Hurst is the son of former NFL cornerback Maurice Hurst. The younger Hurst attended Westwood (MA) Xaverian Brothers, where he was a 247 Composite 4-star, the #21 defensive tackle, and #266 overall in the 2013 class. He was recruited to Michigan by Curt Mallory, while also fielding offers from Boston College, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Ohio State, among others. He played a good deal of fullback in high school, too. Hurst committed to Michigan in June of 2012, and his only official visit was to Ann Arbor. He played in the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl. I initially gave Hurst a TTB Rating of 73 (LINK) and questioned whether he would get bulky and technical enough to play nose tackle at the next level, but I bumped him to a 78 after National Signing Day (LINK).
Hit the jump for the rest of Hurst’s senior profile.
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HIGH SCHOOL
Cole attended Tarpon Springs (FL) East Lake and was a part of the 2014 class. Originally, it looked like he would bring teammate George Campbell with him in the 2015 class, but Campbell eventually decommitted in favor of Florida State. You can check out the scouting report I put together on Cole prior to his commitment (LINK). I gave him an 87 as a Final TTB Rating (LINK).
COLLEGE
There’s really not much to be said here. Cole started every game at left tackle for his first two years on campus (2014, 2015), and then he moved to center for 2016, when he started every game at center in the wake of Graham Glasgow’s departure. With Patrick Kugler available to play center in 2017, Cole moved back to left tackle and started every game there this past season. Overall, he started 51 games out of 51 possible games throughout his career, with 38 starts at left tackle and 13 at center.
CAREER STATS
N/A
AWARDS
Second Team All-Big Ten (2016, 2017)
SUMMARY
At the risk of being chastised for tooting my own horn, the scouting report linked above was pretty spot-on. I said that Cole had the agility to play left tackle, but he could play tackle, guard, or even center. While he never played guard in college, he spent most of his career at left tackle. He measured in at the Senior Bowl with short arms for a tackle, and his lack of length and bulk gave him some issues with being an effective drive blocker at Michigan. He could latch on to a guy and move his feet, but he couldn’t collapse down a whole side of the defensive line. During his one year at center in 2016, he didn’t have a lot of busted assignments but struggled to get a ton of movement. He was a solid offensive lineman, but it’s not a fluke that he topped out at 2nd team all-conference.
I WILL REMEMBER HIM FOR . . .
. . . doing whatever the team needed from him, and doing it well. You need a starter at left tackle during my true freshman year? Done. You need me to move from tackle all the way to center? Done. You’ve got a center you trust and a void at left tackle? I’m on it.
PROJECTION
The NFL is looking at Cole as an interior lineman, most likely a center. The aforementioned short arms will preclude him from playing tackle, and he’s probably not an ideal drive blocker to play the guard position. When NFL coaches had a chance to slot him in somewhere, they made him play center at the Senior Bowl, even though he hadn’t played the position in a game since 2016. Centers aren’t viewed as being extremely valuable in the NFL Draft, so I think we will probably see Cole drafted somewhere around the 4th round.
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HIGH SCHOOL
Isaac went to Joliet (IL) Catholic, where he was an Under Armour All-American in 2013. He was a 4-star recruit, the #2 all-purpose back, and #49 overall. He had 4,129 rushing yards and 64 rushing touchdowns over his final two seasons in high school. He turned down offers from Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin, among others, to attend USC.
COLLEGE
Isaac was a backup at USC as a true freshman in 2013, rushing 40 times for 236 yards and 2 touchdowns; he also caught 4 passes for 57 yards. After the season he announced his intention to transfer and chose Michigan as the destination. He applied for a waiver to play immediately in 2014 due to a medical condition that did not allow his mother to fly from Illinois to California to see his games, but the waiver was denied, so he had to sit out the season. In 2015 he ran 30 times for 205 yards (6.8 YPC), including the longest run of the year, a 76-yard TD against UNLV. However, he fumbled 2 times in 6 carries in his lone start of the year against Maryland two weeks later, and he barely saw the field after that. He ran the ball 74 times for 411 yards (5.6 YPC) and 5 touchdowns in 2016, again as a backup. As a fifth year senior in 2017, he carried the ball a career-high 88 times for 548 yards (6.2 YPC) and 2 touchdowns. That included a stretch during the early part of the season when he earned the starting job, but a fumble against Michigan State seemingly caused the coaches to lose some trust in him. A lower leg injury later in the year caused him to miss the final few games of the season.
My affinity for Isaac’s abilities has been well documented over the years. I was high on him as a recruit in 2013, and I was excited for a talented runner to enter Michigan’s backfield in 2014/2015 when he transferred to Ann Arbor. For whatever reason, I don’t believe Isaac ever really got a fair shot at Michigan. The coaching staff that recruited him out of high school and then out of USC was shoved out the door following the 2014 season, and the new coaching staff did not seem to be as enamored with him. He and then running backs coach Tyrone Wheatley did not seem to see eye to eye, and De’Veon Smith dominated the carries despite averaging a mediocre 4.18 and 4.67 yards in those two seasons; his 361 carries dwarfed those of Isaac (104), Karan Higdon (83), and Derrick Green/Drake Johnson/Chris Evans (189 combined) in that stretch.
Isaac should have been benched in that Maryland game in 2015, but that doesn’t explain only getting 4 carries over the final eight games of the 2015 season. The 2016 season didn’t include any fumbles, but Isaac touched the ball just 12 times over the final six games of the year. The 2017 season saw a new running backs coach in Jay Harbaugh, and Isaac started off the year looking like I thought he would look all along. He had 114, 133, and 89 yards against Florida, Cincinnati, and Air Force, but the fumble against MSU seemed to tank his chances of getting a ton of playing time, and it didn’t help him that Higdon and Evans both played well during the second half of the season. Even so, Isaac amassed his career highs in carries and yards despite essentially missing the final five games of the year.
Of Michigan players with 100+ career carries, Isaac is tied for #4 all-time in yards per carry:
Jon Vaughn: 6.3 YPC
Denard Robinson/Kerry Smith: 6.2 YPC
Ty Isaac/Tyrone Wheatley: 6.1 YPC
Yep, on a per-carry basis, Isaac was just as good as his position coach, former 1st round draft pick and Michigan all-time great Tyrone Wheatley. (Full disclosure: Wheatley’s 688 carries are a great deal more than Isaac’s 192 in a Michigan uniform.)
This isn’t to argue that Isaac was a superstar or great player. He should have broken more tackles, and he was not good in pass protection. But he should have been given more playing time when Smith was averaging 4.18 yards per carry in 2015, and the Wolverines could have done a better job of utilizing Isaac’s receiving skills throughout his career. He only caught 7 passes in three years at Michigan, and 247 Sports gave him a “10” rating in the “Hands” category coming out of high school. Some even intimated during his recruitment that he should play tight end, H-back, or even wide receiver because his hands were so good.
Like him or not, it was a strange odyssey for the former #49 recruit in the country.
I WILL REMEMBER HIM FOR . . .
. . . representing a strange paradox. He was objectively very productive (6.1 YPC), but he was not well liked by fans. He was big, but he was not tough. He was a good receiver, but Michigan didn’t give him opportunities to catch the ball.
PROJECTION
I don’t think Isaac will get drafted. It’s rare that 3rd string running backs get drafted, and it’s supposed to be a fairly deep class of running backs. But if I’m an NFL team, I’ve got my eye on Isaac as an undrafted free agent. Running backs are being used more and more in the passing game, and Isaac has the ability to contribute in that phase of the game.
O’Korn, who was originally from Huntingdon (PA) Huntingdon, started five games as a sophomore in high school before moving to play at Ft. Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas. He had 2,552 passing yards, 22 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions as a senior and led Aquinas to a state title; he also ran 95 times for 576 yards and 15 touchdowns. In the state title game, he had 339 passing yards, 95 rushing yards, and 4 total touchdowns. He was a 3-star, the #32 pro-style quarterback, and #645 overall in the 2013 recruiting class and earned offers from Houston, Mississippi State, and Wisconsin, among others.
Hit the jump for more on O’Korn’s career at Michigan.
Poggi committed to Michigan in January of 2012 as a part of the 2013 class (LINK). I gave him a final TTB Rating of 79 (LINK). He played defensive tackle at Baltimore (MD) Gilman, where the head coach was his father, Biff. The elder Poggi liked Michigan’s coaching staff at the time (Brady Hoke and Co.), and he eventually came to work at Michigan as a staffer under Jim Harbaugh before returning to coach Baltimore (MD) St. Frances. The younger Poggi was an Under Armour All-American at defensive tackle, and he fended off advances from Alabama late in the recruiting process to stick with his Michigan pledge. Ironically, Alabama wanted him as an H-back, and Michigan fans thought that was funny because he was a defensive lineman all the way. And then . . .
COLLEGE
Poggi redshirted in 2013, as expected. As a backup defensive tackle in 2014, he made 2 tackles. Then Hoke was fired, and in came Jim Harbaugh, who flipped Poggi to H-back. He started four games during the 2015 season, making 1 catch for 2 yards and generally struggling as a blocker. However, his blocking improved in subsequent seasons. He had 1 carry for 4 yards and 6 catches for 45 yards in 2016. And in his final year, he had a 2-yard touchdown run against Maryland, his home-state team, and he caught 2 passes for 21 yards on the year.
CAREER STATS
4 tackles
2 carries for 6 yards (3.0 yards/carry) and 1 touchdown
9 catches for 68 yards (7.6 yards/catch)
AWARDS
Robert P. Ufer Bequest for enthusiasm (2017)
SUMMARY
Poggi’s career was somewhat unexceptional, especially when looking back and seeing that he was an Under Armour All-American and recruited hard by Alabama. One would expect that a high school All-American would turn into a high-quality player in college, and that never seemed to be the case. He was a little-used backup defensive lineman early in his career, and Jim Harbaugh needed a big, bruising fullback to run his offense when he arrived in 2015. If he had stayed on the defensive line, there’s a good chance that he would have turned out to be a good defensive player, because that’s what Greg Mattison does with defensive linemen. He never seemed to fit the mold of a true fullback for Michigan, though, at 6’4″ and 257 lbs. Early in his career, he had difficulty identifying which defender to block and trouble with the technique of getting the job done. And while that eventually improved, he was never a dual-threat guy to hurt teams with the ball in his hands. Fellow position-switcher Khalid Hill always seemed more effective, and Poggi took playing time away from Hill. And looking at it from Poggi’s perspective, I wonder if Michigan really handcuffed his chances of getting to the NFL by moving him to offense.
I WILL REMEMBER HIM FOR . . .
. . . being an awkward fit at fullback. I’m down with occasionally moving a guy like William Carr or Refrigerator Perry to running back/fullback on the goal line, but playing a 6’4″, 257 lb. defensive lineman at fullback for three years seems like an odd move. Poggi played fine and it’s not really a knock on him, but it’s just a rarity in college football.
PROJECTION
As I mentioned above, I wonder if the move to fullback was a death knell for his opportunity at an NFL career. NFL teams generally keep approximately one fullback on the roster, and they are also rarely of the 6’4″, 257 lb. variety. Poggi has very little experience blocking as an in-line tight end, and he probably doesn’t have the athleticism to be an NFL H-back. While there was a lot of competition for playing time on the defensive line at Michigan, that would have fit his body type better, and he would have received the full Greg Mattison Effect that has sent the likes of Ryan Glasgow, Willie Henry, and others (who were higher rated) on to NFL careers. I don’t see Poggi getting drafted, and I don’t really envision him having a long career as a free agent.
