[Bryan Fuller]

Per Sam Webb, Keith Washington has given word that he intends to depart from Ann Arbor.

Got word today that Michigan soph DB Keith Washington gave word of his plan to transfer. Stay tuned for more on this story in hours to come. pic.twitter.com/00BUlNeip8

— Sam Webb (@SamWebb77) August 21, 2017

A 3-star recruit out of Prattville and one of Harbaugh's first recruits, Washington redshirted in 2015 and appeared in nine games last year. He was reportedly in the mix for the second corner spot, and Mike Zordich mentioned earlier today that we may see him in different roles as well. Apparently, this is not so.

The starting corners will now likely come from the group of Lavert Hill, David Long, Brandon Watson, and Ambry Thomas. Drake Harris and Benjamin St-Juste are also extant, as is Jaylen Kelly-Powell. 

Previously: Last year's profiles. S J'Marick Woods, S Jaylen Kelly-Powell, S Brad Hawkins, CB Ambry Thomas, CB Benjamin St-Juste, LB Drew Singleton, LB Jordan Anthony, LB Josh Ross, DE Kwity Paye, DE Luiji Vilain, DE Corey Malone-Hatcher, DE Deron Irving-Bey, DT Donovan Jeter, DT Phil Paea, DT James Hudson, DT Aubrey Solomon, C Cesar Ruiz, OT JaRaymond Hall, OT Joel Honigford, OT Andrew Stueber, OT Chuck Filiaga, WR Oliver Martin, WR Nico Collins, WR Tarik Black, WR Donovan Peoples-Jones, FB Ben Mason, RB O'Maury Samuels, RB Kurt Taylor, QB Dylan McCaffrey.

[Editor's note: since the major sites abdicate on kickers and there's now a diversity of specialist rankings we're using them above. Robbins was not ranked in any way by Scout or Rivals and was in the 3000s on 24/7. ESPN does not have a scouting report for him but I'm including their ranking anyway because I don't want to reformat the table.]

Brad Robbins is a punter, and he was acquired in the best way to acquire a punter: without anyone else on scholarship, after it was clear that Michigan would have a spare slot. Michigan offered at the 11th hour and flipped him from a Nevada commit, and now they've got a high-upside punter.

VIDEO: Michigan freshman punter @brobb713 dropping a 5.0 at our @AIAFootball College Camp #Fab50 〽️ pic.twitter.com/bvmQkmG0vI

— Brandon Kornblue (@KornblueKicking) May 30, 2017

the "touchback" guy must be fun at parties

Probably, anyway. Specialist rankings are notoriously useless. The recent emergence of a cottage industry of specialist, er, specialists is welcome; those are still subject to things like showing up at camps. Even with that caveat Robbins seems worth the slot. Kornblue:

…top nationally ranked punter for the class of 2017… performance included punts of 5.06/46 yards & 5.04/54 yards. …At our Ohio Fab 50 Camp (July 2016), we charted Bradley on 10 punts. Best charted punt was 4.94/47 yards. 8/10 were 4.2+ hangtime. He averaged 4.37/41 yards (0-5 mph crosswind).

Earning our highest ranking includes strength, consistency, operation time, athleticism, and character. Brad has all these traits. His operation times and consistency improved after recent private training in Florida, where we shortened his steps and adjusted to more of a two-step approach.

41 yards an attempt doesn't sound too exciting but it appears that Robbins took that private training and used it to reach the proverbial next level. He had a late, post-senior season breakout:

[Robbins] burst onto the scene from his impressive performances on the camp circuit, especially in front of kicking guru, Brandon Kornblue at his camp in Florida in late December.

From there, his recruitment quickly took off.

“I walked up to (Kornblue's) camp and he had no idea who I was and by lunch time he was asking who the heck I was,” Robbins told The Michigan Insider. “At the end of this camp, he had me ranked second on his website and two days later, the special teams coach at Nevada gave me a call and a week later offered me a scholarship. I went out for a visit and loved the way they recruited me, so I committed to them.”

I know recruiting specialists is another world but that's late and odd even for them. It does explain why he's basically unranked on the mainstream sites. The niche kicking sites did pick up on it, with Kornblue elevating him to #1 and a couple others delivering wow experience scouting reports. Kohl's kicking:

…dominant showing at the 2017 Senior Showcase. He averaged over 5.0 seconds on his charts at camp and hit several 5.2+ second punts during the drill work and competitions. … He is D1 ready right now. Robbins had an impressive camp at the 2016 Eastern Winter Showcase. He won the punt competition and the punt charting at camp. Robbins has solid technical refinement and great power. He is explosive in his hips, the ball jumps off his foot and his repeatability in his catch/hold is probably his most impressive trait that he has.

The first video above is from their camp and features a nonstop parade of booming punts with an appreciative audience.

The Kicking Coach:

No brainer Division 1 scholarship punter. Tall and fast. Excellent mechanics and consistency. Has leg strength to hit 5.3 second hang times. Brad has charted multiple consecutive punts of over 5 seconds. He will likely compete for starting job immediately. Kicks off well. Mechanics need work. But he can already reach 70+ yards with good hang times.

Brandon Justice:

"He's, uh, really good."

Kornblue:

"I think he is definitely up for the job and has the talent to do it and be not only a four-year starter but possibly one of the best ever."

There's always the question of objectivity since these specialist camps are a paid venture—special teams coaches gotta eat too—but the mainstream sites abdicating they're the best we've got. Robbins will hit a lot of boomers; whether he's merely good or great will depend on his consistency and touch.

Etc.: Hey man if you thought a recruiting profile extensively referencing "Smooth" was bad, it can always be worse:  

A visit to Illinois is in the works. If that happens, cue up "Closing Time" for the Illini.

Why Punters? He's gonna punt, I reckon. 

Guru Reliability: Zero as far as the regular sites go. Moderate for the specialist sites, because they seem to be going mostly or entirely off of camps with less sample size than you might like.

Variance: Low. Scholarship punters are consistently very good for Michigan.

Ceiling: High. Late-cycle version of this guy was hitting some serious boomers and getting rapt praise.

General Excitement Level: Moderate. Not Australian. I can get hype about an Australian punter only.

Projection: Will fight with Will Hart for the starting job and likely acquire it this fall. Scholarship punters don't often get beat out. Recent Harbaugh comments also support Robbins; those are more fully addressed in the season preview.

1 hour and 7 minutes

[Bryan Fuller]

Instead of making you listen to a Hardcore History-length preview we’re splitting this one up into three parts. That was decided after it was recorded.

-----------------------

We Couldn’t Have One Without the Other

[UPDATE: I forgot HOMESURE LENDING! First podcast jitters, sorry. Matt is building quite an army of satisfied MGoBlogger clients--ask any of us and we'll tell you if you're buying or refinancing call him first.]

This podcast is presented by The Bo Store and UGP. Rishi and Ryan have been here since before Podcast 1.0—shopping with them supports us and supports good dudes.

Our sponsors also make this possible so please support them: They are the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Deo Bookkeeping, Michigan Law Grad, Peak Wealth Management, and Lantana Hummus

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1. Quarterback

(starts at 2:20)

There’s Harbaugh Speight and there’s Reverts to Borges Speight. Peters is where he ought to be. If O’Korn’s getting mention it’s a good sign for him or a motivator for Peters or whatever it’s Speight.

2. Running Back

(starts at 14:05)

Lotta guys and at least one is a total Harbaugh Dude. Evans can anticipate where he’ll juke you. Solid 1-2-3 with him, Higdon and Isaac, and Kareem Walker ought to hold off the freshmen.

3. Catchy-Blocky Types

(starts at 24:21)

Hammering Panda gets two-for-ones, short yardage running and we’ll see more of his excellent receiving this year; conditioning might be the issue (and explain the 50/50 split). Ben Mason can hit so hard he could displace Old Bandit (Poggi). Old Skillet Hands. When they need to move somebody it’s Ty Wheatley Jr. Gentry is an NFL weapon. Everyone mispronounces McKeon; the coaches love him. Eubanks one more year.

4. Wide Receiver

(starts at 35:25)

No Terrell Owens on this team, except talent-wise in which case there are lots. Tarik Black might be #1 right now, and so smooth you’ll year Santana solos. Donovan Peoples-Jones can be fun fun fun. Crawford is blocky, likely the top target out of the gate. Oliver Martin is most polished guy ever, Nico is unfair. Route Artisan Grant Perry retains the slot. Schoenle and Johnson and McDoom...this is fine.

5. Offensive Line

(starts at 50:18)

Cole not a classic left tackle but he’s still great. Bredeson was bad but nowhere near as bad as Coy Cronk or Michael Jordan (NTMJ), i.e good for a freshman. Kugler: relatively The Lock (…to be adequate). Mike Onwenu is some weight; Ruiz is around to back up those two spots. Right tackle…

----------------------------

MUSIC:

• “Total Eclipse of the Heart”—Bonnie Tyler
• “Smooth”—Santana
• “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• Direct download link
• What's with the theme music?

For 2017, instead of previewing conferences division-by-division, I decided to preview the 64 Power Five teams individually, so I ranked them and counted down from the bottom.

I created a ranking system based heavily off of Bill Connelly’s S&P+ rankings: half of the ranking comes from the S&P rankings from the past five seasons among Power Five teams (1/3 of that number is 2016’s ranking; 1/3 is the average from 2014-2016, 1/3 is the average from 2012-2016); half comes from two component parts of his 2017 S&P+ projections, weighed evenly – recruiting impact and returning production – and ranked 1 through 64. The ranking itself skews towards emphasizing where the teams were according the 2016 S&P+ and there’s no subjectivity involved. I think it serves as a decent way to sequence these previews.

Previously: #64 Purdue, #63 Rutgers, #62 Kansas, #61 Illinois, #60 Boston College, #59 Virginia, #58 Vanderbilt, #57 Syracuse. #56 Maryland, #55 Arizona, #54 Wake Forest, #53 Duke, #52 Iowa State, #51 Texas Tech, #50 Missouri, #49 Oregon State. #48 Arizona State, #47 Cal, #46 Indiana, #45 Kentucky, #44 West Virginia, #43 South Carolina, #42 Washington State, #41 Northwestern.

(I didn’t include Notre Dame)

40. MINNESOTA

#4 Big Ten West, #8 Big Ten

9-4 (5-4) in 2016

It’s impossible to talk about Minnesota football without talking about how Tracy Claeys got fired after just one season as the head coach: he supported a player boycott in response to an investigation into appalling sexual assault allegations against members of the football team. The players wound up playing in the Holiday Bowl after threatening to sit it out; Claeys was fired after the New Year; some of the accused were expelled, some suspended, and some cleared.

PJ Fleck becomes the Gophers’ third head coach in three seasons – and it was a coup for the program to get a coaching prospect of his caliber who had been mentioned in connection with better jobs. Fleck and his energetic persona brought Western Michigan to unprecedented heights: the Broncos had an undefeated regular season in his fourth year in Kalamazoo and made the Cotton Bowl, built by a talent advantage he created by outrecruiting the rest of the MAC by a sizable margin.

He brought his offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, and while the Gophers will be moving to more of a spread attack, they’ll still be running the ball a ton: RBs Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks totaled 378 carries a season ago and WMU ran the ball often with zone blocking schemes with Fleck and Ciarrocca in charge, setting up favorable coverages for their All-American WR Corey Davis. Minnesota will be choosing from a number of unproven quarterbacks and their only credible WR from last season is gone. If former Ohio State OL coach Ed Warinner works his magic with a cast of inexperienced if uninspiring linemen, Smith and Brooks will be leaned on all the more heavily. Minnesota does have one of the best kickers in the country in Emmitt Carpenter.

Minnesota got to a 9-4 record last season because of its defense – they won the scandal-marred bowl game over Washington State 17-12 in stereotypical Big Ten fashion. They have Steven Richardson back, a disruptive interior linemen who had seven sacks a season ago – potentially one of the best players in the Big Ten. Additionally, LBs Jonathan Celestin and Cody Poock as well as safeties Duke McGhee and Antoine Winfield Jr. make those above-average position groups. There are some holes though: cornerback is very unsettled and the defensive line outside of Richardson looks to be rather mediocre. If the defense can replicate what they did in 2016, Minnesota could challenge for the Big Ten West – but attrition makes that unlikely.

The schedule sets up nicely for Fleck, at least to start – the toughest game in the first half of the season is either @ Oregon State or home vs. Michigan State. The stretch run is brutal, with road trips to Iowa, Michigan, and Northwestern, as well as home games against Nebraska and Wisconsin – the Big Ten West frontrunner. It’s not hard to envision a team with a gaudy record, maybe even 7-0, faltering down the stretch; it’s also possible that a trip to Indianapolis could be at stake when they host the Badgers in the regular season finale.

Fleck will need to find a passing game – and the run game will have to be much better at keeping the offense on schedule. If he can cobble together a decent offense and keep the defense at a reasonably high level, they could surprise in his first year. That’s a lot to ask – they’ll probably finish near the middle of the West.

39. IOWA

#3 Big Ten West, #7 Big Ten

8-5 (6-3) in 2016

With Bob Stoops’s unexpected retirement, Kirk Ferentz is college football’s coach with the longest continuous tenure (as Bill Snyder briefly retired from his job at Kansas State). He’s entering his 19^th season at Iowa; over his career, he’s posted a record of 135-92 – that would average out to 7.7 wins per 13-game season. Ferentz has had a few especially strong years – most recently in 2015, when they went undefeated through the regular season (before losing the Big Ten Championship Game and the Rose Bowl) – but most years, he’s squarely in 7-5 / 8-4 territory.

2016 was up-and-down: Iowa lost to North Dakota State (an FCS powerhouse, but still) in September and only scored 14 points in a win over Rutgers the following week; they were drubbed at Penn State and turned around to pull one of the biggest upsets of the season over then-undefeated Michigan on a last-second field goal; they crushed a 9-4 Nebraska team to close out the season and were blown out by Florida in the bowl game, 30-3.

Both halves of their RB platoon went for over 1,000 yards and had 10 rushing touchdowns each, and the passing game was mediocre, especially after the early-season injury to WR Matt VandeBerg (who took a medical redshirt). Iowa figures to rely heavily on its veteran OL – that’s particularly strong on the right side – and its RBs. LeShun Daniels is gone, but Akrum Wadley is back, and the latter showed more big-play potential than the former a year ago. The Hawkeyes also added Nevada transfer James Daniels, Nevada’s best player on offense in 2016, to the mix – whatever percentage of the carries he and Wadley each get remains to be seen, but they’ll run the ball so often that both will play prominent roles. Whoever wins the QB job (and whoever it is, they’ll be unproven) will be handing the ball off a lot.

The defense returns quite a few pieces, though they did lose star CB Desmond King and disruptive DT Jaleel Johnson. LB Josey Jewell is the best player on the defense – he’s an instinctive middle linebacker who’s stout against the run and had 124 tackles last season. The defensive line is mostly intact outside of Johnson, and Anthony Nelson has potential as a pass-rusher. The secondary looks shaky, as Brandon Snyder, an excellent safety, tore his ACL in the spring. Iowa’s defense will probably be pretty good – like it almost always is under Ferentz.

The QB situation and dearth of proven and healthy WRs are good reasons to be skeptical of Iowa’s chances of winning the West. Penn State and Ohio State come to play in Iowa City from the East in 2017, an unfortunate scheduling disadvantage. Ferentz promoted his son from OL coach to coordinator, a sign that things are unlikely to change much. Odds are that this will be a classic Ferentz team: strong running game, good defense, and seven or eight wins.

[33-38 after the JUMP]