commitmas 2022

The portal additions will keep coming until either a) morale improves, or b) Michigan has more transfers in this class than their entire post-Bump Elliott history combined. This time we raided a division rival for tight end.

Barner should be able to make an immediate impact on a depth chart that was expecting to have Erick All back next year. A nobody recruit (ranked some places as a DE), Barner immediately earned playing time, though just one target, behind Peyton Hendershot during their 2020 run. He started the last two years, serving as a team captain as a true junior while almost never coming off the field. Thanks to the COVID year, he'll have two years left to play at Michigan. He's also from Ohio, a state Michigan recently annexed.

STATS

These come with major Connor Bazelak/Donaven McCulley caveats.

Play-by-play data from collegefootballdata show three penalties, two of those false starts at Rutgers. Without looking, I'm going to attribute those to Rutgers blowing their stupid train horn. PFF's grading isn't very meaningful lately, especially the blocking component, but they weren't particularly enamored; Barner got a 53.4 overall this year, 54.3 in the passing game, and 59.7 as a run blocker. They were kinder on his 2021: 60.9 overall, 61.9 passing, 55.3 run blocking.

[After THE JUMP: Indiana's best tight end]

So this is unprecedented. As of writing this Michigan has already brought in five transfers in the week since the portal opened. They are widely expected to be adding a sixth in Indiana TE AJ Barner. What is going on? Did something change? Did we become the new Portal U? Well, I thought we should talk about it.

PORTAL?

Much of what Brian went through last week is still true. Zach Shaw of 247 wrote a comprehensive assessment of Michigan's needs yesterday that isn't behind a paywall so I'll just point you to that. Updates by position, with some additional scouting thoughts:

Cornerback: There are a lot of names out there and very little to suggest Michigan is making any headway with them. They're facing elite competition for Virginia's Fentrell Cypress, who's made visits to FSU and UCLA and "doesn't talk much about Ohio State"—it may be he's looking to go somewhere warm. UNC's Tony Grimes, whom Michigan recruited hard out of high school, is another option but he seems set on Virginia Tech unless Texas A&M can divert him. Last year's #1 overall recruit Travis Hunter entered the portal but people assume that's because he intends to follow Deion Sanders to Colorado and any Michigan hope is limited to "maybe we can get Charles Woodson in his ear" fanfiction at the moment. Michigan fans have noticed a few names from recruitments of old—Syracuse's Duce Chestnut is a tire worth re-kicking—but I assume Michigan's not going to move on anybody unless they think they're likely to be better than current options. Cornerback is also a position where guys can play early—2023 recruit Jyaire Hill left Michigan out of his top five but without any insider knowledge I assume that's just a fake out.

Offensive Line: Michigan added OT Myles Hinton and C Drake Nugent from Stanford to LaDarius Henderson. Henderson is gonna start; ASU fans don't have an MGoBlog equivalent to tell them things about offensive linemen yet they're universal in acclaiming Henderson the best player on their team this year. I watched some film on the Stanford guys last night. Hinton was a 5-star recruit but I would caution against assuming he's going to take a starting job in 2023. This year was marred by injury—the kind where you play on it then shut it down when the season's hopeless—but the player he was before the injury didn't seem to me like someone who's going to displace Barnhart, Jones, or Persi. Nugent is a different story; he was the best part of Stanford's OL last year, and has a lot of starting experience. PFF's OL grading issues make comparisons difficult but Stanford ran a similar offense to Michigan's and they rated Nugent the equal of Olu.

Defensive End: Michigan added Josaiah Stewart, a true sophomore Coastal Carolina edge who generated a lot of pressures in two years of starting. Brian's scouting was pretty thorough; I'm calling Stewart a "Danna-sized Tasmanian Devil." It's no guarantee that Stewart will start since McGregor/Moore/Okie have a lot of runway and Harrell/Upshaw have a lot of coaches' trust. But I'm comfortable at minimum suggesting Stewart is probably the favorite to start, and probably a lock on the passing downs job opposite Okie.

Linebacker: Adding Ernest Hausmann is a coup, especially since it appears Michigan could get back Michael Barrett, and Nikhai Hill-Green is coming off injury. Hausmann shouldn't be viewed as an instant starter after a true freshman season at Nebraska that was both promising and very "true freshman at Nebraska." The thing to be excited about here is his upside; expect some Junior Colson comps out of Schembechler Hall this offseason. Hausmann does immediately give them the space to move Mullings to running back now. The outlook here is "no longer desperately thin," with five playable guys by the end of the season versus the two they had this year, and Hausmann and Rolder representing a very fine future.

Tight End: Michigan seems to lead for Indiana TE AJ Barner after his visit, after which it felt like an announcement could come any time. Barner also visited UCLA last week, and seems to have several more schools interested. He's also a true junior so there may be issues with Michigan's transfer admissions policies to work through. Cal Poly freshman Josh Cueves is going to Washington.

[After THE JUMP: Are we Portal U now? Should we be?]

No, this is not the 2022 WLB prospect who is transferring from Nebraska, but a bona fide 2023 WLB prospect who visited Michigan during the Night of All the Commits and promptly decommitted from Nebraska.

At that point this point seemed a foregone conclusion:

We are sorry, Nebraska. If it makes him Rhule feel any better, Moore was talking to Wisconsin a lot after Frost was fired, and Michigan got the Denver linebacker/starting pitcher to cancel a visit in College Station, Texas, in favor of snowy Ann Arbor.

You wouldn't know he's a linebacker with Wisconsin/Iowa/Texas A&M offers from the way Moore slipped under the raters' radars. There seem to be two reasons for that, other than his whole class's sophomore season being wiped out. For one, Moore is a dual-sport prospect who wants to play baseball at the next level, and stayed in pitching shape during the season, which explains why he sometimes showed up to camps closer to 200 than a more linebacker-ideal 220.

The other reason is he grew into a linebacker (and tight end) later in his high school career; Moore's COVID season workout videos all show him running routes, not covering them, and he was still being listed as a receiver on recruiting lists as late as September 2021. His junior season was good (11 TFLs, 5 sacks), but he came a long way as a senior. That A&M offer hit in early October.

A third may be his position at St. Regis was kind of a hybrid OLB in their 3-3-5. Moore often had his hand in the dirt as a DE, and collected quite a few of his prolific sack numbers coming off the edge, not doom squirreling through an A-gap. But he did that too. In fact, other than tackling everything in sight, the versatility seems to be the main theme.

GURU RATINGS

Last row is my conversion to a five-star scale. Links are to profiles.

[After THE JUMP: Sorry, I was thinking about how Michigan uses Junior Colson]