Posts by: Thunder

Jerod Smith, Wolverine

Cheshire (CT) Cheshire Academy defensive lineman Jerod Smith committed to Michigan on Tuesday evening. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame, and Texas, among others.

Smith is listed at 6’3″ and 265 lbs. As a junior at Windsor (CT) Loomis Chaffee, he made 63 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, and 1 interception. He has a twin brother named Jacob, who is a defensive end prospect being pursued by an almost identical list of schools, including Michigan.

RANKINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 82 grade, #9 DT, #169 overall
On3: 3-star, 88 grade, #50 DL
Rivals: 4-star, 5.8 grade, #23 SDE
247 Sports: 4-star, 90 grade, #30 DL, #270 overall

Hit the jump for more.

Brady Prieskorn, Wolverine

Rochester (MI) Adams tight end Brady Prieskorn committed to Michigan on Tuesday afternoon. He chose the Wolverines over offers from Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and many others.

Prieskorn is listed at 6’6″ and 225 lbs. As a junior in 2022, he caught 24 passes for 648 yards and 10 touchdowns.

RANKINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 84 grade, #1 TE, #92 overall
On3: 4-star, 93 grade, #5 TE, #92 overall
Rivals: 4-star, 5.9 grade, #3 TE, #67 overall
247 Sports: 4-star, 93 grade, #7 TE, #95 overall

Hit the jump for more.

2023 Season Countdown: #124 Noah Howes

Name: Noah Howes
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 240 lbs.
High school: Rochester (MI) Rochester
Position: Tight end
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #45
Last year: I ranked Howes #122 and said he would be a backup tight end (LINK). He played in one game.
TTB Rating: N/A

Howes joins the growing list of walk-ons who got an inch shorter from 2022 to 2023, going from 6’5″ to 6’4″ on this year’s roster, but adding 6 pounds in the process. Surely this loss of height came from the impact Howes made on Hawaii defenders in his lone appearance last season, during the 56-10 Michigan victory.

Fun fact: Howes was rated as a 2-star offensive guard by 247 Sports in the 2021 recruiting class. Michigan may decide to use him as a blocking tight end sometime in the future, since they lost several tight ends to the NFL (Luke Schoonmaker), transfer (Erick All, Louis Hansen), and/or graduation (Joel Honigford, Carter Selzer).

Prediction: Backup tight end

Nikhai Hill-Green, Ex-Wolverine

Former starting linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green will be playing his fourth season elsewhere after entering the transfer portal.

Hill-Green signed as part of the class of 2020 and is now the eleventh player from that class to have transferred, including the third today after A.J. Henning (LINK) and safety R.J. Moten (LINK). I gave him a TTB Rating of 74 when he committed (LINK). He was a 3-star, the #25 outside linebacker, and #393 overall in his class.

Hill-Green played in three games as a freshman in 2020 and then started six games in 2021, making 50 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 1 pass breakup in his second year. However, his 2022 season was a wash due to injury, and he was in a battle with several other players for playing time in 2023, including incumbent Michael Barrett, up-and-comer Jimmy Rolder, and Nebraska transfer Ernest Hausmann.

It would not be surprising to see Hill-Green follow his former high school head coach at Baltimore (MD) St. Frances to Charlotte, where Biff Poggi is the new head coach.

R.J. Moten, Ex-Wolverine

Rising redshirt junior safety R.J. Moten is transferring out of Michigan.

I gave Moten a TTB Rating of 68 when he committed in July of 2019 (LINK) and compared him to former Wolverine Josh Furman, who finished his career at Oklahoma State. Moten was also a high-level baseball prospect but decided to pursue football instead.

Moten played in just one game in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Altogether, he played in 29 career games, including five starts in 2021 and ten more in 2022. He managed 65 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, 4 pass breakups, and 1 interception during his career. So Michigan is essentially losing a starter, even though Makari Paige kind of usurped the starting safety job toward the end of 2022. When Michigan was missing some linebacker depth toward the end of 2022, the coaching staff practiced Moten at linebacker during bowl prep for the TCU game, thinking he might be able to play in case of emergency.

Moten is the tenth member of the class of 2020 to depart, and the second of the day, along with wide receiver A.J. Henning (LINK). Michigan also landed an amazingly alliterative trio of safety/linebacker hybrids in 2020 with Moten, Jordan Morant, and William Mohan, and all three have now transferred (Morant to Duke/Mississippi State, Mohan to Tennessee before being dismissed).

Presumably, the two safety starters are now Rod Moore and Makari Paige, with Keon Sabb and Zeke Berry also looking like promising players for the future.