Tag: Peyton O'Leary

2025 Spring Football Preview: Wide Receiver

RETURNING PLAYERS: Peyton O’Leary (RS Sr.), Joe Taylor (RS Sr.), Amorion Walker (Sr.), Logan Forbes (RS Jr.), Fredrick Moore (Jr.), Semaj Morgan (Jr.), Kendrick Bell (RS So.), Channing Goodwin (RS Fr.), I’Marion Stewart (RS Fr.)
NEWCOMERS: Donaven McCulley (RS Sr.), Anthony Simpson (RS Sr.), Andrew Marsh (Fr.), Jamar Browder (Fr.)
DEPARTURES: C.J. Charleston (graduation), Tyler Morris (transfer to Indiana)

OUTLOOK: Michigan’s receivers did not have a banner year in 2024. Part of it may be a chicken-or-egg situation with the poor quarterback play: no receiver was going to have a great year with Davis Warren and Alex Orji throwing the ball, and not many quarterbacks were going to have great passing numbers throwing to what Michigan put out there at receiver. Tight end Colston Loveland led Michigan’s team in receptions (56), yards (548), and touchdowns (5). By comparison, the leading wideouts in each category were Semaj Morgan (27 catches), Tyler Morris (248 yards), and Morris again (2 touchdowns).

Morris headed for the greener pastures of, uh, Bloomington, Indiana, this off-season, so it’s a pretty complete overhaul of the receiving group. Morgan is back, but he had a measly 139 yards and a paltry 5.2 yards per catch. That’s not an indictment of Morgan’s talent, but Michigan’s overall inability to push the ball downfield, set up screens appropriately, and generally call an offense. I have more faith in new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey than the departed Kirk Campbell, so I expect Morgan to benefit significantly. But he has yet to prove that he can be a downfield threat.

The prize of Michigan’s transfer efforts at receiver is Indiana transfer Donaven McCulley, a 6’5″, 203 lb. possession guy who caught 48 passes for 644 yards and 6 touchdowns in 2023. While he doesn’t have a ton of downfield speed, he’s the type of big target with experience that Michigan lacked out wide in 2024. He can probably be penciled in as a starter this fall.

Other unknowns include the quick Fredrick Moore (11 catches, 148 yards, 1 TD in 2024), former walk-on and possession guy Peyton O’Leary (10 catches, 102 yards, 1 TD), former quarterback Kendrick Bell (7 catches, 70 yards), and reed-thin speedster Amorion Walker (3 catches, 34 yards). The most intriguing of those is Walker, who is 6’3″ and 182 lbs. Once penciled in as a starting cornerback by Jim Harbaugh – and briefly at Ole Miss in the spring of 2024 – he spent last year at receiver. If corners don’t get a hand on him, he can run real fast; if corners do get a hand on him, he can fall down real fast.

One of Lindsey’s tasks will be to figure out which veteran receiver can play a good-sized role in the offense and provide some help for some limited quarterbacks: QB Mikey Keene is limited by his stature, and QB Bryce Underwood is limited by his inexperience. But another task will be to figure out what roles can be played by freshman Andrew Marsh, incoming UMass transfer Anthony Simpson, and freshman Jamar Browder. Marsh comes in with some questions about his overall speed, but he reportedly finds a way to make things happen. Simpson is a bit of a screen and gadget guy, but he could be fun to watch. And Browder is a 6’3″ guy with some upside, but he’s probably somebody who needs to bake in the oven for at least a season.

Overall, Michigan has an array of pieces. While last season was similar at receiver to the 2023-2024 Michigan basketball team that got Juwan Howard fired because he couldn’t construct a roster, this year could be closer to the 2024-2025 Dusty May version of the basketball team: a well constructed squad probably lacking championship potential.

Michigan vs. Fresno State Awards

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . C.J. Charleston. The Youngstown State transfer receiver only played 6 snaps on Saturday night, but I would like to see him play more. I think he’s more of a receiving threat than Peyton O’Leary, and while maybe there’s a small difference in run blocking, the receiving threat and big-play ability of Charleston is worth playing him more. Michigan needs better options in the passing game.

Hit the jump for more.

2024 Season Countdown: #60 Peyton O’Leary

Name: Peyton O’Leary
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 203 lbs.
High school: Byfield (MA) Governor’s Academy
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #81
Last year: I ranked O’Leary #49 and said he would be a backup wide receiver (LINK). He caught 2 passes for 13 yards and 1 touchdown.
TTB Rating: N/A

The off-season and practice buzz has been going for O’Leary for a couple seasons, but so far it has not turned into a ton of production. He played a total of 38 snaps in 2023 and notched 2 receptions for 13 yards and 1 score, the TD catch coming against Nebraska in a blowout. Michigan typically doesn’t get a ton of production from its receivers, so it’s understandable that there aren’t many scraps left for someone like O’Leary.

But one of the big criticisms of Michigan’s receiver room going into 2024 is a lack of size. Cornelius Johnson moved on to the NFL, and Darrius Clemons transferred to Oregon State. That left the Wolverines with a bunch of small-ish wideouts, though they were able to snag Amorion Walker back from Ole Miss through the transfer portal. Walker has height but not much in the way of bulk. In fact, O’Leary and Walker are the same height (6’3″) but O’Leary outweighs Walker by 21 pounds.

This is not to say that O’Leary will be a big, bulky, leaping red zone target, but he may be looked upon to help in certain circumstances where he was not needed in 2023. I don’t have a ton of faith that moderate practice buzz will suddenly turn into huge amounts of playing time, though, so I’m dropping him down in the countdown compared to last year.

Prediction: Backup wide receiver

2024 Spring Football Preview: Wide Receiver

2023 Starters: Cornelius Johnson, Roman Wilson
Losses: Darrius Clemons (Oregon State), Johnson (NFL), Wilson (NFL)
Returning players: Eamonn Dennis (RS Sr.), Peyton O’Leary (RS Jr.), Tyler Morris (RS So.), Karmello English (So.), Frederick Moore (So.), Semaj Morgan (So.), Kendrick Bell (RS Fr.)
Newcomer: Channing Goodwin (Fr.)
Projected starters: Morris, Morgan

For some teams who play three and four wide receivers on every down, losing two senior wide receivers might not seem like a huge deal. So in the context of college football, the departures of Cornelius Johnson (47 catches, 604 yards, 1 touchdown) and Roman Wilson (48, 789, 12) might not seem like a huge deal. Johnson was the large-ish possession receiver, and Wilson was the speedy deep and intermediate threat. And then there were usually a couple tight ends roaming all over the place. Altogether, Michigan got just 47 other receptions from receivers not named Johnson or Wilson, and 3 of those came from Clemons, who is now plying his trade for the Beavers.

Based on playing time and targets last season, the two front-runners for starting roles in 2024 should be Morris and Morgan. Morris started four games – so he’s kind of a returning starter, I guess – and made 13 catches for 197 yards and 1 touchdown. But that one touchdown was a huge, key play when he got matched up against a linebacker against Alabama in the Rose Bowl and caught a crossing route for a 38-yard touchdown. Meanwhile, Morgan caught 22 passes for 204 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he also had an 87-yard punt return against Iowa in the Big Ten Championship game. He showed some downfield receiving chops in high school, but so far he’s been more of a catch-and-run guy with jitterbug moves – witness his screen catch for a TD against Washington – and adding in 4 carries for 67 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Last year’s spring game star was walk-on Peyton O’Leary (2 catches, 13 yards, 1 touchdown), who could factor in more this season if Michigan needs a big possession guy at 6’4″ and 190 lbs. Frederick Moore (4 catches, 32 yards) and Karmello English (1 catch, 6 yards, 1 touchdown) will also factor in somehow. Some people think Moore could be the fastest player on the team.

Players with less of a chance to make an impact include fifth year senior Eamonn Dennis (who has yet to make a catch in his career but plays a lot of special teams), Kendrick Bell (who was a high school quarterback until making the position switch last year), and early enrollee freshman Channing Goodwin. Bell’s brother Ronnie is now a wide receiver in the NFL with the 49ers, and Goodwin has some good bloodlines, as his father was a lineman for Michigan and in the NFL. But it’s unlikely that any of them play a huge role in 2024.

2023 Season Countdown: #49 Peyton O’Leary

Name: Peyton O’Leary
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 195 lbs.
High school: Byfield (MA) Governor’s Academy
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #81
Last year: I ranked O’Leary #110 and said he would be a backup wide receiver (LINK). He played in six games and caught 1 pass for 4 yards.
TTB Rating: N/A

I’m going to take a minor victory lap on the emergence of Peyton O’Leary since I’ve been talking him up for the past couple years. Here’s the final sentence from last year’s countdown post for O’Leary:

“Right now Michigan’s wide receiver room is stacked, but if some injuries or blowouts happen, I could see him making a little bit of a name for himself and carving out a role.”

Well, O’Leary didn’t actually make a name for himself until the spring game, where he made 6 catches for 126 yards and 1 touchdown and caught a 2-point conversion. His 2022 season was pretty quiet with just 1 catch for 4 yards, but coming out of the spring, players were talking about O’Leary doing similar things in practice, and Jim Harbaugh said that he would have a role in the fall.

It’s quite a gigantic leap for O’Leary to jump from #110 last year to #49 this season, and maybe it’s too high. I do have some concerns about Michigan’s wide receiver depth, though. O’Leary is unlikely to start, and with the talent at running back and tight end, I’m not sure how much production could be expected from a fourth or fifth receiver. Last year’s fifth most productive receiver (by number of receptions) was Andrel Anthony with 7 catches for 80 yards and 1 touchdown; Anthony was so happy with his involvement that he transferred to Oklahoma. If O’Leary accumulates his spring game numbers over the entire 2023 season, that will be fairly impressive in itself. Cornelius Johnson and Roman Wilson should be the top guys, and we’ll see how many balls are available for any other pass-catchers.

Prediction: Backup wide receiver