So Coach Harbaugh took the team to IMG Academy for Spring Break for their first practices of 2016. 15 total Spring practices are allowed with 3 being with pads. Friday was live with pad practice. Players can only practice for 4 hours a day. Coach overlapped with newcomers coming in 2 hours early and then got 2 hours with entire team. Newcomers left and then they had the vets for the remaining 2 hours.


Harbaugh was hired Dec 29th 2014, so he only had a little over a month to put a coaching staff together and recruit before NSD in February. He brought in 14 recruits last year. This past recruiting season was quite a bit different. I think he signed 26 recruits and the class was rated 6ish. He was able to get some EE's and push them into last years recruiting class which enabled him to sign a big class. I think we are at 87 scholarships right now, so there has to be 2 subtractions somehow. Max is 85. Hopefully there won't be a lot of drama in the subtractions.


Its just spring practice so you really can't read too much into things, but here goes anyway.


Dline will be strong. It hurt to lose Henry, but the roster still has plenty of talent. Probable starters are: Charlton, Wormley, Hurst and Glasgow(bicep). 2nd team Mone, who is healthy, Godin are probably going to get reps, but the big news is Rashan Gary, the #1 recruit in the Nation is on the roster. He will probably be starting by midseason if not before, which only adds to the depth. Dwumfour will most likely redshirt.


Linebackers were not great last year, but we WILL be better next year. On Monday Brown said something about having to see what we've got or something like that, but by Friday he was happy with the LBers. He talked about Furbush and McCray both returnees with Gedeon the only returning starter, iirc. So there's that, but add in the recruiting class and it would be shocking if we weren't dramatically improved this year. EE's Bush and Kemp are getting reps. They thought they'd just be learning schemes or packages, but they even blitzed in live pad practice on Friday night. Bush is smallish but he has a whole summer to put on weight. Kemp is almost too big. I don't know if he'll be a lber or if they move him to WDE or maybe SDE. But the big news is Peppers is LBer. I'd be surprised if he sees any time at S or even that hybrid S/LB thing. They are moving him closer to the QB. Closer to action. He's an amazing talent and everyone expects great things from him this year. Mbem-Bosse is finishing high school and will be here this fall. He has good size and is a good athlete. My best guess on starters is a combination of: Peppers, Gedeon, Furbush, Mbem-Bosse with Bush and Kemp getting snaps too.


Defensive backfield. Awesomeness! Returning awesome starter J Lewis (forgot all of his awards) and Clark with safties Hill and Thomas should be one of the best in the Nation. Stribbling got the 1st practice ball of the year. Harbaugh said he caught more balls than the WRs did. But then add the newcomers L. Hill, Long and K Hudson and you have a great defensive backfield with youth and experience. We probably won't lose a step going into 2017 season with those 3, but other players might be moved to safty as well. Maybe Chris Evans?


Offense.


Wide receivers will be returning starters Chesson and Darboh. They were above average last year and should take another step forward. Chesson currently has a knee, but should be fine by fall. In last weeks practice another EE in Ahmir Mitchell came to play. He got reps with the 1s and 2s. Mitchell is a true WR.

Slot. Perry got most of the reps there last year and expect about the same this year, but that's before we get to see the new recruits that WILL have an impact this fall. Some of these guys WiLL play. Crawford, McDoom, N Johnson, Evans. They're just good not to play somewhere. I saw some speculate that one of these guys could move to safety. Crawford mostly played WR in HS, but not sure where he's projected in college. Not saying safety for him, but he will might be a slot.


TE. lol I know I'll forget someone but off the top of my head...Butt, Bunting, Wheatley, K Hill with new guys McKeon, Asiasi, Gentry and someone else, cuz I think there are 8 TEs. lol McKeon will redshirt. Asiasi could play dline, but we know how Harbaugh loves his TE's and Asiasi can catch the ball and can run with it after he catches. So I would expect him to play TE.


Oline. Probably starters are Newsome, Braden, Cole, Khalis, Magnuson with Kugler being a versatile interior line guy for depth. All 6 were getting 1st team reps. Losing Glasgow was tough, but we should be ok. Returners Bushell-Beatty and Ulizio give us depth. 2 newcomers that I really like are Bredeson but really like Onwenu. Onwenu weights 365lbs. Cass Tech, iirc. Number 1 recruit in Michigan, iirc. I think they'd like to get him in a good conditioning program for a year and see what his true weight is. But when you look at his highlights, he isn't struggling to carry his weight at all. I just think they'd like to recompose his body for a year, especially since he shouldn't be needed in 2016. We are hurting at tackled depth maybe a little bit cuz of Hamilton flipping from us to Stanford, but we already have a top 2017 T commit in J. Hall and Harbaugh has other offers out to top 2017 tackles.


RB. Smith, Johnson, Isaac are returnees. Isaac was in Harbaughs doghouse last year but publicly stated he is ready and understands whats expected of him now. We'll see. If not, I'd say K Davis is ahead of K Walker. I know Walker always gets the headlines, but Scout dropped him out of their top 100 at the end and he needs to add weight. Kingston is ready to go. Both are EEs.


QB. Most everyone has O'Korn penciled in as starter. He had a great freshman year for Houston. Then they hired a new OC and he struggled and was benched. Harbaugh got him to transfer here so he sat out last year because of transfer and has 2 years left. I expect Speight to be 2, but Morris is still competing to start. Gentry was moved to TE. Malzone is waiting in the wings. If Morris ends up 3rd string, I'd expect him to transfer to a college where he an play. Brandon Peters EE had a good practice and Harbaugh talked about him quite a bit last week, so I don't see where Morris gets a chance to play. And we have McCaffrey coming in 2017. Good problem to have as a team. If Morris leaves, we'll be closer to 85 schollies where we need to be.

I wrote that up and my puter froze up. I was 'oh shit'n for a while. Luckily it saved so y'all could read my bullshit.

Haven't read any of that yet, but thanks!

http://mgofish.com/2016-michigan-football-spring-break-trip-practice-img-academy-recap/


recap from someone who was actually there.

Haven't read any of that yet, but thanks! I wouldn't. I hope my facetiousness was coming through when I said read it. lol

Let me know how it is when you get to it, Tim

Haven't read any of that yet, but thanks!

Would have laughed if you had quoted the post before saying that.

Dwumfour and McDoom are real names?

Thoughts on moving Peppers to LB? Looking at his stats he had more TFLs I assumed and LB needs the help (no returning starters) so it sounds like it makes sense. Just read an Angelique piece that said they want him in a hybrid spot that sounds like it's the focal point of an attacking defense. This is with a new DC too right since the last guy is now head coach at Rutgers?

So Coach Harbaugh took the team to IMG Academy for Spring Break for their first practices of 2016. 15 total Spring practices are allowed with 3 being with pads. Friday was live with pad practice. Players can only practice for 4 hours a day. Coach overlapped with newcomers coming in 2 hours early and then got 2 hours with entire team. Newcomers left and then they had the vets for the remaining 2 hours.


Harbaugh was hired Dec 29th 2014, so he only had a little over a month to put a coaching staff together and recruit before NSD in February. He brought in 14 recruits last year. This past recruiting season was quite a bit different. I think he signed 26 recruits and the class was rated 6ish. He was able to get some EE's and push them into last years recruiting class which enabled him to sign a big class. I think we are at 87 scholarships right now, so there has to be 2 subtractions somehow. Max is 85. Hopefully there won't be a lot of drama in the subtractions.


Its just spring practice so you really can't read too much into things, but here goes anyway.


Dline will be strong. It hurt to lose Henry, but the roster still has plenty of talent. Probable starters are: Charlton, Wormley, Hurst and Glasgow(bicep). 2nd team Mone, who is healthy, Godin are probably going to get reps, but the big news is Rashan Gary, the #1 recruit in the Nation is on the roster. He will probably be starting by midseason if not before, which only adds to the depth. Dwumfour will most likely redshirt.


Linebackers were not great last year, but we WILL be better next year. On Monday Brown said something about having to see what we've got or something like that, but by Friday he was happy with the LBers. He talked about Furbush and McCray both returnees with Gedeon the only returning starter, iirc. So there's that, but add in the recruiting class and it would be shocking if we weren't dramatically improved this year. EE's Bush and Kemp are getting reps. They thought they'd just be learning schemes or packages, but they even blitzed in live pad practice on Friday night. Bush is smallish but he has a whole summer to put on weight. Kemp is almost too big. I don't know if he'll be a lber or if they move him to WDE or maybe SDE. But the big news is Peppers is LBer. I'd be surprised if he sees any time at S or even that hybrid S/LB thing. They are moving him closer to the QB. Closer to action. He's an amazing talent and everyone expects great things from him this year. Mbem-Bosse is finishing high school and will be here this fall. He has good size and is a good athlete. My best guess on starters is a combination of: Peppers, Gedeon, Furbush, Mbem-Bosse with Bush and Kemp getting snaps too.


Defensive backfield. Awesomeness! Returning awesome starter J Lewis (forgot all of his awards) and Clark with safties Hill and Thomas should be one of the best in the Nation. Stribbling got the 1st practice ball of the year. Harbaugh said he caught more balls than the WRs did. But then add the newcomers L. Hill, Long and K Hudson and you have a great defensive backfield with youth and experience. We probably won't lose a step going into 2017 season with those 3, but other players might be moved to safty as well. Maybe Chris Evans?


Offense.


Wide receivers will be returning starters Chesson and Darboh. They were above average last year and should take another step forward. Chesson currently has a knee, but should be fine by fall. In last weeks practice another EE in Ahmir Mitchell came to play. He got reps with the 1s and 2s. Mitchell is a true WR.

Slot. Perry got most of the reps there last year and expect about the same this year, but that's before we get to see the new recruits that WILL have an impact this fall. Some of these guys WiLL play. Crawford, McDoom, N Johnson, Evans. They're just good not to play somewhere. I saw some speculate that one of these guys could move to safety. Crawford mostly played WR in HS, but not sure where he's projected in college. Not saying safety for him, but he will might be a slot.


TE. lol I know I'll forget someone but off the top of my head...Butt, Bunting, Wheatley, K Hill with new guys McKeon, Asiasi, Gentry and someone else, cuz I think there are 8 TEs. lol McKeon will redshirt. Asiasi could play dline, but we know how Harbaugh loves his TE's and Asiasi can catch the ball and can run with it after he catches. So I would expect him to play TE.


Oline. Probably starters are Newsome, Braden, Cole, Khalis, Magnuson with Kugler being a versatile interior line guy for depth. All 6 were getting 1st team reps. Losing Glasgow was tough, but we should be ok. Returners Bushell-Beatty and Ulizio give us depth. 2 newcomers that I really like are Bredeson but really like Onwenu. Onwenu weights 365lbs. Cass Tech, iirc. Number 1 recruit in Michigan, iirc. I think they'd like to get him in a good conditioning program for a year and see what his true weight is. But when you look at his highlights, he isn't struggling to carry his weight at all. I just think they'd like to recompose his body for a year, especially since he shouldn't be needed in 2016. We are hurting at tackled depth maybe a little bit cuz of Hamilton flipping from us to Stanford, but we already have a top 2017 T commit in J. Hall and Harbaugh has other offers out to top 2017 tackles.


RB. Smith, Johnson, Isaac are returnees. Isaac was in Harbaughs doghouse last year but publicly stated he is ready and understands whats expected of him now. We'll see. If not, I'd say K Davis is ahead of K Walker. I know Walker always gets the headlines, but Scout dropped him out of their top 100 at the end and he needs to add weight. Kingston is ready to go. Both are EEs.


QB. Most everyone has O'Korn penciled in as starter. He had a great freshman year for Houston. Then they hired a new OC and he struggled and was benched. Harbaugh got him to transfer here so he sat out last year because of transfer and has 2 years left. I expect Speight to be 2, but Morris is still competing to start. Gentry was moved to TE. Malzone is waiting in the wings. If Morris ends up 3rd string, I'd expect him to transfer to a college where he an play. Brandon Peters EE had a good practice and Harbaugh talked about him quite a bit last week, so I don't see where Morris gets a chance to play. And we have McCaffrey coming in 2017. Good problem to have as a team. If Morris leaves, we'll be closer to 85 schollies where we need to be.

Haven't read any of that yet, but thanks!

Would have laughed if you had quoted the post before saying that.


I would've laughed more if he had quoted the the post and posted.... lol

Dwumfour and McDoom are real names?

Thoughts on moving Peppers to LB? Looking at his stats he had more TFLs I assumed and LB needs the help (no returning starters) so it sounds like it makes sense. Just read an Angelique piece that said they want him in a hybrid spot that sounds like it's the focal point of an attacking defense. This is with a new DC too right since the last guy is now head coach at Rutgers?


Dwumfour is Gary's workout partner in NJ. McDoom is WR out of Florida, I think its Florida, who committed to Oregon, but when Michigan started racking up the recruits, he wanted to take an official. Ducks have a policy of 'once you've committed, no visits'. He said they said if you visit, they are pulling his scholly offer. He visited and committed to Michigan. That's close anyway.


Don Brown Boston College DC. Apparently he blitzes well over half the time. So Peppers moving closer to the QB tells the story for me. There are some youtube clips of an entire game, so you can get the sense of what he does. It should be fun. He will have a bunch of different packages and blitzes will come from anywhere.


OT - Angelique is good. I like her, mgofish, maize and brew, mgoblog, Nick B at mdead and some twitter accts for info. Angelique posted a bunch of videos from last weeks practice. They were short, but it was something. If anyone has any other sites, post them por favor. I like reading about Meeeechigan football.

But in terms of being a hybrid. I don't think that's the case anymore. He is strictly a LBer, imo. We shall see. Brown said "we are going to give him a bunch of jobs" or something. That doesn't mean different positions, to me it meant a bunch of jobs from his position.

Also forgot to add 247sports, rivals, scout, etc.

I've read a few more posts/recaps/updates on last week. I'd say I'm overly optimistic on the LBers. Doesn't seem like most have the optimism with the LBers that I do.


Also, Fool was right, no real returning starters at LB. I think Gedeon started a couple games last year, but can't really be considered a returning starter.

Haven't read any of that yet, but thanks!

I laughed.

Thought sure Gary would be a 3 tech guy, but Mattson says DE. His speed is amazing so it makes sense.

Thought sure Gary would be a 3 tech guy, but Mattson says DE. His speed is amazing so it makes sense.
Agreed.

Can't wait for the Spring Game on April 1st, 5pm.


Hopefully there will be some indication on how the QB depth chart is looking. I still think Morris is a good as gone. I think he'll end up 3rd and move on. Brandon Peters is another one to watch. He's an EE, so he could get enough coaching for him to be a viable option for this year. Extra 15 practices and being on campus for meetings, etc, will help. I could still see him redshirting with Speight being 2nd, but if O'Korn got hurt and was out for the year, maybe burn BP's redshirt and play this upcoming season. That's a bunch of ifs. But if he really is better than Speight and can show he's ready, if O'Korn did go down for a long stretch, I could see Harbaugh burning the rs and going to him. Malzone is still here too.


With Gary starting his career at DE, not sure what that does to Charlton. Do they just rotate? Not sure Charlton could move inside. Wormley could move inside but he's a SDE and I think we need him right where he is. Apparently Wormley came to spring practices in the best shape since he's been here. I think he'll be a leader on the team, not by talking but by his play on the field. It'll be interesting to watch the DL in the Spring game.


LBers will be interesting to watch also, but WR is another position that could surprise. Chesson might not even suit up. Still not sure when he got hurt, but I think it was that play when Harbaugh went on the field bitching about a non-call on a late hit on Rudock and the face mask call down the field on Chesson. JC got spun around when they face masked him. I don't remember him playing after that. But who gets his reps at wideout? Assume Mitchell, but not sure.


Little to no info coming out of practice. Harbaugh in the submarine.

Speaking of coming to practice in shape. Everyone seems to be raving about the shape Wheatley is in and just how big he is. 6'6" and maybe 270. Could see Harbaugh doing the Stanford thing and lining up 2, 3, 4 TE's on short yardage or goal line sitchs and try to dominate with size. Actually, short yardage will be smash mouth runs, so goal line.

Speaking of coming to practice in shape. Everyone seems to be raving about the shape Wheatley is in and just how big he is. 6'6" and maybe 270. Could see Harbaugh doing the Stanford thing and lining up 2, 3, 4 TE's on short yardage or goal line sitchs and try to dominate with size. Actually, short yardage will be smash mouth runs, so goal line.
Agreed.

WHAT A GAME! Awesomeness.

Donovan Jeter 4ish star decommitts from Purple faces team and joins the good guys...verbally of course.

^ Love his intangibles.

“I started thinking, ‘Michigan is undefeated and Notre Dame is 2-5,’” Jeter said.

Jeter was most impressed by Harbaugh, and he had some interesting comments about Harbaugh and Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly. Jeter said Harbaugh “might be the coolest dude I ever met in my life. He loves milk, I love milk. Coach Kelly drinks some kind of chai latte stuff."

chai latte <> ballin'

Seems harsh. Lattes have milk in them.

Kwity! Welcome.


Gay on his way?

5* CB Darnay Holmes to visit the great University of Michigan.


Rumors...Sounds like Gay might have some work to do if wants to attend Michigan. Hate these type of rumors.


We won't get all the fab 5 but 3 of them are a definite possibility.

Also rumored that Solomon might've changed his mind and come up for visit. lotsa drama, some of which was Michigan's fault. Chances are small to get him.