This one turned into a beast as I ran into a lot of close decisions and had to watch a lot of Wolverine Historian'd Michigan victories on the youtubes to get them right. The things I do for you people.

Previously: Pro Offense/Pro Defense, 1879-Before Bo, 5-Stars, 3-Stars, Extracurriculars, Position-Switchers, Highlights, Numbers Offense/Numbers Defense, In-State, Names, Small Guys, Big Guys

Rules: Scoring the way we might with Upon Further Review or Pro Football Focus, i.e. overall positive impact minus negative impact. Eligible seasons are those where the guy played with freshman eligibility (you can be a redshirt freshman but not retroactively). Also we're grading only on that freshman season, not what came before or after.

Freshman Eligibility: With a few wartime exceptions and some irregularities from back when college football was 'Nam, from 1896 (the formation of the Big Ten) until 1972 freshmen in football were not eligible to compete on varsity. Instead they had freshman teams, who often played on Monday nights. It's way beyond my capabilities for some offseason #content to read every account of every freshman game from the 20th century, so only varsity freshmen are going to count here.

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Quarterback: Chad Henne (2004)

Lloyd Carr promised a battle for the job of replacing John Navarre. The candidates were RS sophomore Matt Gutierrez, who had never lost a game in high school, RS freshman southpaw (and future South Side-er) Clayton Richard, and the new five-star freshman yanked out of Penn State territory over the public objections of his head coach.

Coming out of spring the smart money was on Gutierrez, who'd wet his feet some in 2003. Nearing the end of fall practice that pick was locked in, and leaking out, along with rumors that the newcomer had replaced the future lefty reliever. Then during prep week to face Miami (NNTM) and Notre Dame, Gutierrez went down. A true freshman took the controls of the most NFL-like passing offense outside of the NFL.

Henne wasn't allowed to do much, especially early on. But he could do the one thing—the thing that would define his 2,743-yard, 25-TD (12-INT) freshman campaign. That is: throw it to Braylon. Henne's first long pass was a dead-on-balls fade to Braylon. His first touchdown was a 20-yard rocket to Braylon. His first 40-pass day included 18 in the direction Braylon. Of course, Braylonfest went in the direction of Braylon.

But as the season progressed Henne was picking up the offense. His Big Ten debut was a 16/26/236-yard performance against Iowa. He dispatched Indiana with lethal efficiency, and carried the offense the rest of the way. Though they lost to Ohio State (on a 27/54 day for Henne), a Wisconsin loss that day secured Michigan another trip to Pasadena.

Backup: Rick Leach (1975). Before I get attacked by an army of sexagenarians led by Dr. Sap, this is not a knock on Leach so much as recognition of Henne. If you did want to knock Leach, he wasn't much of a passer (32/100, 680 yards, 3 TDs, 12 INTs, 75.0 QBRtg) even in the context of his day. His rushing stats—611 yards/4.88 YPC and 5 TDs on 83 attempts—weren't great either. But the freshman had the right feel for the option, and that set up both RB Gordie Bell and FB Rob Lytle for 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Leach had a terrible Ohio State game, and while that motivated him to win three straight afterward, it didn't feel so great in '75.

HM: Tate Forcier (2009), Elvis Grbac (1989), Steven Threet (2008), Ryan Mallett (2007)

[AFTER THE JUMP: A more freshman year than 2004.]

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Running Back: Mike Hart (2004)

Fans have this moment with great players where they see something and decide they're going to latch their fandom to a guy. The trick is to try to capture it, by coining a nickname if you can, buying the jersey if all else fails.

There was a Kevin Costner date movie in the DVD rotation at the time where Costner is a veteran Tiger pitching a perfect game (Whether you liked the film or not depended on whether you liked baseball enough to carry the plot past the boring love story arc.) In this movie (spoiler alert) in the 9th inning a replacement-level outfielder named Mickey Hart, who's best known for a (Canseco's) blooper, robs a homer. The manager (played by J.K. Simmons) is flipper-clapping and going "Love ya, Mickey Hart.

So it's Michigan's third game of the 2004 season, a super-annoying contest against San Diego State after the loss at Notre Dame. Chris Perry had graduated, and former five-star Kelly Baraka was taking a thousand times more bong hits than handoffs. The depth chart was senior David Underwood, the previous year's freshman revelation Jerome Jackson, and the previous-previous year's revelation Pierre Rembert, with maybe a few carries trickling down to 4-star freshman Max Martin and "3-star" freshman Mike Hart.

Hart enters on the fifth series. At this point Jackson's line was two carries and one thundersack where the ball popped out for a pick-or-fumble-nearly-six. Number 20 runs on the field and I tell my dad that's Pierre Rembert, because, you know, Rembert wore 20 for his first two years. I want to say it was a draw on 2nd and long, because my memory's eye doesn't come back to the running back until he's stopped behind a wall of bodies at the line of scrimmage. The back—too small to be Rembert—makes a late cut after making a linebacker wrongside himself, then breaks an ankle tackle, spins past a safety, and a gets gang tackled at nine yards, churning that into thirteen. Grapentine announces "Michael Hart." I'm a self-appointed Michigan expert and my group's sports enthusiast, so when I see this I'm all over it: "Love ya Mickey Hart!"

For many reasons this did not take. One, I'm clearly in the minority on this movie. Two, MGoBlog didn't even exist yet and my voice carried all of two yards in the din of Michigan Stadium. Third, and most importantly, every Michigan fan had come to the same conclusion, or would long before I had a chance to associate myself with him through an appropriate panegyric. Three consecutive 200+ yard games in the back end of the season (including against MSU on a bum ankle) kicked off a borderline Heisman campaign, but I think his best game was the one that broke the streak, versus Northwestern, when Hart's devastating cut blocks opened up a couple of Breaston end-arounds and kept Henne clean all day. Results: 1487 yards at 5.2 YPC, 9 touchdowns, and a Rose Bowl, and one blue #20 Michigan jersey.

Backup: Ricky Powers (1991). So many good ones to choose from. A-Train made the 1997 Big Ten all-freshman team (in part for his work as a kick returner); Chris Evans had 7 YPC and 4 TDs on 88 carries in 2016, and who can forget Ty Wheatley in 1991? But let's go back one year before that, when universal five-star Ricky Powers debuted. That year Jon Vaughn and FB Jarrod Bunch returned as Michigan's established backfield combo, but by the end of the season Moeller had converted to a primarily one-back offense starting Ricky.

HM: Chris Evans (2016), Tyrone Wheatley (1991), Jamie Morris (1984) who got the start against Ohio State, Chris Perry (2000), Sam McGuffie (2008), Kevin Grady (2005), Justin Fargas (1998)

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Fullback: Jarrod Bunch (1987)

Bunch had a magnificent (redshirt) freshman season, displacing Phil Webb after two games and racking up a team second-best 405 yards and a TD on 105 carries, plus 66 yards receiving. Much of Jamie Morris's 1748-yard, 14-TD season can be attributed to Bunch and sophomore Leroy Hoard's lead blocks. Bunch got the majority of starts that year, but rotated often with Hoard and Webb as Michigan went to a lot of multi-fullback sets to keep their best players on the field.

Backup: A classmate of Harbaugh's, Dan Rice (1982) started eight games at fullback their first year on campus as Bo cast about for someone—anyone—to fill the loss of Stan Edwards. A compact, fearless ball of hate behind a gigantic pair of shoulder pads, freshman Rice was a capable multi-purpose complement for the Steve Smith/Lawrence Ricks option attack, and a plus receiver, adding 14 catches for 74 yards and two TDs to his 40 carries for 153 yards and a touchdown.  Rice would fall behind 1983 starter Greg Armstrong and classmates Eddie Garrett and Bob Perryman, then have some academic issues later in his career, spending 1984 at Washtenaw Community College. He evidently rejoined the team because he's in the 1985 team photo, though not on Bentley's official roster. Anyway his freshman year was by far his best.

HM: Mark Moundros (2007), Khalid Hill (2014), Sean Sanderson (2002), Burnie Legette (1989), Evan Coleman (1998), Demetrius Smith (1997), Eddie Garrett (1982), BEN MASON (2017), Jon Ritchie (1993) John Anes (1996), Roger Allison aka Sean Sanderson 2.0 (2004), Leo Schlict (1951—freshmen were eligible during the Korean War)

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Tight Ends: Jake Butt (2013) and Sean McKeon (2017)

The flex tight end position in 2013 was really a mix between Butt and Funchess—the Buttfunch tag lives—until sophomore Devin was finally flipped to receiver. What made that possible was the emergence of Butt, who didn't drop a single catchable pass, including this one:

His five catches for 85 yards and a touchdown on five targets against Ohio State was a big part of the reason that one goes in the pile of "shoulda/woulda" because he had the uncanny ability to make a catch when pass interference was turned off:

By that point he was featuring in a lot of Notre Dame-like formations with the TE flexed into the slot.

I'm also going to use up a flex position for the Butt-like redshirt freshman season of Sean McKeon, one of the few bright spots of a dismal 2017. McKeon wasn't Butt-like as a blocker; PFF rated Sean 29th in run-blocking among 291 qualifying tight ends. He particularly got adept at making those edge blocks on slants (at the top of the formation) that used to be the bane of Michigan running games. But McKeon was a little Butt-like:

Backup: Mark Schmerge (1975) had one catch for 13 yards his freshman year, but that might have been a third of Michigan's passing game (I'm exaggerating only a little). Mostly Schmerge was out there to block like a guy named Schmerge, and this he did ably (#82 at the bottom of the formation).

HM: Devin Asiasi (2016),  Devin Funchess (2012), Kevin Koger (2008), Pierre Cooper (1993), Tony Branoff (1952)

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Wide Receiver: Anthony Carter (1979) and Mario Manningham (2005)

According to Mr. Ufer we've still got a good 60 more years of saying "Wangler to Carter" before the point gets across. So let's call up to football's Valhalla once more to appreciate the fact this went to a freshman receiver despite the fact that they suck:

That was one of seven touchdowns on just 17 receptions (462 yards) for Carter in a Michigan passing offense just waking from its Bo-induced slumber. AC also electrified on returns.

The question of what an Anthony Carter might have looked like in a modern passing offense was answered, IMO, with the one bright moment of a season early MGoBlog dubbed "The Year of Infinite Pain." I speak of course of 2005, Mario Manningham, and the The New Math:

Doo-doo-doo doo-doo DOO!

Those were hardly the only coins Super Mario picked up his breakout season for a team badly missing its Braylon (Avant and Breaston were great, but not alphas). Manningham caught a TD against Notre Dame but emerged as a starter-like substance in Big Ten season by taking the top off the Badgers and Spartans. All told he caught 27 passes for 433 yards and 6 TDs, and also ran six end-arounds for 43 yards. But mostly you remember the 86=1 play, and how mad Penn State fans must be at Joe Paterno for successfully arguing to get two seconds—or "time tickies" in their parlance—put back on the clock on the previous drive.

Backups: While we're on the subject of freshman receivers who made season-defining catches, here's the guy they found for Jimmy Harbaugh to throw to who wasn't a tight end or a goofy tight end-sized receiver. I think all 12 of John Kolesar (1985)'s catches (and three TDs) that year are on that linked video. It feels like there should have been a lot more.

Also pretending like there was nobody between Carter and Kolesar does a major disservice to the underrated Vincent Bean (1981), who started every game his redshirt freshman season, catching 16 passes for 336 yards and a touchdown, including three for 61 yards against Ohio State, good for second on the team (AC's 952 yards/8 TDs was first).

HM: Amani Toomer (1992), Darryl Stonum (started 10 games in 2008), Donovan Peoples-Jones (2017), Greg McMurtry (1986), David Terrell (1998), Ken Higgins (1983), Tarik Black (2017), Jehu Chesson (2013), Greg Matthews (2006)

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Slot Receiver: Roy Roundtree (2009)

I'm using up the other flex position for a slot receiver because Roy Roundtree came outta nowhere to win the position that Rich Rodriguez's offense liked to feature despite being anything but a mini mountain goat (that was Odoms, the returning starter, who started the first eight games). Tree's 32 catches for 434 yards and 3 TDs over half a season extrapolates into one of the better receiving seasons in Michigan history, and the following year it did just that.

Backup: Martavious Odoms (2008)

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Offensive Tackles: Jeff Backus (1997) and Jon Jansen (1995)

Freshman Jansen is #77 at right tackle

There's an easy way to convey the fear we had going in to 1997 about the offensive line: Think about 2007, when, sure, we've got Jake Long, and that big freshman Boren should mature into a starter, and…well…anyone else? The answer in 2007 was Steve Schilling, and that went sub-par, but we were kinda okay going in because, hey, last time we got Jeff Backus. And that went better than it had any right to. Carr remarked after the Indiana game that the Hoosiers were slanting to the right (Jansen's) side all game because they didn't want any part of Michigan's freshman left.

And speaking of Jon Jansen, the big pile of meat locked down the right tackle job as a redshirt freshman and never relinquished it. The offense leaned way too heavily on the running game that year, in part because Fred Jackson believed in it, in part because they didn't trust Griese or Dreisbach, but it wasn't on Jansen. And that they were able to pull it off for nine wins with Biakabutuka carrying it as many times as the quarterbacks threw it was a testament to how tough it was to do something about Jansen and co. even when you knew what was coming.

Backups: Mason Cole (2014) was forced into playing out of position a year early because he was competent on an offensive line sorely lacking in that department, and that went well enough that he's still the standard we bring up when—largely as a consequence of that 2014 OL—Michigan's still talking about starting true freshmen at left tackle. Redshirt freshman Jake Long (2004) debuted four games after Hart and Henne, having outdueled longtime-expected-starter Mike Kolodziej for the right tackle job. That went just fine. After the season Brian called Long "A huge, mauling right tackle as close to the reincarnation of Jon Runyan as you're going to get."

Super Special HM: I bumped Runyan down to guard. It's fair; you'll see.

HM: It's a mark of this unit's depth that Tom Dohring (1987) is down here. Steve Schilling (2007), Adam Stenavich (2002), Thomas Guynes (1993), Andrew Stueber (2018), Grant Newsome (2015), Bubba Paris (1978)

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Guards: Steve Hutchinson (1997) and Jon Runyan (1993)

Part of being one of (the?) greatest guard in modern history is Hutchinson is going to make every list he's eligible for. Did the converted defensive tackle play in 1997? Yep. Did he start? Uh huh. Every game? You betchya. Was he great? Pretty great. Was he "this is going to be the best guard in modern history" great? I mean, one time Hutchinson pulled around a Baylor linebacker booking to the edge, let the guy think he was going to get edged and give up his shoulders, then shoved the dude into one DB then sat on another. It was pretty great.

Hutch was named 1st team All Big Ten. He allowed just one sack. He would only get better, and he didn't have a freshman Heisman campaign like Hart did, but Hutchinson is my pick for best Michigan freshman and I don't think it'll be much of an argument.

Jon Runyan played enough inside in 1993 to justify stealing the next guy from the super-deep tackle field for a starting guard job. The 1993 line was super-young, and OL coach Les Miles(!) started the season with a six-man rotation that kept Runyan on the field regardless, eventually relegating returning starter Trezelle Jenkins to a competition with RS freshman Thomas Guynes, sophomores Mike Sullivan and Joe Marinaro, and senior 6th man Shawn Miller. Ultimately Jon Sr. only got to start four games left guard before kicking out to left tackle. Notably, Rod Payne didn't get onto the field until center Marc Milia got banged up in November.

Backups: The competition is between a good partial-year starter and then picking between a couple of guys who got in for depleted lines and just hacked it. The partial guy was Patrick Omameh (2009), who was in heavy at the right tackle position battle in spring, but only drew into the lineup when right guard ran out of options. Injuries to Molk (C) and Dorrestein (RT) were filled with the first two RGs (Moosman and Huyge), and third option/DE convert John Ferrara started the first Omameh game before it became evident that wasn't going to go well. That kind of introduction to a late-grab 2-star redshirt freshman from Columbus should have spelled doom. Instead it was Omameh's second-best season at Michigan, the outside zone offense proving as perfect a match for Omameh's light agility as the Hoke-Borges power game wasn't.

Our other guy is John Vitale (1985), who got into the 1985 starting lineup for the last nine games at injured Mark Hammerstein's left guard spot after coming out slightly ahead in an early-season right guard rotation with senior Mike Krauss and often dinged up classmate Mike Husar. That went fine in the papers, but if you watch some Harbaugh highlights and note where the pressure's coming from, it was just a decent debut for Michigan's future center of the '80s.

HM: Ben Bredeson (2016), Mike Husar (1985), Cesar Ruiz (2017), Erik Magnuson (2013), Kyle Kalis (2013), Kyle Bosch (2013), Dean Dingman (1987), David Brandt (1997), Justin Boren (2006), David Baas (2001), Zach Adami (1994)

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Center: Adolf 'Germany' Schulz (1904)

Germany was about four inches and 20 pounds larger than anyone he played with. [Bentley]

There's going to be an outcry that it wasn't Molk, but only from those who don't know who Germany Schulz is. Germany Schulz is the greatest center in the history of the game—officially as per a 1952 National Football Foundation poll. Since Schulz played 115 years ago, you could conceive of some arbitrary line  in history to disclude this guy. Legendary litigator Amos Alonzo Stagg certainly tried.

But if you believe that arbitrary lines are arbitrary, then consider if there was a Heisman in 1904 the unanimous choice probably would have been Michigan's star back Willie Heston, and Heston himself credited Schulz as the team's best player. Germany also invented spiral snapping that year.

The reason he was eligible when all other freshmen had to play on the freshman team was he wasn't 18. In his day he was (falsely, he claimed) called a "ringer" by rivals, since he was already 21 years old when he enrolled, having worked in an Indiana steel mill. They also tried to claim he had played (under a different name?!) for a couple of semi-amateur teams, based on the fact that an amateur team he did play on used the same field as some known semi-pro teams, and that he was (gasp) recruited. What they couldn't argue was Schulz was then engine of the fourth Point-a-Minute team, which outscored its opponents 567-22 (including 130-0 over Yost's alma mater West Virginia). Schulz would later invent middle linebacker (the center used to line up like a nose guard) position.

He did start the first five games at guard before moving over to center, and he wasn't All-American until the following season. Schulz himself explains the lapse:

We were playing Oberlin in 1904. Their regular center was hurt and a little 155-pound fellow came in. I hit him as hard as I could. Imagine my surprise when he looked up and said, 'please sir, if you are determined to be fierce, let me know and I'll get out of the way.' I was no good the rest of the afternoon. Every time I looked at the little fellow, I had to break out laughing".

Backup: Though just 280 pounds and often ragdolled as such by the larger nose tackles he played against, David Molk (2008) as a freshman was the best player on the team to both his coaches and MGoBlog's charting, though MVP of a 3-9 is dubious award. Getting your own Picture Pages for doing an extremely hard thing extremely well is not:

He got dinged later in the year for being small, but in a system like this where he's reach-blocking all day his agility is an asset. Time and again against Penn State he successful executed these blocks, springing people into the secondary. Against Notre Dame he did the same thing.

Just watch until it's 10-0 Michigan and you're good.

Honorable Mention: EDIT: I forgot Steve Everitt (1989) who started every game as a RS freshman even though Bo said he shouldn't be, and Everitt was rotating with Matt Elliott. Still deserves the HM. HT: DamnYankee.

Center as a freshman is hard—Michigan's rarely put a guy there without three years on the bench or at least one year starting on the line, since it takes a ton of tape to make the right line calls. I think I brought up Rod Payne (1993) earlier; he came in when Marc Milia got banged up a few times, notably for the Big Ten opener vs Iowa and MSU the following week. At the time Moeller said Payne watches tapes with coaches for 12 hours at a time. The only other center to start a game as a freshman was Tom Dixon (1980).

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Defensive Tackles: Jeff Shaw (1980) and Al Sincich (1981)

NT #95 – pay no attention to the Bentley database that claims he wore 79

The story we tell about 1980 is things turned around when Bo hollered at Andy Cannavino. It might also have something to do with when they inserted freshman Jeff Shaw at middle guard. That's how the Daily saw it after opening day starter Tony Kelsie rage quit.

Shaw had his best game against Michigan State, who couldn't figure out what to do with the 6'2/250 thing that wouldn't get the hell out of the way no matter how many guys you used to budge him. But his part in the destruction of Purdue and the three straight shutouts shouldn't be understated.

He's largely forgotten about today because Shaw was dismissed for disciplinary reasons at the start of the next season, and Michigan had to go looking for another freshman DT to plug the middle. They did, but it's not the 1981 freshman DT you're thinking of:

We all remember Mike Hammerstein; what we forget is that Hammerstein began his career by losing a starting battle to a classmate. After senior Doug James got injured five games into the season, true freshmen Hammerstein and Al Sincich (1981) handled the middle guard duties in a rotation, with the latter getting the majority of starts and snaps. Five-star Clay Miller, playing the "post" tackle (strongside end) was supposed to be the freshman star, but little Sincich (6'1/220) was the subject of the Michigan Daily's Drew Sharp (YTDS)'s lede "Michigan football's 1981 Rookie of the Year?"

Backups: You could make the case at nose for Bryan Mone or Aubrey Solomon, both of whom flashed some brilliance in spot appearances, but give me the work of Grant Bowman (2000), who started next to Eric Wilson and immediately reminded us of fan favorite Rob Renes, who'd graduated the year before. Michigan's problems that year were they didn't know how to defend the spread and at defensive back; for his part Bowman played beyond his years. In fact Michigan's greatest success against Northwestern were the couple of drives they let Bowman line up in a zero tech (head up on the center).

The other spot is going to another future 3-tech who got six starts at nose, Willie Henry (2013). Brian in the 2014 preview:

Why did this happen? Because Willie Henry can be f---ing awesome. I've watched Michigan's defensive linemen for a long time now and I have never seen a freshman with the ability to just, like, put that offensive lineman somewhere else.

That guy did not go into that play thinking he was a screen door to be opened at Willie's convenience. And yet, here we are, torn off the hinges. And then there's the Talismanic Willie Henry Play against Michigan State, where a tackle gets under his pads and starts driving him back until Henry is just like NOPE.

Freshman Henry was pure Ogre strength that bailed him out of bad technique. That's fun to have on the bench, if not on the field.

HM: Bryan Mone (2014), Aubrey Solomon (2017), Tony Henderson (1991), Norman Heuer (then Boebert) (2000), Ondre Pipkins (2012). FYI Gabe Watson himself lamented that he didn't redshirt in 2002.

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Defensive Ends: Mark Messner (1985) and Rashan Gary (2016)

There's no question Messner's 1985 was going to make this team. Putting Messner at tackle—a weaker position—would have been a cheaper-than-a-call-at-Breslin move I could have gotten away with because nobody doubts Mark Messner was a "defensive tackle." But what that meant at that time was closest to the position Rashan Gary played for Michigan last year. The '85 team did have an off tackle but it was Mike Hammerstein, not Mark Messner, who I'll remind you was listed at 6'3/235.

Which is just fine because freshman Messner was a tight end-murdering, havoc-inducing wrecking ball that the fanbase adored from the first snap:

“It was my first start. I was so nervous! On the third play, third down, I said, ‘Ohmigod, they’ll be coming right at me. It’s on national television.’ And I threw up! Right on the offensive lineman’s hand.

“Of course, he can’t move, but he’s looking at his hand and going,
‘Uggh!’ And the ball was snapped. He didn’t get off the count. And I made the tackle. They had to punt.”

I know what you're thinking: Didn't I just watch his first snap against Notre Dame in that embedded YouTube above? Yes. Also his freshman season is almost five minutes of the eleven-minute video (they still called redshirt freshmen "sophomores" in those days), including the play I still use to demonstrate how perfect edge play can run an option game.

As for Rashan Gary (2016) I agree that his junior year was a bit disappointing if we can all agree that his debut was underrated. PFF—then a film-reviewer more than their current stat-watcher reboot—tallied up 296 snaps and compared Young Rashan favorably to THOSE GUYS:

The Michigan defense should be solid against the run this season, despite the loss of Charlton and Wormley. pic.twitter.com/krPa1z6Cnl

— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) July 2, 2017

Brian on "Baby Godzilla"'s debut:

He began to turn that into production as well. Gary generated a pressure stat on 13% of his rushes a year ago, good for top 20 nationally and fifth in the league amongst returners.  PFF had him +13 for the season, which was a bit worse than Wormley on a per-snap basis. "True freshman is slightly worse than fifth year All Big Ten senior" is a good place to start from. If he improves as much as the average freshman he'll at least match Wormley.

Backups: I wish PFF was around in 2003, because I was, and I felt bout LaMarr Woodley back then the way people describe the Messner vibe to me. The 6'2/263-pound freshman asked to be moved from linebacker to defensive end in fall camp and began the season as a pure pass rusher; by the end of the season he was (FINALLY!) starting over Pat Massey/Jeremy Van Alstyne/A Quebecois Recently Introduced to Football. That undersells how often #56 was out there, and how often he got into the backfield when he was. The fans quickly took notice of that and the fact that their five-star true freshman was ending most plays with his jersey mysteriously ripped off his shoulder pads, part of a season-long cessation of holding calls in the Big Ten that led to some truly comical no-calls.

Woodley finished the year a freshman all-American to most outlets and freshman all-conference pick to all, his 23 tackles four TFLs and two sacks an extremely unfair representation of his affect on the field. His defining moment was coming in midway through the near-debacle at Minnesota after Marion Barber, Lawrence Maroney, and Assad Abdul-Kaliq had feasted off Michigan's open edge for 28 minutes, and suddenly they weren't carving huge chunks by slipping past a slow-ass Massey anymore. Woodley also keyed the slow blowout over Northwestern, blowing up two Cat drives himself.

Juaquin Feazell (1995) is the other hype-type who played immediately in a stacked rotation. From what I can parse from game accounts Mattison's front that year had multiple configurations of Jason Horn (DE/DT), Will Carr (NT), Trent Zenkewicz (NT/DT), Glen Steele (WDE), Feazell (either DE), Rasheed Simmons (passing downs edge), and David Bowens (SAM/Edge) with Juaquin getting the fewest starts but equal playing time, mostly at weakside end. They didn't keep records of sacks and TFLs until Juaquin's junior season but he recorded 32 tackles and equal mention with the non-Horn (who was an All-American) guys.HM: The freshman DE with the most starts (12) was Craig Roh (2009), but those were desperate circumstances and didn't go well. Larry Stevens, Shantee Orr and Alain Kashama (2000), Glen Steele (1994), Ryan Van Bergen (2008), Rasheed Simmons (1995)

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Inside Linebackers: Jarrett Irons (1993) and Erick Anderson (1988)

Before there was a Sword, Swett, Steele, Gold, Copenhaver, or Hralfnir Gutsploderssson on a Michigan roster, we got Jarrett Irons, and oh did he set a tone:

Irons secured a starting job out of camp and led the team in tackles, but none was bigger than shedding PSU fullback Brian O'Neal to stuff Carter on the goal line stand responsible for put the first excuse on the shirt. With injuries wracking up to linebackers all around him, when it was Irons's turn he just sucked it up and went back in.

For our other guy I'm going with a partial season from Erick Anderson (1988) because of the magnitude of that season. Already up to 60 tackles and three starts as a rotational reserve at WLB that year, Anderson was thrust into a full-time job in early November after team tackles leader/team leader J.J. Grant sprained his knee and had arthroscopic surgery. That stretch included Minnesota, Illinois, a down Ohio State, and the Rose Bowl against Rodney Peete #5 USC coming off that #1 vs #2 loss to Notre Dame.

It's that game which established freshman Anderson as the next big thing. Anderson's job was to contain Heisman runner up Rodney Peete.

The result was 12 tackles, 4 TFLs, and a January afternoon for Peete that was so bad the Lions drafted him. At the end of the season Bo called Anderson "One of the top linebackers in the league," and uncharacteristically allowed that Anderson would start next to J.J. the following fall.

Backups: Steve Morrison (1991) might have made the first team at WLB but he suffered a broken leg (on a dirty Michigan State play, of course) that took out a big chunk of his promising freshman season. Before that Morrison secured the starting job next to Butkus winner Anderson, rotating with fellow freshman Marcus Walker, who wasn't bad but made people miss Morrison.

Another hero to emerge in dark times was Desmond Morgan (2011), a quarterback in high school who appeared suddenly his true freshman year to solidify a job that had been driving Michigan fans and coaches insane for the span of 10 years and six position coaches. He apparently had the job out of fall but injuries hampered him against Notre Dame, requiring Hoke to turn to some Weird Guys for a few games. When Morgan was healed, he was gloriously…okay. His UFRs came out just slightly negative, and the biffs were freshman biffs, not little whiffs.

HM: Sam Sword (1995) split time with Rob Swett. Marcus Walker (1991), John Milligan and Neil Simpson (1987), Anthony Jordan (1998), Scott McClintock (2002), James Ross (2012), Ben Gedeon (2013), Josh Ross (2018)

Don't Click Here: Obi Ezeh (2007) started 10 games but he wasn't good. Don't click that. It goes 2008 defensive preview. You didn't click it right? Oh dear. I said don't click.

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Sam Linebacker/Hybrid: Jabrill Peppers (2015)

Apologies for all the special teams plays on here—trying to stay on topic.

Ho ho ho this is cheap because Peppers was the most nominal redshirt freshman in history. But he did lose his 2014 early enough to get that medical redshirt, and that means his season at nickel corner for the D.J. Durkin year is eligible for the hybrid space assassin on my all-freshman team.

That was the year that Michigan's opponents all discovered that screens, flares, and bubbles to their slots are Closed for Business, though it usually took them a few quarters of adding to the highlight reel before they kenned it. Then Whoever Modern Offensive Coordinator Guy would get fed up with going a few quarters without half of his playbook, try it again, and another poor slot receiver would find himself buried shoulder pads-first four yards in the backfield. It was hilarious. It was glorious. It's unfair that it counts but rules are rules.

Backup: I'm putting Jake Ryan (2011) here. Again I can't improve upon Brian's summary of Jake M'er F'ing Ryan's debut season from his preview of the next one:

Beyer didn't do so hot in his first game, so a wild-eyed and unprepared Ryan was shoved in there. He did… well, there was a lot of it. Whatever he was doing, it came with sound effects. And bright flashy lights. If stuntmen were not involved, they probably should have been. When the dust cleared the results had amplitude.

He was both awesome and frustrating. Notably by the end of all that Ryan was coming out significantly positive in UFRs: +2.5, +5.5, +3, +3, +6.5, +2.5.

HM: Victor Hobson (1999), Josh Metellus (2016), David Bowens (1995), Trevor Pryce (1993), Eric Rosel (1998), Matt Dyson (1991)

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Safety: Chuck Winters (1993) and Tony Gant (1982)

"And he blocked a punt" is basically what we have for good freshman safeties. [Bentley]

From Dave Brown (who unfortunately was a freshman the last year they weren't eligible), to Sullivan Anthony "Tripp" Welborne, Bo's Michigan had a steady stream of NFL-bound safeties that all came in as something else. That wasn't unusual; rare indeed was the prep program with the riches to waste the services of a future Wolverine practicing a non-offensive skill position. Rich Hewlett moved from QB. Otis Williams trimmed down from linebacker. Dieter Heren came in a cornerback (and wound up an OLB). Tony Gant, Dwight Hicks and Keith Bostic arrived as RBs. Mike Harden, Tony Jackson, Ivan Hicks, and Tripp all started out as receivers.

Evan Cooper (1980) entered the Purdue game as football's first-ever dime back; he also registered 2 tackles and 2 PBUs on the season. That leaves Tony Gant as the only pre-1990s Michigan safety to get a freshman start, thanks to 1980's Angry Michigan Cornerback-Hating God. The Daily's Bob Wojnowski on that year's Iowa game:

It might have been a start at cornerback (this game might not have been aired), but given our need for safeties, that—and 19 total tackles including a big 3rd down stop against Ohio State (and a near interception vs Illinois that Burgei stole) is good enough.

For the other we'll go with 1993 starter Chuck Winters, a redshirt freshman who—say it with me now—played running back the year before. Michigan fans from the four-loss years just recoiled at that name, and understandably, but in 1993 there was still Ty Law and Alfie Burch and Shonte Peoples around to form the (1990s warning) "Lynch Mob" secondary. There were also breakdowns, but I think Peoples got the bulk of blame for them. Winters got a key sack to end the most dangerous moment of what became a 28-0 pasting of Ohio State, and the bowl game was another blowout in which Winters was superb. We had no idea he'd be a goat down the line. A GOAT maybe. Anyway this isn't a very solid pick; if some modern freshman—like, I dunno, some kid out of Oklahoma—wants to take his place, the door's open.

Backups: Are literal backups. There was the year that whenever Ryan Mundy got pulled we got to see Jamar Adams (2004) come in and seem totally boring and capable. This is what Adams would be over a career that was remarkable for its glorious unremarkability.

For the other we're stuck with some near-future starter getting his feet wet the year before the plunge. Tyree Kinnel (2015) or Jarrod Wilson (2012) had identically hot/cold/fine prep minutes in their debuts, but future 49ers dynasty defensive star Dwight Hicks (1974) might have been a titch better? Daily Archives, what say you?

Good enough.

HM: This got ugly. A short history of freshman safeties who got significant playing time:

1984: Erik Campbell
1993: Chuck Winters, Clarence Thompson, Deollo Anderson
1995: Marcus Ray after serving his suspension for the K-Mart scandal
1999: Cato June, until he got hurt
2003: Willis Barringer (that's why we moved Marlin), Mundy wheee, Jacob Stewart for the Minnesota INT
2004: Jamar Adams (Mundy and Shazor started every game)
2005: Brandon Harrison's redshirt burned
2006: Stevie Brown wheeeee
2009: Kovacs the year they tried him at FS and stuff
2010: oh god let's not go there
2012: Jarrod Wilson spot minutes
2015: Tyree Kinnel spot minutes
2017: J'Marick Woods spot minutes

Jerry Zuver (1973) was really more of a hybrid space player but got a mention as a freshman for a goal line play versus Notre Dame.

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Cornerback: Charles Woodson (1995), David Long (2017), and Marlin Jackson (2001)

After that we deserve some nice things. We got the nicest.

Michigan was starting to hurt for corners in 1995, and that looked dire when Ty Law left to add a year to his Hall of Fame NFL career. So you can imagine how great it felt to discover the new kid was going to be better than the old kid, in fact the greatest of all kids. Clarence Thompson switched back from safety in the offseason, and Tyrone Noble got a start in there, but Woodson was the guy by the 2nd half of the Pigskin Classic versus Virginia, and started the next 12 games. Terry Glenn didn't believe it until the true freshman caught more Ohio State passes than Ohio States soon-to-be-NFL receiver.

Another nice surprise for Michigan fans was in 2017, when Mike Zordich's complaints about his young cornerbacks proved so much stuff. Zordich's preview of RS freshman Long et bro:

How are those young corners coming along?

“Not fast enough.” [/laughs] “Not fast enough. They show flashes.

And here's Brian's preview:

Apparently not so much? Long was not excepted from the Zordich press conference and has been unable to separate from his challengers for the duration of fall. No offense to those challengers but that's not a great sign. Brandon Watson's been iffy so far and the other options are either new to college or defense. A highly touted second year player still on a stardom track should be dusting those guys.

From these humble expectations begat the best year of cornerbacking in the history of Michigan football until the next one. Backfield mate Lavert Hill didn't get to play much in 2016, while David Long actually took a medical redshirt. This—and Long's decision to cut out for the NFL early—finally gives us reason to talk about one without the other. I'm not going to.

It turned out both were among the best cornerbacks of their class.

Those CBs up in Ann Arbor are something else pic.twitter.com/PfYzEbUnT9

— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) August 26, 2018

That 11.9 was a record for lowest passer rating against since PFF's been counting. While Long rotated with Brandon Watson more often than Hill, splitting hairs between two potential All-Americans was just that.

The thing about Long's "freshman" season is it bumped off another great rookie effort that would have made the dumbest of these lists since the internet was accessible. I'm speaking of course of Marlin Jackson (2001), AKA the END OF THE BAD TIMES. No offense to certain friends who started for all of this period, but from Woodson to Marlin there were a few guys we were calling "Next Woodson" in the Daily—Will Peterson, James Whitley, Cato June (based on a very outdated recruiting profile), Jeremy LeSeuer. This label turned wry real fast.

Then debuted a kid with the same dimensions of Woodson, who tackled like Woodson, hit like Woodson, covered like Woodson, and wore #20 (Todd Howard was still #3), which was Woodson with a zero after it. After substantially outplaying LeSeuer in the 20-0 road shutdown of Penn State, Marlin moved over from nickel to start, and "Next Woodson" began to mean something else entirely.

Backups: Ty Law (1992) and Leon Hall (2003) pretty much mirrored the freshman season of Marlin: rotate in on nickel, look pretty good at it, and part of the regular rotation by season's end. Blake Countess (2011) was a revelation, not quite a star yet, but tracking that way and to a fanbase coming out of 2010 that was mana from cornerback heaven.

HM: Donovan Warren (2007), Morgan Trent (2005), Todd Howard (1998), Brandon Williams (1999), William Peterson (1997), Channing Stribling and Jourdan Lewis (2013) APOLOGIZE TO THE GYPSY

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Kicker: Quinn Nordin (2017)

Remember when Ace was a yard short of having to cut the Wild Thing?

So yeah, Wild Thing might have lost his job to Jake Moody, but if we're comparing outstanding freshman seasons there's the guy who went 10/11, or the guy who went 19/24, made a 55-yarder, and booted about ten more that sent sportswriters to Google Maps for hyperbolic descriptions. Nordin also had days of 4/6, 5/5, and 4/4 (and missed 3 of 38 extra points). In this case, Moody can go back to backup.

Backup: Jake Moody (2018). Stealing the guy above's job the following year is ice cold, man. So cold.

HM: Mike Gillette (1985): 16/23. Garrett Rivas (2003): 9/12, long of 47, let's not think about the Iowa pooch punts.

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Punter: Monte Robbins (1984)

There wasn't much of anything fun to talk about in the Michigan Stadium stands in 1984, with two conversational exceptions: 1) How'd the Tigers do last night? and 2) How far will Dammond R. Robbins boot this one? As the Harbaugh-less offense bogged down again and again, Monte got a lot of opportunities to loose one from deep in Michigan territory to the edges of the Northwest Territory. One against Ohio State went 70 yards. Another (see above) he booted from his 29 to Ohio State's 10 with so much air under it that his teammates got down there to cause a fumble.

Final line: 62 punts for 2,705 yards (43.6 YPP), and a long of 78.

Backup: Zoltan Mesko (2006). 50 punts for 2079 yards (41.6 YPP), a long of 64, 17 of them downed inside the 20.

HM: Will Hagerup (2010), Brad Robbins (2017), Chris Stapleton (1989), Don Bracken (1980)

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Returner: Steve Breaston (2013)

This has gone long. Do you want to discuss 2013 Breaston, or watch poetry in punt returning? Here's the discussion.

Here's poetry:

Backups: Peppers or Carter. I dunno: you pick.

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The Michigan All-Freshman Team:

If Schulz looks a little weird with guys he's a century older than, mentally substitute David Molk I guess, though I can't understand why anyone but a rival would want to disqualify a Point-a-Minute superstar over a technicality so they can remember Rich Rod going 3-9.

OFFENSE				DEFENSE
Pos	Player	Year		Pos	Player	Year
QB	Chad Henne	2004		DT	Jeff Shaw	1980
RB	Mike Hart	2004		NT	Al Sincich	1981
FB	Jarrod Bunch	1987		DE	Mark Messner	1985
TE-Y	Jake Butt	2013		DE	Rashan Gary	2016
WR1	Anthony Carter	1979		MLB	Jarrett Irons	1993
WR2	Mario Manningham	2005		WLB	Erick Anderson	1988
LT	Jeff Backus	1997		SLB	Jabrill Peppers	2015
LG	Steve Hutchinson	1997		SS	Chuck Winters	1993
C	Germany Schulz	1904		FS	Tony Gant	1982
RG	Jon Runyan	1993		CB1	Charles Woodson	1995
RT	Jon Jansen	1995		CB2	David Long	2017
Slot	Roy Roundtree	2009		CB3	Marlin Jackson	2001
TE-H	Sean McKeon	2017		K	Quinn Nordin	2017
Ret	Steve Breaston	2013		P	Monte Robbins	1984