Spring Roster Overanalysis 2015!

We get excited about certain things around these parts. Like fun-to-size ratios. And new official rosters with updated weights. We've had 24 hours to parse the Spring data, and with Brian on the road today it's up to me to see how they've grown:

Things of [a Certain Definition of] Interest:

• Brady Pallante is a fullback
• Ross Douglas is listed as Ross Taylor-Douglas, and is back at corner
• Ian Bunting is up to 6'7/243
• A.J. Williams is up to offensive tackle size (6'6/285)

Weight Gain/Loss 2000

A reminder of internet policy on weight changes: all weight gain is muscle fiber, all weight lost was fat, and all static weight means fat was replaced with muscle fiber. I've highlighted things discussed after.

[Hit the jump for discussion on this and other bits I could glean.]

All Weight Change and Non-Change is Good

But we can speculate anyway, so long as EVERYONE IS AGREED this is just speculation.

RBs: Derrick Green has been torn down and rebuilt, we hope. He was too slow to be of much help at 240 in 2013, and slimmed down to 220 by fall last year. At that point he wasn't very good at spotting holes but displayed tremendous acceleration when he found one. Ty Isaac is also up to 240 this spring. FWIW Gerhart played at 237 for Stanford.

FBs & TEs: The most positive sign here is Ian Bunting up to 243. Since he's 6'7" think of the difference between 227 and 243 as that for a PF—increment your Bunting expectations. A.J. Williams is now back to his size as a high school offensive tackle. He was never going to be a passing threat at any weight; hopefully this will make him an implacable load as a power-running blocker; he certainly has a ton of experience. Brady Pallante is discussed below.

WRs: Horray for Jehu Chesson entering the 200-pounders' club. Canteen's growth is also promising, though he went from wire to skinny. Mo Ways added 10 lbs; other guys are hovering around 200. Drake Harris is down a couple of pounds thanks to the rehab process; at 174 he's probably still a ways from playing strength.

OL: Blake Bars lost 13 pounds and Dawson picked them up. The starters all shed a few; that's not surprising except with Mason Cole. Hoke's OL recruits arrived big so we shouldn't be too surprised at even this young group not growing.

DL: Mone, Pipkins and Henry all grew, and represent a very large DT/NT rotation with Glasgow. Wormley's up to 300. Lawrence Marshall you'd hope would be up to 250-ish by fall and he's a long way from there. You remember Craig Roh playing at that size as a freshman; WDE is a bit alarming now.

LB: An older group so not much to see here except Jared Wangler is now a proper WLB instead of a strong safety moonlighting there.

S: Peppers.

CB: Michigan still has a lot of 175-pounders, some longer than others. Terry Richardson is among them, which means he's now plausible to help.

No Longer Here:

Gardner, Beyer, Ryan, Taylor, Hollowell, Hagerup, and Wile were out of eligibility. Frank Clark would have been. Funchess left early for the NFL. Bellomy, Justice Hayes, and Heitzman are grad year transfers, and Bosch and Ferns were regular transfers.

Slot receiver Anthony Capatina, sometime starting interior OL Joey Burzynski, and buried TE/DE Alex Mitropoulos-Rundus also played out their eligibility. To them add quarterback Alex Swieca and tall WR Jonathan Keizer, two redshirted walk-ons who graduated in four and have apparently moved on.

New Guys:

Alex Malzone and Brian Cole you know—the only news is they received jerseys 12 and 81 respectively. In duty to my friend I point out that nobody since Brandon Williams ('99-'02) managed to hold on to #12 his entire career, though Alan Gant is on track to do so. I expect Cole hopes to get the 8 removed one day.

Unrecruited walk-ons don't officially join the team until they've been enrolled for a year so guys who've been around since last fall will suddenly appear as redshirt freshmen. Quarterback Matt Thompson was an unranked pro-style 2014 QB out of Cincy whose best offer was Davidson. Hudl page is extant. Junior highlights are on Youtube.

Anlauf is a two-sport guy who walked on the football team in 2012 and 2013, then tried to earn a basketball scholarship as a Zack Novak-sized forward. He played in eight games for Beilein last year and failed on each occasion to earn a trillion in the box score.

Ryan Tice is a preferred walk-on this year; he enrolled at Michigan in January. Tice is a local Wolverine lifer who retweets John U. Bacon, Norfleet doing Atomic Dog, and Bentley photos; his Halloween pumpkin has appeared on this site in the past. So yes I am a fan. Since Tice is a kicker and a walk-on there's no video—omigod there's video.

And a Hudl page. They got Kyle Secychel last year, and projected punter Kenny Allen can also kick, but Tice is another good backup plan in case Andrew David goes weird.

Position Changes in Order of I Care

1. Brady Pallante to Fullback: This one I'm not sure I believe is permanent. Pallante committed to a grayshirt offer and was bumped up to a scholarship once Michigan realized the class would whiff on most of its late decisions. One bit of Brady Hoke's reputation that remains pristine is his evaluation and development of defensive tackles, so the stubby (now 6'0/276) guy is still a possible Grant Bowman.

   So what's he doing on offense? A guy the size of your average MAC center can be a goal line/short situation blocker that Michigan hasn't had since Sean Sanderson. I imagine with Mone and Pipkins available behind Ryan Glasgow there are enough bodies at nose for the short term that Pallante can spend a spring learning to go "BOP!"

   Michigan didn't get a nose in the 2015 class, but are in line for at least one instant impact guy and lose only Pipkins (whom the NCAA owes a medshirt!—that's a personal vendetta for another day). Since Pallante's role in the offense is probably limited, I'm guessing he can still progress at DT while being useful now.

2. Ross (Taylor-) Douglas to Cornerback: He was recruited as a corner and played it his redshirt season before adding depth to the RBs, who were down to Drake Johnson, De'Veon Smith, and Antonio Whitfield at that point.
3. Joe Hewlitt from DB to QB, and Nick Volk from LB to FB: Hewlett walked on the team last year; he'll be wearing Bellomy's number in Spring. Volk was a quarterback for Frankenmuth.

What this all means: cornerback now needs the dudes more than RB so if Douglas had remained there we'd be silently writing off his career. This is good. The additions to fullback probably don't mean very much since Pallante's projected role there isn't the same as Kerridge's or Houma's.

Number Changes:

Most notable thing is Magnuson is listed at his OL number of 78 (he'd worn 81 when Hoke used him as a TE). Brady Pallante switched from 54 to receiver-eligible 45. Nick Volk went to 38 because Bobby Henderson (another walk-on fullback) had his 37. Hewlett was 46, now 8. Cornerback Matt Mitchell is now #20; he had to give up 29 when Ross (Taylor-) Douglas returned to the D side.

Position Non-Change:

Wyatt Shallman is still listed as "RB" and probably will be until the ceremony anointing him to the sacred order of Aaron Shea.

Not Appearing:

John O'Korn isn't listed, though I don't know what transfer rules are for official documentation and whatnot.

Fact that Pretty Much Sums Up the Value of This Post:

Long-snapper Andrew Robinson is down 21 pounds: from 230 to 209.