COMMITMENTS
Michigan doesn’t have any tight ends in the 2017 class after Bloomfield Hills (MI) Brother Rice tight end Carter Dunaway decommitted several months ago. It’s worth noting that Dunaway is still sitting on offers from Indiana, Nebraska, and Purdue. He’s a 3-star, the #64 tight end, and #1340 overall.
UNCOMMITTED PLAYERS
- Josh Falo
- Leonard Warner
Hit the jump for more on Michigan’s tight end situation.
COMMITTED ELSEWHERE
- Zech Byrd (Florida)
- Matt Dotson (Michigan State)
- Jimmy Jaggers (UCLA)
- Kedrick James (Alabama)
- Tyler Johnson (Arizona State)
- Dalton Keene (Virginia Tech)
- Cole Kmet (Notre Dame)
- Tre’ McKitty (Florida State)
- Colby Parkinson (Stanford)
- Brian Polendey (Miami)
- Trey Pugh (Northwestern)
- Charles Reeves, Jr. (Pitt)
- Will Register (South Carolina)
- Logan Rudolph (Clemson)
- Major Tennison (Alabama)
- Brock Wright (Notre Dame)
RETURNING ROSTER PLAYERS
- Ian Bunting (RS Jr.)
- Zach Gentry (RS So.)
- Tyrone Wheatley, Jr. (RS So.)
- Devin Asiasi (So.)
- Nick Eubanks (So.)
- Sean McKeon (So.)
- Conner Edmonds (RS Fr. walk-on)
- Daniel Jokisch (RS Fr. walk-on)
OUTLOOK FOR MICHIGAN
Michigan has quite a bit of depth at tight end, even though Mackey Award winner and All-American Jake Butt is graduating and heading to the NFL. Bunting, Wheatley, and Asiasi have all played extensively, and though none have produced a lot in the passing game, at least one should be ready to take over the lead role that Butt held. I included a couple of preferred walk-ons from the 2016 class because tight end is a position where walk-ons can contribute. The loss of Dunaway hurt from a numbers perspective, but you can see that Michigan doesn’t really need much here. Even if you remove the walk-ons and Zach Gentry, who played some wide receiver this year at 6’7″, 244 lbs., you still have 5 scholarship tight ends.
As for the 2017 recruiting class, Michigan offered Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy’s Tre’ McKitty not long ago, but he subsequently flipped from Oregon to Florida State without giving Michigan much of a look. Sacramento (CA) Inderkum’s Joshua Falo looked like a realistic option when he played with a bunch of Michigan targets at The Opening, but it looks like he might be headed for Colorado. Leonard Warner hasn’t been a realistic option, and the Georgia native is likely going to be a Georgia Bulldog. The other name bouncing around has been Littleton (CO) Chatfield’s Dalton Keene, the Virginia Tech commit. However, he plans to enroll early at VT, so with the dead period having arrived, Michigan won’t be able to get him on campus before he enrolls. With the board shaping up like it has, it doesn’t look like Michigan will be taking a tight end in 2017.
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Tight end certainly isn’t a critical need this year, and I’d rather pass than take someone mediocre, but if a likely starting-caliber guy was interested, we should grab him. 2016 and 2017 classes will be large, so we’ll likely be stuck with a more limited class in 2018, and it may be more difficult to squeeze a TE in around all of the other needs.
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Pass. Don’t need. Take another OT instead.
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Haven’t followed Falo recruitment much, but wow Colorado.. what a turn around for that team. Makes me also think if we pushed hard a flip might be possible.
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Yeah, I remember in the off-season when Michigan fans were looking at that team/game as a pushover, but when I started looking at them, I didn’t see a lot of glaring weaknesses. They’ve got a good bunch of players there this year.
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