Michigan football is now just two weeks from taking to the field against the Western Michigan Broncos, and with another week comes another Fall Football Bits. As always we will be using our collection of sources to try and compile what we've been hearing about Michigan Football, and then break down what it means for the team this fall, particularly when it comes to discerning the depth chart. Many of the positional groups are not terribly different from last week but there are some new pieces of information that are worth discussing. As a result, some sections will be longer and others will be rather short. 

 

Quarterback 

What we want to hear: McCarthy's hard charge continues but Cade continues to barely hold him off. The depth options are ready to be called in should the inevitable QB injury occur. 

What we've been hearing: Not a lot has changed here. The general praise has continued, with Cade McNamara perhaps using this past week to solidify his grip on the #1 job. Reports from Wednesday's scrimmage indicated that Cade very much looked the part of the starter ($) and he picked up some good praise from his teammates, too. Ryan Hayes spoke to the media and was effusive in his hype of Cade's leadership skills: 

I haven't seen a quarterback take charge like he has. He's really trying to lead — he's putting in that effort — and he's not afraid to tell you when you need something or you want something from your group

Hayes has been at Michigan under various potential starters including Shea, Milton, and McCaffrey, so that's a quote with a tiny bit of intrigue behind it. The JJ McCarthy hype was a bit tempered this week, with some reports indicating he has struggled a bit. That's to be expected with a true freshman. The reporting around the options farther down the depth chart has been mostly nonexistent. That said, Dan Vilari and Alan Bowman started a podcast which you can listen to if you have nothing else to do. 

What it means: Cade is still locked in as the starter, and McCarthy is #2. Who knows how good McNamara will be as a QB on the field, but the one thing that seems to be clear is that he walks into the locker room and wants to be The Guy In Charge. Remember that his post-game pep talk after the Rutgers win got some buzz and with everything said about Cade on both his scouting reports as a recruit and what Hayes has said about him, the moxie is clearly evident. He wants to lead. The question is whether he will be leading to glory or to disaster. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Backs who run with the ball and more positional groups]

 

Your 1A at Running Back [Patrick Barron]

Running Back 

What we want to hear: This positional group is still loaded and looking to go out there and dominate. Everyone is healthy and ready to bludgeon the opposition on the ground. 

What we've been hearing: Mostly that. It's been pretty much all positive buzz out of the RB room, both the public and the insider stuff. Balas named RB as the team's 2nd best positional group through camp so far ($) and noted in a separate update that Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum are 1a and 1b, with Donovan Edwards a step back but in the mix ($). Mike Hart spoke to the media in an availability session that Isaiah Hole typed up at WolverinesWire and he had an interesting answer to a question about whether Corum reminds him of his younger self: 

He works a lot harder! I think that the best — size-wise, yes. Blake’s a lot faster than me, a lot quicker than me. If I was that fast, I’d probably still be playing in the NFL. He’s a great kid, but I think his mentality and the way he does things, the way he approaches the game is really similar to the way I did

As for Edwards, Hart said: "Will Donovan be on the field at some point? Yeah, it's probably gonna happen. I can't tell you when, I can't tell you how much". That seems to indicate a gadget role and nothing more, which is understandable if Haskins is his usual self and Corum makes a leap. 

What it means: This depth chart seems quite clear: Haskins/Corum, gap, Edwards, gap, Dunlap. 

 

Wide Receiver 

What we want to hear: Ronnie Bell is one of the B1G's most underappreciated weapons, Cornelius Johnson is rounding into Michigan's next great big downfield target who will be infuriatingly ignored by the QB, and the various slots are all clicking in practice. 

What we've been hearing: Daylen Baldwin, Daylen Baldwin, and more Daylen Baldwin. The praise is not hard to find in the WR room, but Baldwin continues to be the story and the centerpiece of the hype. He continues to show up in practice reports day after day, with quotes like "extremely impressive" being thrown around in the insider pieces. Perhaps not a coincidence, Ron Bellamy mentioned Baldwin first when asked about which receivers were giving his positional group trouble in practice when he spoke to the media recently. Those doling out the hype seem to have a pretty clear desire to make it clear that Baldwin will be a featured component of the offense. 

We would be remiss not to mention Cornelius Johnson in this section, though, as he continues to get a lot of hype, too. Indeed, a recent piece over at Rivals (not paywalled) asserted that Johnson is the "best of a nice group of receivers during fall camp", while conjectures from insiders continue to point towards Johnson having a breakout season. Ronnie Bell is just being mentioned casually in the "known commodity" sort of way where you don't need to hype him because he's already played a lot. The slot guys just get talked about in tandem with each other, as no one seems to be sticking out there. The slot mentioned first varies from person to person. In total, the entire WR room continues to be a source of optimism in practice reports and there appears to be a sense that the coaches are satisfied with their options here. 

What it means: Bell, Johnson, and Baldwin are all likely to play a lot, it would seem, and if Baldwin is a real contributor, and Johnson makes that next step, you may see Ronnie Bell lining up in the slot a lot. Wilson, Henning, and Sainristil are probably set to rotate and feature in different ways in the offense. 

 

Tight End 

What we want to hear: Erick All is going to make you remember him in a good way this time, Schoonmaker continues to come on strong, while the options behind those two will at least be usable run blockers. 

What we've been hearing: 

Not much going on here. The report from last week's scrimmage was that both Erick All and Luke Schoonmaker sat, and we reported the All injury last week. No real word on how serious those ailments are (we were told All was "banged up" and not dealing with a serious issue), but when your top two options aren't practicing much, you don't get to hear lots of hype about this positional group because Rule #1 of fall camp hype is injured players never get hyped. The TE's are rarely mentioned at all right now. We'll see if that changes when guys get back to 100%. 

What it means: The same as last week. All, Schoonmaker, Hibner, with Honigford mixed in as a blocking TE. Unknown injury factors involved. 

 

Ryan Hayes (#76) spoke to the media recently [MG Campredon]

Offensive Line 

What we want to hear: The coaching staff has picked a group they like for the starting five and those five are starting to gel as a unit. The depth is plentiful and injuries will be easy to stomach thanks to a wealth of talent in the OL room. 

What we're hearing: Lot to talk about here. The general OL buzz was more positive over the past week than before, but it still doesn't seem like the starting unit is set. We continue to hear the same five as last week being mentioned as the projected OL, with Lorenz ($) saying he expects it to be Hayes-Keegan-Vastardis-Zinter-Stueber, but other insiders will not give up the "competition" slant to the line. Just a few days ago Sam Webb ($) discussed Filiaga as having a great camp, as if to assert that Keegan had not buried the veteran at LG, and even talked about some of the younger tackles (Barnhart/Jones) getting work on the line. It does seem like the group working with the Ones has been consistent for a few weeks now, but it still may not be set in stone. Or it may just be a case of insiders wanting a Palace Intrigue narrative to sell you as a reason to buy a subscription to their site and the reports of ongoing battles are overblown. Who knows. 

As for the performance of the individual parts, we continue to get all that Zak Zinter hype. Multiple insiders from several sites have called Zinter the team's best OL by a wide margin. But, in the same breath they assert that Andrew Vastardis is playing well and has a stranglehold on center, so it would seem that those two are sharpie'd in at RG and C, respectively. In case you're wondering why Vastardis keeps getting hype when his performance on the field last year was, at times, Patrick Kugler-like, Webb added in an interesting note about a potential nagging injury that hurt his play last season. Not sure I buy it, but it would seem to be a compelling explanation if Vastardis is somehow significantly improved this fall. 

For the total picture, it seems like some progress is being made here. Balas, who had previously been way down on the OL, seemed to be more optimistic in the past week's reports, while the aforementioned Lorenz piece was literally titled "Why I'm Bullish About Michigan's OL". The sense that OL may be emerging as more of a strength was mentioned in that Webb piece, and that seems to be permeating through Insider Land right now. 

What it means: Despite all the conversation, I'm going to continue to assume that starting five we've routinely mentioned is going to be the group to take the field against WMU in 11 days. Until I'm told that Filiaga has pulled through, I'm going to assume that he keeps getting buzz because the coaches want to give some love to a veteran guy who's been around the program for awhile. I am also receptive to the idea that the OL could be quite good. Losing Warinner hurts, but there's a lot of talent with this positional group and frankly if they don't become one of the better positional groups on the team, I think that's a sign of an underachieving unit. We'll have to see if Sherrone Moore can get them there. 

 

The "lone given" at DL [Patrick Barron]

Defensive Line 

What we want to hear: Aidan Hutchinson is primed to be an All-American, the defensive tackles are rounding into shape, and the young edge rushers have so much raw talent that Mike Macdonald will have a load of pass rushing options at his disposal to pressure opposing QB's. 

What we're hearing: Continually mixed reports that range from promising to "I guess that's probably better than when 270 pound Ben Mason lined up as a DT against Wisconsin?". In a previously cited Balas piece about camp rumblings, he called out the DL as the positional group that "needs to step up... it just hasn't been consistent enough", which is not a great sign. Meanwhile, a recent Sam Webb update ($) said that Aidan Hutchinson is "clearly the lone given" along the defensive line. While that's obviously true if we're measuring purely on past performance, it would be nice to hear more encouraging words about the line as a unit, and about individual players. 

One of the two individual players we do continue to hear about is, you guessed it, Donovan Jeter. He also is one of the few players on the DL we have gotten to hear from, as Jeter spoke to the media last week and was asked more or less how he feels about the hype: 

I've been alright. The compliments from coach are always nice, but I've been getting compliments since 2019. The biggest part is now going week in, week out of the season. Because it's always nice to get a compliment from the head coach— I don't want to say it means nothing, that comes off wrong. I just really gotta go out on Saturdays in the Big House.

My immediate two thoughts are 1) that quote essentially amounts to saying "I know fall camp hype means nothing" and 2) Jeter comes off as very self-aware here, as disappointed with his performance relative to the hype up to this point as we are. He cited his technique as a factor holding him back and since that interview isn't paywalled, I'd recommend reading it, as it was rather illuminating. 

As for the rest of the DL, Mazi Smith is still getting hype as the most consistent of the interior DL. Meanwhile, Chris Hinton is being talked about as someone who needs to become more consistent. Jordan Whittley made a rare appearance in the Webb piece, with Sam asserting that Whittley's size will allow him to play against bigger OL's even though his technique may be lacking.

There still seems to be active competition for the last edge spot. Balas listed David Ojabo as the edge starter opposite Hutchinson on his recent two-deep depth chart, but other insiders have indicated that Ojabo still may be developmental and that Mike Morris and Taylor Upshaw have been more consistent options. When Julius Welschof is mentioned, it continues to be in sentences that make it sound like he's the mutant fish man from The Shape of Water, with coaches needing to figure out how to harness the power of this rare specimen before he can get on the field. Webb seemed to suggest that the switch to a new scheme may have hindered Welschof's development, as the relative newcomer to football is having to learn a whole new playbook. 

What it means: The starters haven't really changed I don't think. For the three down linemen, it's Jeter-Smith-Hinton, with Whittley and Jess Speight mixed in. For edge, it's Hutchinson and then a rotation of Ojabo, Upshaw, and Morris, with Welschof playing a bit somewhere. This group is a work in progress and there still is a lot of reason to temper expectations I think. Maybe they pop off when the games begin, but this doesn't seem to be a full steam ahead! type of position group right now. 

 

Josh Ross (#12) wants to turn back the clock to 2018 [Patrick Barron]

Linebacker 

What we want to hear: Josh Ross continues to round back into 2018 form, Nikhai Hill-Green continues his trajectory to be Michigan's next great LB, while Michael Barrett is a savvy veteran presence, and the depth is better than expected. 

What we're hearing: Well, the Nikhai Hill-Green stuff is continuing. Balas discussed NHG in a piece last week that was not put behind a paywall, confirming what we reported from last week: 

Many expected redshirt sophomore Michael Barrett to get the nod after he made the move from Viper, but Hill-Green has moved past him on the depth chart ... at least for now

That same piece indicated that Hill-Green is practicing at both MIKE and WILL right now. All other reports continue to reiterate that NHG has separated himself from Barrett right now, but that the more veteran LB will not be out of the picture entirely given his experience and the decently thin depth at this positional group. 

Speaking of that depth, we did get some news about the players behind the big three. The first of it is bad: true freshman Junior Colson has sustained an injury, which he reported on his own Instagram story and then was confirmed by Lorenz ($) to be minor, and that Colson should be ready for week one. Still, that may hamper his track to playing time right away and insiders talk about Colson more as a future star rather than a budding immediate one (like NHG). Kalel Mullings has begun to pop up in practice reports, which is decently encouraging, and some are asserting he's having a nice fall camp. However, when Colson is healthy, Mullings is likely not on the two deep. Joey Velazquez got a shout out as a "hard worker" from Balas in a report last week. 

What it means: Ross and NHG are your starters, Barrett will play a lot and be in the rotation, and then there's a gap, followed by Colson (when healthy) and Mullings. Any injuries here could be hugely damaging which is a huge reason for concern, but the starters have a shot to be really solid. 

 

Cornerback 

What we want to hear: DJ Turner II is asserting himself and is starting to click opposite Gemon Green, who continues to build on last year's performance, while Vincent Gray is not really needed right now. 

What we're hearing: Nothing new really. Gemon Green is still getting praise and insiders are still reporting that DJ Turner II is ahead of Vincent Gray on the depth chart, but that Gray will have a role. Outside of TE, this is the least discussed positional group on the team currently, with really nothing new to speak of. Not even any new George Johnson III hype! 

What it means: Status quo: three main corners and then paper thin depth below that. Just hope Turner is an upgrade on Gray and that he and Green stay healthy the whole season. If that happens, Michigan could be okay. If Turner is no better than Gray, or injuries strike, it could get ugly fast. 

 

Just imagine that's Dax Hill instead of Josh Metellus [Patrick Barron]

Safety

What we want to hear: Dax Hill is ready to make the jump to 1st team All-B1G, Brad Hawkins is Old Reliable, and the young safeties are coming on very quickly, allowing Macdonald to get creative with his personnel usage. 

What we're hearing: Lots of good stuff again. The focus of the practice hype keeps being Dax Hill, who we repeatedly hear is going to be moved around the field quite a bit. The Balas depth chart piece noted that Hill is going to play "safety, nickel, and corner" to "take advantage of his elite skillset", something we've heard several times now. Makari Paige was cited in the same piece as having "a great spring and summer", while Brad Hawkins isn't mentioned much, mostly in the same Known Commodity category as Ronnie Bell. 

There's no new RJ Moten hype, but we did get to hear from Moten, who spoke to the media yesterday. Putting him up for availability suggests he's going to see the field, though he claimed he's "not sure" what his role on the team is. Moten talked up his versatility on the field and suggested he's prepared to do whatever to help the team win "on defense, special teams". One new name that appeared in practice reports for the first time is Rod Moore, with the buzz being that he had a good scrimmage last week. 

What it means: Mostly the same. Dax Hill will be all over the field, Brad Hawkins is locked in at one safety spot, and then Paige and Moten will rotate in at safety. Moore's name being cited is interesting for the future but it's highly unlikely he sees the field as a true freshman, given the four bodies in front of him on the depth chart.