Stephen Spanellis In The Transfer Portal
January 1st, 2020 at 8:31 PM ^
Tells me Ruiz might be staying. Spam was the backup center IIRC.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:33 PM ^
Stop being positive!!!
January 1st, 2020 at 8:36 PM ^
There's two guard positions to be had as well. He didn't want to compete for either guard spots either?
January 1st, 2020 at 9:25 PM ^
I think he actually got passed by Vastardis.
January 2nd, 2020 at 2:12 PM ^
I don't think so. Vastardis did replace Ruiz when he went out for a play or two but if it had been for an extended period of time I think Spanellis would have moved in. During practice both played on the second string as "the (next) best 5." When Ruiz went out temporarily that put Vastardis in the best position to jump in because he had been getting the snaps at center that week. Given a week to prepare Spanellis would have been getting the snaps.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:27 PM ^
Vastardis was backup center I believe. Both guard spots are opening up. Should tell you one of the freshmen stepped up in bowl practices if it tells you anything at all.
Spanellis was in line to compete for all three interior spots. Either he was feeling heat from younger guys, or the coaches gave him a firm handshake and needed the scholarship spot.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:37 PM ^
Or he just wants to try a different school for a different experience or degree.
January 1st, 2020 at 10:11 PM ^
Considering his playing ability/experience, his options are probably limited to G5 schools. Maybe a lower end P5 school. Not sure what’s to gain in the “experience,” area there.
Even the degree part is probably a stretch unless his plan is to look at a top end academic institution or the IVY League purely for academic purposes, which is admittedly possible for him. He’s one of the smartest guys on the team.
January 2nd, 2020 at 12:46 AM ^
Or he saw that during bowl prep, the younger guys were gonna pass him up next year. Could be a good sign. Best of luck Stephen.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:36 PM ^
Was this expected?
January 1st, 2020 at 8:43 PM ^
He won’t be the last unexpected transfer. These kids bought in after Harbaugh’s first two seasons and have seen nothing but regression since. Good to get out now while they still can.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:45 PM ^
You should go with them.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:53 PM ^
Imaginative response.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:01 PM ^
Right, because the transfer options for guys like Spanellis are always so attractive.
January 2nd, 2020 at 3:44 PM ^
For a lot of these kids that transfer it is probably not motivated by a desire to play in the NFL. They just want to play football on Saturdays because it's fun and they've done it all their lives. It must be really hard to put in all the work for years on end and never see the field in an actual game. In this case it makes all the sense in the world to step down a level of competition, especially if you already have the Michigan degree.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:03 PM ^
That’s the spirit! Blame someone else when you don’t develop as a player.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:20 PM ^
have seen nothing but regression since.
It's true. Michigan had been going upward un til the 2016 Ohio St game. Things have been inexplicable since then.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:39 PM ^
Thought he would have been in line for a guard spot regardless of the Ruiz decision?
January 1st, 2020 at 10:50 PM ^
The line next year probably looks something like Hayes - Filiaga - Ruiz - Stueber - Mayfield. If Ruiz goes then Vastardis jumps into his spot. That still leaves a ton of back up options. Guys like Rumler easily slot into a guard spot. Keegan can play at least 3 positions. Carpenter and Barnhart are right there too. In fact, Barnhart got some playing time early in the year. So Michigan has 5 quality starters as well as at least 2 quality back-ups. Offensive line is a position they are set at for at least the next few seasons.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:39 PM ^
Last one out turn out the lights. WTF!
January 1st, 2020 at 8:40 PM ^
A guy seeking a grad transfer is less alarming to me than an underclassman in the transfer portal.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:41 PM ^
Good for that kid. Wants to win and be developed. Clearly not happening at Michigan.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:44 PM ^
Have you not seen how much the O-line has developed this season?
January 1st, 2020 at 8:52 PM ^
Oh, great. The offensive line “developed” and became “good” against MTSU, Rutgers, Maryland, and a depleted Michigan State defense. That should make me feel better about the Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa, and Alabama debacles.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:56 PM ^
You can just admit you didn’t watch the game today. FFS.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:12 PM ^
We scored sixteen points, gave up three sacks, got shutout in the second half, gained 109 yards and 7 first downs in the second half, and lost by 3 TD’s. What game did you watch? The “First Half Moral Victory Bowl”?
January 2nd, 2020 at 2:01 AM ^
"The 'First Half Moral Victory Bowl'?"
That should be a real bowl! We'd win it more often than not.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:57 PM ^
UM rushed for 148 yds vs Penn State and only 303 yds vs Notre Dame.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:59 PM ^
At the start of the year we couldn't run against Army. Today Zach Charbonnet had 6.5 ypc against Alabama. Blame our losses on a lot of things, but a lack of OL development wasn't one of them.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:22 PM ^
The run game was doing really well in the 1st half. I don't know why they went away from it in the 2nd half.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:34 PM ^
It was probably a function of Shea playing a terrible game and there not being much of a passing threat.
January 2nd, 2020 at 9:12 AM ^
Sigh.
Again, this whole thing is because Greg McElroy made a comment during the first drive and you imbeciles latched onto it.
Look at the play by play & note the score at the time. What many of you morons think happened didn't.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/playbyplay?gameId=401135286
January 2nd, 2020 at 5:55 AM ^
Did you actually watch the bowl game? The pass pro was damn near immaculate and the run blocking was really good till Bama figured out Shea couldn't pass. This was all against Alabama
January 1st, 2020 at 8:45 PM ^
Name a transfer who won more games away from Michigan than Michigan did...all our transfers go down in competition, not up
January 1st, 2020 at 8:47 PM ^
St. Juste.
I win
January 1st, 2020 at 9:24 PM ^
You're not supposed to bring up things like that. You're supposed to be in the ditch of misery with these other guys here. ;-)
January 1st, 2020 at 11:02 PM ^
St. Juste is a unique situation to be honest. Michigan was trying to do what they think is best for him and their doctors would not clear him to play. Minny was willing to so he transferred. Michigan definitely wanted St. Juste on the team and he would have gotten minutes. But it was like the Ondre Pipkins deal. Michigan didn’t want to clear either for football.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:48 PM ^
Then that tells you they probably shouldn’t have been recruited in the first place that’s on the coaching staff
January 1st, 2020 at 11:45 PM ^
So you propose the coaches should be able to forecast players future injuries?
There’s never any shortage of ridiculous takes on this site but this right here is up there with some of the most ridiculous.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:52 PM ^
This o-line was really good. Warinner is excellent.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:52 PM ^
This o-line was really good. Warinner is excellent.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:01 PM ^
You should probably cry some more.
January 1st, 2020 at 11:57 PM ^
Pretty much guaranteed that the school he goes to will win less than Michigan next year and will have put fewer OL prospects into the pros than Michigan has over the past 5 years.
January 2nd, 2020 at 1:00 AM ^
Oh sure. He'll be starting at OSU next year ?
January 1st, 2020 at 8:44 PM ^
This is a big surprise to me.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:44 PM ^
Immediate thought? He’s going to go to a smart school for a master’s degree and decided to vary his undergrad and grad. I bet it will end up being a good business school for a free MBA
January 1st, 2020 at 9:12 PM ^
Same here. Some quick guesses without any deep thought (and assuming that he's not thinking NFL):
- Rice
- Stanford
- Berkeley (This is almost a Michigan tradition. Bunting, Ways, Crawford ...)
- Duke (He could join Woods.)
- UVa (I think he was committed to them at one point.)
January 2nd, 2020 at 2:04 AM ^
Illinois? Is he friends with Peters?
January 1st, 2020 at 8:47 PM ^
We will always have Notre Dame... Good Luck!
January 1st, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
We must lead the country in potential starters transferring. Aubrey Solomon would probably have started at one of the D Tackle positions. Tarik would start at one of the outside receiver positions if Nico and DPJ go pro. Spanellis could start at one of the interior OL positions.