Every year I go over all the available information about Michigan's recruits, whittle it down to 1000-2000 words, and then hang on to those words for the season preview until such time as on-field production means I don't have to. Over the course of this process I have refined some opinions.

I feel better about…

Wide receiver. This is mostly about Cornelius Johnson and Erick All. Both guys have great size and shuttles in the 4.1-4.2 range; that change of direction was obviously a benefit when Johnson went to his all-star game and All enrolled early. Johnson in particular has an athletic profile and family background that make it very likely he's a competent or better multi-year starter as long as he stays healthy. All's quick rise and spring performance make it likely he can thrive as an outside WR—which is where I hope Michigan keeps him, especially given Quintel Kent's unfortunate situation.

Mike Sainristil's spring is something I (and everyone else) knew about before I embarked on this series but that is still a positive, and I can't tell you how much I love the idea of Giles Jackson in a winged helmet AND an offense that is designed to take advantage of deadly oompa loompas.

Kent was about to get a positive, Ronnie-Bell-ish review, too. I hope he can get back.

[After THE JUMP: the downside, but then more upside!]

I feel worse about…

The secondary. Dax Hill is Dax Hill and that's awesome. Quinten Johnson has a case as one of the more underrated guys in the class and has great testing numbers to build on. But Michigan took two corners a year after taking a lot of wild swings at the spot and neither guy jumped out as a slam dunk.

DJ Turner II and Jalen Perry both have some positives; neither gave me the warm fuzzies in the situation Michigan's in. Perry drew close to no mention over the course of spring when Michigan was begging for CBs to step up. Turner is a guy who had a ton of eyes on him over the course of his career and remained stuck in "he's okay" territory. I think you can suss out guys who are likely mis-ranked if you pay close enough attention—the sleepers of the year, discussed below, demonstrate this. The pattern of Turner's recruitment did not suggest he was an airball from the sites.

I'm terrified of…

My opinion about Zach Charbonnet. He's awesome, and he's going to be awesome, and that's exactly what I thought about Derrick Green.

I've tried to be vigilant about the things that hewed down previous highly-touted RB busts. It appears that none of them apply. Charbonnet has contact balance, unlike Green and Carlos Brown. His high school film has a lot of decisions he has to make at the line of scrimmage, unlike Kevin Grady and Ty Isaac. He's not going to struggle to stay on the team, unlike Kelly Baraka and Kareem Walker. He's about 1.5x Justice Hayes's size.

Even the injury issues that pop up as a red flag are less of one since the seemingly extended time out that went from all-star season through spring was just Michigan asking Charbonnet to wait on a meniscus surgery until he was on campus.

Sleeper check-in

For the record, previous sleepers of the year, with answers that would have been more correct based on the selection criteria (which has shifted over time) in parens:

• 2010: Jake Ryan
• 2011: Desmond Morgan (Frank Clark)
• 2012: Jehu Chesson and Ben Braden (Willie Henry and Jeremy Clark have arguments; FWIW Clark was "almost sleeper of the year" himself)
• 2013: Channing Stribling
• 2014: Moe Ways (Brandon Watson, and that's it, this was an awful class)
• 2015: Grant Perry (Karan Higdon, Jon Runyan Jr)
• 2016: Josh Uche and (sigh) Eddie McDoom (Josh Metellus, Sean McKeon, Mike Dwumfour are all > McDoom, YMMV with Uche)
• 2017: Joel Honigford (Kwity Paye)
• 2018: Luke Schoonmaker
• 2019: Charles Thomas (Sainristil DQed)

Jury's still out on the most recent three classes; all sleepers before that except Moe Ways and Eddie McDoom were starter-level players over the course of their career. In my defense there: 1) ye gods the 2014 class had nothing, and 2) McDoom might do some things at USF this fall and would probably be the starting H in Ann Arbor if he was still in town.

I feel dumb for not taking Paye, who checks the immigrant box and the "Don Brown recruits New England" box. Other than that… eh… not bad.

As noted above I DQed Sainristil because by the time I was writing these up he was already the starting H. Zach Carpenter almost got the nod over Thomas, FWIW.

Other seemingly under-ranked guys

[Bryan Fuller]

Mazi Smith's composite ranking is just outside the top 100 because of some consistency issues in high school. I think a guy who shows up at his all-star game and is clearly one of the Bad Dudes in attendance, as just about everyone asserted…

Smith was able to impress mostly because he might be a bear (barely) passing as a person. Evaluation after evaluation describes Smith simply running over anyone put in front of him:

• "…one of the most physically imposing players in attendance. That has been most evident during several of his overpowering bull rushes."
• …had to be one of the stronger players in this game. He won numerous reps with straight power. You combine his power with pad level and that is a nightmare for the offensive lineman in front of him.
• "…a day full of showcasing his power, including barreling over the blocker en route to the quarterback on this rep."
• "…just kept pushing the man in front of him into the backfield all day. He was strong at the point of attack, he played with good leverage and he was tough to slow down. He looked like he got stronger as the day progressed."
• "…continues to impose his will against opposing linemen with the full gear on, recovering from an apparent loss to win the rep with sheer power."

…is probably a top 50 player even if he got bored throwing guys into the sideline. Especially when he's already 300 pounds and simultaneously draws the same level of praise for his twitch. Donovan Jeter:

“Want to talk about a monster? First day, upper body, I’m one of the strongest benchers on the team and he’s making the weight I’m doing look light and I’m sitting there like Maybe I need to reevaluate myself."

High school DL get tired; Smith is probably going to need a year to refine his technique and body before he takes off. I don't look at him as your garden-variety four star.

The other four-star who stood out as a mis-rank is Cornelius Johnson. Dude is 6'2", runs shuttles like a slot, paid off that change of direction at a heavily scouted all-star game, and also showed plenty of ability as a deep threat. His parents are the Huxtables. He doesn't put up 4.4 40s; that's almost the only flaw in his game. That he didn't crack the top 100 anywhere is almost solely attributable to his location—Connecticut.

This OL class is not that OL class

[Isaiah Hole]

I'll eat a lemon if Michigan doesn't get at least two multi-year starters out of this OL class. This is not the 2013 class, which rolled six deep but was swinging wildly at a few guys:

• Chris Fox annihilated his knee during his senior season and never recovered.
• Dan Samuelson was a small-school Indiana kid who almost literally never pass blocked who Michigan reversed course on late.
• Logan Tuley-Tillman was a major project who drew a "vast" variance in his recruiting profile.

They did bring in three guys who looked like good bets to hit, but the one who did—first team All Big 12 guard Kyle Bosch—did so at West Virginia because of personal issues outside the program's control. David Dawson was a long-term backup and grad transfer; Patrick Kugler started at center as a redshirt senior and may or may not have been a reason the Drevno/Frey line couldn't pick up a stunt all year.

This class doesn't have anyone with a first round left tackle frame, but it rolls five deep with good bets. Everyone except Jack Stewart is either a massively experienced college-sized interior OL (Rumler, Carpenter), a guy who rose like a thunderbolt over the course of the recruiting cycle (Jones, Barnhart), or a cycle-long target of Georgia and their ilk (Keegan).

OL being OL, one of these guys will medically retire and a couple more will fail to live up to expectations. But at least two guys are going to be anchors who start for multiple years. I put a lemon on it.

Biggest whiff

Julian Barnett. I don't know what was going on with the two Belleville guys in this class. Michigan didn't offer them right away and there was some consternation about that, and then they were MSU commits.

Given the OL class Michigan signed I'm whatever about Devontae Dobbs. I'm sure he'll be fine; I don't think he's a better long-term prospect than Barnhart. Michigan missing on a top-100 in-state cornerback (he's playing WR at MSU but he'd be a CB here) rankles, especially after the Lewis/Hill/Thomas run.

Zach Harrison and George Karlaftis are the other potential answers.