gemon green may have apologizedto the gypsy
Bad NFL. This Instagram post says Green is declaring for the draft:
Green came a very long way in five seasons at Michigan; staying with receivers was never a problem, but he had to work very hard on his ball skills when the pass arrived. His rare combination of size, speed, and athleticism should see him test well and land in a good spot. A lot of NFL teams run base Cover-1 switch defenses, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone better prepared for that than a Don Brown cornerback who spent the last two years running Michigan's complicated, Ravens-esque coverages.
Michigan had hoped to get back one of its starting corners to pair with Will Johnson next year. Instead they're going to have to find one from what they have on campus or hit the portal.
OPTION 1: ELEVATE A CORNERBACK
The next guys on the depth chart last year were walk-on Keshaun Harris and Gemon's twin German, but neither's played any significant snaps. Jalen Perry, who was backup at nickel, has, but not since 2020 MSU. In younger options, Ja'Den McBurrows lost 2021 and 2022 to injury; the program has hinted he's another DJ Turner. RS freshmen Kody Jones and Myles Pollard, and true freshmen Jyaire Hill and Cam Calhoun will get their shots, though I need to warn you, not for the last time this offseason, that Michigan's complicated coverages were hard enough to pick up that it took most polished freshman of all time Will Johnson most of the season to get it down, and Hill played free safety in high school.
OPTION 2: MOVE SAINRISTIL TO CB, ELEVATE A SAFETEY
This would almost certainly mean drawing RJ Moten back into the lineup and moving Rod Moore to nickel (lifting Moten or Paige when they go 4-3 or 5-2). This is probably the default option. Moten was reportedly practicing with the linebackers, but that was after they moved Mullings to RB; Michigan's LB situation is about to get a lot more depth. They also redshirted three excellent safety prospects in Zeke Berry, Damani Dent, and Keon Sabb, all of whom seem more likely to challenge for playing time than the cornerback options I listed.
OPTION 3: PORTAL!
Plug & play portal options are slim since the first wave of stay/leave decisions has come and gone. Top CBs in the transfer market like Fentrell Cypress (UVa->FSU), Duce Chestnut (Cuse->LSU), Tony Grimes (UNC->A&M), Marquis Groves-Killebrew (A&M->L'ville), and Storm Duck (UNC->PSU) have already found homes. A few plausible names remaining:
- Iowa Jr/5th Terry Roberts. Backup CB who started a few games in 2022 but has lost a lot of time the last two years to injury. Originally from Erie; PSU was recruiting him but just got Duck.
- LSU freshman Jaelyn Davis-Robinson. Track star Brian Kelly was recruiting under the radar to Notre Dame and followed him to LSU, played in 3 games but preserved his redshirt.
- ECU Jr/Sr Juan Powell. Played safety & cornerback. Left his team at halftime of the bowl game.
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Substitution Notes: Penn State spent most of the day with multiple TEs on the field but used them primarily as receivers. Michigan was answering with nickel personnel. DT snaps were ~90% Smith, 60% Jenkins, 40% Graham, 25% Benny and a few appearances of Grant but not Goode. Edge saw more Okie than Harrell and lots more Upshaw and Moore, with McGregor not playing till the last drive. LB was Colson/Barrett with Mullings in on a couple of 2nd half passing downs and Rolder playing late. Will Johnson got more snaps when Green got hurt but he returned; Turner was omnipresent. Sainristil came off for an extra DL sometimes. Safety was mostly Paige and Moore but Moten came in as a dimeback and Quinten Johnson got a couple of drives that I assume would have gone to Caden Kolesar.
Formation Notes: I treated flexed TEs as WRs since PSU did as much, but noted the personnel. PSU had a screen formation they ran off their first (non goal line) first down (which was in the 2nd half) that I called Gun Trips WIDE.
Also we've taken to calling all passing down weird formations "Exotic" but this one came out twice (both key downs) and was dubbed SUPERKINGKONGMEGAMEGA Split until I shortened it to SUPER for table purposes.
On with the show.
[After THE JUMP: A short show]
Helpful: The UFR Glossary. Final reminder: Eyabi [was Anoma]'s name is now Eyabi Okie.
Substitution Notes: With scrub season over the depth chart compressed down to 20 guys in the rotation and 22 who played total. M also went small in this one, matching 12 personnel with a nickel and 11 personnel with Makari Paige in for a linebacker. Goode was the 4th DT to play but got bowled around and Benny came in. On the other side, UMD kept trying to get weird matchups with 2 or 3 RBs, multiple tight ends doing WR or RB things, etc.
Formation Notes: Nothing new. Reminder that a position in a parenthetical means he's covered and "Fritz" is a pistol with the QB flanked by two more RBs (or an RB and TE, whatever). L'shanah Tovah!
[After THE JUMP: Oh right, this is what it's like to play a Big Ten team.]
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