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2020 Season Countdown: #27 Cornelius Johnson

Name: Cornelius Johnson
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 205 lbs.
High school: Greenwich (CT) Brunswick
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #6
Last year: I did not rank Johnson. He caught 4 passes for 61 yards and 1 touchdown.
TTB Rating: 87

Usually, it seems like astute readers point out when I miss someone on the countdown, but I guess we didn’t catch Johnson’s absence. I remember thinking he would play a bit role behind Nico Collins, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tarik Black, and Ronnie Bell, and his production satisfied that belief. He played in every game despite not factoring heavily into Shea Patterson’s targets.

But there was a really nice play against Michigan State where Johnson pretended to block and then disappeared behind the MSU for a defense late in the blowout win:

Even with Nico Collins likely headed to the NFL without playing his senior season, Peoples-Jones playing for the Browns, and Black transferring to Texas, Johnson still appears to be in a fight for playing time. There’s no doubt he will get on the field regularly and increase his production from last year, but freshman Roman Wilson was reportedly looking good in practice, and there are several slot types that need to get on the field, including Ronnie Bell, Giles Jackson, and Mike Sainristil.

If Collins is indeed gone, Johnson is the biggest receiver on the team at 6’3″ and 205 pounds and will probably end up starting. If Collins remains through a possible spring season, I could see Johnson playing a backup role for one more season.

Prediction: Starting wide receiver*

*This presumes Collins being gone by the next time Michigan plays football

2020 Season Countdown: #28 Mazi Smith

Name: Mazi Smith
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 305 lbs.
High school: Kentwood (MI) East Kentwood
Position: Defensive tackle
Class: Redshirt freshman
Jersey number: #58
Last year: I ranked Smith #46 and said he would be a backup defensive tackle (LINK). He played in two games and redshirted.
TTB Rating: 86

Last year I overvalued defensive tackles, as evidenced by placing Donovan Jeter just behind Shea Patterson (LINK). That also came into play with Smith, whom I ranked #46 even though he ended up redshirting. I was not confident in the other defensive tackles, including starters Michael Dwumfour and Carlo Kemp, and I thought they would get complemented by heavier doses of Smith and Chris Hinton. Though Dwumfour was spotty, it was actually three-man lines and Jess Speight that stepped up the most.

According to off-season reports, Smith is in much better shape this year. He took plays off in high school, but going into his second year of college, he should be more ready to play with good technique consistently. That should be good news for a defensive interior that lacks size and depth. Michigan needs some 300-pounders to step up this year. I would expect Smith to play a backup role behind Kemp.

Prediction: Backup defensive tackle

247 Sports Releases Top 100 for 2023

247 Sports released its top 100 prospects for the class of 2023, and there are a number of Michigan targets on the list (LINK). Here are some noteworthy prospects with offers, unless otherwise noted:

2. Peter Woods – DE – AL
4. Francis Mauigoa – OT – CA
5. Arch Manning – QB – MS (no offer, son of Peyton/Eli Manning’s brother Cooper)
6. Malachi Nelson – QB – CA
7. Brenan Vernon – DE – OH
12. Dante Moore – QB – MI
19. Tony Mitchell – CB – AL
24. Jason Moore – DE – MD
28. Keldric Faulk – DE – AL
31. Kadyn Proctor – OT – IA
47. Jaxon Howard – TE – MN
50. John Randle, Jr. – RB – KS (no offer, son of former Minnesota Vikings DT John Randle)
54. Daeh McCullough – CB – KS
59. Terrance Love – S – GA
71. Ta’Mere Robinson – S – PA
92. Sedrick Irvin, Jr. – RB – FL (no offer, son of former Michigan State RB Sedrick Irvin)
95. Amir Herring – OT – MI
100. Mac Markway – TE – MO

As I mentioned in my article where I discussed how to fix Michigan recruiting (LINK), I think virtually every single one of these top-100 kids should be offered relatively soon.

Goodbye, Jalen Mayfield

Offensive tackle Jalen Mayfield, who would have been a redshirt sophomore in 2020-2021, has declared for the NFL Draft.

HIGH SCHOOL
Mayfield, from Grand Rapids (MI) Catholic Central, was recruited to Minnesota by then-Gophers offensive line coach Ed Warinner, but he flipped to Michigan when the Wolverines came through with an offer. He ended up playing in the Army All-American Bowl and finished the 2018 recruiting cycle as a 4-star, the #16 offensive tackle, and #268 overall. I initially gave him a TTB Rating of 84 (LINK) before bumping him up to an 87 at the end of the cycle (LINK).

COLLEGE
Mayfield redshirted in 2018. He became a 13-game starter in 2019, earning Honorable Mention All-Big Ten on the offensive line.

CAREER STATS
13 games played (13 starts)

AWARDS
Honorable Mention All-Big Ten (2019)

SUMMARY
Boy, this is going to be a short summary. Mayfield was a very athletic and exciting recruit who needed a year to work on his body. He had a rough start to the 2019 season against Middle Tennessee when he made some mental mistakes, but as the year went along, he improved significantly. His potential was exciting, and I was looking forward to watching him block relentlessly for at least another year or two. His combination of athleticism and aggression was a notch below Taylor Lewan.

I WILL REMEMBER HIM FOR . . .
. . . leaving “too early.” Who am I to say he’s leaving too early when we’re in the middle of a pandemic and the 2020 season was postponed/canceled? But we’ve never seen a guy leave Michigan for the NFL essentially after his redshirt freshman year. This is very odd and leaves me wondering how he would have looked with another year of strength, conditioning, and technique work. He would have been really good this year. Drat.

PROJECTION
It’s not often that we have to project a redshirt freshman to the NFL, and I have no idea which players will be entering the 2021 draft. If he were eligible for the 2020 draft, he would not have been a first round pick. He simply wasn’t playing at that level. But he did show a ton of athleticism. Some people think he’s too short for tackle at 6’5″, but I think he has enough length to stick at tackle at the next level. If I had to guess right now, I would say he would be a second or third round pick in 2021, but that’s only a slightly educated guess because everything is so fluid.

2020 Season Countdown: #29 Donovan Jeter

Name: Donovan Jeter
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 318 lbs.
High school: Beaver Falls (PA) Beaver Falls
Position: Defensive tackle
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #95
Last year: I ranked Jeter #1B and said he would be a starting efensive tackle with 20 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and 1 sack (LINK). He strted one game and made 3 tackles.
TTB Rating: 78

This is my mea culpa for the 2019 countdown. I ranked Jeter at #1B – just behind Shea Patterson – because I thought he was going to have a little bit of a breakout, but also mostly because he was a big guy at a position where Michigan really didn’t have many big guys.

In my defense, the defensive tackle position was probably the weakest position group, and that really hurt Michigan. But Jeter was not even close to being the guy who mattered most. That honor should have gone to Carlo Kemp, and the likes of Chris Hinton, Jess Speight, and Michael Dwumfour outperformed Jeter.

Kemp, Hinton, and Speight return, while Dwumfour transferred to Rutgers. Jeter will also be battling redshirt freshman Mazi Smith for playing time, along with any of the young whippersnappers who try to step up and play inside.

I don’t expect much from Jeter because he burned me last year. Not only that, but he’s up from a listed 290 to a listed 318 when quickness and conditioning seemed to be part of the issue even at a lighter weight. (For the record, I believe he was heavier than 290 in 2019, but that’s how the roster listed him.) But it’s a now-or-never situation with Jeter, who’s a redshirt junior without much to show for it at this point.

Prediction: Backup defensive tackle