athan kaliakmanis

Previously: B1G East, B1G West Part 2

Today is part three, the final piece, of our offseason series looking at the B1G football teams and how they handled the transfer portal and NFL Draft declarations. The final teams we have to check off are Nebraska and Minnesota, plus the four new teams. Since I am not as intimately familiar with the new teams, I won't go into as much detail as I have with the other teams, but will introduce these squads with a quick overview of their spring rosters and feel of the programs. 

Nebraska 

EXITS 

Nebraska's often-cluttered QB room got some clarity this offseason, as the Huskers saw both Jeff Sims and Chubba Purdy hit the transfer portal. Sims has yet to find a landing spot, but Purdy has signed on to Nevada. Elsewhere on the offense the Huskers saw eligibility expire for RB Anthony Grant and guards Nouredin Nouili and Ethan Piper, as well as WRs Billy Kemp IV and Marcus Washington. But that's mostly it, as Big Red will be able to roll over most of the rest of their production, including three RBs (two of which, Rahmir Johnson and Gabe Ervin, missed most of the season with injury), QB Heinrich Haarberg, both TEs, three tackles, and several pieces on the OL. 

Defensively they lost some pieces in the LB room and the secondary, but again come out in relatively solid position, which should allow for Matt Rhule to have a stronger second season. Starting safety Omar Brown and corner Quinton Newsome, both solid college players, have exhausted their eligibility and are moving on to further endeavors, but two separate corners (Tommi Hill/Malcolm Hartzog) and safeties (Singleton/Gifford) who gained experience this season return. Starting LB Luke Reimer moves on and LB Nick Henrich has chosen to retire after a litany of injuries, but the DL returns intact outside of reserve tackle Blaise Gunnerson, who is also retiring. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: lots of names]

Michigan Football has a (largely) finalized coaching staff for the upcoming 2024 season and today marks the closing of the transfer portal window that began when Jim Harbaugh exited to the NFL. Changes may continue to rosters after spring ball, but today marks the point at which Michigan joins the rest of college football in terms of staff and roster stability, the dust settling on the changes of the winter period. That reality allows us to turn our attention to the rest of college football to see what's been going on elsewhere in the B1G, as we did last offseason. Just like last year's series, over the course of the next three pieces (we now have 17 teams to cover!) I will recap what transfer portal and NFL declarations have wrought upon Michigan's conference foes, in addition to any staff turnover. Today we are covering the six teams in what used to be the B1G East: 

Ohio State

EXITS

Ohio State lost a handful of impact players, but as a whole came out relatively unscathed from NFL Draft season (apparently due to an ambitious NIL effort to retain the roster). Elder statesmen like the LBs Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers, as well as longtime S Josh Proctor, WR Xavier Johnson, OG Matthew Jones, RB Miyan Williams, and TE Cade Stover are out the door for a mix of eligibility exhaustion and NFL Draft reasons. These were players who'd been around a long time and ultimately felt it was time (or were forced) to move on, none of them being terribly surprising. 

Relatively few underclassmen took off, the only three notable names being QB Kyle McCord, whose transfer to Syracuse was well-publicized, and then DT Michael Hall Jr. and WR Marvin Harrison Jr.. The loss of Harrison cannot be understated because he was an exceptional player, but that was mostly priced in given MHJ's supreme draft position. Hall was the best pure pass rusher on OSU's DL (or at least the best get-off) in your author's opinion, but still had room to sharpen up as a run defender. Alas, it seems he will be rounding out his form at the next level, where an NFL team will have the chance to inject some legitimate pass rush skill into the middle of their defense. 

Hmm [Patrick Barron]

ACQUISITIONS 

The upshot of shelling out massively to bring the talented junior class back for one more crack at it is Ohio State had relatively few holes to fill in the portal. Most of their moves came on the offensive side of the ball, making one of the oddest transfer portal pickups in scooping up Alabama C Seth McLaughlin, quite possibly the worst snapper your author has ever seen. Maybe McLaughlin can succeed as a guard where he's not asked to snap the ball, but putting his bad snaps aside, McLaughlin was one of the weakest members of Alabama's OL as a blocker too. Strange. 

The skill position talent changed some, with OSU outsourcing its TE spot by raiding the in-state Ohio Bobcats for Will Kacmarek. He seems middling, PFF grades in the low 60s as a MAC TE. The bigger get was star RB Quinshon Judkins from Ole Miss, who bailed on the Rebels even as Ole Miss was doing their own version of crazy dropping bags on portal targets. Judkins, paired with TreVeyon Henderson, ought to give the Bucks an elite RB combo for the 2024 season. The key to it all on offense is new QB Will Howard, though we should mention 5* Julian Sayin, who "transferred" from Alabama after Nick Saban's retirement (Sayin had just barely enrolled at Bama). Sayin is a massive get for the future, but it is likely Howard who holds the keys to whether this all-in season ends with the ultimate prize. Howard was a solid starter at Kansas State, but whether he can win a national championship is very much to be determined.

Another name we should get on the record is Chip Kelly, the new offensive coordinator. Bill O'Brien was originally hired to fulfill this role, but BO'B bailed before he ever really got started, taking the Boston College head coaching job when that opened up. Kelly then quit on coaching UCLA (where he was seemingly on the verge of being fired) to take this one. Kelly should add new flavor to the Ohio State offense and seems better fit than Ryan Day to take advantage of the mobile Will Howard's skillset. Finally on defense the Buckeyes picked up Alabama star S Caleb Downs, finishing off their massive offseason of spending to build this roster. Downs is a very good player and rounds out what may be college football's best defense in 2024. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: all the other teams]

The quest to keep possession of the Little Brown Jug is on this weekend, as Michigan heads to Minnesota to take on the Golden Gophers. Minnesota is 3-2 on the season with victories over Nebraska and two non-con foes, all at home, while their losses have all been road games. They got thoroughly beaten in Chapel Hill by UNC and then blew a massive lead en route to an OT loss in Evanston against Northwestern. Today we'll be looking at the offense of Minnesota. 

The Film: Of those games mentioned in the intro, three are power five opponents. Of those three, I'm not honestly sure who has the best defense, as I'm not impressed by any. I may still lean Nebraska, but I wanted to watch a game with Darius Taylor healthy, the star RB for Minnesota, even if he is presently injured (with status in doubt for Saturday). So I charted the Northwestern game but looked at tape from UNC and Nebraska to help with the task. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Minnesota's QB is Athan Kaliakmanis, the first time since 2017 that they've not had Tanner Morgan as the primary starter. Kaliakmanis, the "Greek Gunslinger", showed some flashes amid inconsistent play late last year but hasn't been able to take a step forward in his play. The dual threat ability is notable, but does not redeem the profile. Kaliakmanis' wild arm leads to inaccuracy in the passing game and an overall dormant aerial attack for the Gophers team. My view of Kaliakmanis as holding back the offense is why he has received the cyan designation. 

The lifeblood of this offense is RB Darius Taylor, which is why it is a major concern for Minnesota if he is unable to go against Michigan. He suffered an injury late in the Northwestern game and was inactive against Louisiana-Lafayette. No indication has been given at this time if he will play on Saturday. Taylor, a true freshman from Walled Lake, was a player Mike Hart briefly expressed interest in late in the 2023 recruiting cycle and Taylor's performance to date has made Hart look smart for doing so. He's brought stability and strong play to a Minnesota RB room that was missing that, as WMU transfer RB Sean Tyler did not transition to the team terribly well, while neither Bryce Williams nor Zach Evans have set themselves apart. 

The Gophers brought back star TE Brevyn Spann-Ford, who has had a rather peculiar season. After being a stand-out player for Minnesota last season, his PFF grades have been horrendous. I didn't think he was that bad against Northwestern, but thought he struggled blocking and his receiving numbers for this season have indicated a checkdown target and not much more. We decided not to cyan him because his 2022 level of play is quite good, but it is definitely clear that he has not been as strong this season. When Minnesota goes with two TEs they bring on Nick Kallerup or Jameson Geers. Neither of these players are good. 

At WR, Daniel Jackson has stood out the most as a favored red zone target of Kaliakmanis, with four touchdown catches to his name already. You may recall his highlight reel grab late in the Nebraska game. WMU transfer Corey Crooms is their slot WR, while Le'Meke Brockington lines up outside with geriatric receiver Chris Autman-Bell injured. Neither of these other two starters are noteworthy to me. Charlotte transfer Elijah Spencer finds himself further down the transfer but does appear on our diagram. 

I have generally not been enthused by the Minnesota offensive line this season, especially in comparison to past iterations of itself, but they haven't yet been bulldozed by an opponent so cyans are only affixed to a couple names. The tackles are Aierontae Ersery on the left and ND transfer Quinn Carroll on the right, both your 6'6/6'7" Minnesota tackle but I didn't come away terribly enthused with either in my viewing. Nathan Boe holds down the center job and is alright, while the guards rotate some, the starters being Tyler Cooper and Martes Lewis. Lewis is the weakest member of the starting unit in my estimation and rotates out for Greg Johnson. They also use Karter Shaw as a 6th OL, but he has been subpar in your author's view. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: an offense that doesn't look threatening]