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.
Sophomore wide receiver/cornerback Amorion Walker has entered the transfer portal. He played in thirteen games for the Wolverines over the past two seasons.
Walker came out of Ponchatoula (LA) Ponchatoula in the 2022 class and was ranked as a 3-star, the #72 wide receiver, and #522 overall. I gave him a TTB Rating of 81.
Michigan’s coaching staff believed in Walker as an athlete, and he had some freaky testing times when it comes to sprints and short shuttles. But after two years on campus, he was listed at 6’3″ and 180 lbs. Despite Jim Harbaugh saying he considered Walker to be a starter last winter, he looked overmatched in the spring game – getting torched by walk-on Peyton O’Leary – and then got passed up by UMass transfer Josh Wallace during the summer.
Players usually seem to end up closer to home when they transfer – see Oregon native Darrius Clemons transferring to Oregon State – so I would expect Walker to end up somewhere near SEC country. He has a crystal ball right now for Ole Miss.
As for Michigan, the Wolverines will once again be looking for help at cornerback after losing Walker and rising second-year player Cam Calhoun (Utah) to the transfer portal. Starter Will Johnson returns on one side, but Wallace and Mike Sainristil are heading to the NFL, leaving sophomore D.J. Waller, redshirt junior Ja’Den McBurrows, redshirt freshman Jyaire Hill, and a few others to battle for playing time. Michigan may look to the portal once again for a starter.
Michigan receiver Darrius Clemons has entered the transfer portal following Michigan’s national championship win on Monday night.
Clemons was a member of Michigan’s 2022 class out of Portland (OR) Westview. He was a 4-star, the #24 wide receiver, and #144 overall in the 247 Composite rankings. I gave him a TTB Rating of 88 based on his 6’4″, 205 lb. frame (he was most recently listed at 6’3″, 212 lbs. by MGoBlue.com) and sub-4.4 speed.
Unfortunately, things didn’t really work out at Michigan. Maybe they could have, but they didn’t. He played in eleven games as a freshman and nine this past season, but he made just 3 catches for 33 yards in 2023 and 4 catches for 40 yards altogether. His biggest career highlight – aside from winning a natty – was a diving touchdown reception in the 2022 spring game.
For better or worse, Michigan’s style of play is not wide receiver-friendly. They play slow and run the ball a lot, which works. I mean, who can argue with the team results? But Michigan’s top receivers this season were Roman Wilson (48 catches, 789 yards, 12 touchdowns) and Cornelius Johnson (47 catches, 604 yards, 1 touchdown). There aren’t a ton of targets to go around, even when Michigan has the best quarterback in school history in J.J. McCarthy.
On top of that, Clemons was passed up in playing time by classmate Tyler Morris (13 catches, 197 yards,1 touchdown) and freshman Semaj Morgan (22 catches, 204 yards, 2 touchdowns).
The bright side for Clemons may have been that both Wilson and Johnson are out of eligibility, and there’s no clear-cut #1 receiver for next season. Michigan will need to look toward the transfer portal to try to find some contributors for 2024 and beyond. At the wide receiver position, the Wolverines will return just 40 catches and 4 touchdowns next season from the likes of Morris, Morgan, Fredrick Moore, Karmello English, and walk-on Peyton O’Leary.
Clemons was the fourth member of the 2022 class to enter the portal, following LB Deuce Spurlock (Florida), S Damani Dent (Charlotte), and RB C.J. Stokes (Charlotte).
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).
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FORMER PLAYERS
TE Erick All (Iowa): All tore his ACL in week seven. He led the Hawkeyes in all receiving categories, catches (21), yards (299), and touchdowns (3) by a wide margin at the time of his injury.
WR Andrel Anthony (Oklahoma): Anthony is out for the season. He caught 27 passes for 429 yards and 1 touchdown this season before the injury.
