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2015 Season Countdown: #15 Joe Bolden

Joe Bolden

Name: Joe Bolden
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 232 lbs.
High school: Cincinnati (OH) Colerain
Position: Linebacker
Class: Senior
Jersey number: #35
Last year: I ranked Bolden #30 and said he would be a backup linebacker with 50 tackles and 3 sacks. He started all twelve games and made 102 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, and 1 pass breakup.

Bolden was part of an intriguing octet of inside linebackers last year that also included Jake Ryan, Desmond Morgan, and Ben Gedeon. I was under the impression that Bolden and Gedeon would be the odd men out when it came to playing time, but two things got in the way: Desmond Morgan’s shoulder injury and Bolden himself. Morgan got injured after one game, got a medical redshirt, and had his career extended by one year. Meanwhile, Bolden started week one and didn’t relinquish the job. He finished second on the team in tackles behind Jake Ryan, and he improved from a sophomore season that had him almost-but-not-quite making a lot of plays.

It’s hard to believe that Bolden is a senior already. It doesn’t seem like very long ago that he was earning rave reviews at the Under Armour All-American Bowl, but he was chosen to represent the Wolverines at Big Ten Media Days and could be in line for a captaincy this season. He has all but locked down a starting inside linebacker job, and the duo of Morgan and Bolden should be rock steady in the middle. In fact, Michigan once again has an imposing quartet of inside linebackers when you throw in junior Gedeon and senior James Ross III, the latter of whom is also playing outside linebacker. Bolden should have a very good year, and he is probably a good bet to be the team’s leading tackler now that Ryan has moved on to the Green Bay Packers.

Prediction: Starting middle linebacker; 100 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 2 sacks

2015 Scholarship Count

Players are listed in order of remaining eligibility. With 3 open scholarships and 13 seniors scheduled to graduate, the 2016 class should start out aiming for 16 players.

TOTAL SCHOLARSHIPS ALLOTTED FOR 2015 = 82

– Logan Tuley-Tillman was dismissed from the team.

– Dan Samuelson announced that he will transfer.

– Dennis Norfleet will transfer to Tuskegee.

– Chris Fox retired due to injury.

– Ondre Pipkins will transfer from Michigan.

– Blake Countess transferred to Auburn.

– Blake O’Neill will transfer to Michigan from Weber State.

– Jake Rudock transferred to Michigan from Iowa.

– Wayne Lyons transferred to Michigan from Stanford

– Jack Miller will not return for a fifth year.

– QB John O’Korn transferred to Michigan from Houston.

– Russell Bellomy transferred to University of Texas at San Antonio.

– Keith Heitzman will not return for a fifth year.

– Justice Hayes transferred to Southern Miss.

– Kyle Bosch transferred to West Virginia.

– Michael Ferns transferred to West Virginia.

Hit the jump for the breakdown by class.
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Dan Samuelson, Ex-Wolverine

Dan Samuelson

Redshirt sophomore offensive guard Dan Samuelson has decided to transfer. I had ranked him at #79 (LINK) in the 2015 Season Countdown, so you can see I was not counting on him to be a major factor this year. When he flipped from Nebraska to Michigan in January of 2013, I gave him a TTB Rating of 65 (LINK). I did not see him as the caliber of player that Michigan should have been recruiting at that stage, and I had been hoping that the Wolverines would be able to reel in Cameron Hunt, who eventually signed with Oregon and has been a two-year starter for the Ducks, including seven games as a true freshman.

Michigan took six offensive linemen in that 2013 class, and Samuelson is the third to leave, joining Kyle Bosch (now at West Virginia) and Chris Fox (now on medical scholarship). That monster offensive line class has now been whittled down to David Dawson, Patrick Kugler, and Logan Tuley-Tillman, none of whom have made an impact yet. But out of 27 signees in that cycle, only four have left so far – those three linemen and wide receiver Csont’e York, who got into some legal trouble in Ann Arbor.

With three open scholarships and thirteen seniors scheduled to graduate following the upcoming season, Michigan’s 2016 class technically has 16 spots right now.

2015 Season Countdown: #16 Chris Wormley

Chris Wormley

Name: Chris Wormley
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 300 lbs.
High school: Toledo (OH) Whitmer
Position: Defensive end
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #43
Last year: I ranked Wormley #17 and said he would be a starting defensive tackle with 35 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, and 3 sacks. He started six games and made 21 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, and 3 sacks.

Wormley has continued to take incremental steps forward each year. When he was in high school, there were questions about his motor. When he got to college, he was probably going to play as a freshman before he tore his ACL in the summer. When he was a redshirt freshman, he showed a couple flashes of having the athletic ability dominate. Last year he started to put it all together for longer stretches. He split time at the 3-tech defensive tackle position, and he was fairly productive (7th on the team in tackles for loss, tied for 5th in sacks). He has yet to have a breakout game of dominance, but he seems to make one or two plays per game.

The new coaching staff has worked wonders with Wormley, because most guys stop growing upward in college. Now listed at 6’5″ and 300 lbs. (previously 6’4″, 295), Wormley has been playing strongside end in the new regime. He has the chops to move inside to defensive tackle, but despite the injury to Bryan Mone, Michigan has more depth on the interior. At the strongside end spot, it’s basically up to Wormley, Taco Charlton, and then questions (mainly, are Henry Poggi and Tom Strobel tight ends or defensive ends?). Wormley and Charlton are both known for inconsistency, but now that Brennen Beyer has graduated, those two might push each other to new heights in their attempts to become full-time starters. For his own part, Wormley started earning lots of hype in the spring, and D.J. Durkin has said some really positive things about him recently. My guess is that he beats out Charlton, although there will be lots of rotation on the defensive line.

Prediction: 40 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 6 sacks

Wall Street Journal: The Seduction of Jim Harbaugh

Here’s an excerpt in the Wall Street Journal from John U. Bacon’s upcoming book, Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football (LINK). The book comes out in September but can be pre-ordered on Amazon (LINK).

Hit the jump for some pictures of Catalina Otalvaro.
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