This almost feels normal. Michigan waited until all my Kickstarter backers had their copies of HTTV 2021 (link is only for the backers) and then released the fall rosters.

The only piece of actual news-like substance on it was Sammy Faustin was not listed:

One significant change includes Sammy Faustin not being on the roster.

Per a team spokesman: "Due to medical reasons, Sammy decided to step away from the team and will reevaluate after this year. He will remain on athletic aid."

MORE: https://t.co/id60ehQub3

— Isaiah Hole (@isaiahhole) August 6, 2021

Wishing him the best, and on to the board, with a reminder that all weight gained is twitch-tastic musculature and all weight lost was just getting in the way.

QUARTERBACK
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Alan Bowman	16/19	208	210	210	215	205	+2	+0	+5	-10
Cade McNamara	1/5	-	206	205	205	212	-	-1	+0	+7
Dan Villari	0/0	-	-	215	227	235	-	-	+12	+8
J.J. McCarthy	0/0	-	-	-	190	197	-	-	-	+7
RUNNING BACK
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Hassan Haskins	8/22	202	212	220	220	220	+10	+8	+0	+0
Blake Corum	1/6	-	-	180	200	200	-	-	+20	+0
Donovan Edwards	0/0	-	-	-	190	202	-	-	-	+12
Tavierre Dunlap	0/0	-	-	-	196	222	-	-	-	+26
WIDE RECEIVER
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Daylen Baldwin	19/28	200	208	210	210	219	+8	+2	+0	+9
Ronnie Bell	16/32	170	182	184	190	192	+12	+2	+6	+2
Mike Sainristil	4/19	-	175	183	183	185	-	+8	+0	+2
Cornelius Johnson	3/18	-	195	209	205	211	-	+14	-4	+6
Roman Wilson	0/6	-	-	175	180	180	-	-	+5	+0
AJ Henning	1/6	-	-	183	185	185	-	-	+2	+0
Andrel Anthony	0/0	-	-	-	175	185	-	-	-	+10
Cristian Dixon	0/0	-	-	-	187	197	-	-	-	+10
TIGHT END
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Joel Honigford	0/18	275	295	284	305	257	+20	-11	+21	-48
Luke Schoonmaker	0/17	225	231	242	252	250	+6	+11	+10	-2
Erick All	2/17	-	225	229	242	245	-	+4	+13	+3
Matthew Hibner	0/0	-	-	230	233	244	-	-	+3	+11
Louis Hansen	0/0	-	-	-	232	252	-	-	-	+20
OFFENSIVE LINE
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Andrew Vastardis	4/17	311	317	319	296	294	+6	+2	-23	-2
Andrew Stueber	8/20	314	323	334	339	338	+9	+11	+5	-1
Chuck Filiaga	6/27	345	341	341	345	337	-4	+0	+4	-8
Griffin Korican	0/6	305	305	305	320	316	+0	+0	+15	-4
Ryan Hayes	4/14	252	271	299	302	307	+19	+28	+3	+5
Trevor Keegan	0/5	-	310	316	327	324	-	+6	+11	-3
Nolan Rumler	0/1	-	290	321	328	332	-	+31	+7	+4
Trente Jones	0/0	-	282	294	305	307	-	+12	+11	+2
Karsen Barnhart	4/8	-	282	301	301	307	-	+19	+0	+6
Reece Atteberry	0/1	-	-	280	304	307	-	-	+24	+3
Jeffrey Persi	0/0	-	-	265	302	305	-	-	+37	+3
Zak Zinter	4/6	-	-	300	334	320	-	-	+34	-14
Greg Crippen	0/0	-	-	-	285	290	-	-	-	+5
Raheem Anderson	0/0	-	-	-	298	302	-	-	-	+4
Giovanni El-Hadi	0/0	-	-	-	285	318	-	-	-	+33
Tristan Bounds	0/0	-	-	-	285	282	-	-	-	-3
DEFENSIVE TACKLE
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Jordan Whittley	1/14	325	320	333	358	348	-5	+13	+25	-10
Donovan Jeter	4/23	288	308	290	318	325	+20	-18	+28	+7
Jess Speight	1/14	289	302	288	290	310	+13	-14	+2	+20
Julius Welschof	0/7	248	253	278	286	288	+5	+25	+8	+2
Joey George	0/1	275	275	283	287	262	+0	+8	+4	-25
Mazi Smith	0/7	-	290	305	305	326	-	+15	+0	+21
Jack Stewart	0/0	-	280	291	318	314	-	+11	+27	-4
Chris Hinton	5/18	-	280	303	305	310	-	+23	+2	+5
Jaylen Harrell	0/4	-	-	235	235	242	-	-	+0	+7
Kris Jenkins	0/1	-	-	239	265	265	-	-	+26	+0
Ikechukwu Iwunnah	0/0	-	-	-	275	306	-	-	-	+31
Rayshaun Benny	0/0	-	-	-	275	292	-	-	-	+17
George Rooks	0/0	-	-	-	260	270	-	-	-	+10
Dominick Giudice	0/0	-	-	-	250	275	-	-	-	+25
OUTSIDE LINEBACKER
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Aidan Hutchinson	16/29	260	268	278	269	265	+8	+10	-9	-4
Taylor Upshaw	2/12	240	246	240	256	262	+6	-6	+16	+6
David Ojabo	0/6	-	233	245	250	250	-	+12	+5	+0
Gabe Newburg	0/4	-	230	250	265	251	-	+20	+15	-14
Michael Morris	0/1	-	255	262	276	278	-	+7	+14	+2
Braiden McGregor	0/0	-	-	248	260	265	-	-	+12	+5
Kechaun Bennett	0/0	-	-	-	220	241	-	-	-	+21
TJ Guy	0/0	-	-	-	240	251	-	-	-	+11
INSIDE LINEBACKER
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Josh Ross	10/35	229	225	232	230	224	-4	+7	-2	-6
Michael Barrett	6/19	215	224	227	227	227	+9	+3	+0	+0
Anthony Solomon	0/16	-	190	205	212	215	-	+15	+7	+3
Joey Velazquez	0/0	-	205	213	224	228	-	+8	+11	+4
Kalel Mullings	0/6	-	-	220	233	236	-	-	+13	+3
Nikhai Hill-Green	0/3	-	-	230	225	220	-	-	-5	-5
Junior Colson	0/0	-	-	-	228	225	-	-	-	-3
Jaydon Hood	0/0	-	-	-	212	212	-	-	-	+0
Tyler McLaurin	0/0	-	-	-	210	237	-	-	-	+27
DEFENSIVE BACK
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Brad Hawkins	17/42	204	213	218	218	221	+9	+5	+0	+3
German Green	0/7	168	175	180	181	190	+7	+5	+1	+9
Vincent Gray	7/21	180	184	185	190	192	+4	+1	+5	+2
Gemon Green	6/17	165	174	180	181	181	+9	+6	+1	+0
DJ Turner	0/8	-	165	180	182	181	-	+15	+2	-1
Jalen Perry	0/3	-	188	190	185	187	-	+2	-5	+2
Quinten Johnson	0/2	-	190	198	200	200	-	+8	+2	+0
George Johnson	0/1	-	180	193	193	186	-	+13	+0	-7
Daxton Hill	9/19	-	186	190	192	192	-	+4	+2	+0
Makari Paige	0/6	-	-	182	192	192	-	-	+10	+0
RJ Moten	0/1	-	-	200	213	221	-	-	+13	+8
Andre Seldon	0/1	-	-	154	172	173	-	-	+18	+1
Jordan Morant	0/0	-	-	212	207	210	-	-	-5	+3
Darion Green-Warren	0/0	-	-	187	180	173	-	-	-7	-7
Eamonn Dennis	0/0	-	-	173	180	175	-	-	+7	-5
Rod Moore	0/0	-	-	-	180	173	-	-	-	-7
Ja'Den McBurrows	0/0	-	-	-	165	197	-	-	-	+32
SPECIALISTS
Player	GS/GP	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	17 to 18	18 to 19	19 to 20	20 to 21
Jake Moody	0/32	180	177	198	200	211	-3	+21	+2	+11
Tommy Doman	0/0	-	-	-	170	190	-	-	-	+20
Brad Robbins	0/17	181	206	199	195	203	+25	-7	-4	+8

Let’s have a jump (and maybe a cigarette), then discuss.

[After THE JUMP: All of this is good.]

Line beef, or lack thereof. The transition to nose allowed Mazi Smith to get back up to 326 after a couple of years of the roster listing him at “305” when the reality was he was trying to slim down to that and get his stamina up. We haven’t heard much from Donovan Jeter but he’s up to 325 and Chris Hinton is now 310. The guy getting mentioned ahead of Jeter after spring was Jess Speight, and he’s a big gainer, now up to 310. He sorta survived against Alabama after a switch from OL but didn’t grade out very well last year.

The other walk-on mentioned a bunch in spring was Joey George, who suddenly appeared on the roster down at Aidan Hutchinson’s weight after approaching 290 in spring. And it was a bit disappointing that Kris Jenkins wasn’t any larger than the 265 he was listed at last year. He’s a quick-twitch guy who was in the 230s in high school but Brown hoped to grown into a Mo Hurst. That was always more of an “unwrap in 2022” thing but I had some hopes we’d see him making steady progress—maybe 275?—towards that end.

Who goes where on the line? Fellow Don Brown build-a-bear Gabe Newburg dropping 15 pounds is more explainable since they’re just going to let him play OLB this year. He was getting some mention in spring as one of the heavier DE types who could fill in for Hutchinson if needed, though Mike Morris, who was more of an anchor prospect for Brown, is now 278 and might be able to play inside. I don’t know if it means anything that the roster gave out designations of DL, DE, and LB that don’t quite match our understanding of their roles.

• “DL”: NTs Mazi Smith, Jordan Whittley, Jack Stewart, Elijah Pierre, and Ike Iwunnah; DTs Chris Hinton, Donovan Jeter, Jess Speight, Julius Welshof, Kris Jenkins, Joey George, Rayshaun Benny, George Rooks, and Dominick Giudice; OLB Jaylen Harrell (who’s 242)
• “DE”: OLBs Aidan Hutchinson, Taylor Upshaw, Michael Morris, Gabe Newburg, Braiden McGregor, Kechaun Bennett, and TJ Guy
• “LB”: OLB David Ojabo, and all the ILBs and former Vipers.

Probably nothing?

Freshmen ready to contribute? Those of you worried about the “5-10/165” on Ja’Den McBurrows’ 247 profile (whence Michigan got its numbers for the recruiting roster), or the more sane of you who were just generally worrying about cornerback this year, will be delighted to see he measured (uh, “measured”) 5-11/197, which seems like a much more plausible guy to see the field immediately. I expected him to come in around 175-180. For reference they called Jourdan Lewis 5-10/170 as a freshman, Lavert Hill got 5-11/168, and David Long was listed 5-11/187. Ambry Thomas was 6-0/179. Blake Countess was 5-10/176. None of those are close to 200.

I also noticed Ike Iwunnah was over 300. Freshman DTs usually suck but it would be nice to have more plausible bodies at the position given nose right now is:

• Mazi Smith hype.
• Jordan Whittley if he can get his seasons available/year average up over 20%.
• OL convert Jack Stewart
• Walk-on grad transfer Elijah Pierre

Rayshaun Benny also looks plausible to play this year at over 290. He’s a guy I was hoping we might see in goal line situations and in the odd low-pressure backup situation behind the starting DTs.

A few of these freshman weight gains look so big because their teams either didn’t play last year or they played so late they didn’t release new rosters. That explains Tyler McLaurin, who was not the 210 pounds he was listed at during his team’s spring season, and Kechaun Bennett, an edge prospect they expected to bulk up.

It doesn’t explain Tavierre Dunlap, who gets left out of the talk of the other three RBs but was 196 on the spring roster and over 220 on this one. Nor Gio El-Hadi, who at 323 might be coming in with some weight he needs to trim. He’s big, but when he played last year he still looked pretty much how you expect a good high school tackle to look.

The other freshman who came in biglargehuge was Louis Hansen, listed at 6-5/232 in his recruiting profile, and came in at 6-6/252. That’s pretty playable. In fact it’s not far off from…

Joel Honigford is a tight end now. They listed him at 257. He has been an effective 6th OL but limited to obvious run downs because when he’s on the field in normal situations it just creates an AJ Williams effect, where emphatically winning his block only makes up for the tip-off that he’s going to be making one. I don’t know what his hands are like, but if they’re not going to have him be a tackle this makes some sense—you can always bring one of the tackles off the bench for obvious run situations, and a more mobile Honigford can give you that blocking TE who’s a possible receiver kind of threat Michigan hasn’t had on the roster since freshman Devin Asiasi.

Zak Zinter is even more agile. They want him to be the center now but either way he wasn’t getting much out of being in the 330s, and this is one case where I’m willing to take a silly weight loss 2000 bit of data and extrapolate that this is good. Mostly because I trust the coaches really are as excited about him as they say, and he was a little bit in his own way in space last year as a true freshman.

RJ Moten may grow out of safety? He’s the YMRMFSPA Dymonte Thomas who played baseball—Morant is the Peppers who was injured all last year—if you like me get them confused all the time. Moten put on 13 pounds last year and another 8 this year. His 221 is 11 pounds heavier than the quasi-LB Morant, equal to Brad Hawkins, and 3 pounds under one of the starting ILBs.

The ILBs are pretty small. This is a Macdonald thing I believe. Josh Ross is down to 224 and former Viper Michael Barrett is at 227. Nikhai Hill-Green is down 5 pounds from last year and 10 pounds from his original 230. Don Brown liked light MIKEs because they blitzed like rabid ferrets, but they also had designated gaps they were supposed to fill by flinging their bodies at blockers, replacing mass with acceleration in the force equation. The going theory of the offseason is Macdonald is shifting the weight of its front seven to the line, trusting those guys to keep the LBs clean. This is also good news for the rest of the Vipers and varmints who might have been wondering if they were expected to become 6-4/245 Wisconsin LBs and pick an alliterative thunkers name like Huck Hardcheese, Brock Brickman, or Clint Copenhaver.

It’s interesting that Jaydon Hood is still 212, which he’s been since his sophomore year of high school, especially since his Aquinas teammate showed up one of the heaviest cornerbacks.

You get an inch! You get an inch! Most of the freshmen and some vets were credited with an extra inch of height, except Tommy Doman (6-5) got two extra inches. These are about as real as their forty times, but we are duty bound to report that Ja’Den McBurrows (5-11), Donovan Edwards (6-0), Rod Moore (6-0), J.J. McCarthy (6-3), Tyler McLaurin (6-3), Alan Bowman (6-4), TJ Guy (6-5), Kechaun Bennett (6-5), George Rooks (6-5), Dominick Giudice (6-5), and Louis Hansen (6-6) each magically grew exactly one inch the moment they were added to Michigan’s roster, and Matthew Hibner (6-4) got an extra one this year versus last year’s roster as well.

The only two who went down from a previous roster were Daylen Baldwin, who was 6-3 at Morgan State and Jackson State, but came out 6-2 on Michigan’s roster; and Ikechukwu Iwunnah (6-3), who was 6-4 on the recruiting sites. These are believable.

Surprise Additions. Two walk-ons of note joined the roster this year. The most likely to play is K/P Rhett Anderson. This is a grad transfer from Div III Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He was a career 15/20 of FGs with a career long of 49, and 51/51 on PKs. He also punted but I’m pretty sure he’s here in case Moody slides and Doman can’t handle kicks and punts. The other is S Andrew Russell, who’s been buried on the lacrosse team thus far. I don’t think he’s got a lacrosse scholarship, since if he did have one and he saw the field for football his scholarship would count for that.

======THINGS PAST THIS LINE ONLY MATTER TO ROSTER NERDS========

Number changes. We were able to glean a lot of these from M-Den putting their rosters for sale but here’s the list of number changes for guys who were on the roster last year:

• S Brad Hawkins: 20->2: The Cato June number.
• WR Mike Sainristil: 19->5: I guess this fits for a feature slot receiver, and was Sweetness’s number in high school. Still, man, maybe I’m reading too much into this*, but think about the fact that your role on this team is to come across the middle, then think of a guy who wore #19 as a wide receiver at Michigan, then think who controls the safeties every practice. Is this really a good idea Mike?
• CB Andre Seldon: 0->36: I never even got to make my “this is actually ⅛ but the equipment manager rounded up” joke.
• CB Darion Green-Warren: 6->28: RJ Moten won the number competition (Harbaugh’s rule is take any number and if two guys on the same side want one whoever earns his way on the field first wins it).
• TE Joel Honigford: 59/85->84: He apparently gave up his TE number last year for Daylen Baldwin.
• LB Kalel Mullings: 26->20: If Brad Hawkins doesn’t want it Kalel will take it.
• OL Nolan Rumler: 55->70: Classmate Jack Stewart had this the last few years but Rumler wore 70 in high school.

*maybe?

Freshman and transfer numbers. A lot of these arrived in spring but here they are, with some historical perspective.

• #1 WR Andrel Anthony. I am in favor of giving this to freshmen, for the record. Braylon’s made his peace.
• #1 CB Ja’Den McBurrows. I am on the fence about non-WRs wearing the AC number at Michigan but if it helped recruit Ambry Thomas I can’t argue it matters that much.
• #7 RB Donovan Edwards. High school number. Also played QB in high school, so this makes him harder to find for the Angry Michigan Five-Star Running Back-Hating God to find.
• #9 QB J.J. McCarthy. About damn time we give a star freshman QB the Dennis Franklin/Michael Taylor number. I’m a little miffed it went to a non-Black quarterback because Franklin was an important figure in the history of that position, and Taylor wore it to honor that, so it’s got some tradition. Again, I’m not going to put Michigan traditions ahead of making recruits happy.
• #10 WR Cristian Dixon. Hasn’t been a big WR number—Gallon switched to #21 and the only other guy was Da’Mario Jones. Nobody’s going to confuse Dixon for Gallon, so he can make this number his own. Or he could walk away with a bunch of free Tom Brady gear I gess.
• #19 S Rod Moore. You probably only remember Willis Barringer wearing #19 at safety (at Michigan it’s mostly a kicker’s number) but I remember one other DB before Barringer…when the CB depth chart got really thin in 1999 they had Ron Bellamy playing there. “Bellamy for Heisman.” Good move Rod.
• #19 K/P Tommy Doman. I wonder what happens if Rod’s on special teams. This is Gillette’s number, so the best a man can get if he’s to handle both kicks and punts.
• #22 RB Tavierre Dunlap. BJ Askew meets Karan Higdon. I like it.
• #25 LB Junior Colson. I’m not making you “Kenny Demens but fast” next week Junior but I considered it.
• #26 DT Rayshaun Benny. There was a scrub tackle who wore #26 in the 1920s but that’s it.
• #27 LB Tyler McLaurin. Remember (who?) Mike Jones, the skinny WLB? Unless you want to count Wolves of the 1970s that’s all I’ve got.
• #34 LB Jaydon Hood. Ungh. Gibbons went to his (pre-Aquinas) school and we don’t need that reminder. I’d already forgotten Anthony Jordan too. 1960s LB/FB Dennis Morgan…now that’s more like it.
• #42 OLB TJ Guy. Mike Mallory’s number which is a good pull since there’s a Mallory on staff.
• #51 C Greg Crippen. Yes, Cesar was a C from IMG too but Crippen can impress by saying he chose it for Everitt. Good center # already.
• #52 OLB Kechaun Bennett. I could only think of Royce Jenkins-Stone, which that’s accidentally a strong comp.
• #54 DT George Rooks. Dude if you turn into Donnie Warner then announce you chose 54 for him you will be Dr Sap’s greatest hero.
• #56 DT Dominick Giudice. Since Carl Kreager just passed away I’m glad someone’s honoring 56. This was a tiny nose number under Bo—Billy Harris, Tim Davis—and a DE/OLB number—James Hall, LaMarr Woodley—under Lloyd.
• #58 OL Giovanni El-Hadi. I know John Ghindia will be impressed when he comes in.
• #62 OL Raheem Anderson. The one guy in the class I trust has done a Bentley roster lookup to find Courtney Morgan’s digit.
• #72 OL Tristan Bounds. Hell yeah give the the 6-8 guy Jumbo’s number. Also Dierdorf’s and Big Ed’s and Skene’s. It’s surprisingly close between this and 77 what’s the best tackle number.
• #81 TE Louis Hansen. This the Kattus number but Trey Walker, Bob Topp and Bill Seymour give it depth.
• #92 NT Ike Iwunnah. Forgettable DEs number that could have been assigned by a sim.

Walk-on things. The rules are the PWOs can’t join the roster the first year so we get debuts of QBs Davis Warren and Jesse Madden, WRs Peyton O’Leary and Jake Friedman, TEs Noah Howes and Max (yes THAT) Bredeson, OL Pete Simmons, LB Alexander Lidback, and S Joe Taylor. There were also two 2019 PWOs, RB Leon Franklin and TE (former Chicago area QB) Josh Beetham, re-added to the roster. And C Mo Hazime is back but he was left off due to an error last year.

QB Peyton Smith (7->17), RB Danny Hughes (22->24), OL Micah Gelb (62->55) and CB Keshaun Harris (49->18) are the walk-ons to change numbers. I bolded Harris because he’s a speedster who’s reportedly got the chops to play at this level if they can get him up to speed. Giving him a non-random back’s number might mean he’s headed in that direction. Or it might mean we are desperate for cornerbacks.