Tag: Blake Bars

Blake Bars, Ex-Wolverine

Blake Bars

Offensive lineman Blake Bars has left the football program, reportedly to begin concentrating on his law degree. He would have been a fifth year senior for the upcoming season.

Bars committed to Michigan in June 2011 (LINK), and it seems very weird to me that I’m linking posts to my old-fashioned website from five years ago. Time flies. Anyway, he initially said that he was being recruited as a left tackle, which I thought might have been a bit of hogwash at the time. It turns out that he never sniffed the two-deep at left tackle. I initially gave him a TTB Rating of 71, but that dropped to a 62 once the 2012 recruiting class wrapped (LINK).

Hit the jump for more on Bars’s departure.

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Spring Football Preview: Offensive Line

Mason Cole

Projected starters: LT Grant Newsome (So.), LG Ben Braden (RS Sr.), C Mason Cole (Jr.), RG Kyle Kalis (RS Sr.), RT Erik Magnuson (RS Sr.). Newsome was the sixth lineman by the end of the season. Jim Harbaugh said recently that Cole would start getting snaps at center as soon as spring practices starts, those two developments seem to be related. Braden, Kalis, and Magnuson all started at those respective positions for the entirety of 2015.

Hit the jump for the rest of the offensive line preview.

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2015 Season Countdown: #68 Blake Bars

Blake Bars

Name: Blake Bars
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 281 lbs.
High school: Nashville (TN) Montgomery Bell
Position: Offensive guard
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #62
Last year: I ranked Bars #76 and said he would be a third string guard. He did not see game action.

Well, Bars is moving up in the world – he went from #77 in 2013 to #76 in 2014, and now he’s all the way up to #68 in the countdown. I said last year that Bars would be a third-stringer, and that held true. He did not play at all despite the early blowout against Appalachian State when it seemed like everyone got in the game.

It’s Bars’s fourth year on campus, and he’s still listed at 281 lbs. That’s not a good number for an offensive lineman in the Big Ten. So far he has only played in one game, that coming during the 2013 season. While he has taken snaps in practice at almost every position across the offensive line, including center, there are other backups ahead of him at each position: center (Patrick Kugler), guard (David Dawson), and tackle (Logan Tuley-Tillman). Unless injuries devastate the offensive line, Bars probably won’t be anything more than a mop-up guy.

Prediction: Backup offensive guard

2014 Season Countdown: #76 Blake Bars

Blake Bars (image via Go Blue Wolverine)

Name: Blake Bars
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 290 lbs.
High school: Nashville (TN) Montgomery Bell
Position: Offensive guard
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #62
Last year: I raned Bars #77 and said he would be a third-string offensive guard. He played in one game against Central Michigan.

As I mentioned during his first couple years on campus, the competition on the offensive line is tough and Bars is playing a little from behind. He did not play during the 2013 season except for a short stint against CMU in the season-opening blowout of the Chippewas. This spring he was running mostly with the third string and appears to be a backup option once again.

During the last couple years, Bars has shown some positional flexibility, playing some guard and some tackle. He also snapped the ball a little bit behind centers Graham Glasgow and Jack Miller, but Bars is just an emergency option there. He is a little bit heavier than last year (up six pounds on the roster), but 290 is still rather thin for a Big Ten offensive guard, especially one who stands 6’5″. Unfortunately for him, he has been passed by guys in his own class (Kyle Kalis, Erik Magnuson, Ben Braden), the class below him (Kyle Bosch, David Dawson), and even a true freshman tackle (Mason Cole), albeit not at Bars’s natural guard spot. It’s tough to see where Bars breaks through unless injuries or early departures occur, but having a veteran offensive lineman to back up several spots is a bit of a luxury.

Prediction: Third string offensive guard

2013 Season Countdown: #77 Blake Bars

Blake Bars

Name: Blake Bars
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 284 lbs.
High school: Nashville (TN) Montgomery Bell
Position: Offensive guard
Class: Redshirt freshman
Jersey number: #62
Last year: I ranked Bars #87 and said he would redshirt. He redshirted.

Bars came in last year as my choice for freshman most likely to redshirt, and he did not disappoint. Of course, all the offensive linemen redshirted, so it was a fairly easy choice. We didn’t hear much buzz about Bars coming out of practices, and his play in the spring game was less than stellar. Then again, at 6’5″ and in the mid-280’s, he’s nowhere near the weight he needs to be to compete in the Big Ten.

Bars appears to be a third-stringer at best, behind a couple of his classmates and some walk-ons. Unless there are departures or injuries between now and the season, he might not see any game action once again. Michigan should be able to run out a second line without using him, and he should hopefully be able to at least get into the 290’s for the 2014 season.

Prediction: Backup to the backup offensive guards