Tag: Ex-Wolverines

Kevin Doyle, Ex-Wolverine

Kevin Doyle

Washington (DC) St. John’s quarterback Kevin Doyle decommitted from Michigan on Sunday afternoon. He had been committed to Michigan since September. Doyle is a 3-star, the #23 pro-style quarterback, and #555 overall. He has other offers from Arizona, Boston College, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, Ole Miss, Pitt, Syracuse, and West Virginia, among others.

I gave Doyle a TTB Rating of 76 (LINK), comparing him to the likes of Wilton Speight and John Navarre – decent quarterbacks, but not stars.

Doyle did not sign during the early signing period in December, and Michigan had been talking to him about going to prep school for a year and reclassifying to the 2019 class. Doyle had been aware of that plan for a while, but with a decent offer list, it always seemed like it might be difficult to convince him to spend an extra year in school when he doesn’t need it academically. He will presumably sign with another FBS school, although it’s unclear at this moment which program is in the driver’s seat.

Michigan’s depth chart for 2018 now looks like this (listed in order of experience):

1. Shea Patterson (Jr.)
2. Brandon Peters (RS So.)
3. Dylan McCaffrey (RS Fr.)
4. Joe Milton (Fr.)

Ex-Wolverine Update: Post-2017 Recap

Shane Morris

TRANSFERS

Devin Asiasi, TE (UCLA): Asiasi sat out the season due to NCAA transfer rules. He will presumably stick around to play for Chip Kelly as a redshirt sophomore in 2018.

Kyle Bosch, OG (West Virginia): Bosch started 12 games for West Virginia, who suffered a 30-14 loss to Utah in their bowl game. The Mountaineers went 7-5 in the regular season (7-6 overall). Bosch is out of eligibility, and NFL Draft Scout ranks him as the #15 offensive guard in the 2018 draft class.

Ross Douglas, LB (Rutgers): Rutgers went 4-8 and didn’t play in a bowl game, so Douglas finished his final college season with 37 tackles, 4 pass breakups, and 1 quarterback hurry.

Ja’Raymond Hall, OG (Central Michigan): Hall announced that he would transfer to Central Michigan.

Shane Morris, QB (Central Michigan): Morris went 8-5 as a starter at Central Michigan, ending the year with a 37-14 loss to Wyoming in their bowl game; Morris was 23/39 (59%) for 329 yards, 1 TD, and 4 INT, and he ran 7 times for -34 yards in the game. You can watch highlights of the Idaho Potato Bowl here (LINK). Overall, he completed 249/446 passes (55.8%) for 3,237 yards, 27 TD, and 17 INT as a senior. He ran 88 times for 93 yards (1.1 YPC) and 3 TD. He even tossed in 1 punt for 43 yards against Western Michigan earlier in the year. Out of college eligibility, he is ranked as the #42 quarterback by NFL Draft Scout.

Dan Samuelson, OG (Eastern Michigan): Samuelson was a part-time starter for EMU this season. He won the Team Player Award and was on the MAC’s All-Academic Team.  The Eagles went 5-7 and did not make it to a bowl game. Samuelson’s college eligibility is completed.

Wyatt Shallman, DE (Ohio): Shallman had 2 quarterback hurries in his final collegiate game, a 41-6 win over UAB in the bowl game. Ohio finished the year at 9-4. Shallman has only played in the bowl game and during a five-game stretch in the middle of the season, totaling 13 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 2 quarterback hurries, and 1 pass breakup.

Keith Washington, CB (Copiah-Lincoln Community College): Washington, who played this past season at Co-Lin, is transferring to West Virginia.

Hit the jump for news on former commitments and coaches.

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Ja’Raymond Hall, Ex-Wolverine

Ja’Raymond Hall (image via 247 Sports)

Freshman offensive lineman Ja’Raymond Hall has elected to transfer. A graduate of Oak Park (MI) Oak Park, he enrolled early but did not play at all during this season. He will have to sit out the 2018 season due to NCAA transfer rules, and he will be a redshirt sophomore when he’s finally eligible to play in a college game in 2019.

Hall was an early addition to the 2017 class, committing in December of 2015. I gave him a final TTB Rating of 77. As an offensive tackle/offensive guard tweener, I thought he was a solid developmental piece, but there are other guys in the class ahead of him and in his class who have higher potential. I also thought Hall lost a little of his athleticism as he added weight during his senior year, and obviously tackles are at a higher premium than guards. This does hurt overall depth on the offensive line, however, a position that Michigan has struggled to recruit as effectively as I expected under Jim Harbaugh.

Hall is the first member of the 30-man class of 2017 to depart. Here’s a look at Michigan’s 2018 scholarship chart with Hall removed (LINK).

Maurice Ways, Ex-Wolverine

Maurice Ways, Jr.

Redshirt junior Maurice Ways, Jr. announced on Wednesday that he would be seeking a fifth year elsewhere. As a graduate transfer player, he should be eligible to play immediately in 2018.

Ways graduated from Detroit (MI) Country Day and caught his passes from quarterback Tyler Wiegers, who has gone on to play for Iowa. Ways initially wanted to concentrate on basketball in high school, but his average height (6’3″) led him to pursuing college opportunities on the gridiron. I gave him a final TTB Rating of 81, because I saw him as a player who would eventually be that big, pro-style receiver that Michigan fans got used to seeing in the 1990s and early 2000s. Unfortunately, he continued to be a little raw – perhaps going back to that early concentration on basketball – and struggled occasionally with drops.

Ways appeared to be on the right track in 2015 when he caught 3 passes for 40 yards as a redshirt freshman, and he followed that up with a spring in which he was thought to be headed toward more playing time. Then he suffered a foot injury, which caused him to miss time, and he never really recovered that momentum that he had seen going into 2016. He ended his Michigan career with 6 catches for 47 yards.

The Wolverines have a bunch of receivers who have passed Ways for playing time, including Kekoa Crawford, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tarik Black, and Grant Perry. Ways is a good blocker and reportedly an excellent human being who was involved in a lot of volunteer and leadership activities on campus. He’s a good team and locker room guy, so hopefully he can find a place where he can be a little more successful on the field, too.

Alex Malzone, Ex-Wolverine

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Alex Malzone announced that he would be transferring after he graduates this year. Malzone enrolled in January of 2015 and earned a start in his initial spring game. However, he never stepped on the field across three seasons. The closest he got was last weekend, when starter Wilton Speight and backup Brandon Peters were injured. Malzone was the #2 guy behind John O’Korn against Ohio State, but he wasn’t needed.

I said the following about Malzone during his recruitment:

Malzone runs a somewhat multiple offense and has experience dropping back, from shotgun, or from the pistol formation. He has a slight build and is a little short at a listed 6’2″. He runs his offense very well, is a good ball handler, and seems to be in command. He’s a good athlete who can get on the edge a little bit and make some things happen with his feet, but he’s not a blazer. Malzone gets the ball out on time and shows good accuracy and touch. His throws on skinny posts appear to be right on the money, but I question whether he has the arm strength to squeeze those in there against faster and longer defenders. He has a little bit of a hitch in his throwing motion where he brings the ball down to throw it, not totally unlike a right-handed version of Tim Tebow. Michigan’s coaching staff has been somewhat erratic with the quarterbacks they’ve recruited (the 6’3″ sorta dual-threat Russell Bellomy, the 6’3″ Shane Morris with a rocket arm, the 6’6″ Wilton Speight), but I look at Malzone and see him being too short and lacking the arm strength that Michigan likely wants.

I ended up giving Malzone a TTB Rating of 73 when he committed in the transition year between Brady Hoke and Jim Harbaugh, but with the other guys on the roster, it seemed unlikely that he would ever make an impact. He was passed up by literally every other scholarship quarterback on the roster, except classmate Zach Gentry, who moved to tight end.

This won’t affect Michigan next year, even though Speight is also transferring and O’Korn is graduating. Brandon Peters will go into 2018 as the expected starter, while Dylan McCaffrey has also earned high praise from the coaching staff. With two freshmen coming in the 2018 class, the Wolverines will have four scholarship quarterbacks on the roster – and the staff may pursue transfers at the position, too.