dytarious johnson

Harbaugh as Uncle Rico. He's the least Uncle Rico person of all time, except in his mind:

Like Uncle Rico, back in '86, I could throw a pigskin a quarter mile #timemachine #throwback pic.twitter.com/lohiLUtdsH

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) July 24, 2016

Now can you see the strong family resemblance? #UncleRico pic.twitter.com/s0hJFFGAJa

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) July 25, 2016

No, not really. Maybe if we…

pic.twitter.com/wYAoZbSfnV

— Noah Neidlinger (@candor_for_sale) July 25, 2016

There we go.

WE ARE KIND OF EXCITED. Take it from a man selling a preseason magazine: Michigan fans are throwing their money at the upcoming season because they have an enthusiasm too rare over the past ten years. News that more bets are being placed on Michigan to win the national title than any other team should be interpreted in that light.

PFF evaluates that take, mostly rehashing things they've published before—Wormley, Glasgow, Hurst, and Charlton are all real good, literally everyone in the secondary graded out positively—but offering some new insights into their 2015 rankings:

They are bringing back a solid receiving corps led by WR Jehu Chesson (who earned the third-highest WR rating among returning wideouts at 127.9) and TE Jake Butt (who is the top returning tight end in receiving grade, after catching 51 of 70 targets for 653 yards and three touchdowns). They have a productive running back in De’Veon Smith, who broke 52 tackles combined last season.

There's been a lot of NFL and All Big Ten hype around Chesson, a guy who came on late but didn't exactly put up Braylon numbers; that helps confirm the late season surge. (Also Florida UFR is this week, and Chesson was insanely good in that game even if you look past the two long strikes against Hargreaves.) Butt being the top receiving WR is no surprise; Smith being "productive" kind of is.

Also, Jake Rudock surge:

Jake Rudock came on strong at the end of 2015, but for the first nine weeks of the season, he ranked 98^th among 101 qualifying quarterbacks in PFF grades – and the Wolverines were still a top-10 team entering the final week of the regular season.

If Rudock had transferred fast enough to get in for spring practice that would have been something.

Still gets no respect. BTN put out a list of the top 100 players in the league that's mostly notable for their bonkers #takes on various players, like definition-of-just-a-guy Justin Jackson at #11. Jackson is Northwestern running back on a team with some sort of sea mammal trying to use his flippers to get the ball downfield, so his carry numbers are inflated. He got the ball a whopping 312 times last year, and was fine. He did nothing to defy Northwestern's fate against Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska—25, 30, and 40 yards, respectively—and mostly ran over teams that were not good. He had a couple moments; he was fine. He got to 139 yards against Wisconsin without cracking 4 YPC. You could put him somewhere in the second half of this list if you wanted; 11 is bizarre.

But the reason this section exists is because the list completely omits Ryan Glasgow. Ryan Glasgow, the guy who got hurt just before Michigan's run defense fell off a cliff; Ryan Glasgow, the guy PFF ranked a top 20 DL in all of college football last year. No matter what he does on the field, because he is 1) a former walk-on and 2) a nose tackle someone is always willing to ignore him in favor of Bryan Mone or a completely average running back. Or #32 Montae Nicholson a guy who got pulled over and over again last year because he kept giving up big plays. Or #60 Wes Lunt. Or #100 Michael Geiger, a kicker hitting 63% the last two years. There's an obvious mandate to diversify the schools involved here but that's nonsensical.

Anyway. Get your chips hot, Glasgow.

The media days, they begin. If news comes out of them that'll be newsworthy. Best item so far is that MSU appears to be moving Kodi Kieler to center:

MSU also released a preseason depth chart: Kieler now listed as starter at center, Brian Allen at LG, Dennis Finley/Miguel Machado at RT

— Kyle Austin (@kylebaustin) July 25, 2016

I said there wasn't much news. JUCO transfer Machado was real bad last year as Kieler struggled to stay ambulatory; Finley was hurt the whole year.

Dytarious may return. Dytarious Johnson didn't sign a letter of intent this fall and then enrolled in prep school; per Johnson Michigan is still in pursuit and will enroll him this January. That's still dependent on a number of things, including Johnson getting his grades right and how Michigan's scholarship situation shapes up. A lot of these plans end up changing along the way.

More unit rankings. Sports On Earth declares Michigan's DL the third-best in the land and their secondary fifth-best, and if that actually strikes you as pessimistic, well, placing the OL #5 in the country more than makes up for that.

Etc.: Iowa defensive tackle Faith Ekakitie had four guns pulled on him because he was mistaken for a bank robber 100 pounds lighter than him. Peppers gets a prestigious award. Eric Upchurch talks MGoPhotography with MGoFish. Remembering 1976.

This tweet would seem to confirm the fact that Dytarious Johnson won't be enrolling at Michigan this fall:

@prestonknight4 @ALAprepacademy getting it in for the semester

— Dytarious Johnson (@Dytarious__) June 19, 2016

That doesn't come as much of a surprise. Johnson didn't sign a LOI for what he described as a "transcript issue" on Signing Day. I'm not aware that LOIs have any academic restrictions—SEC schools will still sign-and-place guys who have little shot at qualifying—so that's a little odd. It seemed unlikely a player who did not sign had much of a shot at arriving on campus, especially since Michigan signed a couple of other guys who were rumored to have some work to do.

Michigan might circle back around to Johnson after a prep semester or year. Their 2017 linebacker recruiting implies that they won't; we'll see. We'd been assuming that Johnson would not be a member of the 2016 class so this doesn't change our projected 2017 class size or 2016 roster.

At any moment Ace could be forced to write a post on any of them. [Rapai]

The Question:

Seth: Which of the recent camp commits (Metellus, Viramontes, McKeon, Weaver, Richardson, Dytarious, Evans, Enis) are you most excited about?

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Responses:

Alex Cook: I feel like I have to pick Dytarious Johnson here. First of all, his name is Dytarious, which puts him in the 99th percentile as far as awesome names go, and you can't really discount the value that brings. Secondly, he's rangy and he hits hard, the type of hits where the ball-carrier has no chance of gaining any yards after contact, but he's still able to run really well for a guy his size -- as far as modern-day back seven prospects go, you need to have guys that can hit and run, not just one or another. Harbaugh seems to be loading up on position-less guys who have really good physical skills and attributes, with the hope that he'll find a spot for them somewhere. Johnson will find a spot.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that he was also the prospect that created an epic freakout on Alabama's SB Nation site, Roll Bama Roll. Accusations of cheating is one (hilarious) thing, but saying that these camps aren't for the good of the kids is something that's somehow more ludicrous. Add in the latent suspicion that the only reason we support these camps is because Saban doesn't, and Dytarious's commitment has made more waves than any former 2* I can remember.

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David Nasternak: ​I will go with Victor Viramontes. It has become clear that Harbaugh is looking for ​generic football players, instead of more specialized skill-specific athletes. When you can play quarterback and linebacker, you are definitely just a football player! That appears to be what Viramontes can do...not to mention that he is also listed as a dual-threat QB (GT offer to play QB accentuates that). Which is a little insane (hmmmm, that sounds familiar).

Viramontes was transported onto the planet SMSB Alpha 3, where an alien race made entirely of football coaches forced him to prove mankind's worthiness through a series of strenuous physical and mental tests. Captain Viramontes, of course, represented homo sapiens exquisitely.

After reading different reports on his abilities, it seems that Victor could end almost anywhere on the field. Obviously, he has some talents under center, played linebacker, even read about potential at safety, and given all of that -and his build- I wouldn't rule out some sort of 'blocky/catchy' sort of position. Maybe even in the Owen Marecic sort of role?

I think what excites me most about the whole Viramontes situation is that Harbaugh loves and craves players who are versatile and just want to find a way onto the field. In order to do this, an athlete must have quite the work ethic and a high football IQ...qualities that are reflective of Harbaugh himself. Also, knowledge of different positions paired with varied athletic skills gives the coaching staff flexibility in adding wrinkles to different play packages. Something else that is quint-essential Harbaugh.

Viramontes may blow up and become a star at some point which would obviously be ideal; however, it seems that his baseline is still a hard-working, versatile football dude who exemplifies the type of player that Harbaugh can mold into a team success.

[Jump for some differences of opinion, I hope]