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This is my early take on Michigan football for the upcoming season. I will breakdown the roster position by position. I may try to do this for the whole big 10 or I may just do a whole big 10 preview article.

QB – This is the most important position in football. Michigan does have a QB battle going on. Right now I feel Denard Robinson is the front runner over returning starter Tate Forcier. I kept hearing that Denard was challenging Tate for the starting job and I just kept shrugging it off and not believing it but after seeing the spring game I am a witness that that is the truth. Denard Robinson is day and night better than he was a year ago. Not only did Denard throw the ball very well but he stayed in the pocket and was firing darts all around the field .Denard also generated 5 scoring drives out of his 6 chances. Now after saying all this Tate didn’t look bad but he didn’t look like he got better. He continued to show some bad decision making and ran around a bit to much behind the line. He needs to improve on this if he wants to retain his starting job. Lastly Devin Gardner looked impressive for a freshman. He was physically impressive. He looked much bigger than our other QB’s. Gardner is also faster than I though he was. He made some mistakes but the kid is a freshman. After he calmed down a bit he looked much better. He displayed nice arm power and shown the ability to put touch on some passes. Overall the QB situation is bright here. Like I already said I feel Denard will start or will take over unless Tate starts improving his decision making.

RB – Michigan lost Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor and all though they were very talented they both had injury plagued careers at Michigan so the losses shouldn’t hurt as much as some think. Freshman Vincent Smith showed flashes last season though when Minor and Brown were out of commission. He is a small back that is shifty and does well in the receiving game but he wont have to carry the load in a crowded backfield. He is also coming off an injury and didn’t participate in the spring game so some other backs may need to step up. Those other guys will be Mike Shaw, Micheal Cox, Fitzgerald Toussaint, and incoming freshman Stephen Hopkins. Shaw has nice speed and can run with some power. He will likely be the starter if Smith is unable to go. Cox is a little bit of a bigger back but he has speed. He had a few dazzling plays last season but they were against questionable competition. Toussaint is another small shifty back with move on top of moves. Incoming freshman Stephen Hopkins is already being compared to Brandon Minor. Hopkins is a good size back who runs physical. He looks like he likes contact. He likely wont make the huge plays but with all the other shifty backs he is a nice change of pace and can run people right over. He ran over safety Jordan Kovacs on more than a few occasions in the spring game.

WR/TE – Michigan is losing Greg Mathews and again although he was talented he shouldn’t be missed too much. Michigan has a plethora of young talented WR’s. The biggest name to look out for is Roy Roundtree. He really came on late last season and ended up leading the team in receptions and he looked good again in the spring game. He had a nice 96 yard touchdown catch in the spring game which was thrown by Robinson. Across from him could be either Darryl Stonum or Junior Hemingway. Both have shown flashes and have made big plays. Michigan has a lot of slot guys but I suspect Martavious Odoms to hold this spot down for the most part. Odoms was 3rd last season in receptions despite struggling with injuries. Odoms has great speed and is elusive in the open field. He is a great fit for the slot WR and catching screen passes and making plays off of that. Ex basketball player Kelvin Grady will see some time in the slot as well but he needs to work on catching the ball. He had some drops last year but if he cleans that up he is an exciting player. Is very quick and has the ability to make big plays. I have a feeling Jermey Gallon will likely beat him out on the depth chart. He is small but very shifty and he can make big plays. There are quite a few other WR’s that will have a chance to play and make plays but those are the biggest names going into the season. There is also a trio of talented freshman coming in which include Jerald Robinson, Jermey Jackson and Ricardo Miller all of whom played in the spring game. Lastly the dark horse WR out of the core to me is Je’Ron Stokes. He tends to get over looked by some of these other players but he has had a good spring.

The TE spot is looking very solid. Returning is starter Kevin Koger who made some plays last year. He has the speed you want in a TE but also is physical and will bull over defenders. Also returning is Martell Webb and Brandon Moore who both played well when given time last year and looked good in the spring game.

O-line – Well the oline was a question mark coming into this year. Its hard to judge them from a spring game but a few guys did stick out to me. Those guys were OT Taylor Lewan and OG Patrick Omaneh. I think the line is making progress and will be solid next year which will only make our offense better.

Defense

D-line – Brandon Graham is irreplaceable. His pressure, running stopping ability and leadership will be dearly missed. If Michigan continue to play the 3-4 defense then sliding DT Mike Martin out to DE and bringing in Will Campbell would help beef up the front and look more like an original 3-4 front. Returning DE Ryan Van Bergen had a solid season last season and hopefully he can improve on it. Will Campbell looked great in the spring game. He took on double teams and was able to fight off most and make plays. He looked great stuffing the run and he even provided some pressure and was able to sack Tate Forcier once. He certainly could be a huge part of this defense. If he does start then he could be that run stuffer that is so important in the 3-4defense.

LB – Jonas Mouton, Obi Ezeh, and Craig Roh are all returning starters. Roh had a very solid freshman season last year and will look to improve on that. Roh has bulked up some which goes great with his speed and pass rushing ability. If this kid doesn’t get hurt and continues to improve I’ll go out on a limb to say he will be a top 25 pick in the NFL. When Michigan does go into a 4-3 DE he puts his hand on the ground. Michigan is losing one starter in the linebacking core which happened to be Stevie Brown. Brown played a high bred spot which also made him cover WR’s and such. Michigan has a few people competing for this open starting spot. There are some freshman who are looking to nab that job and one name to keep an eye on is Josh Furman, who ran a 4.36 forty yard dash in high school.

DB – This was a big weakness for Michigan last year. Highly touted sophomore Boubacar Cissko struggled while starting and was later benched and eventually kicked off the team. Trey Woolfork switched from safety to cornerback and filled in nicely at times. On the opposite side was Donavan Warren who had a pretty good junior campaign which led him to declare for the NFL draft. Redshirt freshman J.T Turner is vying for one starting spot and on the other side the favorite looks to be J.T Floyd. Turner is a big CB at 6’2, 205lbs. He was highly touted coming out of high school the 2 years ago. He was the highest rated player coming out of Ohio that year. Floyd looked pretty good in the spring game. He showed solid tackling and had a few big hits. Woolfork sat out and could be moving back to free safety. Where ever Woolfork plays he will likely start. Cam Gordon who was a teammate of Devin Gardner moved from WR to SS this year. He looks great back their too. He is a good tackler but he really lays the lumber on people. He did so on more than one occasion in the spring game. He also seems to have good ball skills since he use to be a WR. Jordan Kovacs is an interesting story. He walked on and eventually earned the starting job. It’s a nice story and all but Kovacs is a liability in coverage. He does a great job tackling people. He will get ran over but he wraps up people and brings them down still. If Demar Dorsey is able to come to Michigan next year look for him to be the starter here. He has amazing range and is a big time play maker and can hit. Dorsey may not have the grades though to attend next season. He may have to go to a community college for a season. Another highly touted safety coming in that should be noted is Marvin Robinson. He could compete for a starting job right away or you could see him move to linebacker.

Overall Summary
Michigan is still a young team but if the defense can get some stops and turnovers this team could be very good. Last year Michigan’s offense was good enough to win more games and get a bowl bid but the defense struggled all year besides against Ohio State. Tate Forcier was great in the beginning of the season but after a shoulder surgery he struggled the rest of the way. Denard Robinson has made great strides and will look to compete for that QB job. Robinson is intriguing because he is such a great athlete and if his passing keep improving he could be that Pat White type QB. Robinson is considered to be the fastest player on a Michigan team with a lot of speed. Michigan will need some young guys to step up and is very possible that will happen. Michigan dropped a lot of close games last year and with another year of experience for these players and some more talent added to it, those games could start going the other way. I think Michigan will win 8 games this year and they need to for Rich Rods sake.

Pictures were all taken by me. I know they are not that great lol but I figured id use them anyway.