Name: Jon Runyan, Jr.
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 304 lbs.
High school: Philadelphia (PA) St. Joseph’s
Position: Offensive tackle
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #75
Last year: I ranked Runyan #52 and said he would be a backup offensive guard. He played in one game.
TTB Rating: 73
Runyan wasn’t expected to play much in 2016, and he didn’t. He was athletic but undersized, and the team had a fair number of veterans to play above him (Kyle Kalis, Ben Braden, Patrick Kugler, David Dawson, etc.). He did stand out to me in the spring of 2016 as a guy who could really move, and that skill allows him to have some positional flexibility.
This past spring he was taking reps at right tackle, in an effort to replace Erik Magnuson. Michigan isn’t sure whether Juwann Bushell-Beatty can handle the tackle position, and they have made contingency plans in order to shore up the spot. Bushell-Beatty struggled last year against Rutgers and Wisconsin, and he had injury issues this spring. Runyan was the nominal starting right tackle for the majority of spring, despite only being 6’4″. Bushell-Beatty may get a shot to claim the tackle position, but as a redshirt junior, we know that he’s limited. Runyan has the ability to start at right tackle – which I think will happen sooner or later this year – and also can fill in on the interior.
Prediction: Part-time starter at right tackle; backup offensive guard
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This is an extremely low rank for a projected starter at tackle. I have JBB at 21 and Runyan at 26. Thunder has them at 31 and 39. I guess the difference is what is being expected from Caesar Ruiz…
https://touch-the-banner.com/forum/topic/lanknows-countdow-2017/
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From yesterday’s Drevno presser: It’s still early but is there anything that you notice different about Jon or Juwann specifically coming into this year?
“I just—the point is their number’s getting called. There’s nobody in front of them, so it’s…they have a desire to be good. They’re really, really trying to be on point and I think it’s maturity, getting older in the program, and it’s their time. It’s their time to be a starter here at Michigan and play at this great institution so it’s an exciting time.”
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“It’s their time to be a starter.” Interesting grammar choice there.
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Unfortunately, that’s the way a lot of our starters get picked these days…they’ve just been around longer, and the coaches either can’t develop new talent to the point where it can start in less than 4 years, or stick with experience above all else.
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Onwenu and Bredeson are true sophomores. Projected by most to start above Runyan and other older players.
If they were going based on “who has been around longer” they wouldn’t have ran off Dawson for example.
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Dawson is long gone…and Runyan is a tackle. Kalis, Braden and Magnuson were mediocre, but were never replaced. Even Cole is no better than solid, and has bounced around for his whole career, but no younger player has ever been close to replacing him. Kugler is starting by default and desperation.
When was the last time we had two really good players fighting for a starting spot…at ANY position?
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Dawson left this year.
Runyan is a guard who might move to OT out of need.
Magnuson was above average overall and particularly good in pass protection.
Cole was the second best OC in the Big Ten last year (per PFF).
Cole was replaced at LT by Newsome who was good enough to be considered “close”.
Last year Clark and Stribling were both really good. They were also really good the year before that when they relegated Wayne Lyons (a starter on a top 20 D the year before) to irrelevance.
I’m not happy with OL coaching but none of what you are saying is true except for Braden and Kalis being mediocre.
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Dawson wasn’t a quality player who was “run off”. He was never good enough to seriously threaten to start here, so he went somewhere else.
Above average…mediocre..whatever. Magnuson was nothing special for us. And be honest..were you really impressed by Cole at center last year? Newsome was not so awesomely good at LT that they just had to find another spot for Cole. They were forced to move Cole from LT to center because no one else on the roster could play center worth a damn, and the very best guy they had to slide in there was a true freshman. Again, all moves made by default and desperation.
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Yes, people are getting jobs by default and the OL has been well below average for years now. “Mediocre” would be a compliment.
The disappointing reality doesn’t need hyperbole about favoring veterans and all that nonsense.
Newsome was a sophomore. He’s exactly the kind of player we WANT. So is Cole. The problem is not them, its that there’s not enough of them.
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I am less than enthusiastic about the tackles although Cole will probably start at LT.
My viewpoint is this team isn’t going to pass block as well and if you have Evans in the backfield then I don’t see a lot of protection for Speight. I see a team who is going to have to establish the run in order to function well especially without Butt, Darboh and Chesson.
Good news is that UM seems to have some decent guards to pull.
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I’m not sure I buy the argument that run-blocking will be better than pass-blocking. That’s not been the case in recent history.
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That is correct but Braden and Kalis were not very good at pulling and made errors in picking up blocks. I think the last time UM ran the ball well if I recall was when they had a good center (Molk) and a good guard (name escapes me but he turned out well) and then Schofield at RT.
My own belief is that you can’t run the ball well against a good defense if it knows you can’t pull on occasion. Pulling allows an offense to run away from a DL and stacked box.
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Patrick Omameh
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Michigan has been trying to paper over the fact they can’t run block at all since 2011. I don’t expect that to change this year.
Braden and Kalis weren’t good last year — Kugler, JBB and Runyan were significantly worse.
People get better but expecting this many to make a leap is unrealistic IMO. If Drevno and Frey improve the OL performance from last year it’ll be a great testament to their coaching abilities.
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Just expecting multiple people to make a significant leap at ONE position group is a stretch. The people who are predicting this team to go 11-1/12-0 and compete seriously for the national championship are expecting multiple people at MULTIPLE positions to improve tremendously over last year (if they even played at all last season). Just not going to happen. Some positions may end up being fine with a lot of unproven players, but some are going to struggle.
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The odds of multiple people making leaps across multiple positions are higher than at one position.
We can expect a bunch of leaps, I don’t think that’s unreasonable. But we don’t have the numbers at OL to make it realistic.
Clearly people expecting 11-0 are optimistic, but if you view the season as coming down to 4 coin flips, there’s as good of a chance that they land all heads than all tails.
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Your link has countdown misspelled.
Cole at #1 is great.
Speight at #2 is a joke.
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https://touch-the-banner.com/forum/topic/lanknows-countdown-2017/
You’re buying into the Peters hype even though we know Harbaugh is capable of BS on the topic of QB competition.
Wondering if you can think of the the last starting QB who was as good as Speight and then replaced by a freshman.
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I’d be much more confident if (at his size) he were competing with Onwenu at RG
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Yeah. In an ideal situation I’d rather have Runyan at guard with Newsome and Cole. Sigh.
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Drevno implied that is exactly the case. Runyan seems to be working at OG. For now.
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Does that shoe JBB in at RT? Who’d be his backup? Interesting
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Ulizio (or a freshman) would be the nominal backup but it’s probably really Runyan if he doesn’t win a starting OG job.
Drevno presser describes Ulizio and JBB as “over there” [at RT] and Runyan as “can work over there”
“You have athletic options with Juwann [Bushell-Beatty] and I know Jon [Runyan Jr.] is one of the more athletic options that you guys have. Could you kind of describe that right tackle position a little bit?
“Yeah, Juwann and Nolan’s over there. Jon Runyan can work over there. You’ve got Andrew Steuber, Chuck Filiaga. We have some guys to work with there. We feel good about all of them. As we progress through, we’ll see how they understand the offense and if they can think quickly on their feet and their physicality and things but it’s kind of a rotation. May be somebody else swinging over there but it’s so early. We feel very good about the guys that we have. We feel very good about their athleticism and what they did over the summer and things and their understanding of what we’re trying to do so we’re excited about it.”
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The point is they are going to take the best 5. Cole, Bredeson, Runyan can all be shuffled around. Kugler can play OC or OG.
Drevno is not giving anything away but reading between the lines it seems like the order is:
1. Cole 2. Bredeson 3. Kugler 4. Onwenu 5. Bushel-Beatty 6.Runyan 7. Ruiz
If Ruiz is in the top 5 they can move Bredeson outside and Kugler to OG.
If Runyan is in the top 5 they can play him at RT or RG.
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Is Ulizio in the mix?
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Sounds more like they’re hoping a freshman can pass him to me.
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Part of the reason that it even looks not-silly to take the “best 5” is that this staff has done a sub-par job of recruiting true offensive tackles. We have no one able to play this year with the length and size that you want in a top-notch OT. Cole is still short and undersized for a LT, but they’re moving him BACK there, out of desperation.
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They’ve done a subpar job – regardless of position. We’ve moved our best OLmen to OC the last 2 seasons even though they were both better fits at OG.
The issue here isn’t OT vs OG vs OC. It’s not recruiting enough 5-stars. It’s not having appropriate numbers or consistent development.
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this is a year where they could use as much help as possible from the 14 and 15 classes….itd be huge if runyan or ulizio (or bushell-beatty) were able to step up and not only earn snaps on that OL but play mostly solid ball.
same for dudes like washington, watson, gentry, bunting, perry (though hes more proven than many peers), wheatley, etc…more impact contributions from those 2 smaller classes to help established classmates kinnel, winovich, speight, mone, higdon, etc lead this squad and maybe offset some of the learning curve for the large and talented yet young 16 and 17 classes.
very interested to hear how some of these dudes progress over the next month and then see how they exit camp and roll into florida…theyve got a lot of talent on roster but being able to rely on contributions from another handful of older players obviously only further helps shape a winning squad.
doesnt much matter if its washington and watson or st juste and thomas, runyan and bushell-beatty or ruiz and steuber…as long as theyre playing at levels desired by the staff and the team gets those solid, impact snaps from somewhere. with the talented classes pushing from behind its close to step up or step off time for some on the roster like bushell-beatty.
re runyan, hes impressed on occasion, hopefully he can ramp it up. upon his commitment i figured hed play a role as 7th OL or reserve swing player or whatever as he reached years 3-5 in the program though never envisioned him a starter…but if hes capable of holding his own, id love to have been wrong. as long as the starters play up to snuff and they find enough contributors, the source doesnt really matter to me.
all things equal though, id rather a frosh like steuber ball out and surprise people as a solid 1st year OT producing on par with a vet and really earning a job would be better for the future but an older dude (runyan, bushell-beatty, etc) coming into his own and playing well for 1st time works too.
i think its clear runyan has a spot in the top 7-8 OL, time will tell where. hopefully hes an ascending player as harbaugh likes to say and hes improving each session bc another smart, fairly versatile 300 pounder with good feet really helps this squad
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