Football

The Michigan Football team has landed its third defensive back portal commitment in the last 24 hours by flipping S Jaden Mangham from in-state rival MSU: 

Go Blue🔵🟡 pic.twitter.com/exfHdRaGSb

— S1ENDERMAN (@JadenMangham) May 17, 2024

Mangham, a product of Wylie E. Groves HS in Oakland County, was a 4* prospect in the class of 2022, ranked 311th nationally in the 247 composite, the #8 prospect in the State of Michigan. Mangham committed to be part of Mel Tucker's momentum class following the successful 2021 MSU football season. As we all know, things did not go great for the Spartans in the two seasons Mangham was on campus, but he was able to display enough reasons individually to be an attractive portal target. After getting some work as a reserve during his true freshman season, Mangham became a starter in 2023 and upped his PFF grade to a respectable 69.6 as a sophomore. When you factor in the wretched state of MSU's defensive backs coaching throughout the Tucker era, Mangham wasn't doing too badly for himself. 

The academic status of Mangham has been discussed in recent weeks, but he should be fine despite not being a grad transfer. Michigan has a program specifically for in-state, public school transfers wanting to finish their degrees at Michigan, so I don't anticipate admissions hijinks. Mangham adds to Michigan's safety depth that was already bolstered by the addition of Wesley Walker earlier today. Like Walker, Mangham will get a Hello in the coming days. 

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In the last 15 hours, Michigan Football has landed a pair of DBs out of the spring portal. Last night was the commitment of Albany's Aamir Hall, which was followed up this morning with the commitment of Tennesee's Wesley Walker: 

Home is Ann Arbor! 🔒〽️ pic.twitter.com/jkkoxkTKpK

— Aamir Hall (@ajtheshow) May 17, 2024

Another defensive back commit. Wesley Walker joins the safety rotation. pic.twitter.com/LTVKR7m1Dv

— Anthony Broome (@anthonytbroome) May 17, 2024

Both players appear to be grad transfers. Hall played four seasons of FCS football, the first three coming with the Richmond Spiders. Hall competed in the COVID-imposed "spring" 2021 season, then played in the fall 2021 and fall 2022 seasons before transferring to Albany, where he played 2023. The Baltimore native is listed at 6'1", 201 lbs. and was named an FCS All-American last season at the cornerback position, earning an 85.7 PFF grade (88.3 in coverage) which ranked 14th among FCS corners across the 128 teams nationally. 

Walker is a native of the Nashville area and is a safety, having already competed in five seasons of college football across two power conference programs. He began his career at Georgia Tech, where he played from 2019 through 2021, making eight starts in his final year in Atlanta. After that Walker transferred back to his home state and enrolled at UT, where he played in all 13 games (two starts) for a Vols team that went 11-2 and won the Orange Bowl. Walker recorded a 74.8 PFF grade for the 2022 season, which ranked him among the top returning SEC safeties for 2023. This past season he became a starter for the Vols, playing in 10 of 13 games and seeing his grade ticking down a bit to 70.5, but stronger in coverage and pass rushing (more mixed in tackling/run defense). PFF's charting lists Walker as primarily lining up in a free safety position. 

For a Michigan team that took some hits in the secondary during the spring period, particularly the injury to Rod Moore and the transfer of DJ Walker, adding two solid veterans like Hall and Walker help beef up the depth. Michigan was potentially one injury away at both safety and corner from being in a very uncomfortable spot, but these two players will help reverse that and give the Maize & Blue more experienced options. It is unclear if either will start, though there is certainly the possibility that they could. They will both get Hellos in the next week. 

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Earlier this week I put out a call on the internet for mailbag questions. Today I have answers: 

Higher 2024 (and 2024 - 2025) ceiling: UM football or UM basketball? (-zh2oson)

I feel like there are two different answers here, factual ceilings in an objective sports sense and fan enjoyment factor. The matter of fact ceiling is clearly still football, because the defense ought to be one of the very best in college football. That sets the floor pretty high and if the offense can be any degree of decent to good, Michigan is a top 10 team at worst, with even higher upside possible. Projecting men's basketball to be top 10 is extremely lofty, maybe a pie-in-the-sky scenario but one you don't think is likely due to how many new pieces are coming in and the likely growing pains. 

In a fan sense, I do think the upcoming basketball season could be more enjoyable than football, just because there's a fairly legitimate chance this will be the worst Michigan Football season since 2020 while it could be the best basketball season in a few years. Fan enjoyment of sports is often tied to the expectation game; an 8-4 season where you expected to go 11-1 is a miserable time while an 8-4 season when you expected to go 5-7 is a delight. Michigan Basketball being decent but not incredible could definitely be more enjoyable than Michigan Football being very good but not top five elite because one is coming off of 8-24 and the other is coming off of 15-0. 

Of all the football players who left for the NFL with eligibility remaining, who would you most want back? Where is your over/under for wins this year based on the turnover of the roster and coaching staff, the difficult schedule, and the holes on offense? (-AC1997) 

Going to take JJ out of the equation for the first question here because he's the no-brainer answer that needs no explanation. Beyond JJ, I think it's best to look at what areas of the team are a little weak right now. Corner could use depth but Josh Wallace and Mike Sainristil didn't have eligibility. DL depth is a little thin, but the starters are so good I don't think that one makes sense. The more pressing areas are at offensive tackle and wide receiver. Roman Wilson had eligibility remaining (Cornelius Johnson didn't), as did Trente Jones and Karsen Barnhart (Henderson didn't). Given Trente's recent retirement, I don't think we can pick him, so it comes down to Barnhart vs. Wilson. Between those two, you gotta pick Wilson because he was a significantly better football player. 

The Vegas lines put out this week had Michigan at 9.5. I think Michigan is clearly favored over Fresno, Arkansas St, Minnesota, @Illinois, MSU, @Indiana, and Northwestern, so that's 7. The remaining group is Texas, USC, and Washington at home, as well as Oregon and OSU on the road. Michigan is an underdog to me in the road games to me, probably favored over USC and Washington, and maybe a slight 'dog to Texas? I'd probably put the O/U at 8.5 personally, because I'm intrigued by USC and the trio of Texas/Oregon/Ohio State should be elite. Michigan will have a chance to beat all of them if they can put up a good offense, but I'm not entirely convinced at this point that that is going to come to pass. As it stands right now, I'm going with 8.5. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More Questions]