A series covering Michigan's 2010s. Previously: TEs, FBs, and OL, best blocks, the aughts.

Methodology: The staff decided these together and split the writeups. Considering individual years but a player can only be nominated once.

QUARTERBACK

DENARD ROBINSON (2010)

one shining moment [Bryan Fuller]

A decade after the 2010 season, Denard Robinson is still the NCAA Football cover guy. This is in part because the NCAA would rather have no money than share some of it with its players, but it also speaks to the hold Robinson had on college football's imagination. Robinson's career started with a near-literal bang and blossomed into a minor national obsession; it ended with Robinson playing running back in the Outback Bowl because his elbow didn't work anymore.

With some exceptions* NCAA Football cover guys were coming off either legendary team successes (Tim Tebow), legendary individual seasons (Charles Woodson), or both. Denard is the only guy on the cover who ended his final season injury-riddled in a bowl that is so barely New Year's Day that Northwestern's played in it. And when it was announced everyone went "obviously."

That's because Robinson was a video game quarterback brought to life. If you don't know what you're doing you pick the team with the fastest quarterback. You might mistake the snap button for the pitch button on the first snap. Might put the ball on the ground. And then it might not matter at all.

That was Robinson in 2009. In 2010 he won the starting job from Tate Forcier, nuked UConn, and then had one of the greatest individual games in Michigan history against Notre Dame: 24/40 passing, 244 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs, and 258 yards rushing at 9.2 yards a pop. I am pretty sure the happiest I've ever been after a football game was sitting in the Notre Dame Stadium stands longer than I'd ever sat in the stands before:

When the band marched out, we thought that was our cue. I grabbed one of the souvenir mugs as we exited. When I got home I crudely carved "28-24" on it with a steak knife. It's in the closet. Our walk back was half-accompanied by the band. We met a goodly chunk of my family walking the other way, exchanged excited greetings, and then went about the business of getting out of town. We got to the Chili's just as the adrenaline wore off and the stomach reasserted itself.

A few minutes before everyone filed out Denard Robinson zinged a skinny post to Roy Roundtree on third down and finished the job himself. In the first half Robinson had snuck through a crease in the line, found Patrick Omameh turning Manti Te'o into a safety-destroying weapon, and ran directly at me until he ran out of yards.

He knelt down to give thanks, and that felt inverted.

He broke the NCAA record for rushing yards by a quarterback with 1702 yards at 6.6 YPC(!!!) and completed 63% of his passes for 8.8 YPA, 18 TDs and 11 interceptions. He didn't tie his shoes and he smiled all the time. He showed up to basketball games with Roy Roundtree like he was any other student.

standing in the back next to Roy, Kenny Demens, and JB Fitzgerald [Eric Upchurch]

It didn't last—couldn't last. Rich Rodriguez managed to parlay the #2 S&P offense into a mostly deserved firing, Brady Hoke and Al Borges had no idea what to do with him, and Robinson's ulnar nerve started its slow decline. The "what if Rich Rodriguez didn't have the worst defense in Michigan history at the same time he had Denard Robinson" question is the decade's greatest counterfactual.

There are no other real contenders for this spot. The only other Michigan QB to get drafted this decade was Jake Rudock, who went in the sixth round after a one-year grad-transfer cameo. Shea Patterson does not look set to join them. And there's your decade in a nutshell: the best QB season was the first one, and then pro-style ruined everything.

-Brian

*[There was a two year period where EA had a different cover for every platform they made the game for, which led to guys like Utah QB Brian Johnson and WVU fullback Owen Schmitt on the cover. Most ignominiously of all, the 2009 wii version of the game had Sparty on the cover. The mascot. Also one year they put Boise State QB Jared Zabransky on the cover, presumably for the same reason Gameday occasionally visits Colgate or wherever.]

[After THE JUMP: Okay, we're not writing up this much again. Except maybe for the 4th place receiver as payback for not making him 1st string]

2nd String: DEVIN GARDNER (2013)

[Eric Upchurch]

Continuing the theme: the season we're taking for our backup quarterback is also not his senior year. If you don't want to feel like putting your head in bucket of ice water do not read the next sentence. Over the course of the aughts exactly no Michigan quarterbacks get better over the course of their career. Denard is covered above. Wilton Speight was busy regressing when Purdue cracked a vertebrae (to be fair to Speight, the swiss cheese passing for his OL had a lot to do with that). Brandon Peters transferred; Shea Patterson went backwards in 2019. The guy who improved the most? Jake Rudock. He had the best QB offseason of any aughts QB and it was a bye week.

Anyway. For anyone not screaming into a bucket right now, Gardner's 2013 was the easy #2 choice. I already made this case in a mailbag earlier this year:

Gardner's 2013 was the best season any of these QBs put up at Michigan, pipping Patterson's 2018. Gardner completed 60% of his passes for 8.6 YPA, 21 TDs, and 11 INTs. Michigan put up 460 yards against Notre Dame and 603(!!!) against Ohio State; Gardner hit 10 YPA in both. This was the same year Michigan put up 27 for 27 against Penn State and rushed for –48 yards against MSU.

Gardner had a disastrous OL—36 sacks allowed that would have been 60 if not for Gardner's mobility—in an offense that straight-up refused to run a constraint play. He damn near singlehandedly beat Notre Dame and was a better two-point conversion call away from a 43-42 win over Ohio State. This season completely ruined him and he was much worse the next year,  but if you're asking me which guy I'd take as a freshman this year with the idea that he'd be behind a Warinner OL in a Gattis offense it's him.

Once you take out the 270 yards Gardner lost on those sacks he also had 753 yards on 129 carries, 5.8 yards an attempt. That's on a team where Fitz Toussaint, an established very good big ten RB,  rushed for 3.5 YPC(!). He did the above in the same season I wrote this about him:

You put a brave face on, but at some point your jersey is so dirty and your ribs so inflamed that you have to take a moment as you exit the field to breathe. You suck in, and it fucking hurts. You breathe out, and it fucking hurts. Everything fucking hurts.

the gif is by ace

You've looked like a coal miner after an explosion for the better part of four quarters and everything you do reminds your over-exerted nerves that in fact they have a job to do even if they really wanted to stop doing it two hours ago, and they raise their hand and say OH BY THE WAY THIS FEELS LIKE DEATH, and at some point you have to obey them. Space is infinite and cold and bereft of hope, and Devin Gardner is in it, waiting to die.

No one needs Ed Warinner and a time machine more than Devin Gardner, another guy on this list who coulda shoulda been an all time great except for Michigan's decade of incompetent OL play.

-Brian

 

Honorable Mention: Jake Rudock.

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RUNNING BACK

LIGHTNING: FITZGERALD TOUSSAINT (2011)

Gone bye-bye. [Bryan Fuller]

Toussaint is the rarest of Michigan running backs: the one who actually managed to live up to his Fred Jackson hype! It's more incredible because at the moment the hyperbolic, beverage-loving assistant said "Michael Hart ability with speed" he was talking about a redshirt sophomore with eight career carries, more season-ending injuries (two) than non-garbage time snaps, all three lead backs from the previous season returning, and two future NFL starters (Cox and Rawls) pushing from behind.

Not to mention a new coaching staff with considerably less interest in Toussaint's patently Rich Rodriguezian skill set. Here's how Brian described true freshman Fitz Toussaint in the 2009 preview..

Ohioan Fitzgerald Toussaint was the higher-rated by the recruiting sites. He spent his senior year either shredding defenses for like 250 yards on 10 carries or getting swamped for like 40 on 20. There was little in-between. His highlight video is full of fancy jump-cuts and serious change-of-direction skills; he's slightly undersized but who cares, right? Toussaint's had some injury issues in fall camp and it sounds like Michigan is looking at redshirting him, which they obviously should since he's fifth string at best. Recruiting profile here.

This remains entirely accurate, even though Jackson's initial assertion of "like a fast Chris Perry" remains entirely ridiculous. We got two years of injuries and vapor, then "Mike Hart but fast" outta nowhere, then the rain-shortened WMU game and Fitz sitting next to Denard at the presser after outgaining him.

straight man

After that it was on, at least to our eyes. The tribal battle lines of the age were split between the Spreads and Manballers, the issue it turned on was "Is Toussaint good?," and the answer was look at the CHART!

Opponent	Att	Yards	YPC	TD	Run+	Run-	Pass -
WMU	11	80	7.27	2	8.5	-0.5	0
Notre Dame	Did Not Play
EMU	11	46	4.18	1	3	0	0
San Diego St.	13	67	5.15	0	6	-1	2
Minnesota	11	108	9.82	1	10.5	-1	0
Northwestern	14	25	1.79	0	3.5	-2	0
Michigan State	2	7	3.50	0	0.5	0	1
Purdue	20	170	8.50	2	12	-2	1
Iowa	16	58	3.63	0	5.5	-3	0
Illinois	27	192	7.11	1	18.5	-6.5	1
Nebraska	29	138	4.76	2	22	-4	5
Ohio State	20	120	6.00	0	12.5	-4.5	0
Virginia Tech	13	30	2.31	0	Game not charted
TOTAL	176	961	5.46	9	102.5	-24.5	10

That's coming up positive on the ground in every game, including a monster +18 (with a foreboding –5 in pass pro) Nebraska performance. With blocking that sometimes didn't make sense, and often telegraphed where the ball was going, and came with zero constraints, it was tough for most fans to see how much of a difference Toussaint was making. This is a tiny lane created by Lewan donkeying a DE, but Toussaint helps that happen by shimmying inside within view of said donkey, then accelerates through the tiny gap quickly enough to get out of the DE's arm range and have time to set up a safety to miss.

Usually when a back gets around outside like this it's because there's a hold on the edge. In this case it's because Lavonte David had beaten Molk to the gap and Toussaint bounced so violently the guy getting kicked can't accelerate fast enough the other way.

There were a few times however when he just did something obvious and silly, especially if you make him mad, as this field of broken Boilermakers can attest:

When not having long runs wiped out by non-relevant holds real and imagined, or touchdowns removed by Gene Smith's hand-picked review crew, Toussaint would end up taking the brunt of Al Borges's singular incompetence, which is why "poor damn toussaint" is his signature site tag and 27 for 27 his signature stat line instead of something having to do with ankles, pants, or other lower body garments. But if the things around him could go right for a moment, and you gave Fitz a crack, he was one step and gone:

—Seth

THUNDER: DE'VEON SMITH (2016)

a very snow bowl player [Bryan Fuller]

De'Veon Smith was not fast. He may be the slowest running back in recent Michigan history, give or take Mike Hart. If you're gonna be that slow and play football you gotta bring something else to the table, and in Smith's case that was the ability to run through defensive backs, linebackers, and occasionally defensive linemen like Godzilla tearing through a fishing village. This isn't Smith's most famous run but it may be the most emblematic:

Next time you go to a game at Michigan Stadium take a look at that spot on the field. That safety is still there, asking for help.

There's a "deveon smith human woodchipper" tag on this blog for events like the above. He generated a palpable excitement when he slipped through a crack in the line not because he was going to score from distance but because we were in for a live-action re-enactment of Gulliver's Travels:

Even when he did slip through the line to score he got caught, sometimes twice on the same play.

Smith abandoned his pulling guard, disappeared into a pile of bodies, was still upright seven yards later, got caught from behind, shook off a defensive back, got caught by the same guy again, and shrugged him off once more like so much lint on his varsity jacket. Few sixty yard touchdowns in the history of Michigan football have been as likely to cause the coaching box to exclaim "what are you DOING?" the instant before the breakthrough.

Given his limitations it was impressive to average 4.8 yards a carry in an emphatically pro-style system despite playing behind a makeshift OL that had to insert a true freshman Ben Bredeson after Grant Newsome went down.

It does say something about Michigan's offenses between the spread bookends that a guy who didn't crack five YPC or get drafted gets on this list pretty comfortably.

-Brian

2nd string: KARAN HIGDON (2017)

Twenty-seventeen was a supposedly fun thing to do with the kids between the 2016 run and the next wave's maturation in 2018, except it forgot to produce anything fun. Maybe if McDoom caught that late bomb against MSU, or Metellus intercepted that ball in his chest, or Peters didn't suddenly lose his mind at the Wisconsin goal line, or everybody managed to hold onto the ball in the Outback Bowl to complete a Big Ten sweep. On the other hand imagine it without the best running back play of the decade:

There was also this and some of this, and some more of this, and a bit of that and a lot of subtle this or saving this other thing or other. But every time you thought Higdon was going to ascend to total star status there'd be someone in his way, or someone else stealing the show. Put that season into a stat line and it's Karan Higdon's: 6.1 YPC, 994 yards. Just one more damn thing.

Honorable Mention: Vincent Smith (2011), Chris Evans (2016)

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WIDE RECEIVER

JEREMY GALLON (2013)

Go go gadget smile! [Bryan Fuller]

Let’s start here: Michigan’s, let’s say, inconsistent quarterback play and generally plodding offenses made this a tough exercise. In the end, we tended to go with players who produced bigger seasons instead of the guys who were held back for one reason or another.

Jeremy Gallon was one of the easier choices on the board at any position. Gallon arrived at Michigan as a RichRod-recruiting slot bug; he’d actually played as an option quarterback in high school at Apopka, Florida. Whatever they listed him at, it was generous. He looked exactly like Snoop from The Wire. Instantly a blog favorite, Gallon started contributing on offense in his sophomore season, most memorably catching a fade(!) for a touchdown in the Notre Dame night game before his cloaking device moment turned Don Criqui to stone:

By 2012, Gallon was the team’s undisputed #1 receiver, and that remained the case in 2013 despite the program finally admitting Devin Funchess was not a tight end. Gallon was Michigan’s only 1000-yard receiver of the decade in 2013 and he tacked on nearly 400 more yards for good measure. He took on a whopping 37% target share—he was one of the most-targeted receivers on 3rd/4th downs in the country and still averaged ten yards per target.

Also: Snoop from The Wire. Right?

Sure, some of his production was due to Indiana’s hilariously awful pass defense, but only one guy managed to obliterate the Big Ten single-game receiving yardage record (369) on a mere 14 receptions. That was far from Gallon’s only monster performance; he posted 184 yards and three TDs against Notre Dame, 115 critical yards on ten catches against Northwestern, and 175 yards on nine receptions in the near-upset of Ohio State.

Gallon could do a bit of everything. He had the look of a slot bug and displayed that level of catch-and-run ability. He was also a precise route-runner and dangerous downfield threat who could make tough catches outside of his frame:

While Gallon would line up in the slot in this configuration, he was a legitimate outside receiver at 5’8", which is bananas. His mind-meld with Devin Gardner was the best part of the 2013 season.

—Ace

JEHU CHESSON (2015) AND AMARA DARBOH (2016)

One breath. [Patrick Barron]

The other two spots go to arguably M’s most consistent receiving tandem of the decade, and they must be discussed in tandem. Amara Darboh and Jehu Chesson both arrived in the 2012 class, and while they were different types of receivers—Darboh the physical possession receiver, Chesson the lanky deep threat—they had similar, remarkable backgrounds as refugees who came to US at a young age. Like Gallon, both were immensely likable.

Chesson had the first breakthrough moment, springing Gallon for a touchdown against Notre Dame in 2013 with a crushing downfield block that took out three defenders. By 2014, they were the #2 and #3 receivers behind Funchess. Darboh became an American citizen early in the 2015 citizen in one of the unequivocally good moments of the decade, beautifully captured by David Turnley:

That same week, Darboh earned the nickname “Citizen Dang” with an incredible three-finger snag against BYU, beautifully captured by Bryan Fuller:

It was very easy to root for these guys.

While Chesson actually played second fiddle to Darboh for much of the 2015 season, his final four games were otherworldly: in that span, he averaged 6.8 receptions, 126 yards, and 1.5 TDs per game.

The last of those four games is the one we remember best. Chesson torched Florida for 118 yards on only five receptions in the Citrus Bowl rout, putting up the highlight of the day when he double-moved future #11 overall pick Vernon Hargreaves into oblivion:

Even his catches that didn’t count in that game were memorable.

Chesson’s bowl exploits led to the belief that he’d break out as the team’s top option in 2016. Instead, Darboh was the man, amassing 862 yards and seven touchdowns on a solid 8.5 yards per target. While not always spectacular, he was consistent, gaining at least 40 yards receiving in ten of 13 games. His eight-catch, 165-yard performance in the win at Michigan State featured multiple one-handed grabs.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that, on top of being excellent receivers, all three of these players were positives in the run game, particularly Chesson and Darboh. Gallon was a solid blocker and an occasional end-around threat. Chesson and Darboh were both great run-blockers; Chesson was +21 by Brian’s UFR charting in 2015, Darboh +20 in 2016. Those two eased Jim Harbaugh’s transition to Michigan more than they’re credited, not to mention the two new starters they broke in at quarterback.

—Ace

Second string: JUNIOR HEMINGWAY (2011), ROY ROUNDTREE (2010), NICO COLLINS (2019)

 

 

[Eric Upchurch]

After a dismal three-year run under Rich Rodriguez Michigan made the Sugar Bowl in Brady Hoke's first year. The way they won that game was both a fitting coda to Hoke's horseshoe-up-his-ass debut and an ominous sign of what was to come. Michigan gained 184 yards of offense to Virginia Tech's 377. 63 of these were from Junior Hemingway, acquired in the most Junior Hemingway fashion: bailing his QB out with contested catches.

No one was better at rising out of tight coverage and grabbing something way downfield. When Football Study Hall released target data (a new thing in 2012) Hemingway dominated his competition. His 12.1 yards per target in 2011 stood as Michigan's top mark since at least 2005 until Collins pipped him with 12.2 in 2018. He also cracked 10 YPT as a sophomore and junior, and unlike Roy Roundtree he wasn't running wide open as several safeties surrounded Denard. He was covered because he wasn't very fast and Denard wasn't very accurate. He made it work anyway as a circus catch machine. He was a key cog in Michigan's UTL victory…

"Chuck it up to Hemingway" may be the world's most primitive passing game but dang if it doesn't work. Hemingway not only has great leaping ability, he's enormous and therefore capable of boxing out opponents. Add in an uncanny knack for being able to high-point the ball and he's a hell of a lot like Marquise Walker before Walker got the dropsies as a senior.

…and bailed Michigan out in that delirious game against Indiana where the defense was on the field for 115 plays.

Since nobody else did anything in that Sugar Bowl, Hemingway's 63 yards were good for game MVP, whereupon he gave a teary speech that brought home why that particular bowl game and season were so very satisfying.

Hemingway personally had to overcome a litany of injuries so extensive that Drake Johnson is impressed:

At times in his Michigan career Junior was sidelined with a bum shoulder, sometimes mononucleosis, sometimes a pulled hamstring, sometimes a sprained ankle, sometimes a sprained knee, sometimes an "abrasion," and sometimes another bum shoulder.

Brought in by Carr, subject to both the miserable failure of the Rodriguez years and the at-times disgraceful response of fans and former players, and finally surrounded by confetti with a trophy, Hemingway was making this list if those were his two career catches.

—Brian

ROY ROUNDTREE (2010)

While Roundtree's senior season is underrated his 935 yards on 107 targets, 8.7 YPT, 67% catch rate, +18/-4 in UFR charting as a sophomore weren't all because safeties were flipping out about Denard Robinson. Sometimes it was good routes and a beautiful throw by Robinson at a safety flipping out about Roundtree:

Or Roundtree being a slippery after-the-catch weasel.

It also says something that of all the slot jitterbugs Rich Rod acquired—Odoms, Gallon, Kelvin Grady, Terrance Robinson, Teric Jones—it was Roundtree given the all-important position. That was a much better use of his skills than the outside receiver Borges asked him to be later in his career; Tree was one of the best route-runners and more willing blockers of the decade, and those skills featured in the slot. I mean, after Gallon's 2013 this was the statistical best receiving season of the span, and it was 'Tree's 2010 record Gallon broke for single-game yards. The guy had something to do with that.

—Seth

NICO COLLINS (2019)

One of these men is about to have his face sat upon [Bryan Fuller]

The best of an incredible receiver class, and the rarest of Michigan recruits—a Top 150 pull from Alabama—Nico arrived with a giant wingspan, but he's so much more. There is speed to burn, he's a load to bring down, a fair blocker, and oh yeah, so completely, absolutely, uncoverable downfied.

By the end of 2017 his coaches knew it; Collins's redshirt was burned against Penn State, right about the time Brian's UFR charting decided to stop bother with charting O'Korn because what's the damn point? By the end of 2018 the wonks knew it—we spent all last offseason linking the PFF stats (81% catch rate on contested targets!) and Top Billin' video.

Given a year with reputed WR whisperer Josh Gattis and his more pass-friendly offense, he was supposed to blow up. And then…

There was some of that, and a lot of complaining at the end of UFRs that there wasn't more of it. The stats from that were good, not Earth-shattering: 37 catches on 65 targets (57% catch rate), 17% target rate of team targets, 729 yards, 11.2 YPT, and 7 TDs.

But your memory tickles something. There were a lot of panicked cornerback pass interference calls right? Correct: a nation-leading NINE of them. And there were a lot of Shea passes that were uncatchable this year too. I can use UFR data, count DPIs as whatever the penalty awarded, excise balls marked uncatchable, and tell you the result when a ball got near enough a given receiver to make a play on it. Here are your leaders this decade in yards per catchable pass (limit: 30 catchable targets):

• 15.7 Hemingway (2011)
• 14.9 Collins (2019)
• 14.3 Gallon (2011)
• 14.2 Gentry (2018)
• 14.2 Darboh (2016)
• 13.4 Roundtree (2012)
• 13.4 Gallon (2012)
• 13.2 Butt (2015)
• 13.2 Gallon (2013)
• 12.8 DPJ (2018)

This stat mostly rewards dudes who bring in bombs, but not routine production. So let's go to UFR's receiver charting, which unsatisfactorily has no charting from the Ohio State and Alabama games. What it does have are Receivercharts for the entire decade, wherein Brian rated each catch opportunity a "3" (routine catch), a "2" (tough catch), a "1" (circus catch), or a "0" (even Tacopants be like "dude").

Player	Circus	Tough	Routine	Taco	Yards	TDs	YPT
Gallon '13	3/6	10/13	54/59	33	1373	9	10.0
Darboh '16	4/10	9/15	47/51	11	862	7	8.5
Chesson '15	1/3	7/11	30/32	20	764	9	9.6
Hemingway '11	0/2	8/9	22/25	11	699	4	12.1
Roundtree '10	2/3	6/9	37/41	12	935	7	8.7
Collins '19	4/7	8/10	21/22	9	729	7	11.2
Bell '19	2/9	5/10	30/32	10	758	1	8.9
Funchess '13	3/6	5/7	34/39	20	748	6	8.1
Funchess '14	2/7	7/11	32/34	19	733	4	7.3

So in 2019 Nico brought in as many circus catches as Darboh, was more money on contested catches than anyone since Hemingway,  and the safest bet on routine balls since Jake Butt, posting the highest yards per target of any receiver in the decade despite a relatively low catch rate. Pro Football Focus liked his charting too, naming him honorable mention All-Big Ten in a bumper receiver year.

I'm still not sure what we did to deserve this but he's sticking around. If you haven't guessed the Hail to the Victors 2020 cover athlete yet you haven't been paying much attention.

—Seth

Honorable Mention: Devin Funchess (2013), Ronnie Bell (2019) with a +26.5/-6.5 UFR score, Donovan Peoples-Jones (2018)

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