Tag: Zach Gentry

2016 Season Countdown: #61 Zach Gentry

Zach Gentry (image via MLive)

Name: Zach Gentry
Height: 6’7″
Weight: 244 lbs.
High school: Albuquerque (NM) Eldorado
Position: Tight end
Class: Redshirt freshman
Jersey number: #10
Last year: I ranked Gentry #45 and said he would be a situational quarterback (LINK). He redshirted.

In one of my most overvalued posts last year, I put Gentry at #45. Without a clear pecking order at quarterback and lacking big-play guys on offense, I thought he could provide a spark as a run-first quarterback in the mold of a leaner Blake Bell. That turned out not to be necessary, and Jim Harbaugh didn’t rely much on designed quarterback runs to move the ball. Gentry ended up redshirting while Jake Rudock took the vast majority of snaps, and Wilton Speight filling in here or there.

This off-season Gentry moved to tight end. It looks like his quarterback days might be finished. He’s listed at 244 lbs., but you wouldn’t guess that by looking at his frame. He might not look like a real tight end until he adds another 15 lbs. or so, because he looked like a tall receiver . . . or a skinny quarterback . . . or, well, a freshman tight end, I guess. He struggled to catch the ball, and his routes weren’t sharp. Those things might improve over the summer, but Michigan has so many tight ends that I don’t see Gentry as a big-time contributor this season. He might be the tallest guy, and he might be the fastest guy, but he’s not well rounded yet. I think the coaches will get his feet wet in certain packages, situations, or games, but I expect him to mostly watch from the sideline.

Prediction: Backup tight end

Ford Field Open Practice: Offense, Injuries, Walk-ons

Wilton Speight

Happy Easter Sunday, everybody! Along with a few thousand other fans, I made my way to Ford Field on Saturday. I sat in the stands, ate a hot dog, and watched Captain Khaki run practice. I chose not to live tweet it because, well, it was nice to sit back, relax, and watch a well run practice. Below are my thoughts on some roster news and the various positions:

ROSTER NEWS

• WR/CB Freddy Canteen is not on the roster and his status is unclear.
• WR Jehu Chesson was doing work on the sideline and on the bike, wearing a brace on his knee.
• RB Kingston Davis was in shorts without a helmet and running steps. Lots and lots of steps.
• OG David Dawson was wearing a sling on his left arm and did not participate.
• CB Reon Dawson and WR Jaron Dukes have left the football program and are exploring medical scholarships.
• DT Ryan Glasgow was in shorts and a helmet going through some non-contact drills, but then ran steps with Davis for a big chunk of practice.
• RB Karan Higdon was in street clothes. No injury was apparent.
• DE Shelton Johnson was not visible to me. I looked for him extensively and never saw him. Sam Webb tweeted that he was on the sideline in street clothes.

Hit the jump for a position-by-position breakdown of the offense.

read more

Ford Field Open Practice: Offense, Injuries, Walk-ons

Wilton Speight

Happy Easter Sunday, everybody! Along with a few thousand other fans, I made my way to Ford Field on Saturday. I sat in the stands, ate a hot dog, and watched Captain Khaki run practice. I chose not to live tweet it because, well, it was nice to sit back, relax, and watch a well run practice. Below are my thoughts on some roster news and the various positions:

ROSTER NEWS

• WR/CB Freddy Canteen is not on the roster and his status is unclear.
• WR Jehu Chesson was doing work on the sideline and on the bike, wearing a brace on his knee.
• RB Kingston Davis was in shorts without a helmet and running steps. Lots and lots of steps.
• OG David Dawson was wearing a sling on his left arm and did not participate.
• CB Reon Dawson and WR Jaron Dukes have left the football program and are exploring medical scholarships.
• DT Ryan Glasgow was in shorts and a helmet going through some non-contact drills, but then ran steps with Davis for a big chunk of practice.
• RB Karan Higdon was in street clothes. No injury was apparent.
• DE Shelton Johnson was not visible to me. I looked for him extensively and never saw him. Sam Webb tweeted that he was on the sideline in street clothes.

Hit the jump for a position-by-position breakdown of the offense.

read more

Spring Football Preview: Quarterbacks

John O’Korn

Projected starter: Redshirt junior John O’Korn. The buzz from last year suggested that O’Korn would have been starting over Jake Rudock if not for the fact that Rudock had the slight advantage of being eligible to play. The 6’4″, 220 lb. O’Korn is bigger, possesses a stronger arm, and is perhaps a little more athletic than Rudock. We have yet to see O’Korn do anything in a Michigan uniform, so this spring will be exciting.

Departures from last year: Rudock (64% completions, 3017 yards, 20 TDs, 9 INTs) started every game last season but graduated and is trying to slip into the NFL Draft. Redshirt freshman Zach Gentry is transitioning to tight end.

Backup battle: The battle to be #2 is wide-open. Last year’s primary backup was Wilton Speight, who will be a redshirt sophomore in the fall. Speight had one good series when he led the team to a game-winning touchdown against Minnesota, but otherwise, he did not instill observers with much confidence (36% completions, 1 TD, 1 INT altogether). The coaching staff openly admitted that they were trying to redshirt Shane Morris, but Jim Harbaugh also said that Speight legitimately passed up Morris on the depth chart a few weeks into the season. We have heard standard off-season rumblings about Morris improving, maturing, etc., but those stories rarely seem to come to fruition. Redshirt freshman Alex Malzone started for one of the spring game squads last April, but he’s not on the same level physically as Speight or Morris, and he’s less experienced. True freshman Brandon Peters enrolled early in January. He’s the highest touted recruit of the whole group, but he’s just a pup; the last time we saw him, he was going 4/16 in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. He’s probably bound for a redshirt this year.

#1 thing to watch: If O’Korn isn’t the starter in the fall, it will be a major surprise. So I’m most interested to see who the #2 guy is coming out of the spring. Speight wasn’t very good as a backup last year, but Morris has been pretty lousy in more extended playing time during his career. At some point during the season, the backup typically has to come in during at least one important moment. If Morris is #3 on the depth chart after the spring, I would not be surprised to see him transfer, even though he said he wanted to remain at Michigan next year.

Random Saturday Thoughts

Zach Gentry, Shane Morris, and Jake Rudock

Jim Harbaugh did a signing at The M Den yesterday, and some news bits came out of it. Because this time of year is slow, I’ll recap some of the bits and share my thoughts:

• Harbaugh said that QB Zach Gentry is now TE Zach Gentry. It was always thought that Gentry could play tight end, but he was a highly ranked quarterback, too. I think a move from quarterback to tight end for Gentry – who was getting decent practice reviews – indicates that Harbaugh is pretty comfortable with John O’Korn, Brandon Peters, and others in the quarterback pipeline. If the prevailing thought holds, it has O’Korn starting in 2016 and 2017, and then perhaps Peters taking over as a redshirt sophomore in 2018. If Gentry were to stay at QB and succeed O’Korn, that would possibly have Peters waiting until his fifth year senior year to take the job. Things rarely work that cleanly, and not many highly touted guys want to wait five years to play. It’s a good idea to spread out the talent and get your best athletes on the field.
• TE Khalid Hill is getting a chance to be FB Khalid Hill. The redshirt junior is not a great fit for fullback at 6’2″, 270 lbs. and with little experience carrying the ball, but he does provide a body at the fullback position that is severely depleted with seniors Joe Kerridge and Sione Houma graduating. I am more fond of the idea of playing tailback De’Veon Smith in the role that Houma held (part-time FB, part-time TB), but Hill is a talented pass-catcher and this would give Michigan a chance to get another starter-quality player on the field. There is a logjam at the tight end position, so it’s not a bad idea to spread those players out.
• LT Mason Cole is going to be working at center this spring. Cole played some center last spring, but snapping the ball was an issue. He will presumably be a little further along this spring. Someone needs to step up at center, and it seems that the coaching staff isn’t pinning their hopes on redshirt junior Patrick Kugler. As of right now, the line looks like it will probably be: LT Grant Newsome, LG Ben Braden, C Mason Cole, RG Kyle Kalis, RT Erik Magnuson. However, there are rumors that a further shakeup could take place before the season.
• Michigan will hold its spring game on the evening of April 1, 2016, which is a Friday. It will begin at 6:00 p.m. There is some grumbling that out-of-towners will not be able to make it to town, that it will be cold as the sun goes down, etc. Compared to other schools’ spring games, Michigan’s has not been anything special for a while. Maybe there isn’t even a need to make a glorified spring practice “special.” Regardless, it’s not the worst idea in the world to try something different. If out-of-towners are so dedicated that they’re grumbling about the time, then they probably won’t mind taking a day/half-day off of work to see the “game.”
• The first spring practice will be held on February 29th.