matthew hibner

Welcome back to the bits. For those who've been away, this is where we dissect the news coming out of practice. That news comes out through sanctioned sources and "unsanctioned" insiders, whom the program often feeds.

We're now two weeks into spring practice, and not a lot has gotten out. Insiders who used to dump their thoughts into message boards or emailed them to people who cover this stuff are not saying as much this year. The official channels are trickling out info, but anything from the program itself should be taken as a Plantagenet Family presser. In other words:

“The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.”

― Elena Gorokhova, A Mountain of Crumbs

The other rule is that we're not here to share information that's collected by the premium message boards. I'll nod at stuff and provide a link sometimes because things they reported get out. If you want premium info you should support the people who get that information.

As I said though, there isn't a lot out there at the moment. if your ear is at all near the ground you've probably heard about all of this. Isaiah Hole transcribed the Harbaugh presser that had the bulk of it. I can collect it in one place in case there's something you missed, but with few tea leaves to analyze we're most in the dark. Let's do the bits.

Short version:

• QB: JJ McCarthy has a shoulder injury that doesn't require surgery, but will cost him spring.
• RB & TE: No news.
• WR: Bell's healing, precautionarily limited. The true freshmen look nice. Traded Sainristil for Dennis.
• OL: Oluwatimi looks like an upgrade, Jones/Barnhart will fight for RT.

And there's video to parse:

Michigan football content we all needed right about now. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/N6anrmUbER

— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) March 1, 2022

I mean I guess I should finish this series.

Previously: Last year's profiles. S Makari Paige, S RJ Moten, S Jordan Morant, CB Andre Seldon, CB Darion Green-Warren, CB Eamonn Dennis, VP William "Apache" Mohan, LB Nikhai Hill-Green, LB Kalel Mullings, LB Cornell Wheeler, LB Osman Savage, DE Aaron Lewis, DE Jaylen Harrell, DE Braiden McGregor, DT Kris Jenkins, OL Reece Atteberry, OL Zak Zinter, OL Jeffrey Persi.

In December of 2018, Matthew Hibner was a 190-pound tight end/OLB coming off a five catch junior season. By June he was committed to Michigan. At the cycle's end he'd shot up 600 spots on the composite and ranked inside the top 150 at 24/7. If the phrase "meteoric rise" made any sense at all one might deploy it here. But it does not. Meteors fall. That's what makes them meteors. THE VERY DEFINITION OF THE WORD METEOR ENTIRELY RULES OUT THE POSSIBILITY OF RISING and yet

…

What was I talking about?

[After THE JUMP: focus focus gotta focus]

Starting last year I began tracking how the recruiting rankings of Michigan commits and top targets moved, since that sometimes can be as informative as the rankings themselves.

Previously: July 2019 offense. Feb 2019 offense/defense, July 2018

Let's go over the rules again:

1. Rankings Have Gravity. Over the course of a cycle everybody moves down at a normal pace as various other players are moved up. If you're top 20 at the beginning of your junior year, if you get to the end of your senior year in the top 150 you've really stood pat. The further down you started the less I care about downward movement, because nothing really changed about the sites' opinions on that guy—just their opinions on other guys.

2. Every Site Has Their Own Ratings. I'll give you my composite numbers  on a 5-star scale and the raw numbers in the charts. For the others:

3. Moves Are Always Contextual. You have to consider what site moved a guy, what box they have him in, and when they saw him or rated him last. ESPN for example will tend to look at a guy when they need to, fire off a rating, and then never go back. Rivals will often hold a guy in the high 3-star range that everyone else loves until the guy gets to a Rivals camp. 24/7 does the same.

On with the show! I've included senior highlights of each if they're available.

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RB Blake Corum

Committed: 6/27/2019. Current ☆ average: 4.39 (up from 4.16)

What it means: Corum got a big boost over the course of his senior year from every site, and where he has ended up depended on where he started. ESPN's was only less dramatic because they evaluated him late last summer when he was already on the rise. 24/7 was taking a wait-'n-see approach, dropping him about 50 spots in their late February re-rank then leaving him there through an Under Armour camp that belonged to Rivals. Since then Corum was named the Player of the Year in Maryland as St. Francis rolled over a schedule of some of the best high school teams in the country, led by Corum. USA Today even wondered at the rankings as they rose:

Blake Corum might be underrated

It’s not just his huge linemen or play calling. Running back Blake Corum has now put up 200 total yards against two of the best defenses in the country in IMG and Mater Dei.

Corum is widely regarded as one of the best running backs in the country. He is a Michigan commit, is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 13 at his position and No. 143 in the country.

But might those rankings be too low? It’s tough to imagine 12 backs leading an offense better than this player. Could there really be 142 players better?

Rivals' Adam Friedman did a film on Corum in their "Rapid Riser" segment.

#RivalsRankingsWeek: Rapid Riser

RB Blake Corum jumped 136 spots from the #Rivals250 to the #Rivals100! The #Michigan commit now sits at No. 67.

️ @RivalsFriedman breaks down @blake_corum's rapid rise.

1⃣0⃣0⃣ https://t.co/1VGbLcV0eb
2⃣5⃣0⃣ https://t.co/hsWGNtxlRn pic.twitter.com/hlOglRCXEd

— Rivals (@Rivals) December 5, 2019

I think there's little doubt the sites are following the national headlines on this one. He's having one of the best senior seasons in the country against the best competition.

Outlook: They're the relative skeptic so here's how 247's evaluation leads off:

Concern about being physically maxed out….Needs to show he can run between tackles consistently in college. Size to touch ball 15-plus times a game a concern. Multi-year high-level contributor at Top 15 program. Could develop into a Day Three NFL draft pick.

Dohn has continued beating this "I don't know if he can be Northwestern's offense all by himself" drum even after answering the part about running inside:

He ran for tough yards in the middle, and he was able to get to the edge a few times. He was patient and let the plays develop, and he picked up key yardage to get first downs. Whether he can touch the ball 20-plus times a game in college remains a question, but he can carry the load for St. Frances.

I find this dubious. There is certainly a kind of recruit to watch out for who has an early growth spurt, puts up crazy numbers as a high school underclassman, then falls back to the pack as the rest of his class hits puberty too (examples: Ricardo Miller, Marvin Robinson, a zillion offensive linemen who were already 300 as sophomores). There's also the kind of high school dynamo who'll never be big enough to play college football, but that's more of a concern for 5'8"/165 guys; Corum is 30 pounds heavier than that. That take however doesn't seem likely to change unless Corum's body type changes.

There's always the worry with a running back who was used to a great offensive line—both tackles are going to Power 5 schools, Mazzccua is in this post, and the other guard is going to Kent State—that he's just getting escorted to the second level (see Ty Isaac, Derrick Green) but if you watch the highlights that doesn't seem to be the case.

[The rest AFTER THE JUMP]