germany

There's something about Michigan and Germany. The basketball program, of course, has boasted the Wagner brothers in recent years. The football team joined in when they picked up Julius "Juice" Welschof in the 2018 class. When 2022 tight end Marlin Klein, a Cologne transplant attending a boarding school in Georgia, took a self-tour of Michigan's campus a couple weeks ago, he decided to continue the tradition.

"I had been thinking about committing since I visited Ann Arbor a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I stepped on campus, it felt like home, and that is when I started thinking about committing.

"I did not go up there thinking about doing this, but I know that I found my place. When I was up at Michigan, I felt like I was at home in Germany. The weather reminded me of home, and it just felt right. The campus was great, the people are nice, and Michigan is the whole package.

While rated as a three-star, Klein has pulled in offers from big-name programs like Georgia, Florida State, and Virginia Tech; five Big Ten programs offered (Indiana, Michigan, MSU, Nebraska, Purdue). He's received this attention despite playing low-level competition after coming over from Germany and also, you know, the whole pandemic thing. There's a good chance he isn't a three-star for long.

Klein is M's third commit in the 2022 class, joining four-star DT Alex VanSumeren and four-star ILB Tyler Martin.

GURU RATINGS

I'll delve more into this in the scouting section; both Rivals and 247 took conservative approaches to rating Klein initially because of a lack of in-person scouting and high-level competition. Then coronavirus hit. This is a case where the offers are likely to be more indicative than mid-cycle rankings.

While there's disparity on Klein's position among the sites, Michigan is bringing him in as a tight end with an eye on him developing into a true in-line TE. He's listed at 6'6", 215 pounds by Rivals and 247, and it appears he has plenty of room to add muscle.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

You know those “make your all-time” lists that circulate in the offseason? Suddenly they got serious.

Previously:

• The 5-stars
• The Extracurriculars.
• Position-Switchers

This week: I’ve been leaving out pre-Nineties players because I didn’t gain consciousness until well into the Eighties. We’ll leave the Best of Bo for Sap. These are Pre-Bo. Also this one’s going to be long because a lot of these guys are probably unfamiliar to you. 

I did not run any of this past Greg Dooley, who studies this stuff, or the UM Bentley Library guys who curate it, or Craig Ross, who was alive for all of it, and I reserve the right to edit based on anything they might choose to add because they know this stuff way better than I do.

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Rules: Players are considered for how they compared to other players of their own time—a 180-pound center from a Point-a-Minute team wouldn’t survive a series versus one of Woody Hayes’s defensive lines; on the other hand Bump’s players didn’t have to worry about cholera. Pre-platooning players can be eligible for both sides of the ball.

Cutoff Point: To avoid overlap the majority of his playing time had to come before 1969. Just give Bump some credit for recruiting the excellent 1968 class.

Foul Language Warning: The faint at heart might want to skip tight end.

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Quarterback: Benny Friedman

Kinda tough to throw a spiral with that [The Michigan History Project]

Who was Michigan’s greatest quarterback ever debatable, but this much is not: He was certainly Jewish.

I’m going with Benny Friedman over Harry Newman. Friedman was the game’s first great passer, but still more Denard Robinson than Tom Brady. Back in the day freshmen were still not allowed to play varsity, so in 1923 the Glenville (yes, a powerhouse even then) product had to resign himself to embarrassing his classmates. In 1924 Yost was Barry Alvarez-ing over his handpicked successor George Little, and Little refused to put Benny, already a campus legend, on the field. Until, that is, Michigan lost to Red Grange’s Illinois, and a furious Yost joined the campus chorus to play Friedman. The result was immediate and spectacular. After ‘24 Yost sent Little packing, inserted Friedman as his starting QB, and in concert with a certain future Michigan head coach, outscored opponents 227 to 3*. The following year they lost only to eventual national champion Navy (a team Benny and Bennie handled 54-0 at home in ‘25). Friedman also kicked every field goal and extra point, led the team in rushing, returned a kickoff 85 yards, threw more TD passes than the rest of the Big Ten combined, and called every play.

* [As luck would have it the 3 went to Northwestern in a ridiculous 3-2 mudfest that got the safety rule changed and nearly got Evanston burned to the ground; Craig Ross wrote about it in HTTV 2015.]

Honorable Mention: Harry Newman, who went 24-1-2 as a starter and should be counted among Heisman winners except they called it the Fairbanks Trophy back then. Big Bob Timberlake

[After THE JUMP: Icons and Legends]

[Isaiah Hole/247]

Harbauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh:

When college football’s early signing period commences for the first time Wednesday morning, it will already be well past Julius Welschof’s scheduled lunch hour at the Krones manufacturing plant in Rosenheim, Germany. The 20-year-old has worked at the factory for more than a year, building machines that fill plastic bottles with water, but he hopes his boss will let him have some time off in the afternoon to celebrate perhaps the most important occasion of his life.

Bavarian defensive end Julius "Juice" Welschof is Michigan's latest 2018 commit, and now an early signee, only a few years after learning football from YouTube videos. Despite the rather sudden flip from his Georgia Tech commitment, Welschof has been on Michigan's radar for a while; he camped with the Wolverines over the summer as part of a two-week US tour, and he was even in Rome during the team's spring break trip, per 247's Steve Lorenz.

Welschof is Michigan's 19th commit in the 2018 class and the third in the last four days. He joins early signees Aiden Hutchinson and Taylor Upshaw (who's additionally a planned early enrollee) in the class at defensive end.

GURU RATINGS

The only chances to evaluate Welschof have been at team camps or off his German league highlights, so it's not surprising there's a wide spread in his rankings. Rivals handed out a cursory 5.5 rating and hasn't given him a position ranking. On the other end, 247 liked his potential enough to make him a bona-fide four-star.

Welschof is listed at 6'6", 250 on Rivals; ESPN docks him an inch, 247 two pounds. He's probably ticketed for strongside defensive end.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]