star, 93 grade, #11 WR, #95 overall

Hit the jump for more on Worthy's commitment.

Name: Cade McNamara
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 205 lbs.
High school: Reno (NV) Diamond Ranch
Position: Quarterback
Class: Redshirt freshman
Jersey number: #12
Last year: I ranked McNamara #84 and said he would redshirt (LINK). He redshirted.
TTB Rating: 65

McNamara took the expected route in 2019 of redshirting. That's what the vast majority of freshman quarterbacks should do, and Michigan was able to accommodate that by having a senior quarterback in Shea Patterson, a redshirt sophomore in Dylan McCaffrey, and a redshirt freshman in Joe Milton. For the first time in a while, it seemed like Michigan had a pretty decent succession of quarterbacks lined up.

Now Patterson is off to the NFL, while the other guys remain and true freshman Dan Villari joins the QB room. Presumably, McNamara will take over the #3 role that was held by Joe Milton. On the plus side, I have heard some people throw out that McNamara is a dark horse candidate to win the starting job, and one point in his favor is that he fits the mold of a Penn State-style QB (shorter, quick release, somewhat mobile) a little better than McCaffrey, Milton, or Villari. I don't think that will end up mattering much, so I expect McNamara to be the third guy in, with minimal opportunities to make his mark this season.

Prediction: Backup quarterback

So this was already a wild week (if you only knew...), and then AdSense tried to put another nail in my coffin.

AdSense, which is Google's ad program that puts most of the non-Amazon ads on the site, sent me an e-mail saying they were disabling ads on my site. Why? They said I posted pictures that broke their policies. This sort of happened previously, except then they told me it was okay if I posted those pictures, so I started posting them again last fall (after going through and deleting thousands of pictures off the server).

Then out of the blue, they canceled my ads again earlier this week.

At one time this site was making upward of $1,000 per month in AdSense revenue.

Recently it had trickled down to less than $2 a day.

Yesterday it was $0.06.

Today it is $0.00.

I submitted the site for AdSense review, but they rejected my appeal by saying the site was still breaking their policy. They sent me a link as an example of a violation, and the link said "Page Not Found." So I have no idea.

I am now exploring other ad server programs.

Name: Tyler Cochran
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 206 lbs.
High school: Orchard Lake (MI) St. Mary’s
Position: Safety
Class: Fifth year senior
Jersey number: #30
Last year: I ranked Cochran #58 and said he would be a backup safety and special teamer (LINK). He played in twelve games and made 2 tackles and 1 fumble recovery.
TTB Rating: N/A

Cochran has turned into a steady special teams contributor over the past couple seasons. He has played in 15 games during that span with 3 tackles and 1 fumble recovery, which came last year against Rutgers.

So far Cochran has not played safety in a game, and it's unlikely that he will this season, either. Michigan brought in a few 2020 scholarship safeties with the new signing class, and there are some talented players already in the program.

Prediction: Backup safety, special teamer