Previously: The Story. Podcast 12.4A, 12.4B, 12.4C. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver.

Depth Chart

Fullback	Yr.	Tight End	Yr.
BEN MASON	Sr.	Nick Eubanks	Sr.*
BEN MASON	Sr.	Erick All	So.
BEN MASON	Sr.	Nate Schoonmaker	So.*

We're in year two of Josh Gattis and the reshaping of the roster is underway. No more "Tight End and Friends." No more cornucopia of blocky/catchy guys, just a few tight ends who slant towards catching the ball downfield and a leftover dump truck with a mohawk.

Michigan has a mix of experience and promise here. The floor is high because there's a fifth year senior with a bunch of snaps under his belt. The ceiling is high because the two guys pushing the senior are both potential stars. And the dump truck is the best at what he does.

TIGHT END: A JOB, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT

RATING: 4

[Bryan Fuller]

Redshirt senior NICK EUBANKS has been around a while. He's seen his role increase, but as he's developed into more of a tight end his whiz-bang has dropped. It may be a little hard to remember, but this was his introduction:

Zipping by a Florida defensive back is no small item. He followed that up with a never bunt, hit dingers sophomore season where he only showed up to rip off chunks of yards. Last year, was more desultory. His catches tripled but the long stuff was gone; he averaged under ten yards a catch and was one of Michigan's least efficient guys on a yards per target basis. This is mostly about circumstance and not Eubanks regressing.

Eubanks may have bulked up and seen his yards per catch fall of a cliff but he did occasionally flash the athleticism he displayed early in his career. The clearest example came on a block. Eubanks is the guy zipping up on the outside after Bell makes this catch:

He's still fast.

When Eubanks got singled up against a four-star linebacker against Penn State it was no contest:

He continued to pluck balls outside of his frame and made some tough contested catches. We had him 8/9 on difficult catches, best on the team.

So what gives? My best guess is that a move towards RPOs is a move away from the heavy play action that gets tight ends down the seam for big chunks. That tough contested catch is a standard RPO slant on which a safety comes up to pop Eubanks after eight yards. Michigan was still working on the basics last year, and those basics didn't include tight ends downfield.

We some some bells and whistles make it to the field late in the year, particularly "RPOs" on which the offensive line stops before three yards to buy the QB and WR a moment to exploit the now-usual response to the RPO slant. If Michigan's able to expand on that Eubanks could be in line for more explosive plays.

[After THE JUMP: Erick All puts the throttle down]

Eubanks improved significantly as a blocker. This does not mean he was good, per se. He had a –8 on low sample size in UFR grading as a sophomore. Extrapolating that out to major playing time doesn't happen because someone who does this on the regular…

wing TE #82 to bottom

…doesn't get major playing time.

Eubanks put in the work and got to… eh, okay. He still did stuff like the above from time to time. When UFRs touched on Eubanks's efforts on the ground the takes were decidedly lukewarm. "Hasn't been bad; neither has he been good" after Maryland; "Not great; not bad … This is a lot of progress" after Iowa.

He hovered around zero for much of the year, with the notable exception of the Illinois game. Michigan attacked the edges of the Illinois defense because it had no edges, and Eubanks got a blizzard of positives for turning guys in and ending their participation:

inline TE #82 to top of line

Even at the time I thought this was "playing the video game on junior varsity" and expected a reversion to middling against Penn State. This is indeed what happened. Eubanks managed to stick around even against Penn State despite some rough snaps:

inline TE #82 to bottom

UFR grading generally wants to see a 2:1 positive to negative ratio; Eubanks didn't get there very often. There is a difference, because Eubanks also turned in some effective snaps against quality opposition…

inline TE #82 to bottom

…just not enough.

It's possible the context hurt Eubanks on the ground, as well. He spent a big chunk of his 2019 running into acres of grass wondering why the quarterback didn't have the ball, and his athleticism naturally lends itself to getting work done in open space. See the blocking for Bell above; he was also effective on the rare occurrences when he was called into action on arc read:

He is mobile, and his deficiencies are less relevant against defensive backs. Getting him to a linebacker usually results in a win, too. He could be a real asset if Michigan starts running a bunch of screens.

He should improve another increment or two. It's unlikely he ends up being genuinely good. And this might be a problem for him, because he's got a competitor.

BACKUPS

All (#83) can do both [Patrick Barron]

This should be a bust-out year for sophomore ERICK ALL [recruiting profile]. All arrived as a very modern tight end, which is to say he was a wide receiver. Or at least he looked like one. He played like a tight end. Despite being listed under 230, All came with a reputation as a guy who will put his face in a fan for you. He started living up to that in his cameo appearances. Here he's got a trap block against a DL and blasts him:

wing TE #83 to top

And this is a straight-up iso thud on an Iowa middle linebacker:

wing TE #83 to top

And this is Rutgers but a wide receiver who ate an extra cracker shouldn't be able to do this:

inline TE #83 to top

Most of these events were accompanied by UFR sections that said "huh, I guess he is a tight end" after an offseason where I advocated for him as Devin Funchess. One example after the Maryland game:

I wonder if he'll be able to maintain his productivity against better players since a lot what he does seems to be lunging recklessly at guys but there is absolutely no doubt he goes all out to block. Will be fascinating to see him develop; I withdraw assertions he should be a WR.

Rivals even asserted he's the "most violent blocker on the team," which is false because BEN MASON but it's not hard to project the above into the "best blocking tight end we've seen here in decades." Michigan hasn't had a killer blocking tight end in a long time. Would be nice.

And that's not even the thing he's good at. I may adapt assertions into "All should be a tight end and a wide receiver" because he can probably hack it. He's up to 242, per the phonebooks, and is now reaching the territory where he's a plausible tight end and also a potential terror on the outside.

The emphasis in the previous sentence is on "potential." Oddly, Michigan used the skinny freshman almost exclusively as a blocker. He had just one catch, that a ten-yard crossing route that I didn't clip because it was unremarkable:

Tampa 2 from PSU with a drag right in the spot the LB vacates to get deep. Easy. (CA, 3, protection 1/1, RPS +1)

That was in fact his only target. Michigan had a ton of experienced options a year ago so maybe that's not a huge surprise. As a reminder, though, the ability to get downfield and grab everything was the reason All came in with so much hype:

#Michigan TE commit Erick All with the circus one-handed catch out here at 7-on-7 pic.twitter.com/DJ7cENaYku

— Josh Helmholdt (@JoshHelmholdt) July 11, 2018

That was not a one-off. 247's main Ohio analyst was more or less openly pleading for OSU to offer the kid:

Bill Greene:

From The Opening Regional to the Ohio State summer camp, this is one of the most consistent performers in the state of Ohio. Erick All is going to get open, and he is going to catch the football. PERIOD.

Greene more or less banged the table for OSU to offer All:

…pass catcher supreme, … hearing he's going to get a VERY close look from the Buckeye staff.  …OSU material

That did not happen as OSU' staff "[wanted] to see him add weight and hold onto it over the next few months" after he checked in at 212 pounds at their camp.

The main thing separating All from stardom was 40 pounds. Now he's got about 30 of those pounds. If he's maintained his athleticism—he had a 4.2 shuttle and 35 inch vertical at an Opening regional—the newly open depth chart at both TE and WR should mean he gets the opportunities he needs to establish himself as a rising star.

Sounds like it's going to happen. Talk from inside the program is what you want to hear. It started last year, with that we-don't-need-you-yet good hype. From last year's preview:

You can't throw a rock without hitting someone who's talked up All's receiving chops, from Bill Greene ("is going to get open, and he is going to catch the football. PERIOD.") to Steve Lorenz (…"already on the short list for best hands on the team") to Rivals ("might have the best hands of anyone on the roster").

That section also quoted Sherrone Moore talking up his "suction hands" and saying he "catches everything" while an anonymous source said he was just behind Nico Collins for best hands on the team. This year's edition of the Sherrone Moore quote:

“Erick All is a kid who’s ceiling is — I don’t know what it is. … His real hang up when he first got here was he was a little light. He’s gotten up to about 245 right now. He runs like a deer and he gets the playbook.

“Last year, left was right and right was left.”

This space would not be surprised to see All pass Eubanks midseason unless Eubanks takes another major step forward as a blocker. Even if that doesn't happen All is too versatile and mean to not have a major role, with an eye towards being All Big Ten next year.

got some giddyup [Patrick Barron]

Third-stringer LUKE SCHOONMAKER [recruiting profile] was a high school quarterback when he committed to Michigan as a tight end. He moved to the position as as senior, but posted no film. No one went out to Camden, Connecticut to check him out. He arrived as one of the least-scouted recruits in recent Michigan history.  But he was big and reputed to be fast and if there's one category of obscure recruit that Jim Harbaugh has earned the right to grab without complaint it's tight ends from New England.

Schoonmaker saw scattered garbage-time snaps until Sean McKeon was injured for a couple games midseason. Schoonmaker got an opportunity, which went about as expected. On the positive side, he moves really well for a guy his size:

He also had an RPO touchdown against Illinois.

When Schoonmaker found a guy to block it went well. Illinois caveats do apply. This guy still gets sealed with authority:

TE #86 to top

And this is a very nice chip followed by a second level block:

TE  #86 to top

He still tends to play a little high. Given his background that's almost a given. He has the agility and want-to as a blocker, and that should at least get him to the Jake Butt Is Generally In The Way level. More is possible. Schoonmaker is still a long way away from a finished product.

The negatives were mostly mental errors. This against Rutgers was typical:

Here Schoonmaker decides to block a guy presnap. Then that guy slides outside, where All should pick him up. Both tight ends go after the same force block and Haskins has to run into a pile:

TE #86 to bottom

He had a –2 early against Penn State when he passed up Micah Parsons on a run that otherwise would have been a chunk. After a missed second-level block and a false start Michigan put him back on the bench, and there he stayed. Obligatory picture is obligatory.

Despite the hiccups, Schoonmaker's 2020 was fairly encouraging. His athleticism was evident and his blocking decent. There hasn't been much talk around the program about him—probably because All is sucking up the available oxygen—but Lorenz did report that sources told him he "looks like Superman." He's added another ten pounds, per the phonebooks.

McKeon's departure should open up 8-12 snaps per game for Schoonmaker to operate as a second TE. Correctly IDing his block and making a few more downfield catches would be an excellent springboard into 2021, when he is likely to be a frequently-deployed sidekick to All.

Finally, true freshman MATT HIBNER [recruiting profile] is your traditional Harbaugh tight end discovered in an abandoned silver mine and shielded from all media. Or at least he was until 24/7 got wise and shot him up to the edge of their top 100. He's got a ton of long-term potential; since he's listed at 233 he's going to be restricted to garbage time this year.

FULLBACK FULLBACK FULLBACK FULLBACK: FULLBACK

RATING: 5

none more fullback [Patrick Barron]

It did not feel right to include BEN "Ol' Murderface" MASON as a tight end even if Gattis claims that his offense doesn't have a fullback. In this there must be no compromise. Ben Mason moved to defense last year and I listed him at fullback. If Ben Mason was the lead in Les Miserables I would list him at fullback. When he is elected president I'm calling him FOTUS. Just look at him.

Anyway, after that necessarily doomed attempt to turn Mason into a 270-pound defensive tackle Michigan moved him back to offense, lining him up as a wing tight end and using him in his traditional role as a facemask gelatinizer. Since that worked out a lot better than defensive tackle Mason enters 2020 as a "tight end." He's dropped the 16 pounds he gained for the DT attempt, no more and no less. He is ready to TALK LIKE THIS and kick ass.

There are various things to do with him. You can use him as a literal fullback.

You can make him a wing tight end and do insert iso stuff:

wing TE to bottom #42

Hopefully the running back is a little more patient next time.

You can put him in a diamond and have him go assassinate a linebacker.

Or you can make him the split zone guy:

Michigan did a ton with Mason the bowl game, as Seth detailed in a Neck Sharpies, and that bodes well for his 2020. We are approaching a détente between Speed In Space and All Fullbacks All The Time that should have a significant role for a freelance sower of destruction. Mason's presence means a likely run, but his mobility means you can do a ton of different things with him on the field.

The emergence of two different hoss-class running backs means that Michigan no longer needs to rely on Mason to convert short yardage but by God if he's not leading the way for Charbonnet or Haskins when things get tight and ornery I don't even know man.

FB #42

They put a head on a truck. This man is a truck. With a head. I can state it no more clearly.

This can and should be an Owen Schmitt kind of situation, at least for 15-20 snaps a game. Michigan has the ability to stress linebackers with Chris Evans and atomize them with Ben Mason. Few teams are going to be able to handle both, and even the folks that have the athletes are prone to whiplash when they expect some spread crap and JESUS CHRIST IS THAT MOOSE?!

Anyway, Ben Mason for 20 snaps a game. Think of the gifs.