You know you're a Michigan football geek if you obsess over the weights. The real nerds get into position changes, number changes, and walk-ons. I have updated my big roster file.

Just so you know what you're getting into if you progress any further in this article, I'm going to lead with the thing only I obsess over.

The Curse of B-Will Continues

THE Brandon Williams with the Devin Gardner* jersey I had just bought for my nephew the night before Gardner switched to 98.

With this roster it's official: no player at Michigan will have managed to wear the #12 for his entire eligibility for two entire decades. The last man to do it is the man above, cornerback Brandon Williams**, who donned it in 1999 as a freshman and wore it through his graduation in 2002. Since then:

• QB Matt Gutierrez (2002-'05) got Wally Pipp'ed by true freshman Chad Henne in 2004 and transferred to Idaho State.
• QB David Cone (2006-'08) left with a season of eligibility remaining.
• CB JT Floyd (2008-'10) switched to #8 for his final two seasons.
• WR Roy Roundtree (2009-'11) switched to the #21 Legends Jersey as a senior in 2012.
• QB/WR Devin Gardner (2012) switched to #12 from #7 for the one year he was a wide receiver, then switched to Legends Jersey #98 for the 2013 season opener.
• LB Allen Gant (2012-'14), too slow for safety and too small for linebacker, might have made a good viper, but graduated and left the program right after Michigan hired Don Brown. Gant did come back a few years later as a grad assistant with the vipers, before moving on to coach DBs at Slippery Rock. He was recently named the defensive coordinator at D-II West Virginia Wesleyan.
• P Blake O'Neill (2015) was just a one-year rental.
• QB Alex Malzone (2015-'17) got his degree in 2.5 years and grad transferred to Miami (NNTM)
• RB Chris Evans (2016-'18, 2020) was THIS CLOSE to breaking the curse—he did the hard thing, which was take a year off from the team to serve penance and make up for a gross academic misconduct that got him booted from it with a year of eligibility remaining. Then he went and switched to #9. Bah!

Linebacker Josh Ross is a redshirt junior, so if he manages to stick around and not change digits through 2021 the curse will finally be broken. If Ross heads to the NFL or something, the next shot is QB Cade McNamara, now a redshirt freshman.

*I am being told by the CLC that Adidas did not make #12 jerseys in the summer of 2013 for the presumptive new starting quarterback, because you're not supposed to profit from amateur athletes.

**Brandon Williams is also the namesake of that play when the opponent muffs a punt and you field it on the run, take it to the endzone, and start celebrating before the refs signal the ball was dead where you touched it for some arcane reason.

[After the JUMP: Freshman numbers and what they have to live up to (according to me, an unathletic fat guy with a home office)]

The New Numbers

Is that a Roman Numerals roster on his arm? [David Nasternak]

Since Harbaugh arrived they've had a policy that freshmen can take whichever number they want, and the first to earn his way onto the field gets to keep it. This year they kindly added a "/TBD" to those for confused reporters.

So no, these are not set in stone. In fact players change numbers more often than they used to (we'll get to that). For now, given no alternative, I'll treat each as if they're real, sorta like the 2020 football season.

0 – CB Andre Seldon. This is the first year players can wear 0 and the freshman claimed it. I love it! I am glad, as a person who manages rosters, that 00 wasn't also an option.

2 – RB Blake Corum. He wore 24 in high school, but there's nothing quite so cool as a little guy with a low number on the field. Oddly for one of the lowest, #2 hasn't gone to many running backs in Michigan's history. At Michigan it's the spread running back's number, going to Sam McGuffie for a year before Vincent Smith made it his. Better be an insanely good blocker Blake.

3 – WR AJ Henning. Again, little fast guys and low numbers are sweet. Again, there haven't been that many, as #3 is mostly a defensive back number (Tripp Welborne, Marlin Jackson, Todd Howard, Marion Body, Stevie Brown, Shonte Peoples) at Michigan. There was that one time we had a QB (Wilton Speight), a DE (Rashan Gary), a kicker (Quinn Nordin) and a punter (Brad Robbins) all wearing it at the same time and we lobbied to have the kickoff specialist (then James Foug) change to #3 so we could max it out. The wide receivers to wear it, Todd Brooks and Bo Dever, have a combined two career catches for 40 yards. But I will point you to two very old stars, tiny (5'6"/155) halfback John Maultbetsch, the best player from Yost's non-Big Ten era teams, and end Duke Dunne, one of the 1918 super freshmen and son of the then-governor of Illinois.

4 – QB Dan Villari. Nothing like coming to a school where a legendary player at your position is now the head coach, and taking his number. Love it Villari!

6 – S RJ Moten and…

6 – CB Darion Green-Warren are going to battle it out for the low digit best know for Ty Wheatley on offense and the digit for superstar safety Dave Brown in the early 1970s. Recent CBs to wear it were Donovan Warren, Keith Washington, and Raymon Taylor. I liked it on Uche because of Victor Hobson. I just did a big thing on 1918 so I should also mention this was the number of quarterback Mike Knode (given name Kenneth T.) whom you will find in Maryland's football hall of fame because he kicked ass in College Park—on both sides of the ball—before Yost used wartime relaxations of transfer rules to yoink him.

7 – S Makari Paige. That's a quarterback number in Ann Arbor but you can QB the defense from free safety. Unless you count Khaleke there haven't been that many secondary players to wear this. Alfie Burch, a cornerback from the early '90s, had it, and back in the late '30s Harry Kohl (who was a quarterback on offense) played some deep safety.

8 – VIPER William "Apache" Mohan. What's after #7? This number does have some hybrid space player history in the form of Doug Mallory, the younger of the great Mallory brothers in the mid-'80s, and Jerry Zuver, who played Wolfman for Bo in the 1970s. More recently it was worn by cornerbacks Dwayne Ware, Channing Stribling, and JT Floyd.

13 – CB Eamonn Dennis. If he'd stuck on offense it's the McDOOOOOOM number, but it's got a strong cornerback history mostly thanks to star field cornerback Garland Rivers in the 1980s. Grant Mason wore it after transferring from Stanford, and hard-hitting safety Keith Bostic owned it for a time. German Green was wearing it through last year.

14 – WR Roman Wilson. Ah man, that's not a great number for vibes. Drake Harris took it but didn't do much at Michigan, and highly rated Morgan Trent moved to cornerback (where he was pretty good). The best 14 at Michigan was probably Tony Gant, when he was healthy at least. Well, not counting when Harry Kipke wore it briefly (he'd change #1).

17 – DE Braiden McGregor. Low numbers on defensive linemen are cool but this one is extra cool because it belonged to one of the greatest ends at Michigan you've never heard of, Frank Petoskey, who was the Bennie Oosterbaan to Harry Newman's Benny Friedman. Frank's kid brother Jack also wore it in the 1940s.

26 – LB Kalel Mullings. Here's a more recent but just as deep pull from Michigan history: 1997 team captain Eric Mayes, a transfer who sat out most of the championship season with an injury, wore #26 at Michigan. I love a good safety number at the linebacker level—if not as much as a good defensive lineman number—for the psychological effect, and because Brown plays his LBs sorta like safeties.

31 – S Jordan Morant. A number with a much deeper DB history than you realize. Tony Blankenship and Brandent Englemon were too very smart but limited athletes who were good safeties for good defenses. Zia Combs was an underrated cornerback until his unfortunate injury. Stu Harris was a solid safety on the 1980 defense that shut out the first great passing Purdue squad.

32 –DE Jaylen Harrell. I'm guessing Jaylen didn't pick this number for 1970s DE Larry Banks, nor star end Douglas Kerr from the Benny to Bennie era (and scion of the Kerr family), who in turn inspired Norm Daniels from the 1932 championship team. It's definitely been more of fullback/running back number: Fritz Seyferth, TIm Radigan, A-Train, Stan Edwards, Kevin Dudley, Jarrod Bunch.

34 – LB Osman Savage. That's good, solid, modern LB number recently vacated by transfer Jordan Anthony. It's been a good kicker number or a surprisingly effective cornerback number, but hasn't produced a memorable linebacker here.

41 – LB Nikhai Hill-Green. This is a number with some Michigan history, and also the number I've been told Harbaugh will running backs who complain about not getting the digits they wanted (complain about wearing Rob Lytle and Mad Magician Gene Derricotte's jersey at your peril). He feels this way about 41 for linebackers too because of 1980 team captain Andy Cannavino. Extremely linebacker-named linebacker Rusty Fichtner wore it in the late 1980s after rotational sub Todd Schulte. Walk-on Adam Fakih had it last year.

65 – OL Zak Zinter. This is some subtle framing if you're putting the massive biglargehuge tackle-tall guy at guard, because there have been some great, and GREAT ones. Start with Big Ben Hall of the 1950s, superstar Reggie McKenzie from the '60s and early '70s, through giant Kurt Becker in the early '80s, John Mihic right after him, luggish Leo Henige in the '00s, and Patrick Omameh more recently. We can take it back too—star guard of the Mad Magicians Dom Tomasi wore 65 back when linemen didn't have to wear high numbers.

74 – OL Reece Atteberry. Taking over four-year starter Ben Bredeson's jersey is a strong move. Other 74s on the OL were mid-'70s hoss Kirk Lewis, mid-'80s road-grader Mike Husar, and early 2000s early Frey type Demeterius Solomon, who never quite Frey'd out.

79 – OL Jeff Persi – This is a quietly very solid tackle number, best know for Jeff Backus in the late '90s, and lesser known for Adam Stenavich after him. The guy you should know is Tom Keating, a star on Bump's very bad early 1960s teams, and the first Michigan player to touch the banner. Warde Manuel was a DT but he wore it at Michigan as well.

88 – TE Matthew Hibner. Jake Butt, obviously, but also Jim Mandich, the star of Bo's first team, and Tony McGee, an underrated star of Moeller's first teams. Craig Dunaway, Mark Campbell, Bill Freehan (yes the former Tigers catcher was an End at Michigan first), Elmer Madar (a great player who lost most of his career to serving in WWII), Gene Johnson, and in my time Tim Massaquoi were some other great TEs to wear it.

94 – DT Kris Jenkins. I'm just happy he's not listed at 239 or anything close to it. The DT you probably remember wearing #94 was Jason Horn, or maybe late '80s middle guard TJ Osman. When I was in school underrated DT Eric Wilson, the guy who played next to Rob Renes, wore it.

The Changed Numbers

Cumong Seth, you SAW me play wearing 23! [Bryan Fuller]

Ignoring the walk-ons because they change theirs all the time, here's who's going to be wearing something different this year than last year:

#0 Giles Jackson. The right guy for it.

#1 Nico Collins. LFG.

#4 Vincent Gray. I guess #31 wasn't befitting a starter? Also it's weird to think this class of long and lengthy guys are going into the redshirt sophomore year. Lotta football left there.

#13 Jake Moody. Previously #2, affected by the new rule that only two players can wear a number.

#14 Quinten Johnson. Moved down from #23 to take over Metellus's number. I would take another Josh.

#16 Jalen Perry was one of a number of guys wearing #3 last year, also affected by the two-guy rule.

#22 Gemon Green previously wore #9 but he and his brother both switched to double-digits.

#23 Michael Barrett. He was wearing #6 in spring last year but switched mid-season so he could be on the field at the same time as Uche. Apparently that stuck. It's also an edit in HTTV I can't make now that I should have gotten right.

#24 George Johnson. He was wearing #22 last year; Vert Hill's number also belonged to Bobby Abrams, Charles Drake, and some middle-century quarterbacks who played DB on defense. Also Woodson's number in the pro's. This is how I remember my son's birthday: 2/24.

#28 Christian Turner. Was wearing #3 after switching from #41. Fitz Toussaint's number is quite appropriate for the Touissant-like back.

#29 Joey Velazquez. Was one of several guys trying to take #9 last year.

#33 German Green, the other Green twin, abandoned #13. Now you can remember 22 and 33 are twins.

#36 Charles Thomas was another guy wearing #13 last year. Shout out to Steve Morrison.

#55 David Ojabo was wearing a nondescript #71 last year and got back in time to take on the mantle of Brandon Graham (and Gannon Dudlar, Jibreel Black, Rasheed Simmons, and Cecil Pryor).

#90 Michael Morris. From 80, which I thought Alan Branch's number was more interesting but forgot about Juaquin Feazell, Norman Heuer, Ninef Aghakhan, Chris Godfrey, Vince DeFelice, Bryan Mone… that's a fine group.

#91 Brad Robbins. Previously #91—like Moody was affected by the rule regarding specialists.

#92 Phil Paea. Couldn't keep sharing with Mazi Smith. Maybe the DT number will make him a viable DT.

Changed Positions?

Nothing that wasn't already reported except for walk-ons. If you missed those George Johnson III is at cornerback, Ben VanSumeren is at SAM, and Eamonn Dennis is at cornerback. Among the walk-ons, WR Hunter Neff converted to tight end (he's 6'2"/234). RB Matt Brown moved to linebacker. And via his dad (who's on the 1985 podcast Sap and I just finished recording today), Caden Kolesar is competing at safety.

Changed Heights?

Don't slouch, Luke [Barron]

Yeah so a few were different from last year's roster for some reason.

LOST AN INCH: Luke Schoonmaker went from 6'6" to 6'5".

GAINED AN INCH: Quinten Johnson is now 5'11" not 5'10", and walk-on LB Ryan Nelson went up to 5'10".

GAINED TWO INCHES: Walk-on RB Lucas Andrighetto, who got some coach chatter before getting injured, is now 6'1" not 5'11 (and switched to #31 from #49).

The New Walk-Ons:

You ignore them and then you're mad when one of them is starting at DT against Alabama, or there's a 6'8" guy with the quarterbacks and you don't know who that is and you're about to lose all of your Michigan cred with your wife. Also there are some PWOs in the system who are getting on the field, notably safeties Hunter Reynolds and Tyler (son of another '85 guy) Cochran. There's also a sprinter from East Lansing named Keshaun Harris to keep an eye on because he's extremely fast and learning cornerback.

Here are the new names, in positional order:

QB Peyton Smith, a 6'3"/190 pro-type who goes by "Jim Harbaugh Jr." (I'm sure that name is taken by another Michigan student?) because he and Harbaugh have everything in common according to the article.

RB Gaige Garcia is that wrestling commit; if he plays football he counts towards their 85, else he's on a wrestling scholarship. That was enough for us to give him a scouting look. It seems like a good idea.

RB Nico Tiberia is a small but stout back; the only stuff out there talks about his work ethic.

RB Isaiah Gash is from Wisconsin but grew up in Michigan and lived in Ann Arbor for a time; he picked Michigan over MSU. He gets #41 so that's a point in his favor.

WR/S Jake Thaw was going to be a Stanford PWO but didn't make it in. He's coming in as a slot receiver or safety via an interview he did with Maize and Brew.

WR Christian Bartholomew was on his way towards threatening the state high school career receiving records before his school needed him to play QB. He reports 4.5 speed; if that has two FAKEs they might find something for him to do; they're starting him at slot as well.

WR Will Rolapp once scored 44 points in a basketball game for his school in Connecticut. He could be a WR or a CB or a point guard.

WR Kyle McNamara is Cade's younger brother, 5'9" and ticketed for slot receiver.

WR Sam Staruch was listed at 6'3"/180 by Lake Orion, and measured 6'1"/182 on the Michigan roster. He had some MAC-level interest and at least one FCS offer. TTB says he's got the most natural receiving skills of this year's PWOs.

OL Noah Stewart is the PWO version of a Frey type. He's 6'7"/255 and out of Muskegon. 247 gave him an 80, which is the bottom of their three-star ratings. He had a grayshirt offer from WMU. We'll see if he grows.

DT Elijah Pierre is exactly what you want to see out of the walk-on program. He's a 6'1"/297 grad transfer from Brown University who played with Mo Hurst at Xaverian Brothers.

LB Edward Warinner is the Michigan OL coach's son, and arrives as a junior transfer from MSU.

LB Jerome Nichols is out of Detroit Renaissance, where he played H-Back and outside linebacker at 6'1"/218. Upshot is if he can grow into an edge rusher. He was considering Ivies if Michigan didn't offer.

CB Joshua Luther appeared on the roster this year as a sophomore. He's from Clarkston, is 5'9"/173, and didn't help get us Rocco Spindler.

PK Cole Hussung was a 5-star, the #9 kicker to Kornblue, and the #50 ranked kicker and #75 punter to Kohl's. He seems to be mostly a big-legged kickoff specialist' 41/63 kickoffs were touchbacks according to Kornblue. Hussung's career long was 49 but he's hit from 46, 47, and 48 before; on the other hand he was only 38/44 on extra points last year, via MnB. Bama, Louisville, and Tennessee were poking around too.

LS Greg Tarr is a 4.5-star and the #6 long snapper to Rubio's. This means Tarr has good levers.

Also QB Max Wittwer (2018), a 6'2"/205 former Air Force commit who reappeared on the roster after not being on it last year.