wyatt shallman's wallaby
As you likely expected/dreaded by now, Wyatt Shallman’s Michigan career is over. Degree in hand, Wyatt announced on Twitter this afternoon that he’ll pursue a grad transfer for his final year of eligibility:
Thank you to The University of Michigan pic.twitter.com/gLyYESgZ2y
— Wyatt Shallman (@WyattShallman) January 19, 2017
Injuries held Shallman back from seeing the field for most of his time here. At his first fall practice observers noted Shallman was doing hamstring exercises and a redshirt was all but certain. He took one handoff in the blessedly forgettable App State game, and appeared sparingly on special teams in 2014. Going into 2015 Sam Webb reported a strained calf, and several weeks later Shallman tweeted a photo of himself about to go into surgery. Later that season he took three handoffs late in the Rutgers game, blowing through a couple of tacklers for one thunderous five-yard gain that suddenly reminded us of the player Michigan thought it was getting. But with Michigan’s crowded backfield, Shallman could never seem to break into the running back rotation; if they tried him at fullback it never seemed to stick long enough for the public to get a read.
Off the field, well, we’ve made little secret here that he’s been one of our favorite players since his recruitment—tags on this site include wyatt shallman’s mushroom hair, wyatt shallman’s ferrett, wyatt shallman’s wallaby, and wyatt shallman is metal af. Shallman committed to Michigan early (he was #2 of that 9-commit-a-palooza in February 2012) and was instrumental in helping to build that particularly close 2013 class. If he ever had police show up at his door it was because of a habit of adopting interesting fauna. His playful viking personality was just one of many reasons Michigan fans were excited to see Shallman on the field since his junior year of high school.
That recruiting excitement included three sites (Rivals punted and called him an ATH) ranking him #1 or #2 in the country at his position (fullback), despite that not actually being his position. All rated him 4 stars and around the 6th to 10th player in a strong in-state class, but just about everyone needed a long time to be convinced Shallman wasn’t playing DE, TE, FB, H-back, or whatever. For their part Michigan made it clear he was offered as a running back despite Derrick Green and De’Veon Smith in the class, and each time someone checked in Wyatt was still a back, albeit one who could do lots of other things. Personally I think I finally came over to the idea when Harbaugh arrived, since “multi-purpose, super-athletic, lion-maned, exotic creature-adopting, 260-pound running back” sounded like a thing that should totally happen in a Harbaughffense.
Now we’ll be rooting for someone else to tap that delightful potential. Root strongly—this is a guy who’s been a pleasure to cover over the last four years, and who has done about as much for Michigan as you can from the sidelines.
The flow is strong with this one. [Upchurch]
Versatile redshirt sophomore Wyatt Shallman has garnered attention for both his potential fit in Harbaugh's offense and his unusual taste in pets. We covered both topics in a one-on-one from last week's Media Day.
What are you playing this year?
I’m playing running back.
How comfortable are you at the position and how do you feel you fit in with the offense this year?
I feel I fit in great. You need a stable of running backs and can fit in that stable real well. I’m real comfortable with it. They lay out the offense pretty well for us so it’s easy to learn, easy to understand, so you’ve just gotta make sure you’re paying attention when you’re in meetings and stuff.
Word is practice is pretty intense. How would you compare the style from this spring to previous years?
Football is football, so it’s not too different. Obviously every coach is going to have a different format, but we got out there and competed this spring, and it’s the same with other coaching staffs around college, you just get out there and compete and play football.
What would you say is the biggest shift for you guys so far from an offensive philosophy standpoint? Is there anything that’s markedly different with the offense right now?
There’s going to be [a] difference as soon as you get a new coach. We’re really priding ourselves on running the ball, we did a lot of that this spring. Our fullbacks and our other running backs, they pride themselves on getting yardage. That’s kind of our mindset, just getting those yards and getting the yards after contact, too.
It’s the first year in forever that Fred Jackson isn’t the running backs coach. How’s the transition going from him to Tyrone Wheatley?
It’s been great. Coach Jackson was a great coach. I’m going to miss him. He’s a great man too, he taught me a lot. Coach Wheatley, he’s a great coach, and I’m not taking anything away from Coach J but he brings his own little style, and it’s fun to learn everyone else’s little style.
Has he been showing you guys his highlights?
Not really, but he still lets us know that he can play. His cuts… he likes to get into drills and do a little bit of showing the drills fast, so he still shows us a little bit of that, that he can still move the way he does.
So he can still move pretty well?
Yeah.
What was stranger: having the police show up at your front door about a wallaby or seeing your head coach shirtless at a camp in Prattville?
Probably the shirtless head coach. I got a couple other housemates that might be more at fault about the wallaby, so that wasn’t that crazy of a situation. But, yeah, seeing Coach Harbaugh shirtless was kinda wild.
As a team, how do you guys react to seeing a coach that’s way more in the news than Hoke ever was?
It’s just interesting. The personality that you see outside of everything here is the personality we see all day, so he’s not putting on a show. Coach Harbaugh is who he is. He’s an interesting dude. He’s intense.
I’ve gotta bring it back to the wallaby. You guys have a real live Australian now on your football team. What was Blake’s reaction to that whole thing?
He basically said wallabies are like varmint in Australia, pretty comparable to squirrels, so I don’t know why everyone was freaking out about that. People like to get any story they can have and hold onto it so how about a couple college kids with a wallaby. It was not even smart to have everyone freaking out about that. It wasn’t a big deal.
What’s the goal for the team this year, and for you personally, what’s your mindset heading into the season?
Personally it’s just to help the team any way I can. I think that’s everyone’s mindset. If you’ve got everyone working towards the same goal you’re more likely to achieve it. So we’re just working to get better and to get this team better, just doing the things we need to do.
They don't know what kind of marsupial it is.
The internet helpfully pointed out that keeping wildlife, uh, a gravid marsupial, for uh, you know, domestic…
…ain't legal. Also, Mariaklots is correct. That thing is a wallaby. Shane Morris had zoobooks and knows.
My dad instincts are coming out right now and I really don't approve of @J_Wangler16 owning a wallaby in our home. pic.twitter.com/7NkdZ2YVG5
— Shane Morris (@ShaneMorris_7) June 26, 2015 No word on the ferret, or which of the many splendiferous names I offered up was eventually chosen. (I have money on Ferret Bo Jackson.)
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