andrel anthony is compared to the great ones

In perhaps the most significant transfer out of the 2022-23 Michigan Football offseason, sophomore WR Andrel Anthony is departing the program:

The sophomore receiver appeared in all fourteen games this season for the Wolverines, recording seven catches for 80 yards and one touchdown. This was a step down from his freshman season statline of twelve catches for 248 yards and three touchdowns, a development that led to discussion in the fanbase. After playing miniscule roles in the key games of the season, he is gone. 

Anthony arrived at Michigan out of rival East Lansing, a 3* prospect just outside the top 500 of the 247 composite. He was a lanky 6'2", known for his leaping and admired for potential star retriever traits. Michigan took Anthony and Cristian Dixon as their receiver crop in the 2021 recruiting class (Xavier Worthy was once in this group) and of these two, it was Anthony that had the authors of this site most excited. Seth did the recruiting profiles that year and was enamored with Anthony, comparing him to Roy Roundtree (but Tall) and naming him the vaunted SLEEPER OF THE YEAR. 

Anthony was an early enrollee in the spring of 2021 and got plenty of spring buzz which preceded Seth's praise. As the 2021 season got going, Anthony was not featured much until midway through the year, when suddenly he made his presence known against his hometown Spartans: 

That was Anthony's first career catch(!), a 93 yarder for a score that made us say "oh, this is a thing". Then he found the end zone again: 

Anthony had six catches for 155 yards and 2 TDs and had Michigan won that game, Anthony would've been the #1 hero. Even the catches that didn't count had Braylon vibes: 

That game made us believe that a star had been born, but liftoff didn't quite follow. Anthony was still buried on the WR chart and he accomplished the rather remarkable feat of having exactly one (1) catch in every single game the rest of the season. There were some tough moments peppered in, including a semi-drop on a deep ball against Ohio State that Anthony alllllmost had, but the potential was still there, as we saw in his TD against Georgia from JJ: 

He got a +3 for the route in UFR. Given that it is MGoBlog policy that Freshman Receivers Suck, many assumed that 2022 would bring a huge jump in Andrel Anthony's level of play, but that's where things take a negative turn of sorts. Not just did Anthony fail to take a step forward, in many ways, he seemingly regressed. His stat line was a decrease in catches, yards, and TDs, and he didn't have a "moment" the way he did against MSU in 2021. Anthony appeared in every game, but got a catch in only six of them and had more than one catch in just one contest. In fact, he had just one catch after the bye week, a 7 yard reception vs. Rutgers. He did record a touchdown against Nebraska, for falling on a loose ball in the end zone that Ronnie Bell fumbled: 

The disappearance of Anthony was rather mysterious and when given an opportunity to make plays, he didn't make them. McCarthy threw him a beautiful ball against Illinois that was a game-changing touchdown if caught, and Anthony could not make the grab. Not that other receivers didn't have drops, but Anthony's usage was not high and when given an opportunity to change the narrative, he failed to seize the moment. To that point, in our charting, Anthony had two drops on "routine" balls, tied for the team lead. But here's the catch (hehe, pun): Cornelius Johnson's two drops were across 22 routine balls. Bell's were across 42. Anthony's were over 8 balls. Likewise he was 0/1 on "tough" balls and 0/1 on "circus". Some opportunities were given, and not enough plays were made to warrant more Andrel Anthony this season. 

Still, your author and many Michigan fans had high hopes for Andrel Anthony going into 2023, if he could figure out whatever the issue was. Now it appears he will be figuring it out at a different school. Anthony will have two years of eligibility + the possibility to redshirt wherever he goes. One could wonder what this says about both the status of the incumbent receivers, as well as those below Anthony on the age chart. Ronnie Bell is out the door, Roman Wilson is expected to return as a senior, but Cornelius Johnson has the opportunity to use his COVID-shirt to return. Does Anthony's departure say anything about Johnson's decision? Moreover, it could indicate that Anthony may be passed on the depth chart by the likes of Darrius Clemons or Amorion Walker, who are Class of 2022 players finishing their freshmen seasons. Clemons in particular is one to watch, as his friendship with Anthony was a large factor in his recruitment. 

Michigan will be looking to get a bit more from their WR room next season, and unfortunately Anthony will not be a part of it. We will always have the memory of his 2021 MSU performance, even if that game outcome is a bit sour to look back on. That said, it's hard to look at Anthony's time in Ann Arbor and not have a slight feeling of "what could've been". Hopefully he will reach those lofty dreams somewhere else and we wish him the best. There is no content after the jump. 

Previously: Podcast 14.0A, 14.0B, 14.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back

WIDE RECEIVER: OLIVERS TWIST WANT SOME MORE TARGETS

RATING: 5

Depth Chart

Sometimes not knowing where to start is a problem. Like, you know, the Rodriguez-era secondary where you didn't know where to start because everybody left the damn team.

Sometimes not knowing where to start is because there's a guy who looked like Braylon Edwards in one game and a guy who blazed past Ohio State's secondary and a guy who legitimately runs a 4.3, and then there's another one of those guys, and then you're getting back a guy who led the team in receiving yards for two straight years. Oh, and there are tight ends. And a running back.

This is less of a problem.

THE MANS. MENS? WE'LL WORKSHOP IT. WA'LL WORKSHOP IT? ANYWAY

zip zap zippity blad I have a touchdown now you're sad [Patrick Barron]

We'll start with Cornelius Johnson because there's more to say of recent vintage. With Bell's injury, Johnson emerged into Michigan's #1 receiver with 39 catches for 620 yards. That doesn't sound like all that much for a #1 receiver, but Michigan put up 42 points on Ohio State by throwing once in the second half. In that context it's a minor miracle anyone threw the ball at all.

Johnson did this in a slightly unusual way for a strapping 6'2" guy: with route artisanship. This first really popped in the Indiana game, where he turned a Hoosier DB 360 degrees and would have had an easy touchdown if JJ McCarthy hadn't gotten lit up on the throw.

This pass isn't complete, but THIS is how a receiver gets open. Excellent route that gets the DBs shoulders turned. pic.twitter.com/UhPw5Nr6r7

— Due# (@JDue51) November 7, 2021

He did catch a bomb later after slickly selling that corner route and turning into a go.

Those two occurrences weren't the first time Johnson had torched someone. People first got hyped about him giving future ND safety and first round pick Kyle Hamilton the business during his high school All-Star game, and in the opener he got open by five yards on an 87-yard touchdown. They were a tipping point, though. Going over Seth's UFR's from last year the sheer number of Johnson (route+) events really leaps out.

My answers ran long on NIL and transfers and Michigan’s clans, so I broke this mailbag into parts. The first is here, and this is the second, focused more on the Michigan 2022 questions. There were enough questions about Michigan’s scheme that I might pop out a third next week, or decide to save them for Neck Sharpies over the offseason.

Program Direction?

UofM Die Hard in Seattle asks:

Do you, Brian, Alex, etc …feel like this ship is finally ready to run on all engines, consistently year in and year out? Do you believe Jim when he says this feels like a beginning?

I can’t speak for the others but I do not, no.

It is the nature of college football to create narratives to fill in for chance. Flip a coin five times; if the first four are tails, Coinflip fans will argue whether the flipper or the coin needs to be replaced. Turn up heads on the fifth flip, and that’s the one we make a Teams podcast about.

“How great was 2021?” and “How good is the program that produced it?” are different questions, however, and the second requires acknowledgement that there’s a lot of variance. I think Michigan was a little lucky to win this time, and very unlucky that only one of five Harbaugh teams that played at this level came out champions. You know close they came. Alter an inch in 2016 and a Piggy 2pt conversion pass in 2018 and Harbaugh has two Big Ten East championships before Chris Olave ever lined up across from Brandon Watson (now Rusnak).

One good exercise when you’re trying to sanity-check the results of a season is to flip all the one-score games, and see how you feel about the season. We now have losses to Rutgers, at Nebraska, and at Penn State, but a win at MSU. That results in 9-3/6-3, 2nd place in the B10 East, and probably a Peach Bowl. Somewhere between that hypothetical (and still satisfying) season and the one we got was 2021’s peak distribution. Do that for the last seven years:

• 2015: 10-3, beat Utah and MSU, losses at Minnesota and Indiana
• 2016: 12-1, lose to Wisconsin, beat Iowa, OSU, FSU (probably in the playoffs)
• 2017: 9-4, beat MSU, lose at Indiana, beat S.Carolina to preserve the B10 bowl sweep.
• 2018: 10-3, beat Notre Dame, lose at Northwestern (blame “The Call from Mars”)
• 2019: 8-5, lose to Army and Iowa at home, beat Penn State on the road (probably doesn’t get Bama)
• 2020: 2-4, beat MSU, but no Rutgers comeback.

…and it looks like Harbaugh’s had Michigan playing at a B+ or A- level every season except the one where they had to play all true sophomores, and the one with all the COVID. The 2019 team was a lot better than the flip-it record.

There’s zero shame in coming out better than the flip hypothetical  —not only were we due, but it’s a mark of intangible things like timely decisions and plays. That’s where you get into things like Aidan Hutchinson’s leadership, how the players liked their coaches, how this team had fewer disgruntled players than others. I don’t have any way to measure that, or to know if it will continue, so it goes in the luck bin, but I believe in it. Also 42-27 was no fluke.

In the short term they’ve got fresh and upcoming talent at DT and CB—two talent-based areas we’ve been fretting about since 2018—and a ton of upside in JJ McCarthy and the receiver room Gattis put together for him. All four linebacker spots are sus, and Grandpa Hawkins’s stabilizing presence is an underratedly hard thing to replace. Past that they’re set up to return most of the 2022 team in 2023, but getting there requires navigating treacherous waters with new dangers, like the possibility LSU comes and buys your starting DT (like they did Mizzou’s this week). Depending on McCarthy’s development, the next few years could be a peak.

Long-term, it’s hard to say while we’re still waiting out Harbaugh. That’s gone on long enough that I now believe he probably does want to get back to the NFL, but the NFL isn’t biting. What version of Harbaugh does Michigan get back after that? People slow down with age and security, even The Jackhammer. I think Michigan’s climbed back to their Carr baseline, or where Dantonio got Michigan State, but the next step is the hardest, and the gatekeepers to that level are very keen to keep us out. Something more fundamental would have to change, from an expanded playoffs, massive schedule realignment, or new way of doing things at the NCAA that makes Michigan’s (and Penn State’s and Notre Dame’s) peculiar advantages into the most important ones.

If there is a difference now, it isn’t the underlying strength of the program but the fanbase’s mental fortitude. College football rewards highs and punishes lows, producing a few fanbases that can only experience relief when they don’t lose, and many losers whose only joy is others’ sorrow. Michigan fell down long enough to shed their hubris, and got back up with love receptors intact.

Intellectually, 2021’s may have been a Michigan team like many others. But to a new generation of fans, the experience gave them heroes and stories of their own. You don’t need statues, Seth & Sap, or other crusty old men to know what Michigan glory feels like anymore. A hundred thousand people saw it, and million more will one day claim to have. You get to tell those stories now. You were there. And will be for awhile yet. Long live snow.