East Lansing (MI) East Lansing WR Andrel Anthony, Jr. (image via Lansing State Journal)
East Lansing (MI) East Lansing wide receiver Andrel Anthony, Jr. committed to Michigan on Friday evening. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Penn State, among others.
Anthony is listed at 6’2″ and 175 lbs. As a junior in 2019, he caught 54 passes for 973 yards and 9 touchdowns.
Because we’re in the doldrums of the coronavirus pandemic, I’m bored in some ways. So here’s a little bit of a different post.
Here’s a smoothie recipe (with some alternatives) I’ve been downing pretty much every day. It’s pretty large and filling, so you can use this as a meal replacement.
Name: Gemon Green Height: 6’2″ Weight: 180 lbs. High school: DeSoto (TX) DeSoto Position: Cornerback Class: Redshirt sophomore Jersey number: #22 Last year: I ranked Green #43 and said he would be a backup cornerback. (LINK). He made 5 tackles. TTB Rating: 82
Green had a momentary uptick in expectations during the pre-season leading up to 2019 when it came out that Ambry Thomas was suffering from an illness. That left Thomas’s availability for the season up in the air, and maybe backup corners like Green were licking their chops at the chance to play. Luckily for Michigan, Thomas made a pretty miraculous recovery to be ready for game one and he stayed healthy throughout the year. Green was limited to special teams as Thomas, Lavert Hill, and Vincent Gray took the vast majority of snaps at corner.
This year Green is in the hot seat. With Hill having graduated, Michigan needs to find a third corner. Green is in his third year on campus and has the most experience of any of the backups, but he hasn’t separated himself from the pack. In fact, word on the street is that D.J. Turner II has been the most impressive of the backup corners. Green needs to stake his claim to playing time here in 2020 or else Gray, Turner, Darion Green-Warren, and/or others might make him irrelevant going into 2021.
I’ll just cut right to the chase and say that I did not do a good job with rating the class of 2013. A bunch of good recruits bombed, and in their absence, a bunch of so-so recruits starred. In some ways, it’s not that I whiffed on everyone. It’s that it was a huge boom-or-bust class.
Keep in mind that the ratings (fully explained here) are intended to project how players will fare at Michigan and, to a certain extent, in the NFL Draft. I do not take into account how players will do once they get to the NFL or how they will pan out if they transfer to other programs. I will give myself a grade of 1-5 like a 5-point grading scale (5 is best, 1 is worst) for each player; I reserve the right to give myself an incomplete if the guy never even got a chance to get on the field. I’ll work down the list from highest to lowest with a brief career recap for each player:
100
None
90-99
95: Derrick Green – RB – Richmond (VA) Hermitage Green ran for just 898 yards and 7 touchdowns on 4.2 yards per carry during three years at Michigan. It didn’t help that his first two years were spent behind a Darrell Funk-coached offensive line, but he fell behind De’Veon Smith, transferred to TCU, and didn’t do anything there, either. Prediction accuracy: 1. Big oops.
Name: Taylor Upshaw Height: 6’4″ Weight: 240 lbs. High school: Bradenton (FL) Braden River Position: Defensive end Class: Redshirt sophomore Jersey number: #91 Last year: I ranked Upshaw #72 and said he would be a backup defensive end (LINK). He played in six games and made 2 tackles. TTB Rating: 73
Last year Michigan needed some help at defensive end after a bunch of departures from the 2018 season. Upshaw took probably as much advantage as he could with future NFLer Mike Danna taking most of the backup defensive end snaps. When Upshaw got on the field, he looked a little thin after being listed at 246 pounds.
One year later he is now listed at 240 pounds, which is probably not a good thing. That’s not even a good weight for a shorter weakside end, let alone a guy who’s 6’4″ and probably headed for the strong side. At the same time, Upshaw actually saw playing time, unlike some of the other options (Gabe Newburg, Mike Morris). I’ve heard a little buzz about Newburg, but Upshaw might be in the race to make the two-deep with Luiji Vilain, Braiden McGregor, Newburg, and others.
