Posts by: Thunder

Spring Football Preview: Linebackers

Ben Gedeon (#42) and Mike McCray II (#9)

Projected LB starters: SAM Jabrill Peppers (RS So.), MIKE Ben Gedeon (Sr.), WILL Mike McCray II (RS Jr.). It’s sad to say that this might be the last time we have a chance to see Jabrill Peppers in a Michigan uniform. A defensive back prospect coming out of high school, Don Brown seems to want him to play outside linebacker like Steve Brown did back in 2009. Gedeon is the only true, experienced linebacker returning from last year; he started one game last season and has 70 tackles, 5.5 TFLs, and 2 sacks in his career. McCray is more of a question mark. Listed at 6’4″ and 242 lbs. last year, he missed the whole season with a shoulder injury. In three years on campus – including a freshman season when he was injured and took a redshirt – he has 2 tackles and 1 blocked punt to his name. However, when the team took the field on Monday morning, he was reportedly the first WILL linebacker on the field.

Hit the jump for more on the linebacker position.

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Da’Mario Jones, Ex-Wolverine

Da’Mario Jones (#10)

Rising senior Da’Mario Jones has left Michigan’s football program. He is rumored to be looking for a better playing opportunity elsewhere.

Jones moved around a bit in high school, so he was not on the local recruiting radar much before his senior year. He was committed to Central Michigan for a few months before the offer came from Michigan, which he jumped on almost immediately at the end of October in 2012. I initially gave him a TTB Rating of 79 (LINK) and I even bumped that up to an 81 after the recruiting cycle ended (LINK). He was the best receiver in Michigan’s 2013 class, and that seems to still be true (Csont’e York was booted out of the program, while Jaron Dukes has yet to play a meaningful down of football), but 81 was obviously a reach for Jones.

Hit the jump for more on Jones’s departure.

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Blake Bars, Ex-Wolverine

Blake Bars

Offensive lineman Blake Bars has left the football program, reportedly to begin concentrating on his law degree. He would have been a fifth year senior for the upcoming season.

Bars committed to Michigan in June 2011 (LINK), and it seems very weird to me that I’m linking posts to my old-fashioned website from five years ago. Time flies. Anyway, he initially said that he was being recruited as a left tackle, which I thought might have been a bit of hogwash at the time. It turns out that he never sniffed the two-deep at left tackle. I initially gave him a TTB Rating of 71, but that dropped to a 62 once the 2012 recruiting class wrapped (LINK).

Hit the jump for more on Bars’s departure.

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Spring Football Preview: Defensive Tackles and Defensive Ends

Bryan Mone (#90)

Projected DT starters: Fifth-year senior Ryan Glasgow was one of Michigan’s best starting defenders last season, and you could tell how much the defense missed him when he missed the end of the season with a pectoral injury. He finished the season with 25 tackles, 5 TFLs, and 1 sack in nine games at the nose tackle position. He is very strong, fairly quick off the ball, and uses excellent technique. Last year’s backup nose tackle Maurice Hurst, Jr. was pressed into a lot of playing time at the nose because of injuries, but his size makes him more of a 3-technique in an ideal world. Assuming Glasgow and Bryan Mone return healthy at NT, redshirt junior Hurst (35 tackles, 6.5 TFLs, 3 sacks) should slide over to 3-tech and use his quickness there.

Hit the jump for the rest of the defensive line preview.

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What is IMG Academy and why should I care?

I originally started writing this post in August 2015, but then my own football practices and Michigan’s impending season tore me away from its completion. Six months later, now is a good time to complete it since the Wolverines are practicing at the facilities this week to open spring ball.

Last summer I was cruising Twitter when I saw a Tweet announcing that Camden (NJ) Camden lineman Cesar Ruiz, the #1 center in the country, planned to transfer to Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy. I have seen plenty of announcements over the past few years that players were transferring to IMG Academy, but this one piqued my attention. Ruiz was a 2017 prospect who happened to be the teammate of 2016 wide receiver Brad Hawkins, Jr. and defensive end Ron Johnson, Jr., both of whom committed to and signed with Michigan. Ruiz visited Ann Arbor with them last summer and was offered, and the Wolverines were thought to be in the driver’s seat. Everything seemed to be moving along nicely for Michigan.

Then Ruiz headed to Florida for his junior season of football, and his recruitment might have begun to trend downward for the Wolverines: Despite offers to several current and former IMG Academy players, none has ever committed to Michigan.

Hit the jump for more on IMG Academy and Michigan’s involvement at the school.

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