Name: Raheem Anderson II Height: 6’3″ Weight: 318 lbs. High school: Detroit (MI) Cass Tech Position: Center/offensive guard Class: Redshirt junior Jersey number: #62 Last year: I ranked Anderson #48 and said he would be a backup center/guard (LINK). He played in one game. TTB Rating: 83
According to Pro Football Focus, Michigan had 54 players take offensive snaps in 2023. Raheem Anderson II was one of those 54.
He also only took one snap.
So being ranked #28 in the countdown is a pretty lofty ranking. He could have a very significant role in 2024. Some reports have him challenging Greg Crippen for the starting center role. I’m skeptical of that take even though I thought Anderson was a superior player to Crippen coming out of high school. Crippen, after all, played 98 snaps in 2023 and the coaches said he could be the best center in the country if not for the presence of Drake Nugent.
I always thought Anderson would be limited to center because of his size, but he is up to a pretty significant weight at 318 pounds and could be the primary backup at center or guard. He might even end up as the starting center. There are a lot of directions he could go. But whether it’s a role at center or as a backup interior lineman, he will probably be called upon a few times in crunch situations this year to step in for an injured player. And it’s good to have a veteran backup who can be counted on rather than an inexperienced backup on the interior.
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: Raheem Anderson II Height: 6’3″ Weight: 316 lbs. High school: Detroit (MI) Cass Tech Position: Center/offensive guard Class: Redshirt sophomore Jersey number: #62 Last year: I ranked Anderson #61 and said he would be a backup center/guard (LINK). He played in four games. TTB Rating: 83
Anderson has spent the past two seasons backing up the center and guard positions. A classmate of Greg Crippen’s, one interesting ongoing battle has been the one for the center spot. It’s not often that Michigan takes two centers in one recruiting class. Anderson played in four games last season while Crippen played in one, which got back Crippen’s redshirt that he burned in 2021. So now instead of having a year of wiggle room between the two, they’re both back to being redshirt sophomores.
I have Anderson ranked ahead of Crippen in the countdown, but some recent comments from Jim Harbaugh have it looking like Crippen is the #2 center. In fact, he said that both Drake Nugent and Crippen could be All-Americans. I would typically rank the backup center higher than this, but with both Anderson and Crippen available if Nugent gets hurt, the importance of either one gets diminished a bit. It still might be good to get all these guys playing time in 2023 since there will be multiple openings to start in 2024.
Name: Raheem Anderson II Height: 6’3″ Weight: 302 lbs. High school: Detroit (MI) Cass Tech Position: Center/offensive guard Class: Redshirt freshman Jersey number: #62 Last year: I ranked Anderson #62 and said he would be a backup center/guard (LINK). He played in one game. TTB Rating: 83
I ranked Anderson #62 last year and said he would be a backup. I guess that was technically true, but he just played in one game and was able to maintain his redshirt. I think it’s always a good thing to keep redshirts on linemen if possible, because they’re usually not good as freshmen and they seem to be more likely to stick around for a fourth or fifth year than many other positions.
It appears that fellow class of 2021 signee Greg Crippen moved ahead of Anderson in the race for center, and Anderson has been repping quite a bit at guard. The expectation going into 2022 is that after starter Olu Oluwatimi, Crippen would be the next guy in. Anderson might be #3, or that could go to starting guard Zak Zinter or backup lineman Reece Atteberry. Either way, Anderson is probably a few injuries away from playing major time, but he will probably get more season in anticipation of another increased role in 2023.
Name: Raheem Anderson Height: 6’3″ Weight: 298 lbs. High school: Detroit (MI) Cass Tech Class: Freshman Jersey number: N/A Last year: Anderson was a senior in high school (LINK). TTB Rating: 83
Anderson was a good prospect when he committed to Michigan in April of 2020. I had some criticisms of him, especially in his pass protection, but they were fixable things.
And I think he fixed a lot of them. I thought his senior film was much cleaner and showed that he continued to improve. He keeps a wider base and moves his feet better laterally. I think Michigan got a really good player here.
As for the 2021 season, Sam Webb has been beating the drum that Anderson could potentially be the starting center for Michigan. I find that outcome difficult to picture, especially when Michigan has more experienced and bigger guys vying for playing time at center, from Andrew Vastardis to Zak Zinter to Nolan Rumler to Reece Atteberry. I think Michigan has enough talented bodies to keep Anderson from being that important of a piece this fall, but I could definitely see him earning some playing time to groom him for 2022, when there will be a couple spots open.
