THE PHONEBOOKS ARE HERE

This morning the football program updated the weights and heights of the official spring roster, which previously published measurements from last fall, and then at 3 today they published the rest. That gift gave me enough lead time to arrange my annual weight gain/loss chart, without all the "here's the new walk-ons and numbers" analysis the American Society of Completionists demands.

Remember the rules: All weight gain is muscle, all weight lost was fat, and all guys who remained the same did so by replacing fat with muscle. I'll highlight the changes worth talking about.

Freshmen Note: Early enrollees' spring weights, and fall enrollees' weights that were previously on MGoBlue are listed under 2018, since those are mostly from high school weigh-ins.

[Hit THE JUMP for the position-by-position excessively optimistic obsessiveness]

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Quarterback: At 245 Joe Milton is a…I really don't like to say this word guys…unit. While Ninja Shea and his gazelle of a backup are in the way for now, that redshirt freshman behind them remains quite an intriguing prospect down the road. I seem to recall another team that had a rocket-armed giant third string QB who worked out sorta well.

Running Back: I'm a little disappointed that Christian Turner isn't a bit heavier since he looked scrawny last year, but really there's no change here and there wasn't expected to be.

Receiver: Ditto. And like Turner I wanted to see a few more pounds on Ronnie Bell going into his second year. It's nice to see that Cornelius Johnson came in at 209, which is sized to play immediately. If it looks like they won't get at least two guys back from this year's trio, I'd expect them to work Johnson in.

Tight End: One of the offseason notes in my first Football Bits draft of the fall is the staff is really happy with McKeon, who really did drop fat and build muscle to come back at what they think his ideal playing weight should be.

Both redshirt freshmen really progressed. Mustapha Muhammad looked a year away from competing last year. Now he's up to 261 on the roster. If he's still a top passing threat, that's getting into Kaiju territory. Luke Schoonmaker was up 11 pounds, but at 242 he's still on the long-term plan.

Offensive Tackle: Collectively, the current OT two-deep has added 124 pounds  in two years.

• Starting left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. isn't any taller but he's up 33 pounds since Herbert got here.
• Andrew Steuber is now 334—in case you were worried Onwenu wouldn't have a bash brother now that Juwann Bushell-Beatty's gone.
• But Not So Fast My Friend: Redshirt freshman Jalen Mayfield is 319, up 44(!) pounds from when he arrived, and another 20 pounds from his junior to senior years of high school. The transformation is complete.
• Redshirt freshman Ryan Hayes is 1 pound short of 300. He was 250 pounds and listed as a tight end when he got here a year ago.

A reminder that Hayes and Mayfield were "Frey types" and the question with those is usually whether they can gain the weight. Ben Herbert and Abigail O'Connor, come out and take a bow. Frey-type true freshman Trente Jones (294) arrived 12 pounds heavier than expected, and could be ready to compete as early as next year.

Guard and Center: Onwenu has finally completed his long journey from Jennifer Lawrence Okay dot gif "350" to 350.

There was a lot of same over the rest of the two-deep. I don't know what to make of Chuck Filiaga staying at exactly 341 because he came in a break-down-then-build-up guy. Reading Joel Honigford is down to 284 is a disappointment because he came in one of those super-flexy prospects to hang muscle on. He was 295 last year, and seemed poised to pass 300 and be in the first group competing to replace Bredeson and Onwenu next year. This is a A LOT to read into a silly weight metric, but I was burned by following Lloyd Carr's OG recruiting back when that entailed buying magazines to do it, and recall all too many guys who came in at 270 and got stuck at 285. It'll be interesting to see him on the field this year, or if someone else gets on the field before him.

Speaking of that competition: wow the freshmen reported big. Nolan Rumler is already 321(!!) to go with the chatter he looks ready to see the field immediately. The other guy they said will definitely get his four was Zach Carpenter, who arrived at 320. Karsen Barnhart was supposed to be a Frey-type but already Herberted up past 300. Even Jack Stewart came in near plausible playing weight. That sound you hear is Michigan State's ultra-light line looking at the pile of sandwiches we had prepared like "you gonna finish that?"

Say the words and I'll give you a piece.

Defensive Tackle: The three-tech spot saw the most movement. Michael Dwumfour was working back from injury so it's not surprising he wasn't able to add much—282 is still a bit light. I'm also worried about Carlo Kemp, who once played linebacker for a few snaps, because I thought the plan was to have him bulk up more to take nose tackle. He maxed out at 286. That's bigger than a Bo middle guard, but pretty dang small for even a Renes-style modern nose. Reminder that his YMRMFSPA was Jibreel Black, who played DT his senior year, and was really too small to be doing so, because Michigan oddly wasn't willing to play Quintin Washington.

The spring hype winners both shifted dramatically, though in opposite directions. Donovan Jeter dropped 16 pounds after popping above 300 last year. That could be a good thing since they're expecting him to play 3-tech and try to get some pass rush. BEN MASON is still listed at DT and is up 16 pounds, which suggests he's been preparing. At 270 he's still not an every-down DT, and my guess is that move is a specialty thing that doesn't pull ol' Murder Face away from fullbackian things permanently.

The good news: Chris Hinton arrived over 300 pounds, which is LET'S GO weight. [Remembers when sites wouldn't re-rank him as a DT until the very end].

Defensive End: Here now we've got some interesting gains, because Brown has been stockpiling guys for the Rashan Gary/Chris Wormley position of Anchor, which is more of a DE/DT tweener job that lines up inside a TE than an MSU or OSU-style DE who lines up outside tight ends and does the most pass rushing. Kwity Paye (+17) and Aidan Hutchinson (+10) are now both in that 277-280 range where they could plausibly play inside, and certainly can handle B gaps from the Anchor position. Neither are weakside ends anymore. Behind them, our German mogulist Julius Welschof added 25(!!!) pounds to get into the same range as those guys. It's possible any of these guys could grow into 3-techs, or be used as such now against lighter/spread-er teams. Another 13 pounds on Gabe Newburg since he enrolled in spring are a good sign for a similar reason: his best self is a zone-murdering DT with some pass rush.

We've lost some girth on the Winovich side. Taylor Upshaw is down 6 pounds when he was hoped to grow into an anchor or tackle—at 240 he doesn't seem ready for much more than spot snaps as a pass rusher. Luigi Vilain is down 11 pounds, to 244. That's more of a mystery because he wasn't able to work out much last year, but 244 for him sounds more like a Uche role than the every-down player Winovich became.

Speaking of Josh Uche, he's past the 250 mark (up 12 pounds) that I mentally consider the beginning of the curve for guys who can stand to TE/T double-teams. Uche was 217 when he first stepped on campus so he's come a very long way. With Danna around Uche doesn't have to be on the field every down, but it's no longer a certainty that our best pass rusher has to wait for passing downs to ply his trade.

Linebacker: Not a lot of movement here, and not a lot expected after last year, when Hudson (+15), Glasgow (+13), Gil (+11) and Anthony (+9) were all growing from tweeners into the right size for regular work. Josh Ross (+7) is up to 232, a smallish MLB, but then that's the style these days. Cam McGrone didn't have far to go but he's also past the 230 mark. Michael Barrett is close at 227 to go with his official move from viper to the inside linebacker depth chart. All three freshmen arrived well larger than expected, with Charles Thomas already playing weight (233) for MLB, Anthony Solomon at least at big safety size and into the Viper range, and Joey Velazquez the same size as Uche when he got here.

Safety: Similar story to linebacker, except the senior Josh Metellus (+14) is now a very buff 218, echoing the (arguably unhelpful) transformation of last year's defensive co-captain Tyree Kinnel from normal-sized junior to rocked up senior. It's good to see Sammy Faustin, a member of 2017's Team Long and Lanky, who's up 8 pounds to 195, though the question with him is more one of whether he's got the speed and agility to play man against slots.

Cornerback: The good news is Ambry Thomas is listed at 182, just one pound below where he was last year and the same weight as Lavert Hill. The bad news is I had a report he was in the upper 190s by the bowl season last year, so he's down perhaps as much as 17 pounds from the mysterious stomach ailment. Also Jaylen Kelly-Powell lost four pounds, putting him at just 180. In fact the heaviest cornerback on the roster right now is 190-pound true freshman Jalen Perry. It's not that they're not climbing—Gemon Green leads the group at +6—and you don't expect corners to grow that much. But I was hoping one of the tall guys would fill out more. The last bullet here is DJ Turner II, who at least isn't the 165 his profile used to show.

The New Numbers

Not counting walk-ons, here are the fall enrollees' numbers for your rostering enjoyment:

OFFENSE:

• 6 –Cornelius Johnson (other than Je'Ron Stokes I can't think of another #6 WR)
• 15 – Giles Jackson (Breaston)
• 22 – George Johnson, who's listed at WR. (Bo-era wingback number: Glenn Doughty, Ralph Clayton, also Darryl Stonum)
• 52 – Karsen Barnhart (Mason Cole, Rod Payne, Steve Schilling, Ricky Barnum, Jim Czirr, Chris Ziemann)
• 53 – Trente Jones (Tom Cecchini, Jerry Goebel, Jim Hackett, Guy Murdock)
• 55 – Nolan Rumler (Andy Christopfel, David Dawson)
• 58 – Zach Carpenter (John Ghindia, Bill Muir, John Padjen, Chris Bryant,
• 70 – Jack Stewart (Arnie Simkus, Nolan Ulizio, George Genyk, James D. Hall, Jeremy Ciulla, Mark Erhardt)
• 77 – Trevor Keegan (Long, Lewan, Jansen, Art Walker, Guy Curtis, Trezelle, Grant Newsome, Will Ohlenroth, Tony Pape)

DEFENSE:

• 4 – Mike Danna (Reuben Jones)
• 5 – DJ Turner II (Peppers, Courtney Avery, Charles Stewart, James Whitley)
• 9 – Joey Velazquez (McCray, Marrell Evans)
• 10 – Anthony Solomon (Devin Bush, Derek Howard was the HSP of his day)
• 13 – Charles Thomas (Larry Stevens but he moved to DE. Keith Bostic but he moved to DB)
• 15 – Chris Hinton (Chase Winovich)
• 23 – Quinten Johnson (Tyree Kinnel, Dave Bedsun, John Zingales, Woody Hankins, Louis Kovacs, father of Jordan)
• 30 – Daxton Hill (Brad Cochran, Freddy Baer, Thomas "Prison Abs" Gordon, Markus Curry, Andre Weathers, Stevie Brown for a year)
• 80 – Michael Morris (Alan Branch)