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2016 Season Countdown: #97 Michael Dwumfour

Michael Dwumfour

Name: Michael Dwumfour
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 286 lbs.
High school: Wayne (NJ) DePaul Catholic
Position: Defensive tackle
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Dwumfour was a senior in high school (LINK). He made 55 tackles, 21 TFLs, and 7 sacks.
TTB Rating: 69

Dwumfour committed to Penn State last summer, and he stayed committed to the Nittany Lions until January. In the meantime, he was a teammate of Michigan early enrollee – and one-time Ohio State commit – Kareem Walker and a very good friend of eventual Michigan signee Rashan Gary. When the Wolverines stepped forward with an offer, it seemed like a bit of a reach for the Wolverines, which prompted rumors that Michigan was just reaching out to Dwumfour in order to seal the deal with Gary and rubbed Gary’s mom the wrong way in the process. Whether that rumor is true or not, Dwumfour committed to the Wolverines in January, a little over a week before Gary committed on National Signing Day.

Michigan has depth on the defensive line, so his contributions should not be needed this season. He was rated in some places as a strongside end, but I believe he will be more of a defensive tackle. At 6’2″ he doesn’t have great height for an end because most offensive tackles would have a significant reach advantage, so he’s probably a bit of a tweener like former Michigan defensive lineman Jibreel Black. Dwumfour has the versatility to play strongside end, 3-tech, or nose tackle, depending on the package, but I think he lacks the size to be a real difference-maker on the interior. He could be a very solid backup, but that’s probably a year or two down the road when Ryan Glasgow, Chris Wormley, Taco Charlton, and perhaps others move on to the NFL.

Projection: Redshirt

2018 Recruiting Update: May 19, 2016

Jacksonville (FL) Trinity safety Tyreke Johnson (image via Youtube)

The new-ish regime at Michigan is running me ragged with new offers. I used to do a pretty concise roundup each week of all the new offers to have gone out, but that appears to no longer be possible. Brandon Brown from The Wolverine tweeted out that Michigan has offered 42 prospects in the month of May, and while I don’t keep track by month, that sounds . . . low. The Wolverines have offered a record 276 prospects in the 2017 class, and they’re already up to 99 in the class of 2018 before those players even wrap up their sophomore year of high school. Because of that fast pace, I may continue to break up these recruiting roundups into classes, rather than doing 2017-2019 prospects all in one update.

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2018
Pensacola (FL) Pine Forest wide receiver Jacob Copeland was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’0″, 188 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, and Georgia, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star, the #2 wide receiver, and #38 overall. He claims a 4.44 forty. He has good speed, excellent body control, and can go up and make tough, acrobatic catches. Florida State has 80% of the Crystal Ball picks.

Hyattsville (MD) DeMatha defensive tackle Austin Fontaine was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’3″, 318 lb. prospect with offers from Clemson, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio State, and Penn State, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star, the #6 defensive tackle, and #28 overall. I don’t really understand the high ranking, because he doesn’t show a lot of athleticism, explosiveness, etc. But there are still a couple years for those things to improve or for the rankings to change. He’s a teammate of 2017 RB Anthony McFarland, Jr.

 and DE Chase Young.

Jacksonville (FL) Trinity linebacker Eriq Gilyard was offered by Michigan. He’s a 5’11”, 225 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Duke, LSU, and Virginia Tech, among others. He’s a compact, hard-hitting linebacker with a quick first step. Gilyard is a teammate of 2017 FB Chase Lasater (Michigan) and 2018 safety Tyreke Johnson (see below).

Hit the jump for a lot of new offers in the 2018 class.

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The 2016 Season Countdown is Coming

That’s right. Michigan’s 2016 season begins in a few months, so that gives me enough time to count down the most important players of the upcoming season. I will be counting down from the least important players on the roster to the most important. The least important players will probably be guys who redshirt or stand on the sideline. The most important players are not just the best players, but the least replaceable. For example, Michigan had a fair amount of depth on the defensive line last year, so that lessened the importance of any one individual player in the position group. (Of course, three players were lost for the season due to injury – Bryan Mone, Ryan Glasgow, and Mario Ojemudia – so Michigan’s defensive line came in for some criticism late in the year.)

For the sake of discussion and reminiscing, here’s the 2015 Season Countdown list (LINK). A few guys I overrated are Wayne Lyons, Kyle Seychel, and Brandon Watson. A few guys I underrated were Jehu Chesson, Grant Newsome, and Sione Houma.

From now until the beginning of the season, most days will have a fresh player profile waiting for you.

Feel free to make your case for certain players in the comments. Happy season countdowning!

2017 Recruiting Update: May 16, 2016

Houston (TX) Lamar safety Grant Delpit (image via nola.com)

Follow Touch the Banner on Twitter (LINK).

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2017
Houston (TX) Lamar safety Grant Delpit was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’3″, 181 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Baylor, Clemson, Florida, LSU, Miami, and USC, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 4-star, the #11 safety, and #114 overall. He’s a long, rangy safety with good ball skills who’s willing to hit. Michigan is probably on the outside looking in, since this is a relatively late offer to a guy with lots of big-time programs in pursuit. LSU has six of the nine Crystal Ball predictions, with Baylor having the other three.

St. Petersburg (FL) Admiral Farragut Academy wide receiver Matthew Landers was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’5″, 182 lb. prospect with offers from Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, and North Carolina, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 3-star, the #112 wide receiver, and #755 overall. As a junior in 2015, he caught 34 passes for 1,038 yards and 15 TDs. Landers is a tall target who lacks a little bit in long speed or suddenness.

Muscle Shoals (AL) Muscle Shoals safety Jordyn Peters was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’2″, 185 lb. prospect with offers from Duke, Louisville, Minnesota, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 3-star, the #93 safety, and #1243 overall. Peters is a hard-hitting strong safety type without a ton of speed or ball skills. Unless Michigan wants three safeties in the class, Peters would be a bit of a reach. They already have J’Marick Woods and probably need a more cover-oriented safety to pair with him.

Hit the jump for a few more offers and some random bits and pieces from the past week.

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What I’ve Been Reading

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Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child. This is the eleventh book in the Jack Reacher series. I don’t think I’ve read this many books in one series since I read the Hardy Boys case files as a kid. I’ve read Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire, Dexter, and The Chronicles of Narnia, but those series only reached a max of eight books. My goal is to finish the released Reacher novels by the end of the summer going into football season, so I can go ahead and read the new release, Night School, which is scheduled to come out in September of 2016. Despite the personal nature of the novel – some of Reacher’s Military Police colleagues wind up dead, so he investigates – I couldn’t get into this one quite as much as others. I won’t explain why because I don’t want to give anything away. I also think the Reacher books go a little too far at times into the realm of unbelievability. I want to read them as somewhat realistic action novels, but I’ll say this: the chances of someone getting away with these actions with no attention paid by spectators or police are very slim. I also grew tired of reading the phrase “You do not mess with the special investigators.” There was a little too much bravado and repetition, not to mention a lack of creativity, in that overused mantra.

Nothing to Lose by Lee Child. The twelfth installment of the Reacher series, Nothing to Lose is the tale of two towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Neither one of those towns exist in real life, but I’ve come across some other little-known geographical areas in Reacher novels that do exist, so I had to check. This one had some hints of Die Trying in it, which I found a little bothersome. Hope is obviously a fine place to live, whereas Despair is full of angry people who don’t want any outsiders meddling in their business. You also have to suspend your disbelief for this one, but the story has enough twists and turns and leaves you guessing enough to want to figure out how it ends. I was a little disappointed in how easily Reacher gets duped at one point in the story, but even a superstar ex-cop makes mistakes once in a while, I guess.

Hit the jump for some non-Reach novels, including books written by Elmore Leonard, Amy Poehler, Steven Levitt, and Matthew S. Hiley.

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