The ninth annual Polynesian Bowl will be played in Honolulu, HI, in January of 2025. Here are the Michigan participants over the years:
2024
Micah Ka’apana, RB – Las Vegas, NV
Deyvid Palepale, DT – Lancaster, PA
2023
Enow Etta, DE – Colleyville, TX
Amir Herring, C – West Bloomfield, MI
2022
Zeke Berry, S – Concord, CA
Mason Graham, DT – Anaheim, CA
Hit the jump for more.
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This news is a couple days old by now, and I even posted a link to the MLive story (a post that had much better visuals, by the way). But I didn’t have time to add any editorial thoughts to that link, so here they are.
True freshman defensive end Corey Malone-Hatcher is done with football. He helped spearhead the 2017 recruiting class through videos and social media, and he enrolled early. But a lingering Achilles injury, which I’ve talked about before, ended up being his downfall. He was hurt for much of spring practice and unable to participate in football drills for most of that time. Instead of fighting through Achilles recovery – and an Achilles tear can be a very tough injury to overcome – he took a medical exemption, so he’ll remain at Michigan as a student on scholarship.
As for the impact on the team, I don’t think it will be significant. I ranked him at #83 in the countdown (LINK), and I gave him a final TTB Rating of 49, which is among the lowest I’ve given. His departure does open up a football scholarship for someone, since the Wolverines are down to 83 scholarship players (LINK).
Corey Malone-Hatcher (image via The Wolverine)
Name: Corey Malone-Hatcher
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 245 lbs.
High school: St. Joseph (MI) St. Joseph
Position: Defensive end
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: #33
Last year: Malone-Hatcher was a senior in high school. He made 90 tackles, 28 tackles for loss, 7 sacks, and 1 forced fumble.
Final TTB Rating: 49
Malone-Hatcher injured his ankle (an injury that was rumored to be a torn Achilles) as a junior in high school and missed most of that season. He returned in 2016 to put up some pretty impressive numbers, including playing a high school game at Michigan Stadium at the beginning of the season. Along with playing defensive end, he doubled as a tight end at times.
I ended up giving Malone-Hatcher a TTB Rating of 49. He has reportedly struggled with some aspects of college during his first few months on campus, and I simply think he’s not quite as talented as some other guys Michigan has brought in. Either way, he’s a little undersized and lacked technique, so I think he’s going to redshirt as a true freshman. He may eventually grow into a strongside end, but right now he looks to be behind redshirt junior Chase Winovich and sophomore Carlo Kemp, and I believe Luiji Vilain has a great chance to play early when he arrives on campus this year.
Prediction: Redshirt
Aubrey Solomon (image via Scout)
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I posted the 2017 offensive recruiting grades last week (LINK), so here are my thoughts on the defensive side of the ball. Click on the player names below for their commitment posts.
DEFENSIVE END: B+
Commits (4): Deron Irving-Bey, Donovan Jeter, Corey Malone-Hatcher, Kwity Paye, Luiji Vilain
Decommits (0): N/A
Why? Michigan went after some elite rush ends (Jaelan Phillips, K’Lavon Chaisson, etc.) in this cycle, but none showed much interest. Instead, Michigan got home-stater Malone-Hatcher, Boston College decommit Paye, and Canada native Vilain as weakside end types. I thought Vilain improved significantly over the last couple years since moving from Ontario to Virginia. On the strong side, Michigan got Irving-Bey and Jeter, both of whom could end up as a 3-technique tackles. I don’t see dominant players here, but it is a solid group and they’ll get high-quality coaching.
Kai-Leon Herbert
ESPN released its final top 300 for the class of 2017 (LINK). Here’s what it looked like in July of 2015 (LINK). Movement for Michigan commits since that first list:
Hit the jump for the full list of targets.