As we go through this long period before the Rose Bowl, I have needed to fill my time normally spent watching previous games and games of our future opponent, with some other Michigan-related content (God knows that basketball game last night didn't do the trick). With today being early signing day, I wanted to look at our current starters and starter-adjacent players and what they were projected to be by the recruiting services and whether or not they have reached, or exceeded the projections. As you will find, we have recruited out of HS pretty well, but more importantly the amount of players exceeding their rankings has been a major reason for our recent success.

Offense:

QB: JJ McCarthy 5* #25-Greatly has exceeded expectations. It's weird to say because he was a 5*, but being a 5* is absolutely no gimme if you look back. Having a 5* talent and perform like a 5* is a luxury that we are finally realizing.

RB: Blake Corum 4* #129-Exceeded expectations. Has been one of (last year-THE) best RBs in America for 3 years. A program changing type player and athlete.

RB: Donovan Edwards 5* #33-This one is tricky because statistically he has not exactly been what you'd want to see from a 5* RB; however playing behind and alongside HH and Corum for 3 years has limited his overall touches. As a whole though, he has made a substantial impact to the program the last 3 years and our future success this season I think especially vs Alabama will rely on our ability to get him the ball in unique ways. Without a doubt the best 5* RB we have had in the past 20 years (Walker, Green, Isaac, Grady, etc.).

WR: Roman Wilson 4* #354-I was surprised he was a 4* coming out of Hawai'i and with is size. He was a good player his first 3 years and has turned into a great one. Based on his recruiting profile and his impact, I'd say he has exceeded expectations.

WR: Cornelius Johnson 4* #177-Right around what you'd expect for the #177 player. A good 4 year starter; quasi-#1 WR in 2021 and strong #2 in '22 and '23. This is probably the area in the rankings where we will land WRs due to our offense.

WR: Tyler Morris 4* #133-Too early to tell. #3 WR in this offense is tough position to be in. I like what I have seen so far this year, and he is expected to be a much larger contributor going forward.

TE: Colston Loveland 4* #302-Vastly has outplayed his ranking. One of the best TEs in America.

TE: AJ Barner 4* (transfer) 3* #1147 (recruit)-Has exceeded expectations both in regards to him as a transfer and where he was as a recruit. For our sake we will measure his time as a transfer and the fact that the staff saw what they saw when he was playing in Walt Bell's offense is a testament to their elite ability to identify TE talent.

LT: LaDarius Henderson 4* (transfer) 3* #730 (recruit)-Henderson has played right about what you would expect for a top-20 OL transfer. All B1G player and probably a Day 3 NFL guard.

LG: Trevor Keegan 4* #178-Pretty high recruit coming out of HS but I would say he's even exceeded that. A mainstay on the OL the last 3 years; 2 of which were Joe Moore Award winning lines. 

C: Drake Nugent 4* (transfer) 3* #1122 (recruit)-Just like Henderson he's about what you would hope for the #147 portal player. All-B1G and Rimington finalist.

RG: Zak Zinter 4* #265-Extremely outplayed this ranking. Best guard in America this year and was a top-3 guard last year. 4 year player. All American.

RG: Karsen Barnhart 4* #254-When you get a lineman in the top 250, you hope for them to round out to be a pretty good starter for a couple of years. Despite some recent hiccups, Barnhart still has been a very valuable piece of our OL the past 3 years. Met expectations.

RT: Trente Jones 4* #108-Trente as we all know is a unique situation. He looked very much the part of a near Top-100 player last year at the beginning of the year. It's interesting that he is the highest rated OL of the group coming out of HS but has seen the field the least. I think we are still holding out hope for him to make an impact this postseason and hopefully next season, but right now I would have to say ever so slightly he hasn't quite reached his expectations year.

Recruiting Average (only for the players who were recruited out of HS by Michigan): 178

Composite Score: 93

Takeaways

When I get to the defense later, you will see more cases where players have extremely outplayed their recruiting rankings, but as a whole basically the entire offense has reached or exceeded what their rankings would suggest. I think it starts first and foremost with our 5* QB actually playing like a 5* QB. Our offensive line recruiting also has been pretty good as every starter was either in the Top-250 or just outside of that. Add in there 2 portal additions where both have played to about what they'd expect to be, and Sherrone Moore's coaching and we have the situation we are in right now. 

Defense and overall takeaways hopefully will be up later today!