What players have exceeded/fallen short of your expectations?

Many have exceeded but one that I had little expectations for was mike Hart. He ment everything to the offense and I am so glad I got to see him play.

Fell short is the whole 2006 team. I can not think of a team so stockpiled with talent and fell just short against Ohio State then pretty much didn't show up against USC.
They were the best team in the country and have nothing to show for it.

Forgot a huge bust. 

Kevin Grady.

But that's what he'll be, forgotten.

Exceeded- David Molk, though injured his presence was sorely missed.

Fallen (Way) Short: Justin Boren

Exceeded: Roh - I could have never guessed he would have turned out so good so early. the next couple of years should be great for him.

Fell short: Rountree. Literally. Against Illinois. At the 1-yard line. I keed, I keed. I love me some Roundtree. In all seriousness, a tie between Minor Rage and Carlos Brown. And for the same reasons - not because of athleticism or ability. Because being injury-prone sucks. 

Exceeded: Mike Hart, Roy Roundtree, Braylon Edwards.

Fell Short: Kevin Grady, Prescott Burgess, Pierre Woods, Boubacar Cissoko.

exceeded: Charles Woodson.  After his freshman year I knew he was going to be good.  But never in my wildest dreams did I (then) think he would win a Heisman trophy.

Fallen short: I second me's nomination of Cato June.

Exceeded: David Cone. I never thought he would do much, but his rapping skills and dope acting have shown me to never doubt him. Not to mention that spring game...

Fell Short: the Freep.

Oh, forgot one:

Fell Short (as a human being): Justin Boren.

exceed: Glad to see Mike Cox doing well, hope it translates on the field in sept.

Fell short:  without listing the givens who left the team,  J.B. Fitzgerald has not lived up to his HS hype

Exceeded: Jordan Kovacs. Nuff said.

Fell Short: Obviously still way early and the kid hasn't even played but Justin Turner has fallen short of the unrealistic expectations i had for him. Still time though.

Exceeded: J. Kovacs, kid was a walk-on and started ahead of a couple scholarship starters.  He was not great by any means but played his ass off and gave more effort than anyone not named Brandon.   He can start for the next 3 years and I will be his biggest supporter.

Fell Short:   D. Warren just for the opposite reasons I picked Kovacs.  Had all the talent, but just seemed lazy at times and possibly one of the players that didn't "buy in" to Rodriquez.   He was expected to be a shut-down corner and towards the end of the last year teams started to pick on him and stay away from Woolfolk.

I expected Craig Roh to literally tear a man's limbs from his body at some point this year. I was severely disappointed.

I can't believe we're 32 comments in and no one has said this...EDIT: wlvrine beat me to it

Exceeded: Charles Woodson. This was still before the time of Rivals, Scout, and 24/7/365 coverage of 17 year olds so even if someone was a sought after recruit, no one really knew about it.

Fallen: Boo Boo. While I never thought he shouldve been a 5 star recruit in the first place, he still was a major disappointment.

Exceeded: Tom Brady, I was in Drew Henson's camp from the beginning and never really gave Brady a chance.  Alabama game says it all. 

Fell Short: Kevin Grady, I was extremely excited for him coming after what he did in high school only to fall short his whole career.

Great Topic!!!

Well there is David Bowens, Jon Ritchie, Fargas who all went on to play pro ball but didn't finish @ UM.

There is June, Burgess, Butterfield, Grady Brooks, Shazor, Watson, Massey, Rasheed Simmons, and I'll say Schilling as well although he isn't done. These guys were all 4-5 star guys who never really lived up to 5 star status. Sazor and Watson for sure had their moments but I was always expecting more. Hell Branch could go there as well and Mouton although he went through different coaches and positions.

Exceeded - Hart is the ultimate. It's hard because I've followed recruiting for such a long time, getting The Wolverine paper delivered even before I had internet access. Michigan always recruited so well and there was so much hype for most of the players in the class. D Jones was one here. I believe he had some injury which cost him his Sr yr and camps and such and was I think one of the last players to sign that year. He was an incredible LB for Michigan. Andre Weathers was a good story and really did well opposite of Woodson. Roundtree for sure is one who has exceeded so far. There could be alot to add to this list after this year.

Exceeded: Mike Hart.

Fell short: Matt Gutierrez. Obviously he got hurt and Henne never gave him a chance to get the job back, but I had high hopes coming into 2004. Surprised no one has mentioned him yet.

Exceeded - Braylon Edwards. I don't remember how much hype he had, only that he hadn't played football for very long before destroying every corner and safety in his path. I do remember scout giving him the usual unknown 3-star rating

Fail - I'd roll with Gabe Watson or Kevin Grady

  Drew Henson disappointed in a way, but only because he left.  I can't blame him for following his pro baseball dream.  I remember reading his dream was to play 3rd for the Yankees.  I wish he would have really given football his best shot.

Tom Brady and Mike Hart are the obvious candidates for exceeded expectations.

Fell short: Greg Mathews. His senior year, I really expected him to approach 1000 yards recieving, yet for whatever reason, the QBs had difficulty getting him the ball. That's partly because they were freshman, yet he seemed to make less and less plays as the year went on.

Exceeded: Brandon Graham. There are five star recruits, and there are five star recruits that live up to their hype.

But never have I seen a guy with the raw talent of a future 1st rounder combined with the grittiness and pure fire of , say, Michael Hart. He simply produced game in and game out. Michigan's next future Hall of Famer in my opinion.

Fell short: Stevie Brown. Going into his sophomore year (also my sophomore year) I thought he was going to be tremendous. Up until that point he was a great playmaker on special teams, and based on recruiting hype and measurables I figured that he was going to be a stud. Although he finally put it together his senior season after a much-needed position switch, he never panned out as a safety despite the number of games that he started.

Exceeded: Kevin Koger. If I remember correctly, he came in as a DE (or at least as a DE/TE), and I figured he was destined for a redshirt with all of the older guys in front of him on the depth chart. Instead, he ended up as a full-time TE, a freshman starter, and one of the best players on our offense.

Exceeded: Hart and Edwards.

Fell Short: Cissoko and Kevin Grady. I hope Turner turns things around, because he could end up here as well.

Exceeded: Graham, Woodley, Hart, and Manningham (plenty more, but I'm going from since I started watching UM football, which was in like 2002, 2003-ish)

Fell Short: Threet, Grady, A-Air, Witherspoon, Cissoko, Grady (both of them really, although, Kelvin to a much lesser extent), DWarren (Prolly could've done with another year... lol)

I'm surprised at the number of people who have said that Craig Roh has exceeded their expectations.  I really thought all (well, most) Michigan fans thought he was going to be good in the first place.

Exceeded: Zoltan Mesko, Patrick Omameh, 

Fell Short: Drew Henson, Terrence Robinson

I like the stories of when you think someone fell short and then you find out something. Allen Jefferson was a hot recruit a long time ago and never did much and then Bo found out that he had some kind of growth on his leg so that he  could hardly walk but didn't tell anyone. I just feel kind of sorry for someone like that    

Fell Short - Nick Sheridan.  Not kidding - when I heard he was going to start, I figured that maybe this could be one of those inspirational stories about the scrappy kid with a dream who refuses to give up and somehow ends up starting at the school of his dreams, and have a succcessful season ending with him being carried off the field by his teammates and possbly even getting the hot girl.  Damn you, eighties movies, for setting my expectations unreasonably high.

Exceeded: Hart, David Harris, Jake Long, Morgan Trent (I thought he did well and my expectations were not insane), Mesko

Short: Shazor, Scott McIntosh, Baraka, Gabe Watson, Kevin Grady, Jeremy van Alstyne (remember we heard so many rumblings about him tearing it up in the offseason), Jeremy Jackson, Jim Presley (sucks he left), Max Martin, Massey, Eugene Germany, Carlos Brown...