Michigan Spring Game Visitors: April 10-16, 2017

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12Apr 2017
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Michigan Spring Game Visitors: April 10-16, 2017

Dorian Thompson-Robinson

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Michigan’s spring game will be on April 15, 2017. There are numerous prospects scheduled to be in attendance for the game.

2017

Jordan Anthony, Nico Collins, Brad Hawkins, Joel Honigford, James Hudson, Deron Irving-Bey, Oliver Martin, Phillip Paea, Brad Robbins, Joshua Ross, O’Maury Samuels, Drew Singleton, Aubrey Solomon, Kurt Taylor

2018

Ben Bresnahan – TE – Cumming (GA) West Forsyth:

Dyami Brown – WR – Charlotte (NC) West Mecklenburg: Brown is a 6’2″, 180 lb. wide receiver with offers from Alabama, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, and Ohio State, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 4-star, the #11 athlete, and #211 overall. Brown has publicly named Michigan to his top five (LINK).

Dallas Craddieth – WR – Florissant (MO) Hazelwood Central: Craddieth is a 6’1″, 180 lb. prospect with offers from Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 3-star, the #93 wide receiver, and #538 overall.

Dimitri Douglas – OG – Saline (MI) Saline: Douglas is a 6’4″, 282 lb. prospect with offers from East Carolina and a bunch of MAC programs. He’s a 247 Sports 2-star, the #101 offensive tackle, and #1317 overall.

Emil Ekiyor – OG – Indianapolis (IN) Cathedral: Ekiyor is a Michigan commit (LINK).

Dallas Gant – LB – Toledo (OH) St. John’s: Gant is a 6’3″, 225 lb. prospect with offers from Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Penn State, among others. He’s a 4-star, the #5 outside linebacker, and #117 overall. He visited Michigan on April 2 and immediately put Michigan in his top five. Right now the only Crystal Ball picks are in for Ohio State. UPDATE: Gant will headed to Ohio State for their spring game instead.

*James Graham – WR – Fitzgerald (GA) Fitzgerald: Graham is a 6’1″, 180 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma State, and others. He’s a 3-star, the #21 dual-threat quarterback, and #640 overall. I talked about him at more length in the 2018 quarterback scouting report post (LINK). He’ll be in town on Thursday and Friday.

Hit the jump for several more visitors from the 2018 and 2019 classes.

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12Apr 2017
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Way Too Early 2017 Depth Chart: April 2017

Chris Evans (image via 247 Sports)

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Back in August I took a look at how the depth chart might look in 2017 (LINK), and then I updated it in September (LINK), November (LINK), January (LINK), February (LINK), and March (LINK). Of course, things are always fluid, there will be early departures, there will be injuries, etc. But now that we have the 2017 class signed or enrolled early, things are perhaps a little bit clearer.

Note that this is prior to the spring game, so we’ll see how these guys look on Saturday.

Hit the jump for another early look at 2017.

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11Apr 2017
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Twitter Roundup: Are you Maize or Blue?

(image via Tech Crunch)

Hello, I’m Tim, and I plan on putting together a weekly Twitter roundup with all information about Michigan football on social media. Follow me on Twitter at @TTB_Michigan.

Michigan hasn’t released rosters for the spring game on Saturday; however, the teams are slowly being released by the players on Twitter and Instagram after the draft on Saturday. Below is what I have come up with. Feel free to help me update if there’s more information out there.

Michigan recruiting (@UMJumpmanFB) released the top five picks. Sophomore DE Rashan Gary went first overall to the Maize Team. Starting QB Wilton Speight and DE Chase Winovich went second and third to the Blue Team. Rounding out the top five and going to the Maize Team were Viper/DB Khaleke Hudson and LB Devin Bush, Jr., two surprises so early.

MAIZE TEAM

QB – Brandon Peters

RB

FB

TE – Nick Eubanks

WR – Kekoa, Crawford, Moe Ways, Nate Johnson

OL – Stephen Spanellis, Dan Jokisch

 

DL – Rashan Gary

LB – Devin Bush, Mike McCray, Ben Mason

DB/Viper – Khaleke Hudson

DB – Benjamin St-Juste, Keith Washington, Tyree Kinnel

 

K/P – Ryan Tice, Kyle Seychel,

LS – Camaron Cheeseman

Holder – Garrett Moores

 

BLUE TEAM

QB – Wilton Speight, John, O’Korn

RB – Chris Evans, Tru Wilson

FB – Khalid Hill

TE – Sean McKeon, Connor Edmonds

WR – Tarik Black, Eddie McDoom

OL – Cesar Ruiz, JaRaymond Hall, Grant Newsome (out)

 

DL – Chase Winovich

LB
CB – Ambry Thomas, David Long, Josh Metellus, J’Marick Woods

 

K/P – Quinn Nordin, James Foug,

LS – Andrew Robinson

Holder – Garrett Moores

The Maize Team has a strong group at LB with returning starter McCray along with projected starter Bush. With Hudson and Kinnel out there, it will be interesting to see how those guys all play together.

TBD? Below is the list of guys I couldn’t find anything on. There’s still a lot to figure out, but by looking at some of what has come out, it can be assumed some of the guys will be on the opposite team. For example, I’m sure one or both of John O’Korn and Brandon Peters are on the Maize team. Some guys will probably be out due to injuries as well.

QB – Alex Malzone

RB – Ty Isaac, Karan Higdon, Kareem Walker

FB – Henry Poggi

WR – Drake Harris, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Jack Wangler

TE – Ian Bunting, T.J. Wheatley, Zach Gentry

OL – Juwann Bushell-Beatty, Nolan Ulizio, Ben Bredeson, Michael Onwenu, Mason Cole, Patrick Kugler, Jon Runyan Jr.

 

DT – Maurice Hurst, Lawrence Marshall, Bryan Mone, Michael Dwumfour

DE – Reuben Jones, Carlo Kemp, Ron Johnson

LB – Noah Furbush, Josh Uche, Jared Wangler, Elysee Mbem-Bosse, Devin Gil

DB – Brandon Watson, Lavert Hill, Jaylen Kelly-Powell

 

Not Dudes, but Guys?

Apparently Coach Don Brown has different categories for his players. So you can be a guy, but not a dude? But is a dude a guy? Maybe someone can ask those questions at Brown’s next press conference.

And just in case anyone didn’t see it before, here are the tweets from the latest commits from Georgia: RB Christian Turner and CB Myles Sims.

 

11Apr 2017
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Goodbye, De’Veon Smith

De’Veon Smith (image via FanSided)

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HIGH SCHOOL
Smith attended Warren (OH) Howland and was part of the 2013 recruiting class. Here’s my commitment post for him (LINK), replete with a bunch of accurate statements about his game. The one thing I whiffed on was the final TTB Rating of 63 (LINK), in which I assumed he would be a backup for most of his career while sitting behind Derrick Green. Oops. More on that later.

Hit the jump for more on the career of De’Veon Smith.

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10Apr 2017
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Drake Johnson won’t return in 2017

Drake Johnson (image via New York Daily News)

Fifth year senior running back Drake Johnson – who would be a sixth year senior in the fall – has chosen not to return to the football team, according to Jim Harbaugh. Johnson suffered from a variety of injuries during his Michigan career, including two torn ACLs and a forklift imprint.

I will post a senior profile on him (such as the one on De’Veon Smith that’s scheduled for tomorrow morning), so I won’t spend too much time here looking back at Johnson’s career. However, if he had returned, he would have been expected to be a contributor in the backfield, though not likely a starter.

This doesn’t affect Michigan’s 2018 class since Johnson was scheduled to graduate anyway, but with just 84 scholarship players headed into the fall (LINK), this opens up a place for a potential grad-transfer or a walk-on to get a scholarship. Safety/linebacker Jordan Glasgow, linebacker Michael Wroblewski, and long-snapper Andrew Robinson are a few of the leading candidates to earn a scholarship.