Posts by: Thunder

2016 Season Countdown: #41 Henry Poggi

Henry Poggi

Name: Henry Poggi
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 266 lbs.
High school: Baltimore (MD) Gilman
Position: Fullback
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #19
Last year: I ranked Poggi #53 and said he would be a backup defensive end (LINK). He made four starts at fullback and tight end, catching 1 pass for 2 yards.

Poggi was one of several position-switchers last year who was getting a chance on both sides of the ball. The coaching staff toyed with the idea of putting a bunch of linemen and linebackers on either side (Tom Strobel, Brady Pallante, Chase Winovich, Poggi, etc.), and Poggi is the one guy who seems to have stuck on offense. He really struggled with blocking early in the year, and he offered little as a pass receiver. Those facts being known, it was frustrating to see him on the field so much. But he improved by leaps and bounds as a blocker, and that’s probably what prevented him from flipping back to defense.

Going into the 2016 season, he looks to be a frequent contributor once again on offense. Despite being a four-game starter last year, I don’t find his contributions to be so irreplaceable that they beg for a higher spot on the countdown. He is a plus blocker, but other guys can also do that (Devin Asiasi, Bobby Henderson, etc.). He’s not a threat as a pass catcher, and there are several tight end/H-back types who are more dangerous running into the flat on bootlegs (Khalid Hill, Zach Gentry, etc.). Poggi also doesn’t pose a threat as a runner on dives and traps in the same way that Sione Houma and Joe Kerridge did. I think he will play plenty of snaps, but there is a good number of guys who have more value to the team.

Prediction: Part-time starting fullback

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2017 Recruiting Update: August 1, 2016

Bullard (TX) Bullard TE Major Tennison (image via ET Final Score)

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2017

Bullard (TX) Bullard tight end Major Tennison decommitted from Texas. He’s a 6’6″, 245 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Oregon, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 3-star, the #11 tight end, and #323 overall. He’ll be at Michigan’s BBQ at the Big House this coming weekend, and with the commitment of Kedrick James to Alabama (see below), he may be inclined to pick Michigan. Alabama took two tight ends in 2016 and may not want a second TE in this class.

Hit the jump for more developments over the last several days.

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2016 Season Countdown: #42 Drake Harris

Drake Harris

Name: Drake Harris
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 181 lbs.
High school: Grand Rapids (MI) Christian
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #14
Last year: I ranked Harris #37 and said he would be a backup wide receiver with 15 catches for 225 yards and 2 TDs (LINK). He made 6 catches for 39 yards.

Harris came in for a ton of spring and summer hype last off-season. According to some, he was the most impressive receiver on the roster. He wasn’t. Jehu Chesson had a breakout season, Amara Darboh did what he does, and Harris was mainly a decoy of one sort or another. He quietly made 6 catches, but he didn’t do anything outstanding on a team that was lacking much depth at the position. Truthfully, it wasn’t too disappointing since the guy had been sitting out for two seasons with a nagging hamstring problem, but it didn’t inspire me to predict greatness.

So here Harris is at #42. Chesson and Darboh return, so Harris probably won’t start unless Chesson’s injury lingers from last season. Even if he does, there are other young guys who could make a push for playing time, along with Maurice Ways, who is recovering from his own injury. Harris himself is still only 181 lbs. and looks like he could be snapped in two by a couple of kids mistaking him for a wishbone at Thanksgiving. I think Harris might get pushed out of the way by some younger guys during his career, but for now, Harris – who did an okay job of blocking – has the experience edge on most.

Prediction: Backup wide receiver; 9 catches, 90 yards, 1 TD

2016 Season Countdown: #43 Devin Asiasi

Name: Devin Asiasi
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 265 lbs.
High school: Concord (CA) De La Salle
Position: Tight end
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Asiasi was a senior in high school (LINK). He made 17 catches for 311 yards and 5 touchdowns on offense; he also made 49 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, and 5 breakups.
Final TTB Rating: 92

Asiasi was kind of a unicorn in the 2016 class. A Californian who didn’t want to go far from home, he was suddenly very interested in Michigan toward the end of the recruiting cycle. It makes sense that a good tight end wanted to play for Jim Harbaugh, but the Wolverines had to fend off Alabama, UCLA, and Washington, among others. It came down to the last minute with him choosing Michigan on February 3. Despite playing his senior yearat 265 lbs. with a little bit of bad weight, he danced around opponents at times and showed some light feet on his way to averaging almost 18 yards/catch. He ended up playing in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, where he caught a touchdown pass.

I like Asiasi a lot, and I think he’s the type of guy who can make an immediate impact. Like Kekoa Crawford in yesterday’s post (LINK), I think blocking ability might push him a little bit ahead of some other guys. Add in some quality receiving skills, and I think Asiasi gets some playing time this year behind Jake Butt at the Y position. Michigan has a lot of tight ends, but Asiasi probably has the highest upside and the best combination of size, blocking ability, and receiving ability. He can play on the line, or he can be split out into the slot to outmuscle safeties or outrun linebackers. Last year with Jake Butt being the receiving tight end and A.J. Williams mostly blocking, it was pretty easy to game plan to stop Butt, even though he still had pretty good production. However, the staff has some new doors opening now, because if you concentrate on stopping Butt on one end of the line, there goes Asiasi or Tyrone Wheatley, Jr. or Ian Bunting popping free in the middle of the field. Wheeeeeeee!

Prediction: Backup tight end

What I’ve Been Reading: Those Guys Have All the Fun

Those Guys Have All the Fun, by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, came out several years ago and immediately landed on my reading list . . . but I didn’t get to it until this summer. It tells the story of ESPN, all the way from its founding in 1979 up through 2010. Miller and Shales wrote a similar book about Saturday Night Live a few years ago, and the style is the same. The narrative moves chronologically from beginning to end, and aside from an occasional paragraph or page to summarize events, the story is told in the words of the numerous parties involved. The authors got access to the big-time on-air personalities over the years (Chris Berman, Bob Ley, Keith Olbermann, Dan Patrick, Linda Cohn, Tom Jackson, Rece Davis, Tony Kornheiser, Jim Rome, etc.), as well as various celebrities and producers who have interacted with the network and, more specifically, SportsCenter.

There were times toward the beginning of the book that were rather slow, because I wasn’t familiar with some of the events that occurred or the names involved in the late 1970s, early 1980s, etc. However, after about one-third of the book, I tore through the rest. As a kid I would wake up, come downstairs, and eat breakfast/get dressed for school while watching SportsCenter. Not just for a few minutes, but for about 1.5 hours. I was enamored with the way sports were presented by some of the announcers, and I couldn’t get enough of the highlights and stats, even when the show turned over at the top of the hour and repeated itself. So I looked forward to hearing about the behind-the-scenes action.

The slow parts for me were the business side of things, because quite a bit of time is spent discussing the negotiations with cable companies, buying rights to sporting events, the merger of ESPN with ABC/Disney, etc. What I found most enthralling was the discussion of the dynamics of what announcers were put on Monday Night Football, how the guys in the booth interacted, the friction between personalities, and so on. I didn’t realize at the time how controversial Tony Kornheiser was on MNF, mainly because I liked him and just thought of him as entertainment, not a football analyst. I can see where his personality might get in the way of other, more serious football announcers, but I reached a point a while ago where the commentators became somewhat superfluous and I could watch a game without the sound.

The book isn’t a quick read at all, but if you were into ESPN and SportsCenter during the years when business was booming, I highly recommend it.