2 Big Crystal Balls for Rayshaun Benny
Rayshaun Benny's 247 recruiting profile: https://247sports.com/Player/Rayshaun-Benny-46058238/
2021 OT recruit out of Oak Park, MI (6th ranked player in MI, 4 stars, top 200 in the composite).
Benny will be playing DT however, Treiu stated his ranking there is the same as at OT
Even better!
How incredibly old-school and badass would it be for a player to line up on both, uh, lines? It'll never happen, but I just love the idea of an OG who comes in periodically to fuck shit up on the interior DL.
Steve Hutchinson and Steve Everett come to mind. What a vision.
Steve Hutchinson was recruited as a DL. After redshirting his freshman year switched to OL and well you know the rest, HOFer!!!
Definitely need depth and talent on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
Come to Ann Arbor Mr. Benny??
Pretty sure Onwenu played a little on both lines as a freshmen.
Edit: Freshman (2016)
• Played in nine games to earn his first varsity letter
• Made collegiate debut vs. Hawaii (Sept. 3), playing both offensive and defensive line
• Played along the offensive line vs. UCF (Sept. 10)
• Played on special teams vs. Colorado (Sept. 17) and Wisconsin (Oct. 1)
• Saw action at defensive tackle against Penn State (Sept. 24)
• Played both ways at Rutgers (Oct. 8) logging snaps at right guard and nose tackle as well as on field goal protection unit
• Saw action as guard and on special teams against Illinois (Oct. 22)
• Contributed on special teams at Michigan State (Oct. 29) and against Maryland (Nov. 5)
https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/roster/michael-onwenu/19056
5* will campbell. oh well.
Some of us remember Bill Yearby, but back then linemen had to do double duty for a while.
Those are some BIG balls! I like seeing those!?
No, not really.
Brice Marich put in a Crystall Ball for 2022 defensive back Jaeden Gould yesterday as well.
DB recruiting for 2022 is off to a great start. I think we are still the leaders for composite #151 Myles Browser. Jaeden Gould is composite #96. Composite #15 is legacy instater Will Johnson. Composite #4 Domani Jackson has listed us as his dream school and is buddies with Cristian Dixon and Darion Green-Warren. Composite #234 Dillon Tatum is teammates with Donovan Edwards and may end up as a safety if he's not a RB.
I think we are also recruiting WR and LB very well. QB, OL, and DL is more of a question mark for me. It is obviously very early though.
Myles Rowser**
When a player lists us as his dream school, isn't that typically the kiss of death?
No, the kiss of death is when they say "academics are very important to me."
Right. That means they’re going to the ess eee c
OL I don’t think you’ll ever need to worry about with Ed here.
First comment - great to see the trend continuing with Benny! Would definitely be a huge addition of need/quality to the class.
Secondly, the 2022 cycle is critical at the CB spot. Seeing Gould get a CB is also great news (granted I know Marich is bullish on a lot of his CB picks, self admittedly). If we pull a CB haul of:
Jaeden Gould (#113 overall prospect), Domani Jackson (#4 overall prospect), Will Johnson (#15 overall prospect). That would be an absolutely incredible class - probably the best in school history - to go along with Myles Rowser at safety.
Certainly not the expectation at this point, but it is not outside the realm of possibility at this point as all these players currently are very high on Michigan.
All the Rashans/Rayshauns belong to US!
Don't go busting our big crystal balls.
Anyone have any recent examples of players who were recruiting/started out at OL but made a successful transition to DL?
You can debate the word "successful" but some recent examples of OL/DL guys like this are Will Campbell and James Hudson. It will be up to the coaches to figure out where the player can best help the team while also understanding what may be best for the player.
this kid plays both ways right? its not like hes enrolling in college at OL then jumping to DL after a year or 2.
big difference bw exclusively (or mostly) playing OL in high school only to switch DL in college vs playing both ways in high school and then settling on one side in college. unless a kid plays at img or similar factory, talented high school athletes should play both ways whenever possible
Oh ok...given that, do you have any recent examples of players who were recruiting/started out at OL but made a successful transition to DL?
Give us some recent examples of them not working out.
I think I've made clear my dearth of knowledge on this subject.
Javon Kinlaw was just taken in the first round of the NFL draft as a DT. He was the 32nd ranked OT when he was recruited.
Broderick Washington was just taken in the fifth round of the NFL draft as a DT. He was the 16th ranked OC when he was recruited.
Awesome answer, thank you!
Taven Bryan, Jerry Tillery, AShawn Robinson, just off the top of my head. Tyler Linderbaum made the opposite move, DT to Center and he was All-Big Ten for Iowa. There'd be more examples, but the recruiting services change the position once it's basically decided what position they'll play. It's more frequent than you'd think.
Quinton Washington is probably the best, most recent example at Michigan. He started off playing offensive guard, and he became a pretty good defensive tackle.
It's a bit of a reach example, but JJ Watt was a TE at Central Michigan before becoming a DE.
Seems like he did OK.
Big Benny Balls!
Schwetty ones
Chocolate salty balls
Huzzah! Definitely want Benny. Hopefully we get Rooks, Spindler, Edwards, etc. to close up strong. I have to say, reading the player previews for this year along with the recruits coming in I'm feeling pretty good about the program's direction. Sure Harbaugh has had a couple of disappointing seasons, but they were Lloyd Carr/Gary Moeller disappointing not RR/Hoke disappointing. I really hope we have a season.
It is easy to get lost in the negativity and where OSU is as a program. I really like that we've addressed our long-standing OL issues that plagued us from late-Carr through early-Harbaugh. We have depth and talent across the line and a coach well suited to grow. I like that we've brought in speed at skill positions on offense and at linebacker.
The key to truly getting over the hump will be finding/developing an NFL-caliber QB and dynamic players on defense. I like the guys we have, but it is unclear if they are good enough to move us from a top-15 program into a top-6 program.
Agreed. You don't necessarily need OSU talent to beat OSU, but you can't have holes in your roster, lack of depth, or lackluster QB play if you want to have a shot. O-Line has been fixed, now we need Nua and the D-Line to do the same. Hit on a couple QBs (on roster, commits and future recruits included) and shore of the CB recruiting and we're in business. We won't recruit like OSU is now, but we can get somewhat close with a couple of head to head wins.
We need a seven-deep DL like we had in 2016.
Throw in a good, healthy QB and a Peppers 2.0 and you've got a shot.
It's not just the 'croots, it's also the coaches. Drevno as OC was a failed promotion that set things back. Pep Hamilton was a try at installing a pro-level pass game the likes of Brady, Manning, and Rodgers run. He couldn't teach it, and didn't have the QB's to run it even if he could teach it. With Hamilton also came a change in type of player 'crooted - no more little guys running fast, he wanted 'prototypical' NFL players, big WRs and huge RB's. When Hamilton was canned, 'crootin emphasis changed again, back to anyone that can run really fast. And the offensive philosophy also changed - again - to a modern college offense. Last season was a combination of new scheme and wrong players for the scheme (QB (everyone thought we had him in Patterson), pass catching RB (ie: Chris Evans), and fast WRs all over the field - Black and DPJ proved to be unsuited to such a scheme).
In his years here, Harbaugh has had to change offense too often to start building on strengths and correcting weaknesses - like the defense has been able to do. He's had to change coaches (some worked and promoted out, some just didn't work) too often to have any philosophical consistency. I hope we start seeing that with Gattis...
Michigan is just a QB away. Flip the QBs in the bowl game against Alabama and it's either a toss up or Michigan wins. All of the other spots on the field are good enough to get to a playoff (by either beating OSU 1 out of 3 or 4 or losing to them and beating everyone else and getting in).
Now is it Harbaugh's job to get an elite QB? Yes, he absolutely needs to do that.
Do we really think Mac Jones is anything more than a game manager? Not sure he would do well in Michigan. Let's hope McCarthy is the real deal. The offense has really promising players at every position. In terms of the defense, i'd like to see more commitment on getting blue chip corners and tackles. Having shut down corners and fast/athletic safeties along with a space eating run stopper are the key to Don Brown's blitzing schemes. Hope to see more speed on the edges and size in the middle.
Mac Jones is pretty fucking good and better than anyone we've trotted out in Harbaugh's entire tenure.
Why are you jumping straight to McCarthy, who isn't even on campus yet? Did you forget about McCaffrey? I mean, he was a 5-star prospect battling Hunter Johnson and Jake Fromm for the #1 QB rank. He trailed off as a HS senior because he stopped participating in camps, in favor of concentrating on his HS' repeat state championship season.
It's amazing how many people just blow off Dylan McCaffrey...
I'm super hopeful for McCaffrey and would obviously love to see him transcend as a top QB. But there is a reason that someone like Jake Fromm was a multi-year starter and McCaffrey has only played in a handful of games. It's not like we've had someone like Fields, Lawrence or Tua keeping the seat occupied. If he is a transcendent talent, I would hope the staff would have been able to identify it by now and would have pulled the trigger on him earlier to start. From the limited amount of action McCaffrey has seen, I think he has the potential to be the best QB Michigan has had in years but I don't think he has the ability (lack of true arm talent) to be transcendent like any of the three mentioned above who saw playing time in year 1 or 2. McCarthy looks like the first QB prospect in the Harbaugh era that has the full skillset and swagger where he could start in year 1 or 2. He seems to carry a sense of confidence and leadership that I haven't noticed in either McCaffrey, Milton, and McNamara but maybe I just havent followed them closely enough.
I don't think we've seen enough of McCaffrey to know how good he will be. Lot of people have speculated that he would have taken over from Patterson last year had he not been concussed at Wisconsin by head hunters.
Yeah, I was big on the "if McCaffrey couldn't pass Patterson, he's not that good" train for a while, so the QB position had me worried. But I re-watched the Wisconsin game, and I do think there was a chance he's taking that job if he's not injured. Or at least Harbaugh/Gattis thought enough of him that he would have been getting snaps. Have to remember the offense was a mess early in the season last year in terms of scheme, so everything was still settling in terms of the plays they would run. Not a great time to change QBs. Then Patterson got hurt, but not enough to push him out of the starting line-up - they may have wanted to make sure he got enough reps to make sure he could perform with that lat injury.
So I'm less concerned, but still concerned. Primarily because Seth seems to indicate every now and again that McCaffrey wasn't taking the job because Patterson was better (and I'm making an assumption that he's based that off practice insider info), and because Magnus has concerns about his fit in the offense. On the latter, Magnus has made comments about McCaffrey not being a quick release guy. He has a longer delivery that may not be great for the quick reads in a Gattis-style offense.