deanthony hardison is the mystery wolverine

The 2013 rosters were updated yesterday afternoon with the freshmen added little tiny bits of else. Could have used this two weeks ago for HTTV. Anyhoo, this kind of thing is what passes for a holiday around these parts. The weights weren't changed so Brian will have to wait until the football media guide comes out (usually early August) to do his WEIGHT GAIN 2000 thing but no amount of "take the day off" is going to stop me from obsessive attention to rosters. Obsessive attention! To rosters!

People from the Spring Roster Now Missing

Nobody. Wait: not nobody. Dan Gibbs is gone but he wasn't on the spring roster despite participating.

Position Changes

Just some stuff on the defensive line. Most intriguing is Brennan Beyer's move to SAM isn't reflected; he remains listed as a DE. Wormley was a DE on the spring roster, is now the nebulous "DL" which I am taking to mean could be either 3T or 5T. Preferred walk-on Ryan Glasgow got "DL" as well, changed from DT. Tom Strobel is a DE instead of DT; since I took it as a bad sign when he seemed to be listed as a DT, going back to the SDE depth chart must be seen as a good sign. These signs are huge overreactions.

Number Changes

We have some!

Name Pos. Elig. Was Now Thoughts
Ross Douglas DB Fr 7 29 Everybody else wanted to be 7.
Drake Johnson RB Fr* 29 20 Ann Arborite and program kid knows his Michigan RB numbers.
Dennis Norfleet RB So 26 23 Jourdan Lewis wanted 26 I guess--still think his DB days are done.
Bobby Henderson RB Fr* 51 37 More appropriate.
Anthony Capatina DB Jr* 95 41 95 was a weird number anyway.
Jonathan Keizer WR So* 27 89 Not the last object Derrick Green will shove out of his way.

The Freshmen Have Numbers!

A lot of these were already reported. Here you go anyway.

Name No. Pos. Ht. Wt. EE? Hometown (High School)
Kyle Bosch 65 OL 6'5 307 St. Charles, Ill. (St. Francis)
Jake Butt 88 TE 6'6 231 Pickerington, Ohio (Pickerington North)
Taco Charlton 33 DE 6'6 265 Pickerington, Ohio (Central)
Reon Dawson 20 DB 6'2 175   Trotwood, Ohio (Trotwood-Madison)
David Dawson 55 OL 6'4 282   Detroit, Mich. (Cass Technical)
Ross Douglas 29 DB 5'10 176 Avon, Ohio (Avon)
Jaron Dukes 83 WR 6'4 197   Columbus, Ohio (Marion Franklin)
Chris Fox 73 OL 6'6 297   Parker, Colo. (Ponderosa)
Ben Gedeon 42 LB 6'3 215   Hudson, Ohio (Hudson)
Derrick Green 27 RB 5'11 220   Richmond, Va. (Hermitage)
Delano Hill 44 DB 6'0 198   Detroit, Mich. (Cass Technical)
Khalid Hill 80 TE 6'2 230   Detroit, Mich. (Crockett)
Maurice Hurst Jr. 73 DT 6'2 305   Westwood, Mass. (Xaverian Brothers)
Da'Mario Jones 14 WR 6'2 185   Westland, Mich. (John Glenn)
Patrick Kugler 57 OL 6'5 280   Wexford, Penn. (North Allegheny)
Jourdan Lewis 26 DB 5'10 159   Detroit, Mich. (Cass Technical)
Mike McCray 9 LB 6'4 230   Trotwood, Ohio (Trotwood-Madison)
Shane Morris 7 QB 6'3 183   Warren, Mich. (De La Salle)
Henry Poggi 7 DT 6'4 260   Baltimore, Md. (Gilman School)
Dan Samuelson 74 OL 6'5 275   Plymouth, Mich. (Plymouth)
Wyatt Shallman 33 RB 6'3 245   Novi, Mich. (Detroit Catholic Central)
De'Veon Smith 4 RB 5'11 218   Warren, Ohio (Howland)
Channing Stribling 8 DB 6'2 170   Matthews, N.C. (Butler)
Scott Sypniewski 43 LS 6'1 230   Ottawa, Ill. (Marquette)
Dymonte Thomas 25 DB 6'2 187 Alliance, Ohio (Marlington)
Logan Tuley-Tillman 72 OL 6'7 285 Peoria, Ill. (Manual)
Csont'e York 81 WR 6'3 185   Harper Woods, Mich. (Chandler Park Academy)

The freshman heights and weights were almost certainly taken from Rivals, or perhaps the same book that Rivals uses. Other than the early enrollees, the only height or weight difference is they put Derrick Green at 5'11 instead of 6'0. The big disagreement seems to be on Shane Morris (pre-/post- mono?), who's 183 to Rivals/MGoBlue but 202 to Scout and 201 to 247Sports; ESPN split the difference at 190. Other weight disagreements I'm keeping an eye on: Scout had Gedeon, Delano Hill, Chris Fox, and Mike McCray 10-15 lbs heavier, David Dawson 8 lbs lighter.

Still Missing

The new walk-ons. Preferred guys I know of are quarterback Garrett Moores, receivers Blaise Stearns and (EDIT) Jack Wangler, guards Dan Gibbs and (left team) Greg Froelich, and kicker J.J. McGrath. DeAnthony Hardison, the nifty running back wearing 18 in the Spring Game who wasn't on the listed roster is still not on the listed roster. Wait for the media guide I guess. Happy 4th.

IMG_2347

hi bennie! /Upchurch

It's an annual rite of fan dorkiness each year to try to be the first to guess which numbers the incoming freshmen will be given by obsessively google stalking them. Sometimes I have some inside knowledge from a recruit who was promised his digit, or tweeted his preferences or something. Here's how I did last year:

Name Pos. # in HS 2012 Guess Actual
A.J. Williams TE 88 88 84
Allen Gant S 7 and 14 14 12
Amara Darboh WR 15 15 82
Ben Braden OL 51 51 71
Blake Bars OL 67 72 62
Chris Wormley DE 47 84 or 68 43
Dennis Norfleet RB/KR 21 21 if available, or 31 26
Devin Funchess TE 5 and 15 85 19
Drake Johnson RB 2 and 18 32 or 6 or 23 29
Erik Magnuson OL 77 78 78
James Ross LB 6 36 15
Jehu Chesson WR 5 82 86
Jeremy Clark S 2 29 34
Kyle Kalis OL 67 67 67
Mario Ojemudia DE 53 53 53
Matthew Godin DT 62 62 99
Ondre Pipkins NT 71 56 56
Royce Jenkins-Stone LB 10 10 52
Sione Houma FB 35 41 or 32 39
Terry Richardson CB 3 and 6 and 9 9 13
Tom Strobel DE 36 63 or 93 or 86 50
Willie Henry DT 74 74 or 68 69

Four out of 22 ain't…well yes it is. It was bad. This article is useless. Let's continue it anyway; I swear to do better.

Getting to know you. Each coach has his own tendencies with this so we'll get better at it in time. With Hoke, he seems to like having consecutive numbers in the same position group, perhaps for mentoring purposes because they sit next to each other in the locker room. It's far from a rule, but it's a trend. Carr rarely let a player share a specialist's digit, but Hoke doesn't seem to have a problem with it, for example Wormley and Hagerup share a number, and walk-on tight end Alex Mitropoulus-Rundus (I'm gonna just start calling him "Alex M-R") has the same digit as backup punter Kenny Allen. Rich Rodriguez was far more apt to share numbers, and the single digits were nearly always doubled up; Hoke has said in the past that he doesn't like doing that, and the practice has been limited—as of spring just 5, 12 and 34 had scholarship recruits in both numbers, adding 54 and 56 to those double-occupied by players on the two-deep.

The roster lies. The official MGoBlue.com roster still doesn't have DeAnthony Hardison, that nifty RB you saw in the Spring Game. He's #18. Also a practice insider told me Anthony Capatina is playing slot receiver, not "DB" as he's listed on the depth chart. Also weirdly missing from that roster is #79 right tackle Dan Gibbs (a Seaholm Mape!!!), a 2012 preferred walk-on whose twitter profile pic is him riding an oliphant:

DWVAFy5

@DJBunyan

Legends/Special #s: 1 because Braylon's scholarship killed the fun, unless Gallon gets it. It won't come as much of a surprise to you that 2 will probably be entering the Legends program this season. There will also be some push for 16, and I doubt it'll be assigned to an offensive player immediately. 11 for the Wisterts, 21 for Desmond, and 87 for Ron Kramer are currently open; it is likely they'll be assigned to veterans whose digits might then be made available if it happens before the season. Bennie's 47 and Jerry's 48 remain occupied by current players and there's no way a second guy will get them. And I've been told they're still working on the Harmon family with 98. Anyway they won't go to freshmen.

Already worn on both sides: 5 (Courtney Avery and Justice Hayes), 6 (Raymon Taylor and Brian Cleary), 12 (Gardner and Allen Gant), 13 (Terry Richardson and Alex Swieca), 15 (James Ross and Shaun Austin), 34 (Jeremy Clark and Brendan Gibbons), 43 (Chris Wormley and Will Hagerup), 54 (Richard Ash and Jareth Glanda), 56 (Ondre Pipkins and Joey Burzynski), 69 (Willie Henry and Erik Gunderson), and 95 (Anthony Capatina and Michael Jocz).

Available on offense only: 4, 7, 14, 18, 22, 24, 25, 30, 33, 35, 40, 50, 52, 53, 55, 57, 59, 66, 76, 92, 96, 97, 99

Available on defense only: 3, 8, 9, 10, 17, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29, 38, 39, 42, 45, 46, 49, 51, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 67, 70, 71, 72, 75, 77, 78, 82, 84, 85, 86, 88, 94

1146879Walk-ons with soft claims: Every year there's a Jon Keizer on the roster who thinks his number is safe, then some top running back recruit in the country (right: from Scout) runs him over with star power (dadada, didda-da diddadidda…). Scout teamers without scholarships often have their numbers taken, for example Charlie Zeller was 19 on the 2012 spring roster and Paul Gyarmati was sitting on 99, but Devin Funchess and Matt Godin nabbed those digits last fall. This year they are 15 (Shaun Austin—note that Ross has it on D), 18 (DeAnthony Hardison—note that Countess has it on D), 27 (Jon Keizer), 36 (AJ Pearson—note that Kerridge has it on O), 42 (Dylan Esterline), 46 (Clark Grace), 49 (Brad Anlauf), 51 (Bobby Henderson), 59 (Mark Lawson), 63 (Ben Pliska), 66 (Dan Liesman), 70 (Kris Mateus), 79 (Dan Gibbs), (91 (Alex M-R, though Kenny Allen wears it too), and 95 (Anthony Capatina and Mike Jocz). The other walk-ons I didn't mention (Dever, Cleary, Glanda, Burzynski, Reynolds, Allen, Gunderson, Jocz and the Glasgows) are either on the two-deep already or in the mix.

Currently unused: 20, 23, 31, 32, 37, 41, 44, 64, 68, 73, 74, 80, 81, 83, 89, 90, 93, π

You just said Pi. We're Michigan fergodsakes. All the constants—φ, ζ(3), α and δ, Euler's e, γ, λ, K, r, and Ω—ought to be fair game, and if someone takes √-1 and uses the nickname "Impossible" he will be my favorite for ever and ever.

EVERYBODY LET'S ALL BE #7!!!

Name Pos. HS # Tea Leaves Best Guess
David Dawson OG 71 Wore 55 in Under Armour game, 33 in Army AA game. 55* - His Twitter acct is David Dawson 5⃣5⃣
Reon Dawson BCB 1 Wore 13, 24 and 1 in high school. 31 - seems to fit.
Jaron Dukes WR 8 Twitter handle is @Jaron_Dukes8 83* 80 - Is 8-like.
Chris Fox OL 73 Wore #13 (?) at Army AA game and #33 at Rivals 5-star challenge 73* - Guy likes #3
Greg Froelich OG 77 Wore that and 75 in high school (preferred walk-on) 76 - Not exactly Steve Hutchinson.
Ben Gedeon MLB 15 James Ross is already James Ross. 45 - David Harris's # but precludes punt coverage.
Derrick Green RB 27 Wore 27 in Army AA game. 27* - call it a hunch. Sorry Keizer.
Delano Hill Nk/FS 11 Looks like he's 40. 32 (Kovacs's other #) or 23
Khalid Hill FB/TE 32 Very Kevin Dudley of him. 32 or 23
Maurice Hurst NT 50 Wore #11 in Semper Fi Bowl. 68 - Mike Martin's #
Da'Mario Jones WR 11 Wore #7 in that photo of recruits in white M jerseys. #15 at MSU camp. Same school as Tony Boles, who wore 42 at Michigan but had 18 touchdowns so... 14* 18 - I admit this is thin.
Patrick Kugler OC 57 Wore 57 at UA game. Dad and bro wore 57. 57 - O'KUGLER RULES!
Jourdan Lewis CB 1 Also wore #17 at Cass Tech, #27 at Army AA game. 17 or 3 or 37.
Mike McCray SAM 9 Wore #9 at UA game. Father wore 99 at OSU 9* - He and Dileo both likely to be on special teams, but not the same groups.
J.J. McGrath K 13 preferred walk-on 35 - Or some kicker number.
Shane Morris QB 12 Gardner switched, so... 7 - he already tweeted it.
Henry Poggi 3T 7 Wore 17 at UA game. Was given #7 locker in May. Plays jazz flute. 70 - Ross Douglass already took 7.
Dan Samuelson OG 74 Photo out there of him wearing a Nebraska 74 jersey. Twitter handle is @dansamuelson74. 74 - it's available.
Wyatt Shallman FB 49 49 is available on defense. 33* for his DCC teammate who passed away. 49 - Sorry Brad Anlauf.
Deveon Smith RB 4 Is a 4-star? 4 - It's open.
Blaise Stearns WR 1 Townie: Can't find what he wore at Huron before transferred. Preferred walk-on 89 - Doesn't exactly get 1st pick.
Channing Stribling FS 8 #22 commit to the class. 8* - It's open
Scott Sypniewski LS 56 Wore #45 at his long-snapper camp. 41 - Who cares.
Jack Wangler WR 21 Dad wore #5 at Mich (preferred walk-on) 16* 25 - Like Kennedy.
Csont'e York WR 1 Was #667 at NFTC 81 - With an eye toward dropping the 8.

Go ahead and make your guesses. We'll have our answers in a few weeks.

* UPDATE: After I posted this Magnus alerted me to his post of numbers that have already been revealed. I had some good guesses. I crossed out my comments if the guess was wrong.