One of the best things that happens with a coaching change when you hire within college football is that there can be some players who follow the old coach to the new school. And for Michigan football, that was the case with Kyle Whittingham.
Whittingham more so supplemented the Wolverines‘ existing roster rather than overhauling it, bringing in players from Utah such as edge rusher John Henry Daley, cornerback Smith Snowden, defensive lineman Jonah Lea’ea, and wide receiver JJ Buchanan.
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He brought in some other impact players, too, like safety Chris Bracy, wide receiver Jaime Ffrench, and linebackers Aisea Moa and Max Alford, but the aforementioned — along with true freshman athlete Salesi Moa — are the highlights.
So, it wasn’t a top-ranked portal class, no. But it was impactful. And On3’s JD PicKell is enthusiastic about what it means for the maize and blue this season.
“Michigan brought in the No. 66-ranked transfer portal class. Not Top 25, not Top 10, No. 66 in all of college football,” PicKell said. “But when you take a closer look at it, I think my man from the voicemail box is kind of on the money with his approach to this. Hey, JJ Buchanan, I know he’s a young buck, I know he’s not going to top a bunch of these lists when it comes to rankings in the transfer portal, but just keep a pulse. Five players from Utah following Kyle Whittingham over to Michigan. Now that itself is nice. The volume is nice. It’d be one thing if those players were following Kyle Whittingham from Utah to Michigan, and they had won like seven games last year, it’s a 10-win football team. And like when you take a step back too to what I just said a second ago, this has kind of been what Michigan football is when they’re at their best.
“Like Michigan, I think, is kind of the grilled chicken and rice of college football. It’s not super trendy, doesn’t get you super excited when you see it in the fridge or see it on the menu, but you know what it is? It’s good for you. It’s hearty. It’s going to get the best out of you. It’s the right fuel you put in your body. It’s not something that influencers are talking about. It’s not making all the Instagram pictures, but it’s substance. It’s substance. And you know what? Chicken and rice in itself is really only as good as what you pair it with. Like exercise, getting good sleep, all those things. I think what you’re pairing this roster with is exactly what this roster is choosing to follow in Kyle Whittingham. Like Kyle Whittingham is science. Like say what you want about what he’s going to be this year at Michigan, if there’s going to be some bumps and bruises with that tough schedule, we’ll get to that in a second. But Kyle Whittingham, having coached 20 years and winning darn near 70% of his games at Utah, it doesn’t get more of a sure thing than that. It doesn’t.”
The offensive additions seem to outshine the defensive ones in many ways, due to the potential. Though Ffrench is a former high-ranking four-star, Buchanan has more time on task and has shown what he can do. The impact of having them along with Moa, and Bryce Underwood leading the charge, is tantalizing to PicKell, because it creates all kinds of mismatches and options.
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“If your question is, well, JD, how much horsepower does this offense have? At a personnel level, we’ll see,” PicKell said. “Like Bryce Underwood, I think his second year playing college football, you saw flashes of the RPMs he brings to the table, but like, I can’t sit here and tell you I think JJ Buchanan is going to be a John Matthew Award winner. Talking to Kato before we got rolling here, I can’t promise you he’s going to go be Colston Loveland or Jake (Butt), but I think he’s going to be good. I think he’s going to be good. I think he’s going to be elevated by a scheme he’s familiar with. I think he’s going to be elevated by a scheme that’s going to put some defenses in a blender when it comes to the rules they have to follow to defend your RPO scheme.
“How good is Salesi Moa going to be? I don’t know. Dude’s going to be a true freshman. I know he’s super talented. I think he’ll be elevated by teams having to also defend Andrew Marsh. That’s just kind of the whole thing here.”
When it comes down to it, PicKell thinks that the pieces fit, and they should elevate the Wolverines. And ultimately, that’s what matters most.
“I like the inputs as we sit here in February,” PicKell said. “So yes, those guys aren’t cracking the top 10 for us as it stands right now when it comes to impact transfers. But you talk about Daley and what he could be, paired with a Jason Beck offense on the other side of the ball, paired with a JJ Buchanan, hopefully taking the next step from a freshman to a sophomore season, paired with Bryce Underwood. Football is a complementary sport. It is the greatest team sport in existence, one of the big reasons why I love it. I think this roster and the staff and the continuity will complement itself really well over the course of this season. So we’ll see what happens there.”
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan football transfer class: Why it’s ‘grilled chicken and rice’
