TE Erick All (Iowa): All tore his ACL this past season but finished as Iowa’s leading receiver, catching 21 passes for 299 yards and 3 touchdowns. Despite having another year of eligibility if he wanted it, he declared for the NFL Draft.
WR Andrel Anthony (Oklahoma): Anthony caught 27 passes for 429 yards and 1 touchdown before suffering a season-ending ACL injury.
QB Alan Bowman (Oklahoma State): Bowman led Oklahoma State to a 10-4 record this season. Things started off a little rocky, but he ultimately locked down the starting job and went 304/501 (60.7%) for 3,460 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. He also ran 26 times for 24 yards and 2 touchdowns. He will return to the Cowboys in 2024 for a seventh season of eligibility.
Michigan running back C.J. Stokes has entered the transfer portal. This past season was his second season in the program, and he redshirted, so he will have three seasons to play three seasons. He was a 3-star, the #63 running back, and #797 overall in the 2022 recruiting class out of Columbia (SC) Hammond. I initially gave him a TTB Rating of 59 before bumping him up to a 71 at the end of the cycle.
Stokes got a lot of playing time as a freshman. He ran 55 times for 273 yards and 1 touchdown, and he also caught 1 pass for 15 yards, while playing in eleven games. But toward the end of the season, Kalel Mullings switched from linebacker to running back and started to take some snaps. That carried over into the 2023 campaign.
During the current 2023 season, Stokes played in just two games and ran 2 times for 6 yards. He did have injury issues that caused him to miss a chunk of time. Either way, though, he appeared to have lost ground to Mullings.
I liked what I saw from Stokes during his time at Michigan, but he needed to continue getting stronger and working on some fundamental things, such as getting his shoulders square to defenders. I think he can go somewhere and still have a productive career.
Looking ahead to 2024, Blake Corum could technically return (if he uses the COVID year exemption) but will almost certainly be heading to the NFL. Donovan Edwards expressed before the season that he planned to jump to the NFL, but his season did not go according to plan. And Mullings played a good-sized role with 32 carries for 195 yards and 1 touchdown, possibly earning him the chance to be a starter next season. Edwards and Mullings could make a nice 1-2 punch in 2024 if both decide to return.
Potential depth chart for 2024 (according to seniority):
Kalel Mullings (RS Sr.)
Donovan Edwards (Sr.)
Tavierre Dunlap (RS Jr.)
Cole Cabana (RS Fr.)
Ben Hall (RS Fr.)
Micah Ka’apana (Fr.)
Jordan Marshall (Fr.)
Stokes is the third member of the 2022 class to transfer, following safety Damani Dent (Charlotte) and linebacker Deuce Spurlock (Florida).
Football is back! All is right in the world when it’s football season. In another few days, the NFL season will be back and we can all enjoy Heaven for a few months. It has been a long off-season for me on an individual level, and this is also a chance to break away from the 2023 Season Countdown and get back into a groove with writing about various topics.
This was a boring matchup. I like seeing different opponents, but with East Carolina, there were no storylines. It’s not a geographical matchup. When I looked through the roster and coaching staff, there was no crossover. East Carolina doesn’t recruit in the state of Michigan. No transfers or ex-staffers from Michigan. There was no angle. The most interesting aspect going into the opener, aside from seeing who starts for Michigan, was . . .
. . . Peacock. The Peacock stream sucked. I signed up for Peacock on Friday because there’s really no other reason to do so earlier. And I don’t really care about the expense. I’ll pay $5.99 to watch a Michigan game. But when I’m paying for it, I expect a good product. When I paid for cable, I expected ESPN and FS1 and BTN to give me a good product. Otherwise, I’ll just turn off the volume and think through it myself. I don’t need Mike Tirico and one of the Simms brothers to tell me what’s happening on the game. Peacock actually complied – presumably on accident – when there was just no audio for several minutes. The fourth quarter feed got blurry, too, but maybe that had something to do with my local internet. But Peacock also cut out a play, there was no pregame show, the halftime show was boring, and oh yeah . . . the Simms kid isn’t exactly top-notch. If I wanted crappy analysis, I would watch some of the ex-Buckeye talking heads like Josh Perry and Joey Galloway.
Name: C.J. Stokes Height: 5’10” Weight: 205 lbs. High school: Columbia (SC) Hammond Position: Running back Class: Sophomore Jersey number: #23 Last year: I ranked Stokes #83 and said he would redshirt (LINK). He ran 55 times for 273 yards (5.0 yards/carry) and 1 touchdown, while catching 1 pass for 15 yards. TTB Rating: 71
Stokes had a bit of a head-scratching 2022. He was the #798 overall recruit in the 247 Composite, but he immediately jumped to the #3 running back slot, sliding past Tavierre Dunlap and a couple walk-ons. He got his biggest chance against Illinois when he ran 11 times for 36 yards in the absence of Donovan Edwards (who was injured) and Blake Corum (who got injured against the Illini), but a couple crunch time plays went to walk-on Isaiah Gash. Later in the season, linebacker Kalel Mullings converted to running back and became the backup to Edwards with Corum out. Stokes was nowhere to be found in the Big Ten championship game against Purdue or in the playoff game against TCU.
Personally, I liked what I saw from Stokes, who averaged 4.8 yards per carry as a freshman against Big Ten opponents. With an additional nine pounds added since last season (196 to 205), he should be a little stronger and tougher to bring down. But he has a battle on his hands for the #3 spot, with Mullings, freshman Benjamin Hall, and freshman Cole Cabana now on campus. Michigan went from having four scholarship backs in 2022 to suddenly having seven (depending on how one categorizes LB/RB Mullings), so competition for carries will be tougher in 2023.
Nebraska sucks! Yes. Yes, they do. Nebraska is a 3-7 football team with an interim head coach, no defensive playmakers except outside linebacker Garrett Nelson, and no quality FBS quarterback right now. Nebraska’s best play on Saturday was to call a pass and then let the quarterback scramble up the middle and hope he doesn’t hurt himself. Unfortunately, that play ended one too many times with the quarterback hurting himself. Meanwhile, the two quarterbacks, Chubba Purdy and Logan Smothers, combined for 9 rushing attempts and 40 total yards. The team ended up with 146 total yards, or exactly 106 yards that didn’t come on QB scrambles.
