feed nico

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, LB Deuce Spurlock, LB Jimmy Rolder, DE/LB Micah Pollard, DE Derrick Moore, DT Mason Graham, DT Kenneth Grant, DT Cam Goode, T Andrew Gentry, T/G Connor Jones, G Alessandro Lorenzetti, C Olu Oluwatimi, TE Marlin Klein, TE Colston Loveland.

Ponchatoula, LA – 6'4”, 180
[Barron]		247: 6'4/175            3.60*	3*, 87, NR overall #101 WR, #31 LA
		Rivals: 6'3/170            3.73*	3*, 5.7, NR overall #34 ATH, #22 LA
		ESPN: 6'3/170            3.95*	4*, 80, #128 SE #44 WR, #16 LA
		On3: 6'4/180            3.68*	3*, 88, NR overall #88 WR, #23 LA
		Composite:            3.83*	3*, 0.8826, #522 ovr #72 WR, #25 LA
		Other Suitors	ND (decommit), Bama, LSU
		YMRMFSPA	Nico Collins
Previously On MGoBlog	Commitment alert.
Notes	UA All-American. Twitter. Early Enrollee.
Film:
Senior Highlights: Hudl. Play of the week.

The best Pixar film since their acquisition is debatable, but Coco makes enough of the lists that I think it can serve for some consensus. It is a brilliant film, gorgeous, deep, and almost perfect except for one unfortunate uncanny valley (Spoiler Alert). See, for much of the movie this kid who's traversing the Land of Dead is doing so wearing skeleton facial paint to disguise the fact that he, unlike all the rest of this realm, still has his muscles and flesh. And you're thinking: Did none of these (ex-) people watch sports?

Sport fan brains are wired to tell how much meat a player carries on his bones if nothing else. Swap Steve Breaston's jersey for Jason Avant's, and you'd still have to get 100 rows back to fool anybody.

The latest moment like this was in Michigan's spring game. Nobody had seen Amorion Walker, the early enrolled wide receiver from the sandal gap of Louisiana, and nobody seemed to have accurate rosters of who was on maize or blue, but nobody who follows Michigan recruiting had trouble identifying #4.

They would have known, for example, that ever since this Southerner whose catching radius has its own zip code had the best 40 time (4.41) and vertical (40 inches) at Bama's June 2021 camp, Michigan had worked extremely hard to pry Walker out of Notre Dame's class, and that Notre Dame everything short of abandoning their most hallowed tradition (losing to a mid-major school) to prevent it. They also might have known that Special Agent Ron Bellamy played for Walker's coach, that Sam Webb was alerted by the staff that they saw this as a 5-star recruitment, and he should get be on hand for the announcement on (early) Signing Day (Sam's second visit to see Walker). That everyone who saw Walker play apparently agreed with the two winningest schools with the nation's best scouting staffs, but couldn't bring themselves to rate the guy higher than 3 stars because he looks like a twig.

Then the twig teleported past Will Johnson and settled in the soft spot in Cover 2.

Okay, we see it. Now feed the boy.

Unbelievable catch. Understated flex.

[Hit THE JUMP for an aerial assault.]

SPONSOR NOTE: Upon Further Review is sponsored by HomeSure Lending and Matt Demorest. Rates are the lowest they've been in three years so it can't hurt to check whether you can save money on a refinance. Or you could buy a house in Ann Arbor! Good luck with that!

Matt's relocated the bus to Pioneer this year, BTW, and invites everyone to stop by and say hi. There's beer. I mean, obviously. Matt. Matt and beer: a good pairing.

FORMATION NOTES: Not much of note other than the occasional pistol formation and one I-Form Big on the goal line. Michigan did have a wildcat snap inside the five as well. About 60% of snaps had 2 TEs; the large majority of the rest were 3 WR formations.

Illinois mostly had a slightly shaded odd front:

This resulted in Michigan running a bunch of trap plays that didn't feel like traps, but more about that later.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: QB/OL the usual except McCaffrey came in for the last three drives and Hayes got the last two. The deep backups didn't get in at all. Odd.

Haskins and Charbonnet again split the RB snaps down the middle until Wilson got in late-ish; Mason got a few snaps as a FB/TE and Turner got in for one meaningful snap and a few late.

At TE McKeon took back the starting spot, logging a ton of snaps; Eubanks got all the 2TE snaps, of which there were many. All and Schoonmaker got some time, with All getting in for the last two drives. At WR the usual rotation between Black/DPJ/Collins on the outside and Bell/Sainristil in the slot, with Bell getting some outside WR snaps. Jackson and Johnson made cameos.

[After THE JUMP: mediations on a trap]