julian fleming

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]

Michigan’s 2019 class is more or less wrapped up with the exception of one position: running back. The Michigan staff has entertained the idea of bringing in one more running back after TN RB Eric Gray decommitted from the class, and the player they’ve set their sights on is similar to Gray in that he’s adept at catching the ball out of the backfield, shifty in the open field, and seems to have good acceleration and balance (though balance through contact, as important a trait for RBs as there is, wasn’t on film); he seems like a good fit for new OC Josh Gattis’ #SpeedInSpace philosophy. Washington DC RB Keilan Robinson should have been somewhat familiar with Michigan if for no other reason because his teammate, S Quinten Johnson, is a 2019 signee. He’ll be even more familiar with the program this week, as 247’s Steve Lorenz reports that Michigan’s staff was expected to stop in and see him this week after staying in communication with him the past few months. Robinson, a four-star ranked #362 overall and the #20 RB per the 247 composite, is currently committed to Alabama but has yet to sign.

With 2019 recruiting dwindling, attention from recruiting sites has turned to postseason all-star games and the re-ranks they birth. 247’s analysts sat down and re-watched the Under Armour All-America Game, then offered their take on Michigan’s signees. 247’s John Garcia has seen FL LB Anthony Solomon often in camps and wrote that his coverage skills were never in question. He was more interested in seeing what Solomon could do in a game setting. Garcia:

Looking back he actually closed downhill and finished much better than maybe his height and weight would suggest.

Allen Trieu believes that OH OL Nolan Rumler could play either center or guard in college. Trieu on Rumler going from good in practice to great in the game:

I know that on two of the touchdowns they ran right behind him, and on one he flat pancaked the guy. There was one play where he just drove Mazi (Smith) and nobody had done that all week. I though Nolan lived up to his billing, that whenever the lights are on, he is going to be a mauler.

Garcia noted that Rumler played high at times but was able to sustain blocks once he got his hands on a guy even if his pads were up. Rumler’s future linemate Trente Jones drew rave reviews during the week, and Garcia compared the two:

If Rumler is going to flash, it’ll be with power or maybe a pancake. But Trente will flash with running the defensive end way around a pocket and allowing his quarterback to step up. It will be his ability to get to the second level, to reach block, and get over TWO gaps, to lead the way on stretch plays, and things like that. His movement and skill will allow for so many different types of looks.

Garcia’s takes are some of the most interesting in this piece because he hasn’t seen much of the midwest guys until the week of UA practices and the game. For example, on MI DT Mazi Smith:

You know, the few times I was introduced to him came when we were cutting up top ten plays. Allen would send the film and I would ask “who is this guy?” It was always this ridiculous leverage guy. A leverage monster. If he got under you, he was going to be a problem even for the most physically gifted offensive linemen.

I start these posts with “[Insert day here] Recruitin’” and add the rest of the title as I read articles and start pulling things together and I don’t think I’ve ever scrolled up faster to insert the rest of the title. Garcia and Trieu closed their piece with a discussion of DC S Quinten Johnson’s daily improvement, but I wrote about that in the last recruiting roundup and didn’t find a great ARRRG TECHNIQUE GODZILLA RARR-type (sound effects mine) quote.

[After THE JUMP: Rivals' re-rank, reactions to staff additions and departures, and a number of new offers]

While the Michigan commits in Orlando impressed scouts and analysts in the practices that led up to last week’s Under Armour All-America Game, a group of three signees with arguably the best odds of playing early this side of Mazi Smith were doing the same in San Antonio. The Wolverine’s Brandon Brown published an interesting set of articles in which he got other players to scout GA DT Chris Hinton and OK S Dax Hill. On Hill, GA QB and South Carolina commit Ryan Hilinski articulated what Michigan fans hope is the general sentiment of Big Ten QBs for the next three years.

“I'm telling you, when I go up to the line of scrimmage I'm always looking away from him," Hilinski said. "He's just a guy that covers so much space with his speed and he's so fluid with all of his motions. He's long too. That's the hardest thing to judge. I'll try to throw and out route and he'll get a finger on it. I'll be like, 'Dang, I thought I had that.' He doesn't even look like he's trying that hard yet either and he's still balling out. When he really takes it up a level, what is he going to do? He's a beast.

Brown talked to two Ohio State signees about Hinton, and if the roster’s composition wasn’t already enough to get him a shot at early playing time, his advanced technique should do it. GA OG Harry Miller is quoted first in the article and brought up one natural skill and one technical element of Hinton’s that stood out in practice.

"He's a really hand technician. He's just really good at using his hands and being quick," Miller said. "As an offensive player I have to be very aware of my fundamentals and be very sound with that. He's not a guy that you can just go out and attack and expect to beat him. You have to be really smart with how you approach him."

WV OG Doug Nester corroborated Miller’s scouting report.

"He comes off the ball really hard and he's very good with his hand placement," Nester said. "He knows where to hit you correctly. He'll hit you right in the chest and he extends away from himself so that you can't get into his chest. He's good at that."

[After THE JUMP: more players and analysts weigh in, plus updates from the UA Future 50 camp]