Darryl Stonum, ex-Wolverine

Tag: Dann O’Neill


17Jan 2012
Uncategorized 9 comments

Darryl Stonum, ex-Wolverine

Michigan’s class of 2008 participants in the Under Armour All-America Game:
Darryl Stonum, Christian Wilson, Dann O’Neill, and Brandon Moore.

Wide receiver Darryl Stonum was booted off the team today.  I’m not going to go through his litany of legal issues, but he had some alcohol- and probation-related offenses in the past that caused him to be suspended for the entirety of the 2011 season.  Head coach Brady Hoke hoped that the suspension would give Stonum a chance to get his life in order, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

Stonum’s final season of eligibility would have been 2012, so he leaves with one year remaining.  He had 76 career receptions for 1,008 yards and 6 touchdowns in his three years of play, with a school single-season record of 1,001 kickoff return yards (94 of which came on a TD return against Notre Dame) in 2009.  It’s unclear whether he will try to enter the NFL Draft or whether he will transfer to a lower division and play college ball next season.  My guess is that he will end up at an FCS school and try to make it to the NFL in 2013.

Michigan is now even thinner at wide receiver, a position that couldn’t really afford further attrition.  Junior Hemingway, Martavious Odoms, and Kelvin Grady have played their final year at Michigan, leaving rising senior Roy Roundtree, rising junior Jeremy Gallon, rising junior Jeremy Jackson, rising junior Drew Dileo, and a bunch of young’ns who haven’t seen the field at all; class of 2012 receivers Jehu Chesson and Amara Darboh will have an even better chance of play this fall than they previously had.  Gallon is tiny, Jackson is slow, and Dileo is a little of both, so there’s no clear-cut successor at the outside receiver position.

There are some more potential options in the class of 2012, with Cincinnati (OH) Moeller’s Monty Madaris and Westlake Village (CA) Oaks Christian’s Jordan Payton both flirting with Michigan.  Madaris had potentially eliminated Michigan from contention, but this opens the door to playing time a little quicker.  Meanwhile, Payton is “committed” to the California Golden Bears, but their lead recruiter Tosh Lupoi just left for the Washington Huskies and Payton is rethinking his pledge.  Of course, there’s also the potential for more receivers to grab offers from Michigan or for the coaches to bank the scholarship for 2013.  However – and I questioned this at the time – Brady Hoke chose to bank a scholarship for 2012 instead of taking class of 2011 receiver Devin Lucien, who chose UCLA instead.  Lucien redshirted this past season for the Bruins, but he would have been another option for Michigan in 2012.

(I just happened to find the above picture interesting for its irrelevance to Michigan now.  Stonum was a huge disappointment and got booted, Wilson de-committed for North Carolina and now is a mediocre Tarheel H-back, O’Neill transferred to Western Michigan, and Brandon Moore has been an ineffective backup TE who has 2 career receptions.)

11Jan 2011
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What Could Have Been . . . Austin White

Former Michigan running back Austin White has enrolled at Central Michigan University and joined the football program there.  White was a part of the Class of 2010 and enrolled at Michigan in January 2010, but he clashed with the coaches and got into some trouble over the summer.  White was one of the players who had to “earn his wings” in fall camp, and the two parties decided to go their separate ways prior to the season.

Visit the Ex-Wolverine Encyclopedia page to find updates on former Michigan commits/players like Dewayne Peace, Sam McGuffie, Ryan Mallett, Shavodrick Beaver, Pearlie Graves, DeQuinta Jones, Dann O’Neill, Bryce McNeal, Kevin Newsome, Toney Clemons, Cobrani Mixon, and Quintin Woods.

12Jul 2009
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Dann O’Neill, ex-Wolverine (update)

According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, former Michigan tackle Dann O’Neill will be playing for the Western Michigan Broncos. He has an older brother there who plays tight end. I would assume that O’Neill is their most highly regarded recruit in the short history of regarding recruits, but I don’t care enough about WMU to research the topic.

Also, this makes Anonymous in the comments section either a liar or a jokester or just plain gullible.

Of players who were on Michigan’s roster last season, there’s a long list of departures:

S Artis Chambers to Ball State
WR Toney Clemons to Colorado
WR Zion Babb to ??????
RB Avery Horn to ??????
LB Marcus Witherspoon to Rutgers
LB Taylor Hill to Youngstown State
OG Kurt Wermers to ??????
OT Dann O’Neill to Western Michigan
QB Steven Threet to Arizona State

I’m sure much of the attrition has been due to the new regime. But no matter how you slice it, you can’t lose nine players early and field a team with any sort of depth. (I’m not counting Andre Criswell and Carson Butler, since they played for four years.)

5Jun 2009
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Dann O’Neill, ex-Wolverine?

A random poster on MGoBlog reported that Dann O’Neill has quit football; Brian from MGoBlog basically verified the original poster’s story, so it looks likely that O’Neill will no longer be a Michigan Wolverine football player. This is currently just a strong rumor and has not been officially announced by Rich Rodriguez.

Coming out of Grand Haven, MI, in 2008, Rivals ranked O’Neill the #49 player and #10 offensive tackle in the country. He was listed at 6’8″ and 291 lbs. and looked like Michigan’s next monstrosity of a tackle.

Then along came Rodriguez. Rumors from practices suggested that O’Neill had a lot of refining to do to his technique and wasn’t improving as quickly as many would have expected. Current rumors swirl that he just lacks a passion for the game; I don’t know the validity of the rumor, but if you look at his pictures, he always looks sad. Not mean like I’m-going-to-eat-your-children-Mr.-Defensive-End. Not happy like I’m-going-to-eat-your-children-Mr.-Defensive-End-and-yum-they-will-be-tasty. Just perpetually sad like Jake Gyllenhaal.

Nowhere have I ever read a report that O’Neill was challenging for playing time. The tackles vying for time have always been Mark Ortmann, Perry Dorrestein, Patrick Omameh, Ricky Barnum, and Mark Huyge. Considering that Omameh and Barnum are both in the same graduating class as O’Neill, perhaps O’Neill didn’t think he would get a fair shake. Regardless, if Barnum and Omameh both stick around, it’s quite possible that O’Neill would have remained a depth player.

That being said, offensive line depth now becomes an issue again. Michigan’s offensive line was thin last year, but we pulled in three good offensive linemen (Taylor Lewan, Quinton Washington, and Michael Schofield) to add to the six signees from the class of 2008. With Kurt Wermers and apparently O’Neill washing out so soon in their careers, the net gain from the 2009 class is essentially only +1. O’Neill’s departure would leave us with twelve returning scholarship players to go with the three 2009 recruits, giving us a total of 15. Perhaps Barnum is more likely to stay outside at tackle now, which might necessitate further recruiting of interior linemen in the class of 2010.

Potential depth chart for 2009:

LT – Ortmann (5th), Dorrestein (RS Jr.), Lewan (Fr.)
LG – Schilling (RS Jr.), Barnum (RS Fr.), Washington (Fr.)
C – Molk (RS So.), Khoury (RS Fr.), Mealer (RS Fr.)
RG – Moosman (5th), Ferrara (RS Jr.), McAvoy (5th)
RT – Huyge (RS So.), Omameh (RS Fr.), Schofield (Fr.)
(Picture via Rivals.com)