Tag: Amara Darboh

2014 Season Countdown: #20 Amara Darboh

Amara Darboh

Name: Amara Darboh
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 211 lbs.
High school: Des Moines (IA) Dowling Catholic
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #82
Last year: I ranked Darboh #25 and said he would start at split end. He broke his foot prior to the season and missed the entire year.

Darboh had a rough year in 2013. He developed a rapport with quarterback Devin Gardner during the spring of 2013 season and entered fall camp as a favorite target. Despite not making a single catch during the 2012 campaign, he was going to be a frequent target. Then he broke his foot in August, had surgery, and missed the remainder of the year. In his stead, Michigan’s receiving corps did well for themselves: Jeremy Gallon set records, Devin Funchess developed into a rising star, and Jehu Chesson grew up a little bit.

Here comes the 2014 season, and we still don’t know exactly what to expect out of Darboh. Gallon is gone, and Funchess isn’t messing around as a tight end anymore. There’s one starting wideout spot available right now, and the battle for it comes down to Darboh, Chesson, and freshman Freddy Canteen. My guess is that Darboh will start opposite Funchess, because the coaches value his size and experience, and Gardner seems to like him. Some people might rank a starting wide receiver higher on a list like this, but the presence of Chesson would soften the blow of losing Darboh for any length of time. Michigan also has several other players who can take occasional snaps, such as Da’Mario Jones, Jaron Dukes, Drake Harris, and Maurice Ways.

Prediction: Starting split end; 30 catches, 450 yards, 4 touchdowns

An Average Season Under Doug Nussmeier

Devin Gardner has gone from catching touchdown passes against Alabama to likely throwing them for Alabama’s offensive coordinator.

Every team is different, but I wanted to take a stab at what kind of production we can expect from new offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier while he’s here in Ann Arbor. I looked at his last five years, which he spent with Washington (2009-2011) and then Alabama (2012-2013). I then averaged those seasons together to come up with a rough estimate of what types of numbers the Wolverines will put up. The player listed with the projection is my early guess at the depth chart for this upcoming fall.

Quarterback (Jake Locker, Keith Price, AJ McCarron):
230/395, 2800 yards, 21 touchdowns, 11 interceptions
184/332, 2265 yards, 17 touchdowns, 9 interceptions
242/362, 3063 yards, 33 touchdowns, 11 interceptions
211/314, 2933 yards, 30 touchdowns, 3 interceptions
226/336, 3063 yards, 28 touchdowns, 7 interceptions
——————————————————–
2014 Devin Gardner projection: 219/348, 62.9%, 2825 yards, 26 touchdowns, 8 interceptions
2013 Devin Gardner stats: 208/345, 60.3%, 2960 yards, 21 touchdowns, 11 interceptions

Running Back #1 (Chris Polk, Eddie Lacy, T.J. Yeldon):
226 carries, 1113 yards, 5 touchdowns
260 carries, 1415 yards, 9 touchdowns
293 carries, 1488 yards, 12 touchdowns
204 carries, 1322 yards, 17 touchdowns
207 carries, 1235 yards, 14 touchdowns
——————————————————–
2014 Derrick Green projection: 238 carries, 1315 yards, 11 touchdowns
2013 Fitzgerald Toussaint stats: 185 carries, 648 yards, 13 touchdowns

Running Back #2 (Demitrius Bronson, Jesse Callier, T.J. Yeldon, Kenyan Drake):
19 carries, 89 yards, 0 touchdowns
77 carries, 433 yards, 0 touchdowns
47 carries, 260 yards, 1 touchdown
175 carries, 1108 yards, 12 touchdowns
92 carries, 694 yards, 8 touchdowns
——————————————————–
2014 De’Veon Smith projection: 82 carries, 517 yards, 4 touchdowns
2013 Derrick Green stats: 83 carries, 270 yards, 2 touchdowns

Wide Receiver #1 (Jermaine Kearse, Amari Cooper):
50 catches, 866 yards, 8 touchdowns
63 catches, 1005 yards, 12 touchdowns
47 catches, 699 yards, 7 touchdowns
58 catches, 999 yards, 11 touchdowns
45 catches, 736 yards, 4 touchdowns
——————————————————–
2014 Devin Funchess projection: 53 catches, 861 yards, 8 touchdowns
2013 Jeremy Gallon stats: 89 catches, 1373 yards, 9 touchdowns

Wide Receiver #2 (Devin Aguilar, D’Andre Goodwin, Kevin Norwood):
42 catches, 593 yards, 5 touchdowns
44 catches, 530 yards, 4 touchdowns
41 catches, 611 yards, 6 touchdowns
29 catches, 469 yards, 4 touchdowns
38 catches, 568 yards, 7 touchdowns
——————————————————–
2014 Jehu Chesson projection: 39 catches, 554 yards, 5 touchdowns
2013 Devin Funchess stats: 49 catches, 748 yards, 6 touchdowns

Wide Receiver #3 (James Johnson, Devin Aguilar, Kasen Williams, Kenny Bell, DeAndrew White):
39 catches, 422 yards, 3 touchdowns
28 catches, 352 yards, 2 touchdowns
36 catches, 427 yards, 6 touchdowns
17 catches, 431 yards, 3 touchdowns
32 catches, 534 yards, 4 touchdowns
———————————————————-
2014 Amara Darboh projection: 30 catches, 433 yards, 4 touchdowns
2013 Jehu Chesson stats: 15 catches, 221 yards, 1 touchdown

Tight End #1 (Kavario Middleton, Marlion Barnett, Austin Sefarian-Jenkins, Michael Williams, O.J. Howard):
26 catches, 257 yards, 3 touchdowns
4 catches, 31 yards, 0 touchdowns
41 catches, 538 yards, 6 touchdowns
24 catches, 183 yards, 4 touchdowns
14 catches, 269 yards, 2 touchdowns
———————————————————-
2014 Jake Butt projection: 22 catches, 256 yards, 3 touchdowns
2013 Jake Butt stats: 17 catches, 235 yards, 2 touchdowns

Tight End #2 (Chris Izbicki, Michael Hartvigson, Kelly Johnson, Brian Vogler):
3 catches, 7 yards, 1 touchdown
2 catches, 16 yards, 1 touchdown
8 catches, 30 yards, 1 touchdown
5 catches, 39 yards, 0 touchdowns
8 catches, 71 yards, 1 touchdown
———————————————————–
2014 A.J. Williams projection: 5 catches, 33 yards, 1 touchdown
2013 A.J. Williams stats: 1 catch, 2 yards, 1 touchdown

Poll results: Who will be Michigan’s leading receiver?

This is a poll I took over the summer, prior to the season. Then things got busy and I didn’t have a chance to post the results.

Who do you think Michigan’s leading receiver will be in 2013? All statistics are through seven games.

Jeremy Gallon: 79%
Gallon took a pretty commanding lead with his 369-yard performance against Indiana, but as of now, he has 45 catches for 831 yards and 7 touchdowns.

Amara Darboh: 10%
Darboh suffered a foot injury shortly before the season began, has not played, and is expected to miss the rest of the year.

Devin Funchess: 3%
Funchess has 23 catches for 492 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was pushing Gallon for the lead, but now he’s 339 yards behind.

Drew Dileo: 1% (6 votes)
Dileo has 8 catches for 99 yards and 1 touchdown. I expect him to catch a few more passes down the stretch, but he’s obviously out of the running.

Jehu Chesson: 1% (5 votes)
Chesson’s 7 catches for 98 yards and 1 touchdown aren’t particularly impressive, but the physical skills are there to be a leading receiver someday. He needs to work on his hands and on adjusting to balls in the air.

Jeremy Jackson: 1% (4 votes)
Jackson has notched 5 catches for 53 yards.

Da’Mario Jones: 1% (4 votes)
Jones has yet to see time on offense, although he has played on special teams.

Joe Reynolds: 1% (4 votes)
Reynolds has 3 catches for 56 yards after being passed up for playing time by Chesson.

Csont’e York: 1% (4 votes)
York has played sparingly this season and has yet to make a catch.

Other: 0% (2 votes)
I don’t know who else might have received a vote. Maybe Dennis Norfleet’s parents stopped by to vote.

Jaron Dukes: 0% (0 votes)
Yeah, nobody voted for him.

Amara Darboh out for the season

Amara Darboh (#82)

Sophomore wide receiver Amara Darboh will miss the 2013 season after injuring his foot last week, an injury that requires surgery. He was expected to be a starting wideout this fall, and various people were suggesting he would be an acrobatic Spider-man reeling in diving and one-handed catches. Not anymore, at least not until maybe a bowl game or the 2014 season.

Despite being pegged as a starter opposite Jeremy Gallon, I ranked Darboh as the 25th-most important player in the 2013 Season Countdown. I’m not quite on the bandwagon that thinks he’ll be a star wide receiver, although I think he’ll be a solid player. I’ve long suggested that redshirt freshman Jehu Chesson will be the better player in the long run, so this should give Chesson a few more opportunities to produce. The Wolverines also have a trio of seniors in the form of Drew Dileo, Jeremy Jackson, and Joe Reynolds, as well as a trio of true freshmen in the form of Jaron Dukes, Da’Mario Jones, and Csont’e York.

Teams always face injury issues, and this is just another example. Last year freshman defensive lineman Chris Wormley tore his ACL around this time, and sophomore Blake Countess tore his ACL in the first quarter of the opener. Darboh joins redshirt sophomore quarterback Russell Bellomy on the list of guys expected to miss the season, and redshirt junior linebacker Jake Ryan is out until late this fall with an ACL tear; would-be redshirt sophomore linebacker Antonio Poole took a medical hardship in the off-season after dealing with a chronic upper body injury.

2013 Season Countdown: #25 Amara Darboh

Amara Darboh and Jeremy Gallon (image via MGoBlog.com)

Name: Amara Darboh
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 213 lbs.
High school: Des Moines (IA) Dowling Catholic
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #82
Last year: I ranked Darboh #55 and said he would be a backup wide receiver. He was a backup wide receiver and special teamer who made 5 tackles.

Darboh entered last season as the more likely freshman receiver to play, due to his superior size over Jehu Chesson. He hit the field but never touched the ball. Michigan used him as a gunner on punt coverage, where he was probably a little bit bigger than most punt team gunners and made 5 tackles throughout the season. This spring a couple videos popped up on social media of Darboh making leaping catches, one-handed catches, etc. during workouts. The spring game wasn’t the showcase for him that some expected, but it was somewhat limited in its passing due to a shortage of quarterbacks.

Someone is going to need to take Roy Roundtree’s spot at flanker, and I expect that to be Jeremy Gallon moving over from split end. That means someone is going to need to take Gallon’s spot at split end, and I expect that to be Darboh. He has the size to be a good blocker, and the athleticism is obviously there to make some acrobatic catches. I don’t think Darboh will put up huge numbers because there are other receiving options (Devin Funchess, Jehu Chesson, Drew Dileo, etc.), but I think he will be the nominal starter at split end and attempt to make his case for the top wideout going into 2014.

Prediction: Starting split end; 20 receptions, 300 yards, 3 touchdowns