Ranking Michigan’s Quarterbacks

Tag: Shane Morris


9Mar 2023
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Ranking Michigan’s Quarterbacks

Drew Henson (image via Detroit News)

This was originally posted on March 17, 2017. It has been updated following the 2022 season.

Sports fans love to debate the greatness of players and rank them in order from most revered to most despised. And while despised probably doesn’t fit any of these players, since they played for the University of Michigan, we all have our favorites. I have endeavored to achieve the un-possible: Rank all of Michigan’s starting quarterbacks.

Okay, that’s too tall of a task for me right now. I’m working up to it. So I’m only going back to 1995, which was the beginning of the Lloyd Carr era. That’s the earliest full coaching tenure where I can count on my recollections of Michigan football. I was a big fan of Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller, and the Michigan Wolverines before then, but I’ll be damned if I say I was aware enough to understand what was happening on the field.

This ranking only takes into account what the quarterbacks achieved wearing the winged helmet. High school highlight tapes and NFL performance aren’t taken into account. (After all, we can agree that Tom Brady is far and away the best quarterback who ever played the game of football, and that includes Uncle Rico.)

So if you were starting a season with your pick of any Michigan QB since 1995, which one would you take?

On with the show:

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29Jul 2020
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Review of 2013 TTB Ratings

Ben Gedeon (image via MGoBlue)

I’ll just cut right to the chase and say that I did not do a good job with rating the class of 2013. A bunch of good recruits bombed, and in their absence, a bunch of so-so recruits starred. In some ways, it’s not that I whiffed on everyone. It’s that it was a huge boom-or-bust class.

Keep in mind that the ratings (fully explained here) are intended to project how players will fare at Michigan and, to a certain extent, in the NFL Draft. I do not take into account how players will do once they get to the NFL or how they will pan out if they transfer to other programs. I will give myself a grade of 1-5 like a 5-point grading scale (5 is best, 1 is worst) for each player; I reserve the right to give myself an incomplete if the guy never even got a chance to get on the field. I’ll work down the list from highest to lowest with a brief career recap for each player:

100

None

90-99

95: Derrick Green – RB – Richmond (VA) Hermitage
Green ran for just 898 yards and 7 touchdowns on 4.2 yards per carry during three years at Michigan. It didn’t help that his first two years were spent behind a Darrell Funk-coached offensive line, but he fell behind De’Veon Smith, transferred to TCU, and didn’t do anything there, either.
Prediction accuracy: 1. Big oops.

Hit the jump for more ugliness.

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23Dec 2019
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Ex-Wolverines: Class of 2013

Shane Morris

If you’ve read this blog for long, you know I love to look back at past recruiting classes and – in some cases – what could have been. The 2013 class was extremely volatile, with elite recruits busting, players getting kicked off the team, and transfers galore.

TRANSFERS

Kyle Bosch – Offensive guard – Wheaton (IL) St. Francis
Bosch came from Wheaton (IL) St. Francis and committed in February of 2012. As a true freshman in 2013, he was forced into action due to injuries and underperformance by his elders. He started three games late in the year but was eventually replaced. In 2014 he played the final offensive snap of the season opener, and then it was reported that he was taking “an indefinite leave of absence” from the team that was related to a personal issue. He tweeted that he would return the following semester, but he ended up transferring to West Virginia. At WVU he started all 26 games at offensive guard in 2015 and 2016, along with another eleven in 2017, and he was First Team All-Big 12 in 2016. He was not drafted in the 2018 NFL Draft, and after spending some time with the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys, he is no longer on an NFL roster.
Current status: Out of football

David Dawson – Offensive guard – Detroit (MI) Cass Tech
Dawson took a roundabout path to Michigan by committing to the Wolverines, testing then Michigan coach Brady Hoke’s policy of not allowing visits to other schools, decommitting by visiting Florida, and then recommitting to Michigan. He redshirted in 2013 and then played as a backup offensive guard in twelve games throughout his career with the Wolverines. Following his redshirt junior year in 2016, he announced he would take a graduate transfer spot at Iowa State, but he left the Cyclones within a couple weeks of arriving. The 2017 season was spent helping out the Belleville (MI) Belleville football team, and he transferred to Grand Valley State University for the 2018 season. He started all twelve games for the Lakers in 2018.
Current status: Out of football

Hit the jump for more.

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29Jun 2018
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Nike’s The Opening participants: Michigan

Jourdan Lewis and Delano Hill were two of Michigan’s ten eventual signees to participate in Nike’s The Opening in 2012

2018
Stephen Herron, Jr., DE – Louisville, KY
Cade McNamara, QB – Reno, NV
D.J. Turner II, CB – Suwanee, GA

2017
Gemon Green, CB – DeSoto, TX
Cameron McGrone, LB – Indianapolis, IN
Myles Sims, CB – Atlanta, GA
Christian Turner, RB – Buford, GA

2016
Jordan Anthony, LB – Bradenton, FL
Jaylen Kelly-Powell, S – Detroit, MI
Oliver Martin, WR – Iowa City, IA
Dylan McCaffrey, QB – Littleton, CO
Donovan Peoples-Jones, WR – Detroit, MI
Joshua Ross, LB – Orchard Lake, MI
Cesar Ruiz, C – Bradenton, FL
O’Maury Samuels, RB – Los Lunas, NM
Drew Singleton, LB – Paramus, NJ
Benjamin St-Juste, CB – Montreal, Canada
Ambry Thomas, CB – Detroit, MI

Hit the jump for more.

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16Jan 2018
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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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