Freshmen Participation Tracker after 5 Games

I can understand all the burned redshirts so far.  Gotta get these freshman some playing time.  Some opportunities to make mistakes and some teachable moments.  I don't think redshirts are as important as they used to be, what with NIL making it more realistic for players to stay 4 years.

Pretty much the only positions I think still requiring redshirts are OL or kicker/punter barring a truly magnificent freshman a la Mason Cole or Taylor Lewan.

Cabana has gotten into a game? Must’ve been slimming through the end of one of these games when it was out of hand, because I don’t remember that. 

There are some players who haven't played a snap but it sounded like there was a lot excitement in the hello posts. I guess we have adequate depth. I will not be surprised if some more get in the next few games..

It was somewhat known that this was a developmental class, and given just how much depth Michigan retained from last year and the fact that more or less every loss was given a veteran transfer to fill in or were on relatively deep positions (Hinton/Henderson for Hayes, Nugent for Olu, Barner for Schoonmaker, Wallace for Turner, even Turner for Moody) it doesn't surprise me that the freshmen play counts are relatively low. There just aren't that many snaps out there for the taking on such a veteran laden roster.

Where Michigan has played freshmen, it's primarily on the roster spots that are trying to cultivate depth. Morgan/Moore have both seen non-garbage play time as Michigan could use some additional guys past the two upperclassmen, and Morris/Clemons have both been banged up. CB depth is also an area that would be great and both Hill (on track to his preseason expectations) and Waller (an unexpected but very pleasant surprise) have both come in late as needed. Hillman as well given safety has been a banged up position this season. It's been nice to see all these guys above in their short stints, and the fact that the staff is giving them time at all foretells good things in their careers.

Can't see how redshirting is still gonna be a thing in a few years.  Unless a kid gets injured in spring and is really tied to the school.

But it is the NCAA after all and they need to maintain their standards.  Standard #1: Fuck Michigan every chance there is.

Before NFL the thought was that after 3 years the best players would leave for the draft and after 4 years a player would be either be good enough for the draft or not good enough to make it worth a 5th year so there wasn't much consequence to burning the redshirt.  Perhaps with NIL they will stay longer or there is space on the roster you would otherwise transition out.

It appears that the 2023 list is based on need of the players.  DB and WR is where we are thin.

Didn't we have a game last year where every single player played?

It was the game where we had like 8 QBs complete a pass.

I remember thinking Brandon Mann was going to be a steal. Now he plays safety.

Awesome work milk-n-steak! Not to get greedy, since you are the one putting in the effort, but are there any sophomores whose shirts got burned that might be on track to earn it back this year? Walker if stays injured? anyone else?

Also of the sophmores who did not redshirt last year, Rolder (0), Walker (1), Clemons (3) and Stokes (2) could potentially redshirt this year.

Thank you for tracking this!

For some players like the OL, it makes sense that a few may not be physically ready - they need a year of intensive strength and conditioning. From last year's chart, it seems the freshmen who played 5+ were all capable of serious contributions.

Hinton didn't play @ Nebraska so still at 4 games.  Suppose he'll redshirt, so points for all the people who assumed he was playing so much to get as many live reps as possible against easy competition while preserving redshirt.