Here’s the scoop on 77 former Michigan Wolverines players, how their 2025 went, and where they are for 2026.
FORMER PLAYERS
Raheem Anderson, C (Western Michigan): Anderson concluded his college football career by becoming an All-MAC center for the Broncos in 2025.
Andrel Anthony, WR (Duke): Anthony concluded his college football career by catching 26 passes for 246 yards and 5 touchdowns for the Blue Devils in 2025. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Atlanta Falcons.
Devon Baxter, DE (Virginia): Baxter is a 6’6″, 247 lb. redshirt sophomore for his first season at Virginia.
Jeremiah Beasley, LB (Missouri): Beasley made 19 tackles and 1 forced fumble in 2025 and is penciled in as a backup linebacker for the 2026 season.
Josh Beetham, TE (Georgia Tech): Beetham started five games and played in all thirteen in 2025, making 6 catches for 134 yards and 2 touchdowns altogether.
Kechaun Bennett, DE (UCLA): Bennett transferred to UCLA for his final college season and made 25 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 1 quarterback hurry while playing in eleven games.
Christian Boivin, LB (Saginaw Valley State): Boivin transferred to Division II SVSU and made 105 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 3 interceptions, and 1 forced fumble in 2025.
Tristan Bounds, OT (Arizona): Bounds started eight games for Arizona in 2025 and is expected to be the starting right tackle in 2026. He’s listed at 6’8″, 306 lbs. going into his sixth year.
Name: Jeffrey Persi Height: 6’8″ Weight: 310 lbs. High school: Mission Viejo (CA) Junipero Serra Position: Offensive tackle Class: Fifth year senior Jersey number: #79 Last year: I ranked Persi #44 and said he would be a backup offensive tackle (LINK). He played in fifteen games. TTB Rating: 82
Persi had an opportunity in 2023 to stake his claim for 2024. With Michigan trying out Karsen Barnhart, Myles Hinton, Trente Jones, and La’Darius Henderson over the first couple weeks at tackle, Persi and Andrew Gentry were afterthoughts and never really in the discussion. Both Persi and Gentry did play on the offensive line throughout the year, and Persi fared better, according to Pro Football Focus. His best moments were in pass protection, where he had a 78.5 overall grade for the year; however, he managed just a 60.6 run blocking grade.
Those things may factor into playing time decisions for 2024. This is likely to be more of a run-oriented offense if Alex Orji wins the starting quarterback job, as most people expect. Persi still fared better than Gentry when it comes to PFF’s grades, but it was just a small difference in the run game. My eyes tell me that Persi is the superior player, but both will have to fend off redshirt freshman Evan Link. If I had to pick a starter, I would pick Persi, but the right tackle job seems like one of those spots where the competition may go into the season.
2023 Starters: LT La’Darius Henderson, LG Trevor Keegan, C Drake Nugent, RG Zak Zinter, RT Karsen Barnhart Losses: Barnhart (NFL), Henderson (NFL), Trente Jones (NFL), Keegan (NFL), Nugent (NFL), Zinter (NFL) Returning players: Myles Hinton (RS Sr.), Jeffrey Persi (RS Sr.), Raheem Anderson (RS Jr.), Tristan Bounds (RS Jr.), Greg Crippen (RS Jr.), Giovanni El-Hadi (RS Jr.), Dominic Giudice (RS Jr.), Andrew Gentry (RS So.), Connor Jones (RS So.), Nathan Efobi (RS Fr.), Amir Herring (RS Fr.), Evan Link (RS Fr.) Newcomers: Josh Priebe (RS Sr.), Blake Frazier (Fr.), Jake Guarnera (Fr.) Projected starters: LT Hinton, LG El-Hadi, C Crippen, RG Priebe, RT Persi
Michigan went from having a terrible offensive line under Brady Hoke to a decent offensive line at the beginning of the Harbaugh era to one of the best in the country at the end of Harbaugh’s tenure. In two of Harbaugh’s final three seasons, Michigan won the Joe Moore Award for the best offensive line in the country; in the third season, they lost the award but won a national championship. And now most of the key pieces to those awards and accomplishments are either in the NFL or heading there soon.
Much like the quarterback position, nobody really has a great idea of how the position group will shake out. Will it be as good as it was in 2021-2023? That’s unlikely. Could it still be a solid conglomeration? Sure. Four of the starters above (Hinton, El-Hadi, Crippen, and Persi) were 4-star prospects or better, and the only 3-star (Priebe) is a multi-year starter coming from Northwestern. Furthermore, they are all veteran players in at least their fourth year of college.
At offensive tackle, Hinton started one-third of the season before ceding his spot to Barnhart in 2023, so he seems like the most likely to start. On the right side, it could be a battle between Persi and Gentry. Both have looked somewhat rough in limited time, but Persi has two years of experience on Gentry, whose footwork still looked pretty sloppy in 2023.
At the guard positions, El-Hadi is another player who has some starting experience a couple seasons ago as an injury fill-in, so he seems likely to slide right in this season. Priebe is a veteran starting presence who should be able to fend off most contenders, if not all of them.
Word coming out of Ann Arbor about Crippen has been that he’s a potential All-American, but he’s just been blocked by two really good players in Olu Oluwatimi and Nugent over the past couple years. I have some doubts because I’m not sure why the coaching staff would recruit over him if he was that good, but he’s also two years older now than he was when Oluwatimi swooped in, so perhaps his improvement in that time has been significant.
Despite losing six offensive linemen to the draft, Michigan goes into spring with 15 other scholarship linemen on the roster. That’s somewhat mind-boggling to consider, since a team might have carried just 13 linemen a few years ago. In that bygone era of like 2019, we would be looking at 7 returning players and 6 true freshmen arriving sporadically in January and then June. Instead, there are 12 returning players, a transfer, and 2 early enrollee freshmen available for the spring, not to mention further reinforcements arriving this summer.
Some projected backups to keep an eye on are Raheem Anderson, who was reportedly ahead of Crippen early in their careers but has since appeared to be more of a factor at guard; Gentry, who could potentially start at tackle over Persi; and Herring, who’s a powerful offensive guard option that looked good in the spring game in 2023. Aside from Gentry possibly starting, Anderson and Herring are almost certainly backups for this season. Another players I’ll also be watching closely is Tristan Bounds, a behemoth of a player whose balance has been questionable in limited field time.
Name: Jeffrey Persi Height: 6’8″ Weight: 320 lbs. High school: Mission Viejo (CA) Junipero Serra Position: Offensive tackle Class: Redshirt junior Jersey number: #79 Last year: I ranked Persi #43 and said he would be a backup offensive tackle (LINK). He started one game at left tackle and played in all fourteen games. TTB Rating: 82
Persi is a mammoth backup offensive tackle who would have already been starting on many past Michigan teams. The fact that he has only started one game through three seasons on campus is a testament to the depth that Michigan has built on the offensive line, not to mention the steady contributions of Ryan Hayes over the past few seasons. Persi was a backup and played on special teams, and he got a chance to start his first career game against Rutgers last season when Hayes was hurt.
I recently posted about Myles Hinton (LINK) and it was a toss-up between the two regarding whom to rank higher. I think Hinton has more upside, but there are some things to clean up from his time at Stanford. Meanwhile, Persi still looked in the spring like he has some filling out to do. And when you’re 6’8″, there’s just a lot of physical maturation that needs to take place. He seems like a guy who should probably be playing close to 330 lbs., and maybe that time is coming. Anyway, if La’Darius Henderson, Trente Jones, and Karsen Barnhart all depart after 2023, it seems likely that Persi and Hinton will be starting in 2024 at left tackle and right tackle, respectively.
Okay, it’s time to put some thoughts about the spring game on paper.
QUARTERBACK: We know what J.J. McCarthy brings to the table, and Michigan was never going to let him factor into the run game, so whatever. This comes down to thoughts on the backups. After watching Michigan have a good 1-2 punch the past two years with McCarthy and Cade McNamara, there is a big question mark at the #2 quarterback spot in 2023. I thought redshirt sophomore Davis Warren once again outplayed the competition, which comes from Alex Orji and Indiana transfer Jack Tuttle. Tuttle had a couple decent throws and showed some decent athleticism on the run, but Warren is more accurate and probably a better decision maker, despite the fact that Tuttle is a sixth-year player. Orji has decent arm strength but leaves something to be desired when it comes to his timing and accuracy; running is the best part of his game, and he’s a change-up guy. I would put him at #4 on the depth chart.
