Tag: 2023 season countdown

2023 Season Countdown: #28 Darrius Clemons

Name: Darrius Clemons
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 212 lbs.
High school: Portland (OR) Westview
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #0
Last year: I ranked Clemons #53 and said he would be a backup wide receiver (LINK). He caught 1 pass for 7 yards while playing in eleven games.
TTB Rating: 88

Michigan has had such great success on the ground the past couple seasons that the wide receivers are forgotten about a little bit. And when long-time contributors like Ronnie Bell and Cornelius Johnson lead the way at receiver, the backups don’t have much of a chance to shine. So it might be fair to say that Clemons has been a forgotten man for the past year, but he was labeled a freak athlete coming out of high school and had a 40 time in the high 4.3s. His only catch last season came against overmatched UConn, a 7-yard reception.

Michigan returns Johnson and Roman Wilson on the outside, but Clemons could end up as the #3 most targeted receiver. He’s more of an outside guy than Tyler Morris (who’s just one spot lower in the countdown), but Wilson can be moved all around because of his versatility. Clemons should see plenty of snaps while rotating in, and he might even start a couple games if the coaching staff moves Wilson into the slot. Clemons has added seven pounds since last year and is up to a very respectable 212 lbs., which is four pounds heavier than Johnson and getting into the tantalizing size range of some of the outstanding Michigan receivers of yesteryear (Braylon Edwards, David Terrell, etc.). I don’t expect a true breakout season because of Wilson, Johnson, the tight ends, and the running backs standing in the way of the spotlight, but Clemons can stake a claim to be a major contributor in 2024.

Prediction: Part-time starting wide receiver; 22 catches, 280 yards, 2 touchdowns

2023 Season Countdown: #29 Tyler Morris

Name: Tyler Morris
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 185 lbs.
High school: La Grange Park (IL) Nazareth Academy
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #8
Last year: I ranked Morris #93 and said he would redshirt (LINK). He caught 3 passes for 25 yards.
TTB Rating: 83

Morris tore his ACL during the spring COVID season of 2021, which also knocked out his senior season in the fall of 2021. It was a very unfortunate way to finish out his high school career. He enrolled in the spring of 2022, but with some veteran receivers ahead of him and having missed a year of football, it was unlikely he was going to play much last season. He played in eight games and caught 3 passes for 25 yards.

There have been some rumblings this spring and summer that Morris is going to have a breakout fall. He played with J.J. McCarthy in high school, so they already have a built-in connection. Michigan lost leading wide receiver Ronnie Bell to the NFL Draft, so the team needs to replace his production. Morris has a decent chance to be the starter in the slot, but I don’t see that position turning out the numbers that Bell had (62 catches, 889 yards, 4 touchdowns) with Cornelius Johnson and Roman Wilson returning on the outside. It’s also possible that Michigan uses running back Donovan Edwards a little more in the passing game after he had just 18 catches for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns last season. Johnson will be gone after 2023 and Wilson could be, too, so perhaps 2024 will be a bigger year for Morris.

Prediction: Part-time starting slot receiver; 20 catches, 240 yards, 2 touchdowns

2023 Season Countdown: #30 Jack Tuttle

Name: Jack Tuttle
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 210 lbs.
High school: San Marcos (CA) Mission Hills
Position: Quarterback
Class: Sixth year senior
Jersey number: #13
Last year: Tuttle played for Indiana. He completed 9/12 passes for 82 yards and 1 touchdown, while also running 10 times for 8 yards.
TTB Rating: N/A

Tuttle enrolled at Utah way back in 2018 before deciding that was a bad idea, and then he transferred to Indiana for the past four years, which . . . I guess he was there for a couple decent Indiana years, but generally going to Bloomington is a bad idea if you’re a football player. On the plus side for him, he was on the only Indiana team of the last 763 years to beat Michigan, which was in The Year That Shall Not Be Mentioned.

(Pssssst…it was 2020.)

Tuttle spent last season as the backup to Missouri transfer Connor Bazelak, but shortly after being inserted in place of an injured Bazelak, he was injured himself, giving way to third-stringer Dexter Williams II, who was bad at throwing but still good enough to beat Michigan State. It was a mess of a situation. Tuttle completed 9/12 passes for 82 yards and touchdown against PSU in his only action.

Overall, Tuttle completed 104/182 passes for 901 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions during his career as a Hoosier. He looked gutsy in the spring game, and he can run a little bit, but he’s not exactly a star in the making. At this point it seems like he will end up as the #2 quarterback, but I would not be surprised if Davis Warren is pushing him in practice enough to get a shot at being the primary backup. That being said, Tuttle was a team captain at Indiana and seemed to have some moxie. I think Michigan will win enough blowout games this season to see the #2 guy get a good chunk of snaps. Do you get Davis Warren some seasoning because he has two more seasons of eligibility? Or do you let the “more proven” commodity play just in case you need him for an emergency situation down the stretch, even though this is his final year in college?

Only time will tell.

Prediction: Backup quarterback

2023 Season Countdown: #31 Ernest Hausmann

Name: Ernest Hausmann
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 237 lbs.
High school: Columbus (NE) Columbus
Position: Linebacker
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #15
Last year: Hausmann played for Nebraska. He made 54 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 1 fumble recovery.
TTB Rating: N/A

Michigan offered Hausmann out of high school, but he hopped on the Scott Frost hype train and then wanted off pretty quickly. He started seven games for the Cornhuskers last fall and played in all twelve contests. When he entered the transfer portal, he was the top transfer prospect in the country, according to 247 Sports. (He ended up #4 behind Travis Hunter, Denver Harris, and Adonai Mitchell, who chose Colorado, LSU, and Texas, respectively.) Hausmann came to Ann Arbor in January and participated in spring practices.

Despite being one of the top transfer prospects in the country, I’m not sure exactly how he fits into Michigan’s defense this fall. Michigan brought back Michael Barrett for a sixth year, and Junior Colson has been starting for the past two seasons, with some discussion that he might leave for the NFL after his junior year. I think that means Hausmann will end up as Michigan’s #3 linebacker, and he’ll have the inside track to start in 2024. Reports from practice have been positive, so there should be some good competition to elevate the linebacker group as a whole.

Prediction: Backup linebacker and special teamer

2023 Season Countdown: #32 Amorion Walker

Name: Amorion Walker
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 180 lbs.
High school: Ponchatoula (LA) Ponchatoula
Position: Cornerback
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #4
Last year: I ranked Walker #94 and said he would redshirt (LINK). He played in six games and caught 1 pass for 4 yards.
TTB Rating: 81

Walker had quite a freshman year for Michigan, at least from the standpoint of potential. Wide receivers coach Ronald Bellamy and cornerbacks coach Steve Clinkscale fought over him. Jim Harbaugh said he was 157 pounds when he got to campus, so he has put on at least 23 pounds since then. Michigan couldn’t figure out which side of the ball to play him on, so naturally, they played him on both sides. He caught 1 pass for 4 yards during the blowout of UConn, and he played both wideout and cornerback against Hawaii.

This spring Harbaugh went as far as to say that he considered Walker to be a starter. Unfortunately, in the spring game, Walker looked a long way from being a starting-caliber corner. He was beaten multiple times by walk-on receiver Peyton O’Leary, and while O’Leary looks like a legitimate threat for playing time this fall, it’s not so much that Walker was beaten – it’s that he looked flummoxed while doing it. He had a hand-timed shuttle of 6.10 seconds, video of which was posted online, so athletically he’s perfectly capable of staying with almost anyone. But his reaction time and recognition of routes aren’t where they need to be, and he wasn’t physical enough yet in the spring. Perhaps his potential is sky-high, but I think he’s at least a year away from being a quality cornerback. Luckily, Michigan landed UMass transfer Josh Wallace to challenge him, along with guys like Ja’Den McBurrows and Keshaun Harris, who are already on the roster. I do think Walker will start at some point this season, but I don’t expect him to lock down the job, at least not early in the year.

Prediction: Part-time starting cornerback