Michigan earned their first commitment from the transfer portal on National Signing Day, bringing in LB Jaishawn Barham from B1G East rival Maryland. Let's get to know Barham using some of the tape accumulated from two years of FFFFs and what others are saying: 

 

As a recruit

Barham was a member of the class of 2022 recruiting cycle, hailing from District Heights, MD, and attending St. Frances Academy in Baltimore. His HS career began with Barham attending DeMatha Catholic and ended at St. Frances, a journey that saw him dip his toes into two of the biggest brands in national HS athletics. Barham was a prized recruit, ranking 119th in the 247 composite, 10th among LBs and 3rd among players in the state of Maryland. Opinions of him were quite favorable, as you'd expect. Here's Brian Dohn of 247 on his eval of Barham, the recruit: 

Good frame with ability to add mass and size. Plays outside linebacker in high school but style is suited to move inside in college. High level athlete with elite change of direction ability. Very good at sifting through traffic in the box to locate ball carrier. Hits gaps quickly. Highly active in running game and pursues well. Has understanding to stack and shed. Sure tackler with closing speed. Has excellent body control in space. Strong with his depth drops in coverage and is comfortable in space

The negatives Dohn would go onto cite was a need to bulk up and improve as a blitzer and in man coverage. Here was the take from Rivals' Adam Friedman: 

Barham is a big, explosive linebacker that can cover a lot of ground for his size. He has good instincts and doesn't have a problem finding the ball carrier. Barham is a physical tackler that can cause fumbles or caused receivers to drop passes. He does a nice job of disrupting running back, tight ends, or receivers while they're in their routes

Friedman went on to note that he was high on Barham's blitzing potential, a bit sunnier than Dohn you might say. The general consensus between the various scouting reports on Barham was that he was a big-frame LB (at the time listed at 6'3", 230), fast, physical, loving to tackle and hunt the ball in run defense, capable of moving in space as well as anyone. There were some questions about the refinement of his technique in various areas of the game, but the upside and athletic package was largely undeniable. 

Those physical gifts made him an obviously attractive recruit, gifting Barham his top 150 ranking. All four services had him in the top 300 and all but On3 placed him inside the top 150. Barham was a legitimate blue chip and coming from a national power in St. Frances, there was plenty of interest. He took official visits to four schools, PSU, South Carolina, Maryland, and Oklahoma, with his recruitment coming down to two of those four, South Carolina and in-state Maryland. The final period was a whirlwind, with Barham committing to South Carolina on Saturday, December 11, 2021, but then flipped to the Terps just four days later, on Wednesday, December 15. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: How he did in college and the fit at Michigan]

 

[Maryland Athletics]

College scouting

Barham joined a Maryland roster that had a chronic linebacker problem and so it made an abundance of sense to use his talents at ILB. The 2021 Maryland defense was one of the worst linebacker units I've charted in three years, with both starters and 3/4 rotational 'backers getting cyans on the FFFF diagram that year, so instant help was needed. A blue chip recruit with college-ready athleticism qualifies as some degree of instant help. Playing a true freshman at ILB is never ideal, but the thought was that Barham as a Tr Fr couldn't be any worse than Ahmad McCullough, Gereme Spraggins, or Ruben Hyppolite II. 

That turned out to be an understatement. Barham joined Maryland in 2022 and hit the ground running, winning a starting job by the end of fall camp and Barham started in the first NCAA game he ever competed in. Going off his PFF grades, week 1 against Buffalo was choppy but then Barham put together two strong performances against Charlotte and SMU prior to his first encounter with Michigan, in late September. I charted that SMU game for the Maryland defense and came away rather impressed, writing first: 

At the LB level, true freshman and St. Frances product Jaishawn Barham was a centerpiece of Maryland's 2022 recruiting class and they're throwing him into the deep-end by making Barham the starting MIKE in his first NCAA season. The results have been pretty impressive so far. 

I gave him consideration for the Dangerman label but ultimately went with S Beau Brade. He didn't pop up in a ton of my clips but I did like his blitzing ability, clipping this one: 

What was curious about the decision not to blitz at all was the blitzes they sent later mostly worked. I loved this rush from Jaishawn Barham: 

LB #1 to the top of the line

He also appeared in a run defense clip that was mostly about the DT: 

The DTs looked much more competent than last year, with Ami Finau showing up on this play to get a piece and then Barham finishes it off: 

NT #54

Barham's freshman season continued along with solid PFF grades between the 60s and 80s and his final season grades were remarkable for a true freshman ILB, 78.5 overall grade and between 71 and 83.1 in the four categories of coverage, tackling, pass rushing, and run defense. I thought to myself back when I scouted Barham in September that he was having a "very impressive for a true freshman" season but the final result was just plain "very impressive". For his efforts, Barham was named to the FWAA and College Football News Freshman All-American teams and the hype train was firmly in order. 

Heading into his sophomore season, I named Maryland's linebacker group 4th on my The Enemy: LB group, much to the chagrin of Seth. My reasoning was that while the other LBs on Maryland's team remained terrible, Barham was a star in the making: 

Last year's The Enemy, Ranked: LB never once mentioned the name Jaishawn Barham. At the time, he was an incoming true freshman, decorated in the recruiting rankings but ILB is historically a difficult position to play as a true freshman. Instead, Barham forced his way onto the field, leaping over several of Maryland's Bad LBs With Great Names and snagging a starting role right from the jump ... Not sure if he was quite star status in totality, but he was one of PFF's highest graded LBs in the conference. Now as a true sophomore with a year under his belt, Barham is a safe bet to be All-B1G

Barham's existence as a Dude in the making is why Maryland leaps up to #4 because the rest of this depth chart is just as iffy as it's ever been

What followed for Barham in 2023 was a good season, but not a particularly great one and you could argue that he regressed (going off of PFF overall grade, he did). His tackling, run defense, and pass rush grades remained pretty strong, but the coverage situation was apparently very bad. He got a 44.8 grade in coverage because throws charged to him were 16/21 for 165, a 110.2 NFL passer rating. When I reviewed the tape for the Maryland FFFF this season, I didn't come away with any major observations about a downgrade in Barham's coverage abilities, merely noting in the piece that the PFF grades had tumbled. I still liked him as a blitzer: 

Finally, on the pass rush, it had a decent day against Ohio State, but I don't see any real NFL caliber pass rushers the way Purdue and PSU have had. PFF's team pass rush grade for Maryland is near the middle of the country and that jibes with what I saw. They had a few sacks, including this one:

Barham the LB is blitzing there and I thought he was pretty good in that role. None of the DL jumped out as superb organic rushers but they all had their moments here and there

I'm not entirely sure what to make of Barham's coverage issues. As Seth pointed out on MGoRadio, assessing coverage grades to linebackers is often tricky because it's not always clear whose responsibility was what when you have receivers over the middle. Is the LB on that guy, is he in an unrelated zone, was he supposed to switch off, so and so forth. It's much more difficult than coverage grades for a corner and that could explain some of the volatility. For those automatically dismissing Barham off-hand as a "two-down LB", I'd say "pump the brakes". It could be a weakness, but it wasn't in 2022, when throws targeted to him were 14/22 for 120, a 77.8 NFL passer rating by contrast. 

Whatever coverage issues do exist didn't pop up too much against Michigan, because Barham made the highlight of that game with this interception of JJ McCarthy: 

Yes, JJ threw it right to Barham, but credit Barham for reading the QB's eyes and dropping with enough depth that he could leap up and snare the ball. That is notably the only interception of Barham's career so far. 

Barham tossed his name into the portal just over a week after the season ended and before long, there was reporting connecting him to Michigan. He took a rather discreet visit to Ann Arbor, at which point the crystal balls started rolling in. Given Michigan's ties to St. Frances through Blake Corum, Derrick Moore (a HS teammate of Barham), and Biff Poggi, and the strong recruiting that the Maize & Blue do in the DMV area in general, there were obvious reasons to think a commitment made sense. On Wednesday, national signing day, Barham made it official in committing to the Wolverines. 

 

 

[247 Sports]

The fit at Michigan

The first question that has to be answered by the Michigan coaches with Barham is what position he is going to be playing with a winged helmet on? If you refer back to those high school scouting reports, there seemed to be some debate about whether Barham would be more of an EDGEy SAM sort of pass-rusher, or a true ILB. Maryland used him at the latter and I I had somewhat assumed that would be the plan for Barham, but there is certainly the possibility they could mold him into a Jaylen Harrell replacement. Harrell played this season as a listed 6'4"/242, while Barham was listed by Maryland at 6'4"/233. It's not inconceivable you could Herbertize him and then try to turn him into a modern OLB sort of thing. 

I think I personally prefer Barham at ILB, because what he did in 2022 was genuinely impressive and I don't think throwing the baby out with the bath water over one bad coverage year (while the rest of his game held up) is a great idea. It's unclear if Junior Colson returns for 2024 while Michael Barrett is out of eligibility, which means two new starters could be needed at the linebacker spot. Ernest Hausmann is ready to go as one, but is Michigan 100% confident in Jimmy Rolder as the other starter? I like Rolder, but he didn't play much this season and got cooked in the few plays he did against Ohio State. I would feel much more confident in a Barham-Hausmann tandem than a Rolder-Hausmann duo.

I saw some people framing the pick up of Barham as similar to the acquisition of Hausmann last year ("they found a guy who played well against Michigan!"), but I don't see them as similar at all. Hausmann was a former 3* who was pressed into duty too early and was largely terrible as a true freshman outside of a strong performance against Michigan. Barham was a blue chip 4* who has two full years of B1G starting experience at ILB under his belt. Even this year, with the woeful coverage grade pulling him down, Barham was 13th out of 22 starting-usage ILBs in the conference in PFF grade. Not incredible, but solid (higher than everyone's favorite LB Aaron Casey) and a player I'd feel fine starting. Give Barham a full offseason to work with Michigan's defensive coaches, who I think are much better than Maryland's, and I would feel very good about his ability to be an impact player on Michigan's defense and reclaim the full promise of 2021. 

 

[Maryland Athletics]

This isn't to dismiss the possibility of Barham playing outside. What he's shown as a pass rusher, his package of speed and physicality certainly give him the potential to be an impact SAM/OLB sort of guy replacing Jaylen Harrell. But I do wonder if that's much of a need, even with Harrell presumably leaving. If Braiden McGregor returns you have three EDGEs (Stewart/Moore/McGregor), plus the possibility of younger players like TJ Guy or Enow Etta needing snaps next season. The LB room isn't nearly as deep and if you lose both of your starters, Barham's services will be needed more pressingly there. 

Whatever Michigan chooses to do, they're getting a very talented football player out of the portal. That's advantage #1. That he knows the B1G well and has multiple seasons of starting experience in it is a big bonus. He showed a great aptitude for football to play at an above replacement level as a true freshman at the most cerebral position on the defense and that package, mixed with his athleticism, makes him a pickup I'm very happy about. There may be a few warts in his game, but that's nothing this staff can't work on. If you can take Not An ILB Michael Barrett into the best ILB in the B1G, you can turn Freshman All-American Jaishawn Barham into an impact piece on the Michigan defense no matter if he's playing more rush OLB or ILB. 

 

Upshot for the portal 

With Barham in the program, Michigan has their first transfer of the 2023-24 portal cycle. They have long been linked to WKU Nk Upton Stout, but recent buzz suggests that it is not a done deal ($). TBD on that one. Michigan seemed to lead for WR Donaven McCulley, but he opted to return to Indiana once the Hoosiers hired a new coach. The Wolverines are continuing to poke around for a big body WR, with Tulane's Chris Brazzwell and Wake Forest's Jahmal Banks being the newest names to know. Best player available is also something Michigan is looking at, which most immediately would seem to be former 5* corner Domani Jackson from USC. We shall see if anything comes of these pursuits.