Name: Chris Hinton, Jr.
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 285 lbs.
High school: Norcross (GA) Greater Atlanta Christian
Position: Defensive tackle
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: #74
Last year: Hinton was a senior in high school (LINK). He made 49 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and 3 sacks.
TTB Rating: 90
Welcome to the part of the countdown that gets into the guys Michigan really needs to be successful in 2019. From the start of the countdown until yesterday, I think the players I listed were important but not critical to Michigan’s team performance.
Hinton is the countdown’s highest ranked freshman defender. The Wolverines lost three defensive tackles from last year, and despite a flirtation with Rice grad transfer Zach Abercrumbia (who has ended up at SMU, by the way), no reinforcements were imported from other programs. Of the two true tackles in the 2019 class (Hinton and Mazi Smith), one almost has to be in the two-deep, and I project that to be Hinton. I believe Michigan has three solid players with Carlo Kemp, Donovan Jeter, and Michael Dwumfour, but Jeter missed 2018 due to injury and Dwumfour is constantly nursing nagging issues.
Smith enrolled early and has lost 25-30 pounds. Hinton arrived on campus in June, and his body composition is as yet unknown. He lit it up at the All-American Bowl playing defensive tackle – not strongside end, like some thought early on – and needs to be ready to play this fall. Listed at 285 pounds, my hope is that he has reshaped his body some, added some muscle, and maybe even put on some weight overall. There were times during his senior year where he was loafing (SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS); whether that was because he was worn out from playing too many snaps, I don’t know. Whatever the reason, the Wolverines need him to eat up some of the snaps on the interior defensive line in 2019.
Prediction: Backup defensive tackle
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I’m not a fan of Freshmen DTs, too much technical refinements to be made after HS. With Hinton being a DE the last four years, how likely is he to be more than just a warm body this year?
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I don’t think he’s going to be anything special as a freshman. Freshmen never are. I just want him to be able to hold his own. I don’t think the DE thing has much of an impact. He’s pretty technically sound, and he did play some DT both during the season and at the All-American Bowl.
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Don’t tell Ed Oliver or Dexter Lawrence that freshman DTs are never anything special.
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I haven’t talked to either of them in a little while.
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Translation: “I realize that I said something demonstrably wrong, but since this is the internet, I’m not allowed to just admit that and move on.”
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You do realize that “never” doesn’t always mean “not one time in the history of the world,” right?
Anyone: “I never eat red meat.”
WCB: “Well, there was that one time back in 2013 when you had a hot dog.”
Anyone: “It’s been forever since we’ve beaten Ohio State.”
WCB: “Don’t tell that to Brady Hoke.”
Yes, there are rare exceptions when freshman defensive tackles are good. Yeesh.
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There’s “never”, and there’s “not very often”. I assume you know the distinction. And there’s intentional hyperbole like “it’s been forever since we’ve beaten Ohio State” which no one is saying in the first place, and which every thinking human would understand to mean “It SEEMS like forever since we’ve beaten Ohio State, even though it’s only been 8 years”. Which is not what you did.
The actual point being, we should not always have to temper our expectations about highly touted true freshmen.
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Never say always but expectations for highly touted recruits should always be tempered.
Or at least grounded in historical reality that they are more likely to bust out, get hurt, transfer, or simply just be very good college players than they are to play up to their Xth best ranking as the Xth best player in college football by year whatever.
Same story for freshman years – expectations should be grounded in reality, recognizing historical performance. Most guys take time to be good. It’s unlikely but not impossible.
To your side of the debate — opportunity matters in this equation. Michigan has it at DT, even if all 3 of their veterans hit. That doesn’t mean Smith or Hinton should be considered disappointments if they end up red-shirting. But it also means their production, assuming they have some, may not be entirely merit-based or push them above guys like Wormley/Henry/Hurst/Glasgow who did nothing as freshman.
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Not saying anything about it after this:
Freshmen in FBS top 100 in sacks in 2018: 0
Freshmen in FBS top 100 in TFLs in 2018: 0
Freshman DTs in Big Ten top 50 in sacks in 2018: 0
Freshmen in Big Ten top 50 in TFLs in 2018: 0
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I’d guess Hinton or Smith hit as quality rotation contributor. We’ve had a few examples of good play from true freshman (Gary, Solomon) in recent years despite loaded depth on the DL. Wouldn’t count on both of them just because the odds of hitting 2 for 2 on true freshman is low, but they both sound relatively prepared (Smith physically and EE status, Hinton with elite HS background).
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