Welcome back to the bits. For those who've been away, this is where we dissect the news coming out of practice. That news comes out through sanctioned sources and "unsanctioned" insiders, whom the program often feeds.

We're now two weeks into spring practice, and not a lot has gotten out. Insiders who used to dump their thoughts into message boards or emailed them to people who cover this stuff are not saying as much this year. The official channels are trickling out info, but anything from the program itself should be taken as a Plantagenet Family presser. In other words:

“The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.”

― Elena Gorokhova, A Mountain of Crumbs

The other rule is that we're not here to share information that's collected by the premium message boards. I'll nod at stuff and provide a link sometimes because things they reported get out. If you want premium info you should support the people who get that information.

As I said though, there isn't a lot out there at the moment. if your ear is at all near the ground you've probably heard about all of this. Isaiah Hole transcribed the Harbaugh presser that had the bulk of it. I can collect it in one place in case there's something you missed, but with few tea leaves to analyze we're most in the dark. Let's do the bits.

Short version:

• QB: JJ McCarthy has a shoulder injury that doesn't require surgery, but will cost him spring.
• RB & TE: No news.
• WR: Bell's healing, precautionarily limited. The true freshmen look nice. Traded Sainristil for Dennis.
• OL: Oluwatimi looks like an upgrade, Jones/Barnhart will fight for RT.

And there's video to parse:

Michigan football content we all needed right about now. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/N6anrmUbER

— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) March 1, 2022

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Quarterback

What we want to hear: McCarthy is about to embark on assaults on the Heisman, but McNamara is right there with him, and the Scrooge McDuck silos of NIL money we built for the both of them should keep Michigan well-quarterbacked well into future.

What we're hearing: JJ has a hurt throwing shoulder. The news first came from Balas, who said that McCarthy would require surgery. That turned out to be half-true, first via Angelique, then via Harbaugh:

“JJ had some lingering arm soreness from the season and just want to get some clarity on what was causing that. We consulted all the top experts around the country. And so we got a short-term plan, got a long-term plan for his arm health and working the plan,” Harbaugh said.

“No surgery. People are reporting that there’s surgery. It's a non-surgical plan.”

Sam Webb got some clarification:

A source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed that talk of surgery having taken place already or being scheduled to take place are both inaccurate. I’m told McCarthy is being limited “as a precaution.” I’m told that he’s physically capable of going through spring ball. The concern is that doing so might prolong the nagging nature of the ailment or worsen it. At the moment it appears that rest combined with a targeted exercise & stretching regimen will be sufficient in correcting the issue. The belief is that the right exercise & stretching regimen could also fend off recurrence.

As for practice, Rivals' Josh Henschke got a very nice comparison for Alan Bowman($), and very nice words for walk-on Davis Warren. The freshmen are both quite far from the field, as should be expected.

Cade spoke to the media, though didn't tell us anything we don't know. Like, he's the reigning Big Ten champion starting quarterback. He's also had a productive offseason(On3). Harbaugh's assessment seemed to be the same:

Cade’s looked good. Has really been just sharp. It’s been a nice continuation from the season. J.J.’s getting reps, and then all the other quarterbacks. Alan Bowman, the two freshmen, we get a lot of reps in practice. Our practices consist of a lot of reps and they all work in there.

What it means: Cade remains QB1 for the offseason. That sucks for McCarthy, but I think it might help Michigan out because the longer Cade goes believing he's QB1, the more likely he's going to be around in fall when we need him to be. I know we're all excited to unleash the McCarthy Dragon, but quarterbacks get hurt even when they don't play like JJ, and the kind of dude who leads you to a Big Ten title because he doesn't make many mistakes is way more valuable than we realize. Michigan needs both to feel confident about the position. We lose some of this year's ceiling from McCarthy, but it's a net positive if it means McNamara is the floor.

Regarding the sourcing, I don't think it's Balas's fault that the surgery/no surgery thing changed on him. He probably regrets reporting that surgery was imminent, but he was coming out with that when nobody else had yet reported there was a problem, and clearly JJ and the program got a medical opinion that changed their minds after Balas got his report.

Running Backs

What we want to hear: Who needs Haskins when Corum and Edwards have added a Haskins worth of strength between them without losing an ounce of the je ne sais quoi. Corum is the best RB in the country.

What we're hearing: Edwards is fighting Corum for the top job, and it's a big gap after them($) that probably ends with Dunlap the big back. Josh Ross told On3's Clayton Safie that the offense is going to be ridiculous because...

“I can’t even put it into words how I feel about how our offense is going to be next year,” Ross said. “How [sophomore running backs] Blake and Donovan are going to be the two-back tandem now. How talented Donovan Edwards is. Him coming in as a freshman, that dude was like one of the most mature freshmen I’ve ever seen.

“Donovan was a guy who — I’m watching him meditate while he in the hot tub,” Ross said of the Michigan sophomore. “Freshmen don’t do that. Like, I’ve never seen that. But okay, now I know what he’s about."

CJ Stokes seems like a fit($).

What it means: Nothing.

Wide Receivers

What we want to hear: The debate between Braylon/Avant/Breaston and Knight/Terrell/Walker over which wide receiver room was the best in Michigan history is ovah! Bell is 100% and doing the things he was doing to WMU on a regular basis. Johnson turned a corner into stardom, and Roman Wilson took that next step and is going to be the best deep ball target in the country. AJ Henning is going to do a lot more pure WR stuff. And oh yeah, Andrel Anthony might be better than all of them. The words "Freak show."

What we're hearing: Bell is limited to running in a straight line and coaching, via Harbaugh on the Jansen podcast:

“He's doing good. He’s on track, doing a ton of coaching right now. He’s like another coach out there,” Harbaugh said. “In a great place physically and contributing a lot to spring in a coaching role.”

He's just not turning.

Yeah, he’s doing some straight-ahead things, but he’s right on track.

Right on track could mean he's going to be perfectly Ronnie Bellian come fall, or it could be an Aes Sedai twisting of words to say he's not allowed off the track.

The carnival metaphor was in fact deployed, but it was regarding the true freshmen:

"Freak show!" Harbaugh said when asked of the group Tuesday. "Really all three receivers physically, what we were just talking about, in terms of what they can do — running, jumping — those traits are quite off the charts. Amorion Walker, Darrius Clemons, and Tyler Morris."

Especially…Walker?

"Three freak shows that are incoming freshmen in Darrius Clemons and Tyler Morris and — Amorion Walker is really doing some incredible things," Harbaugh said on a Michigan Athletics podcast last month. "Ran a 6.25 three-cone the other day, got a 43-inch vertical jump.

But Clemons is tearing it up.($) Also Mike Sainristil was moved to defense, and CB/Slot Eamonn Dennis was moved back to offense.

What it means: Probably nothing for the returning starters—they like to give us early first impressions of the early enrollees. Bell's recovery was supposed to be taking about this long, so it's not weird that he's out. Ditto Tyler Morris, for what it's worth. Holding back Bell and moving Sainristil also gives them more reps to share between Johnson, Wilson, Anthony, Henning, Cristian Dixon, and the freshmen.

Tight End

What we want to hear: Erick All is the greatest player in the country and they appreciate Seth from MGoBlog for noticing.

What we're hearing: <crickets> from the program. Henschke confirmed something Lorenz suggested on our recruiting podcast, which is that the staff wants to see what Loveland can do right away($). Josh also had an interesting list of leaders that included two walk-ons, neither of whom were Carter Selzer. Joel Honigford and Louis Hansen also weren't on the list.

What it means: I think we can start penciling in Hibner as the 3rd TE even though he has some guys to pass. Honigford kind of has his own role instead of sharing a depth chart with the other guys.

Offensive Line

What we want to hear: Best OL in the country again, easily. Oluwatimi is Cesar Ruiz 2.0. Jones is going to win the RT job and be amazing.

What we're hearing: Harbaugh himself used his presser to give us an exact rundown of the situation:

Really good. Across the board, there’s some real veteran players there. Keegan, Hayes, Zinter, those are all veteran guys right now. At center, Crippen, Olu look to be extremely good. First impressions of Olu, just hasn’t missed a beat. Came in and hit the ground running like he’s been here for three or four years. Very good leadership, very mature guy, very strong guy. Great addition would be the first impression there.

Right tackle, Trente Jones is the front-runner right now. And some good young players (like) Atteberry. Quite a few. Offensive line looks good.

Internally I was told they're moving guys around a lot and seeing what they have, but the roster was pretty set at the end of last year.

What it means: I guess we're calling him Olu, not Olusegon or Victor. Which means my dream of calling the center "Victor" the guards "Valiant" and the tackles "Conquering Heroes" isn't gonna happen. Also it sounds like the best case scenario for a transfer OL, which usually doesn't go very well. The rest is as expected: I think Jones is the more natural heir at tackle, Barnhart is their guy if a tackle or guard goes down, and Atteberry is the next most likely dude to be ready. Still waiting for a sign that they're going to have a next Hayes in Persi, but it's early yet.

We'll catch up on defense next week since the info is even more scarce, and I am waiting to hear back from someone.