deuce spurlock

The portal has giveneth at linebacker and now it will takeneth:

Spurlock redshirted this year, playing a total of ten snaps in the early-season walkovers. That means he was definitively behind classmate Jimmy Rolder, who got meaningful snaps across the back half of the season including OSU and TCU. When Michigan took Ernest Hausmann in the portal that looked like two guys in his class year who were ahead of him on the depth chart at a spot with two starters. Thus: this.

Star-hounds will shrug since Spurlock was the #995 composite recruit last year; around here it's still disappointing, as you'd like to hold on to guys at a spot like LB where it often takes a while to know what you've got. The circumstances here made that a hard sell, evidently. Spurlock's departure does not affect the scholarship count since that doesn't exist anymore at Michigan because of NIL.

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Previously: Podcast 14.0A, 14.0B, 14.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Offensive Tackle. Interior OL. Defensive Interior. Edge. 

INSIDE LINEBACKER: HAVE THE KIDS GONE TO SCHOOL?

RATING: 3

Depth Chart

NOTE: this piece is dealing with the true ILBs, excluding all the EDGE-like players. Players like Jaylen Harrell were discussed in the EDGE preview and will not be talked about here. 

The 2021 Michigan defense had one primary weakness. The edge rushers gobbled up all-conference tackles for breakfast, the defensive tackles held their own against the run, the corners managed to fight blow for blow with Ohio State's receivers, and the safeties included an athletic marvel who was impossible to edge, a trusty centerfielder who rarely ever busted, and several ahead-of-the-curve youngsters getting better each week. But linebacker? That was the the giant glaring weak spot on the defense. 

Michigan's linebacker room last season was set up to fail in several ways. For one, they lost Cam McGrone a year too early, perhaps the greatest example of a player making a poor decision to leave school to early in recent Michigan memory. Rather than rehabbing his ACL in school and coming back to be the man in the middle of an excellent Michigan defense, McGrone bolted to be a 5th rounder who, after one season, was cut by the team who drafted him. Losing McGrone deprived the LB room of one surefire and (likely excellent) starter, but it also further decimated an already thin LB room. 

Secondly, the LB room was set up to fail by transitioning defensive schemes, moving into one with Mike Macdonald that placed extra pressure on them to clean up mistakes that popped up in the 5-2 defensive front. A ton was thrown on their plate, and the loss of McGrone meant that most of that was put on the plate of very young players. Josh Ross played the role of the old dog forced to learn new tricks after spending four years under Don Brown, while the kids were either true freshmen or second year players whose first year was the COVID season. In other words, a whole bunch of guys starting from square one. 

The result was mostly what you expected. Ross was given the hard stuff, for the most part, and did his best, but mental errors and his athletic limitations in coverage dragged down the baseline. The kids rotated in and out, flashing promise and high potential but only occasionally knowing what was going on. Teams like Penn State, Nebraska, and Georgia tortured them with Sixty Minutes of Linebacker Hell, and the pieces beyond those kids were even worse, with the exception of one former VIPER who re-emerged when they reincarnated the position in a minor role. 

Now Ross departs, the Not A Viper is still around but is probably not a true ILB, and the kids are our only hope. Have they gone to school? We'll soon find out. 

IS HE RUNNING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?

[Patrick Barron]

The athletic marvel of this positional group and arguably the biggest X-Factor on the Michigan defense is one JUNIOR COLSON [recruiting profile]. Colson's story is unique and memorable, a Haitian who endured the tragic earthquake and was placed up for adoption by his family with the hopes he could obtain a better life in America. That led him to the Colson family in Tennessee at age 9, a family that had ties to U of M and would help guide Junior to Ann Arbor. He didn't know about football until he got to America and was late at picking up the sport even after he got to the States.

[AFTER THE JUMP: No. Serious. Injuries. Please.]

Previously: Last year’s profiles. S Damani Dent, S/Nk Zeke Berry, S/HSP Keon Sabb, CB Myles Pollard, CB/Nk Kody Jones, CB Will Johnson.

Madison, AL – 6'2”, 220
[EJ Holland, via Rivals]		247: 6'2/200     3.47*	3*, 86, #108 LB, #41 AL
		Rivals: 6'2/220     3.40*	3*, 5.5 not ranked
		ESPN: 6'2/200     3.59*	3*, 78, #334 SE #52 OLB, #30 AL
		On3: 6'2/220     3.52*	3*, 86, #35 ATH, #37 AL
		Composite:     3.56*	3*, 0.8560, #1014 ovr #93 LB, #41 AL
		Other Suitors	SEC mids, BC
		YMRMFSPA	Nikhai Hill-Green
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post by me.
Notes	Twitter. Instagram.
Film:
Game highlights from Rivals. Junior film (at safety).

From our most scouted 2022 signee to the least!

Now that we've Michigan's incredible secondary class, we have to talk about how Michigan's linebacker recruiting went down. Whereas Don Brown was finding value with his Doom Rodentia, the new staff wanted NFL length, athleticism, versatility, and coverage. Boxy Brown commit Tyler Martin followed Brown out the door, and shoe-in Josh Burnham drifted off to Notre Dame. Despite a valiant, Devin Bush Jr.-level pursuit, they failed to pry system-ideal target/born Ute Lander Barton out of Utah. Michigan puppy dogged after Sebastian Cheeks long after that seemed lost, and seemed sure they would get Jeremy Patton over Texas, right up until Patton chose Baylor. In the meantime they let Aaron Alexander, an undersized, injured, Go Blue guy running back at Belleville, ride at the back of the class until they found him a landing spot with Brown's UMass.

The other LB recruit outside the top-1000 they were keeping in their back pocket was a much better kept secret, and also one they were close to losing when they thought Patton was in the bag. When that went down, Michigan had to dispatch their recruiting A-team to reconnect with a recruit who, on the surface (6'2"/200, #93 LB, #1014 overall), was indistinguishable from Alexander (6'1"/205, #102 LB, #1064 overall). In a rare leak of internal scouting/discord, insiders learned that there was some anger that Spurlock's pursuit had lapsed, especially once they had their hands on the next wave of film.

Despite appearances, Timothy Spurlock II was NOT Alexander. One of several prospects Courtney Morgan introduced them to, a growth spurt shot Spurlock from a faster than average 200-pound safety to a wide-chested, 220-pound (more by the looks of it) linebacker. He lost none of the speed, and his team took advantage of that versatility like a (mid-level Alabama division) high school version of Micah Parsons, allowing him to cover the slot, rush off the edge, or attack inside gaps. Michigan had him up for a workout in early summer 2021 and shot him up their short list. South Carolina was involved when Michigan hopped to the front of the line, Florida made a serious, last-minute run, and Auburn was always on Michigan's heels, including after an offer/visit combo meant to prevent Spurlock from committing in the first place. Had Michigan let off the gas a fraction longer, or not been flooring it to the finish line, they might not have made it.

Sometimes when a program misses out on their A list they take pains to portray Option B as the equal. The vibe from State Street is they thought 4-stars Barton and Patton were the best two LBs in the country, and Spurlock was on par with Cheeks (top-150). Unfortunately they don't make their scouting public, and those who do were so late to this game they barely bothered. Maybe if we read between the lines we can tease out what Michigan thinks they "settled" for.