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| Antonio Poole (#40) |
Name: Antonio Poole
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 218 lbs.
High school: Cincinnati (OH) Winton Woods
Position: Linebacker
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #40
Last year: I ranked Poole #60 and said he would sit out the season due to injury. He did not see game action.
Poole has now remained on the sideline for his first two years on campus. For linebackers that’s typically not a good sign, because those guys can play a lot of roles on special teams. He earned a little bit of buzz early on at Michigan, but last year he suffered a pectoral injury that forced him to miss the entire 2012 season. And while he remains on the team, he still wasn’t full go this spring.
The end-of-spring depth chart included a two-deep of Desmond Morgan and Joe Bolden at MIKE, and then James Ross III and Royce Jenkins-Stone at WILL. There have been some suggestions by insiders that Poole’s career might be finished due to the injury, but either way, it seems that anything he contributes from this point forward is a plus. There are three starter-quality inside linebackers (Morgan, Bolden, Ross) and an unproven youngster (Jenkins-Stone) in that group. If Poole is recovered, I think he has the instincts and athleticism to push Jenkins-Stone for that #2 WILL spot and play on coverage units. If he’s not recovered by August, I think that’s a very bad sign for his career.
Prediction: Backup WILL linebacker, special teams coverage
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Do you think M's vigorous pursuit of an OLB for the 2014 class suggests anything about Poole's status, or do you think those things are unrelated?
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I'm not Thunder, but I think it's unrelated, ever since Hoke and Mattison have taken over the defense, Michigan has signed quite a few Linebackers lately…
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I don't think they're related. Poole is an inside linebacker, so pursuing outside linebackers to replace him wouldn't make a lot of sense.
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Really believed that Poole was underrated coming out of high school. But I also thought he looked a bit small and slow to get to the sideline (for a smaller LB) in the 2012 spring game. Continued pursuit of OLB might not reflect on Poole in any way because UM needs to get serious about replacing Ryan with a good player, and that guy is not on campus yet. But UM is continuing to pursue ILB pretty hard, considering that Ross will have one of the positions locked down for the next three years. Also have heard rumblings that Mattison still is not satisfied with LB depth. Reading between the lines, it's likely that Poole and RJS are not considered future starting-material.
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