Tag: 2022 season countdown

2022 Season Countdown: #130 Joey Klunder

Name: Joey Klunder
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 230 lbs.
High school: Grosse Pointe (MI) South
Position: Defensive end
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Klunder was a senior in high school.
TTB Rating: N/A

Klunder eschewed offers from Air Force, Army, and a variety of FCS schools in order to become a preferred walk-on at Michigan. He ended up ranked as a 247 Composite 3-star, the #209 defensive lineman, and #1772 overall.

Klunder is most likely just a practice squad player for this season, and he will have considerable talent to compete with for the remainder of his career at Michigan. But it’s nice to get a walk-on who had other FCS offers.

2022 Season Countdown: #131 Chibi Anwunah

Name: Chibi Anwunah
Height: 6’7″
Weight: 220 lbs.
High school: Westland (MI) Lutheran
Position: Defensive end
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Anwunah was a senior in high school.
TTB Rating: N/A

Anwunah has a very unorthodox back story. The son of Nigerian immigrants, he even spent some time living in Nigeria before moving back to the United States. He was also a cross country runner when he was younger (LINK). So he’s just growing into his body and is very raw right now, but Michigan has had success with some of these types of players in the past.

Anwunah bounced around a little bit in the front seven and doesn’t have much in his repertoire besides see ball, get ball. So he’s almost guaranteed to redshirt. He’s almost the type of guy who I could see running down on special teams in a few years like German mogul skier Julius Welschof. Of course, that might be a couple years down the road when he’s added another 30+ pounds of muscle. Overall, this is a nice preferred walk-on pickup for the Wolverines.

Prediction: Redshirt

2022 Season Countdown: #132 James Kavouklis

Name: James Kavouklis
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 275 lbs.
High school: Tampa (FL) Berkeley Prep
Position: Center
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Kavouklis was a senior in high school.
TTB Rating: N/A

Kavouklis is a true freshman preferred walk-on. Listed at 6’2″ and 275 lbs., he is very undersized to play at Michigan right now. Even if he adds mass, the height thing is likely to always be an issue. If you watch his high school film, you will see a nice motor and leg drive. He plays with a little too narrow of a base and will really need to figure out leverage in order to handle bigger defensive tackles at the college level. Overall, he has some decent skills and could be a program guy who earns some playing time several years down the road, but he’s probably a career backup.

Prediction: Redshirt

The 2022 Season Countdown is Coming!

Every year since 2009, I have counted down from the least important player on that year’s roster to the most important player, including starters, scholarship players, preferred walk-ons, special teams players, student body walk-ons, and everyone in between.

In case you want a look back at last year’s countdown, here it is (LINK).

YEARLY DISCLAIMER: The countdown is by the player’s importance to the team, not his overall talent. A talented player at a deep position won’t necessarily be missed a lot if he gets injured, but an injury to a moderately talented player at a thin position could be devastating. For example, I had cornerback Ambry Thomas ranked at #2 in 2020 because he was the team’s only proven cornerback. Naturally, he opted out of the season and the team as a whole was an unmitigated disaster. Meanwhile, first round pick Kwity Paye was #6 because more talent was returning on the defensive line.

I know times are tough, but now is a good time to suggest a Paypal donation if you appreciate the content here at TTB:

Be ready for the countdown to begin in early April. I’m arranging the list now . . .