[Bryan Fuller]

This is our weekly roundtable, brought back from its offseason slumber because you really don't want to know what we are obsessing about in the offseason. If you ever have any topic suggestions, send them to seth at mgoblog dot com.

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The Question:

Sleeper player of the year? Who are we not talking about that we'll be talking about?

The Responses:

Brian: So not Wheatley then.

Ace: I’m partway into an answer that starts with a mention of Ian Bunting (not my choice) being an option because of our constant Wheatley hype.

Brian: And not Hudson then.

Ace: Options on the ground are very limited unless we’re allowing anyone who hasn’t been a full-time starter already. I was going to go with Dymonte Thomas.

Brian: I don't think I can do this if I can't talk about Wheatley and Hudson.

Ace: I wouldn’t veto Wheatley/Hudson talk even if I could.

Brian: A man needs a code. Can't talk about guys we're talking about. I will persist.

BiSB: Allow me to parse the rule: you can't talk about Hudson and Wheatley in general because your feelings are well known, but you CAN talk about them in the specific context of 2016, as such things are NOT known.

Like, Khaleke Hudson will invade and overrun Persia by the time he's a Junior, but will we see him as a true freshman toppling some minor Greek city-state?

Ace: Please let it be Sparta. #ancientdisrespekt

Seth: This is This Week's Obsession, not Nam. There are rules.

[After THE JUMP we actually do answer the question]

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Ace:

[click big]

Alright, time to actually answer this. I feel like Dymonte Thomas and Delano Hill have effectively been considered the same guy—decent part-time starter turned full-time starter—in the leadup to the season, but I expect Thomas to take a bigger step forward this year. Despite being less experienced at safety, Thomas was the more consistent of the two last year; you could sense as the season went on that the light was coming on for him.

Thomas should get more chances to make plays in Don Brown’s system, which should keep both safeties closer to the line of scrimmage, especially against spread-to-run teams. As we saw in the spring game, Thomas has the ability to make spectacular big plays even from a single-high deep safety position.

While he might give up a few more big plays than steady-but-boring Jarrod Wilson, I expect he’ll more than make up for those by forcing turnovers that Wilson wasn’t in position to make, either due to scheme or playmaking ability.

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Seth: I'm going with a guy we literally have not mentioned on MGoBlog except to say he's on the roster: walk-on fullback Michael Hirsch. Michigan graduated both the blocky-runny guy and the runny-blocky guy. We're expecting Khalid Hill to be the catchy-blocky guy, and Henry Poggi to be the H-backy-blocky guy.

But the race for inline blocky-runny types is Bobby Henderson and...this guy we've never mentioned. Who's 24. And who didn't get to play at Harvard because he almost died from an autoimmune disease. He ran for 3000+ yards and 50 TDs in Illinois's top division (8A), and at the time he came down sick as a true freshman was tied for fullback job at Harvard with Kyle Juszczyk, who's now with the Baltimore Ravens.

That was a long time ago--in which time Hirsch graduated from Harvard, survived chemo and a suite of surgeries, and spent last year as a credit sales analyst for Citigroup before enrolling at Ross. It would make a nice story except SOURCES inside the submarine say the 6'1/250 preferred walk-on with two years of eligibility remaining is going to have a role. And on a Harbaugh team, that's not crazy at all.

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[Fuller]

Brian: I'll go with Chase Winovich, who I expect to be 2015 Taco Charlton: doesn't get a ton of snaps but impresses in limited time as he finally starts delivering on his physical potential. Winovich feels rather forgotten about after a lost year at H-back, but remember that this was a dude who was a major OSU/M recruiting battle reputed to be the next Jake Ryan.

Winovich had a strong spring, is up to 260 pounds, and is still running in the 4.5-4.6 range per the coaches. He put some work on Grant Newsome this spring, and gets praise as a relentless edge guy in the mold of you know who.

I'll also put in a shout for *Mike McCray*, who is the kind of guy who will thunder into dudes at the LOS and shock them backwards. McCray has the physical and mental makeup to be good--son of Buckeye captain and all that--and was intermittently really impressive this spring. At other times he was still knocking the rust off after a year spent trying to get healthy; I expect he's a bit rough in the first half of the season before rounding into the best linebacker on the team in the second half.

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BiSB: I like the odds that Moe Ways has an unexpectedly large impact. Right now, the outside receiver depth chart after Chesson and Darboh is Ways, Drake Harris, and a pile of assorted undifferentiated freshmen. Given the uncertainty with freshmen (and given that the only two definitively outside receivers were Brad Hawkins and Ahmir Mitchell, neither of whom... yeah), and given my skepticism that Drake Harris will be able to consume the necessary 38,000 calories per day between now and kickoff to reach a sustainable playing weight, Ways is the most likely guy to step in as needed. He was receiving a bunch of spring hype (which is always accurate) before a foot injury, so if he can get and stay healthy, I wouldn't be surprised if he caught 20 to 25 balls  for 250-ish yards and a few scores.