jalen perry

The new phonebook's here, but since they don't list weight changes in spring there's even less than usual to glean from the updated rosters. The big notes:

• Jalen Perry is gone.
• Alessandro Lorenzetti moved to DL.
• Kalel Mullings is an LB/RB. Order of the positions seems significant?

The new guys have numbers, and some of them have interesting weights. Also there were some position changes among younger players. So let's be thorough anyways.

DEPARTURES

One guy in Michigan remembers Perry. [Patrick Barron]

The only one that wasn't announced already was cornerback Jalen Perry. Can't say that's much of a surprise since he barely played in four years, and when he'd get mention it was behind all the freshmen. Aside from his special teams work (see photo above), he did get in as Michigan's backup nickel last year, in non-competitive situations.

Here's the the full list of guys not back from last year's roster, with destinations and years of eligibility remaining where applicable.

• Quarterback: Cade McNamara (Iowa, 2), Alan Bowman (Oklahoma State, 1), and walk-ons Peyton Smith and Andy Maddox
• Running Back: Everybody's back.
• Wide Receiver: Ronnie Bell (NFL, 1), Andrel Anthony (Oklahoma, 2), Matthew Harrison
• Tight End: Luke Schoonmaker (NFL, 1), Erick All (Iowa, 2), Joel Honigford, Louis Hansen (UConn, 3), and Carter Selzer.
• Offensive Line: Olu Oluwatimi, Ryan Hayes (NFL, 1), Mica Gelb, and Kraig Correll
• Defensive Tackle: Mazi Smith (NFL, 2), George Rooks (Boston College, 3)
• Edge: Mike Morris (NFL, 2), Eyabi Okie (Charlotte, 1), Taylor Upshaw (Colorado, 1), Julius Welschof (Charlotte, 1)
• Linebacker: Deuce Spurlock (Florida, 4), Ryan Zimmerman
• Safety: Everybody's back.
• Cornerback/Nickel: DJ Turner (NFL, 2), Gemon Green (NFL, 1), Jalen Perry (Unknown, 2), Jahre Fish.
• Specialists: Jake Moody, Brad Robbins, and Rhett Anderson

POSITION CHANGES

Everybody give a demi-yay for for Mullings being an "LB/RB" now. [Bryan Fuller]

The big one everyone's talking about is Amorion Walker to cornerback. He's listed as a WR/DB on the roster.

The big one that we didn't know about is Alessandro Lorenzetti has been moved to defensive line in place of Dominick Giudice, whose move to offensive line was known about last year. I don't know what to make of Lorenzetti. This program does try its deep depth at other positions sometimes, if only to get them some snaps, and Lorenzetti came in more of a raw frame than a football player. It probably means they feel Lorenzetti is years away from helping on the offensive line, and that they want to shore up depth at defensive tackle after moving Giudice and coming up one guy short at the position in recruiting. It probably downgrades Lorenzetti's ceiling a few notches, since deep depth positions switches are often the first step to irrelevance (see: Jack Stewart, Phil Paea).

Of particular interest to me is Chibi Anwunah moving to tight end. Chibi was a super under-the-radar guy they found who's rumored to have Ojabo-level athleticism. Both positions require lots of it, but the fact that Elston was willing to let him try something else suggests he maybe preferred to focus on the almost-as-raw recruits he brought in.

Kalel Mullings is officially an "LB/RB." Half-Yay! issued:

Ya

It's interesting that they list LB first; that position is suddenly stacked, while he's probably the #3 guy at running back if that's his focus, with a clear path to starting next year if/when Corum/Edwards leave.

Micah Pollard moved from Edge to LB. This was something that happened during the season, since they needed linebackers, and he was always kind of a Jaylen Harrell-esque tweener.

Noah Stewart moved from OL to TE. Stewart was a 6'7"/283 offensive tackle last year, his fourth in the program. With a redshirt and a COVID year he's got a couple years left. Probably nothing, but he also could be their Honigford this season.

And for completion's sake, James Kavouklis is just a long-snapper now (lost his OL/ designation) and walk-on center Peter Simmons was moved to defensive tackle. He was a 6'2"/291 redshirt sophomore last year.

[After THE JUMP: The new numbers, weight changes, twelves.]

FORMATION NOTES: MSU was still very MSU in this game, alternating between shotgun and single-back formations from under center. They frequently looked like crack-sweep era Harbaugh, although no crack sweeps came out:

Michigan is in a four man front with Barrett (23) lined up as a SAM; this was their most common look but they used their usual  array of three man fronts with a lot of weird stuff that doesn't work very well. Safety count and depth varied wildly. You'll note that on the above snap Michigan's deepest player is at seven yards.

For much of the second half they were two-high and shot someone down; cover two safeties getting over the top of routes at the sideline did not happen.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: On the DL, Paye and Hutchinson were almost omnipresent. Vilain and Upshaw got avfew snaps each. Ojabo also got in but as a SAM. DT rotated between Kemp, Jeter, Hinton, and Welschof with Kemp by far the most used.

VanSumeren got 15 snaps as the 3-3-5 SAM; as mentioned Ojabo was out there as a SAM but only on passing downs.

At LB, Ross and McGrone ominpresent until McGrone went out, and then Shibley was in for McGrone the whole way. Similar situation at viper, where Barrett got almost every snap until going out late; Solomon got the last few drives.

In the secondary, Hill, Green, and Hawkins got every snap. Gray got replaced by Perry in the third Q. Paige got a dozen or so snaps as a fifth DB.

[After THE JUMP: I have no expectation you will click, it's okay]

"Disconcerting signals," indeed.

That was a penalty drawn by Cam McGrone before he exited this cursed game with an injury. It fairly describes the entire contest for Michigan.

Michigan State's offense could do one thing with any consistency: chuck the ball long against press man coverage. The Wolverines had no answers in terms of personnel and seemingly didn't try to come up with any schematically. The five Spartan scoring drives featured long passes covering 30, 53, 50, 19, and 31 yards. The coaches pulled starting corner Vincent Gray for Jalen Perry in the second half; Perry managed to stay closer to MSU's receivers but couldn't do any better at playing the ball.

Michigan's offense, meanwhile, failed to come up with a downfield passing game of their own, and much of their success on the ground came outside the tackles. State piled up six tackles for loss and held M to 4.7 yards per carry (sacks removed). Joe Milton's accuracy waxed and waned as he mustered 300 scoreless yards on 51 attempts. Jalen Mayfield went down late and, while he walked off the field, he was taken into the tunnel by the cart.

The coaches will come under heavy, deserved criticism for the most surprising—and perhaps most bitterly disappointing—defeat of the Jim Harbaugh era. The Wolverines were poised to tie the game at 14 heading into halftime before Josh Gattis dialed up second and third-and-goal plays with Hassan Haskins as a wildcat quarterback; the run was stuffed, the surprise pass underthrown and tipped incomplete by Ann Arbor native Antjuan Simmons, who had a standout game at linebacker for MSU.

Don Brown rarely deviated from calling press man coverage even though the defense was getting eviscerated by the vaunted Rocky Lombardi to Ricky White connection, which tallied eight completions on ten targets for 196 yards and a touchdown. Lombardi averaged 19 yards on his 17 completions and his total was deflated by numerous flags on the Michigan secondary.

In other Big Ten games, Minnesota lost to Maryland, which got pasted last week by Northwestern, which is losing by two scores early against Iowa, which lost last week against Purdue. I guess the silver lining is that this is an incredibly stupid year.