2023 recruiting profiles

The Profiles: 2022’s Last Take, K Adam Samaha, K James Turner (Tr), S Brandyn Hillman, CB DJ Waller, CB Cameron Calhoun, CB Jyaire Hill, CB Josh Wallace (Tr), HSP/LB Jason Hewlett, LB Hayden Moore, LB Semaj Bridgeman, LB Ernest Hausmann (Tr), OLB Breeon Ishmail, DE Aymeric Koumba, DE Enow Etta, DE Josaiah Stewart (Tr), DT Brooks Bahr, DT Cameron Brandt, DT Trey Pierce, OT Evan Link, OT Myles Hinton (Tr), OT LaDarius Henderson (Tr), OG Nathan Efobi, IOL Amir Herring, OC Drake Nugent (Tr), TE Deakon Tonielli, TE Zack Marshall, TE AJ Barner (Tr), WR Semaj Morgan, WR Fredrick Moore, WR Karmello English, RB Benjamin Hall, RB Cole Cabana, ATH Kendrick Bell, QB Jack Tuttle (Tr)

I'm half a year behind our normal schedule for this series, but I managed to get the last three written up in February. Now it's time to wrap. Because this is coming so late however, I think we need to contextualize some relevant dates for this cycle.

• 2019-'20 (freshmen in high school): COVID starts in March. 7v7s and spring camps canceled, sophomore summer camp seasons interrupted.
• 2020-'21 (sophomore): Pandemic. Seasons canceled or delayed. Visits and scouting are off. This is when most players would have normally been scouted so evaluations are lacking. Michigan retains Harbaugh on the cheap but overhauls staff with Hart, Bellamy, Mac, Helow, Linguist, Sherrone promoted to OLs. In May Linguist leaves for Buffalo, Clinkscale hired. Supreme Court issues its opinion on NCAA vs Alston in June.
• 2021-'22 (junior). NCAA issues its "Interim Policy" on NIL in September, opening the floodgates. By December most large programs are openly using NIL as pay-for-play. Michigan beats Ohio State, loses to Georgia in the Playoff Semis. Courtney Morgan leaves for Washington in December. Nua leaves for USC in early Jan. Mac to Ravens. Harbaugh interviews with Vikings. Gattis leaves for Miami-YTM in February, M hires Minter, Newsome, and Elston; Sherrone and Weiss made co-OCs. Rise of collectives. Harbaugh: "We're transformational not transactional."
• 2022-'23 (senior). Michigan goes undefeated in regular season, wins B10 again. Class signed in December. M loses to TCU in Semis, Weiss fired. Harbaugh flirts with NFL: "Can't out-happy happy." Helow, Weiss replaced with Partridge & Campbell.

IT IS A B+ CLASS WITH AN 'A' FOR TRANSFERS

This class was more spray than the relatively laser 2022 class. Despite two straight trips to the Playoff, this class was hampered by a new NIL era,the recruiting market's own overreactions, and a lack of available playing time on a roster stacked for a national championship run (it was a success), but also by themselves.

The result was Michigan stocked up on as many high ceilings as they could get their hands on:

It moves up to an 'A-' class if you count the transfers, though. I was pretty high on all of them but Tuttle (Wallace joined too late for a writeup), and perhaps too high on Henderson only.

This was really hard to grade though because there are so many projects. A positional rundown, with transfers in parentheticals:

• QB: F (C). Bell moved to WR immediately, Tuttle a 6th year career backup. Would have been nice to have a JJ successor in the wings, or just another competitor.
• RB: A-. No superstars but both guys expected to be major contributors.
• WR: B+. Smallish except for Bell, but all expected to play above their rankings.
• TE: B- (A). Far be it from me to question Michigan TE recruiting but Loveland sets a new bar. I claim the title of blog chief of saw it coming with Barner.
• OL: C+ (A). Two high floors (Link, Herring) and a ceiling (Efobi) is a small class for the 2x Joe Moore winners. I thought the transfers were outstanding.
• DT: B. I really like Pierce. Even if you file Brandt and Bahr here, I wanted another pure DT because OMG and KG aren't gonna be here 4 years.
• Edge: B+ (B+). Etta should get more talk, the rest are DE/DTs (Brandt) or high-upside projects. I thought Stewart was Mike Danna.
• LB: B (A+). Everyone loves Hewlett's ceiling but Hayden Moore seems like a find. Bridgman, eh. Hausmann's gonna be a star.
• S: C+. Brandyn Hillman was a good pull, but needed more than one high-upside positional convert.
• CB: A- (B). Jyaire Hill is a future 1st rounder, DJ Waller is a wild card, Calhoun didn't stick around; I thought he was more of a floor than a catch. Trying to grade Wallace on what I thought when he committed; he'd be an A from what we know today.
• SP: B+. Samaha was born to go to Michigan, but the history of #1 Kornblue Ks is encouraging.

[After THE JUMP: A lot of upside, a few whiffs].

Previously: 2022’s profiles, K Adam Samaha, K James Turner (Tr), S Brandyn Hillman, CB DJ Waller, CB Cameron Calhoun, CB Jyaire Hill, HSP/LB Jason Hewlett, LB Hayden Moore, LB Semaj Bridgeman, LB Ernest Hausmann (Tr), OLB Breeon Ishmail, DE Aymeric Koumba, DE Enow Etta, DE Josaiah Stewart (Tr), DT Brooks Bahr, DT Cameron Brandt, DT Trey Pierce, OT Evan Link, OT Myles Hinton (Tr), OT LaDarius Henderson (Tr), OG Nathan Efobi, IOL Amir Herring, OC Drake Nugent (Tr), TE Deakon Tonielli, TE Zack Marshall, TE AJ Barner (Tr), WR Semaj Morgan, WR Fredrick Moore, WR Karmello English, RB Benjamin Hall, RB Cole Cabana, ATH Kendrick Bell, QB Jack Tuttle (Tr)

San Marcos (Mission Hills), CA – 6'4''/210
		Transfer Rankings
		247	3.03* As Fr: 4.46*	3*, 84, #57 QB #800 Ovr
		On3	2.95* As Fr: n/a	3*, 85, #74 QB not ranked
		Rivals	3.00* As Fr: 4.46*	3*, 5.6, #65 QB #851 Ovr
		ESPN	n/a As fr: 3.76*	n/a
		H.S. Composites
		247	0.9321, #167 Ovr, #8 PRO, #25 CA
		On3	92.55, #163 Ovr, #14 QB, #25 CA
		MGo	4.32*, #207/804 Ovr, #16/43 QBs
		YMRMFSPA
		Shea Patterson
Other Suitors:	Mizzou, Rutgers
Previously on MGoBlog:	Portal In by Alex, Spring game
Notes:	2018 Utah commit, IU 2019-'22
Film
My clips. HS highlights.

We're going to do this one a little differently, since Tuttle's pretty different. By rights we should be at the end of Tuttle's career right now, not writing up the piece that goes at the beginning. We'll make one-time exception here for a 7th year senior who was a backup at Indiana that transferred to be a backup at Michigan and probably wasn't expecting to get another year after that. Now eligible, Tuttle is in line to start for Michigan in 2024. So let's see what that looks like.

What's his story?

You mean how is he eligible? Here's a rundown:

• 2018: REDSHIRT at Utah.
• 2019: RS freshman at Indiana (5 games).
• 2020: COVID year at Indiana (3 games, 1 start)
• 2021: RS sophomore year at Indiana (7 games, 1 start)
• 2022: MEDSHIRT year at Indiana (1 game)
• 2023: RS junior year at Michigan (6 games)
• 2024: RS senior year at Michigan.

Tuttle was a 2018 prospect on Michigan's recruiting radar because they were the school hardest after Tuttle's Mission Hills teammate Chris Olave. The Wolverines ultimately got Joe Milton (and added transfer Shea Patterson) in that class, and Tuttle went to Utah. A four-star recruit, Tuttle was immediately in the mix to start, but was still third on the depth chart behind Snoop Huntley (now the Ravens backup) and Jason Shelley, a future FCS starter. Tuttle got frustrated and left the team in early October so he could enroll in time for winter classes at Indiana and be eligible in fall.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest]

Previously: 2022’s profiles, K Adam Samaha, K James Turner (Tr), S Brandyn Hillman, CB DJ Waller, CB Cameron Calhoun, CB Jyaire Hill, HSP/LB Jason Hewlett, LB Hayden Moore, LB Semaj Bridgeman, LB Ernest Hausmann (Tr), OLB Breeon Ishmail, DE Aymeric Koumba, DE Enow Etta, DE Josaiah Stewart (Tr), DT Brooks Bahr, DT Cameron Brandt, DT Trey Pierce, OT Evan Link, OT Myles Hinton (Tr), OT LaDarius Henderson (Tr), OG Nathan Efobi, IOL Amir Herring, OC Drake Nugent (Tr), TE Deakon Tonielli, TE Zack Marshall, TE AJ Barner (Tr), WR Kendrick Bell, WR Semaj Morgan, WR Fredrick Moore, WR Karmello English, RB Benjamin Hall, RB Cole Cabana

Kansas City (Park Hill), MO – 6'3''/180
		Rankings
		247	3.28* 6'3/180	3*, 86, NR Ovr #97 QB, #25 MO
		On3	3.70* 6'2/170	3*, 88, NR Ovr #24 QB, #12 MO
		Rivals	3.40* 6'3/180	3*, 5.6, NR Ovr #49 ATH, #24 MO
		ESPN	3.46* 6'2/170	3*, 77, #218 Midlands #19 DUAL, #21 MO
		Composites
		247	0.8689, #844 Ovr, #60 QB, #20 MO
		On3	85.45, #1034 Ovr, #53 QB, #22 MO
		MGo	3.48*, #713/804 Ovr, #81/85 WRs
		YMRMFSPA
		Donaven McCully (IU)
Other Suitors:	UMass, Northern Iowa
Previously on MGoBlog:	Hello by yours truly (12/15/2022).
Notes:	Brother of Ronnie Bell. Twin of Marqueas Bell. Simone Award.
Film
Senior Highlights: Hudl.

This is Ronnie's brother, so very Michigan fan is on board. That's good, since like Ronnie there isn't much from the scouting services to go on. Via an interview with Ronnie by Alejandro Zuniga, it was Ronnie himself who started showing his brother's tape to Michigan staff:

“I thought I was crazy,” Ronnie said. “Last year, it was his first time starting at quarterback or whatever, and I mean, dude, he was just going bananas. He had like five, six, touchdowns some games. So I showed Coach [Steve] Casula who was on staff last year. I'm like, ‘Yo, will you watch my little brother? Am I crazy or is he really, really good?’ Maybe I'm just biased because he’s my brother.

Casula (now back with Michigan as TEs coach) became the OC at UMass, and extended Kendrick his first offer in January. Michigan came along in September. Bell:

“Coach was telling me, ‘No, he's really good.’ And this year, he grew even more to became even stronger, more athletic, more comfortable, throwing — whatever, blah blah blah. Oh my gosh, he must have scored like freaking 20 touchdowns in the first four games or something crazy. And so then I showed Coach Harbaugh again because it was the same feeling I was feeling. It's like, ‘Am I crazy? Or is he like really good?’ And yeah, Coach Harbaugh loved him and offered him. So that was crazy how that all played out.”

We figured when he committed that a move to receiver—or possibly cornerback or safety—was in the future. Turns out Bell's quarterbacking career didn't survive fall camp. That's un-good news for the class's one nominal (non-transfer) quarterback recruit, but probably a good sign for Bell. When you figure out what position the rest of your life is, you want the rest of your life to start right away.

[After THE JUMP: Ronnie Bell's scouting report may be the most accurate?]

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