Name: Manuel Beigel
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 280 lbs.
High school: Wallingford (CT) Choate Rosemary Hall
Position: Defensive tackle
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Beigel was a senior in high school. He made 10 tackles and 4 sacks.
TTB Rating: 79
Beigel is a transplant from Germany who is a blank slate. Jim Harbaugh tried to go heavy on international prospects over the past several years, recruiting Beigel, fellow German Julius Welschof, Frenchman Aymeric Koumba, Canadian Luiji Vilain, Canadian Benjamin St-Juste, and several other foreign players who did not end up signing with the Wolverines.
I'm not sure what to think of Beigel so far because his film is so limited, but athletically, he looks to be top-notch when it comes to movement for his size. A soccer player when he was younger, he maintains foot quickness and change-of-direction skills rarely seen in players his size. The real questions are about his technique and strength, both of which seem to have a way to go. Already at 6'5" and 280 pounds, he is likely to end up as a 3-tech defensive tackle, but he looks like a guy who might get pushed around and washed out of the play in the Big Ten. My guess is that he redshirts this season while learning some nuances of big-time college football.
Prediction: Redshirt
He sounds a little bit like Welschof Part II (well, if you add about thirty pounds to the high school weight). Any chance this guy could play OT?
ReplyDeleteI think there's potential for him to play tackle, maybe guard. He has the athleticism to play tackle, but putting him in space with limited technique might be difficult. Usually you see guys move from tackle to guard, but he's a guy I could see starting off at guard before transitioning to tackle.
DeleteI had the same thought as above until I saw this snippet of film. Beguel is 6'5", 280 and you can almost call him shifty.
ReplyDeleteWelschoff had not even this much film that I was aware of. You could see that he could run. Beguel runs well for sure, but it's the stop, start thing that makes him different from lots and lots of big guys that can run. On one play, he kind of leaves a hip out there to aim at and then takes it away a little like a running back.
Easy to see why Alabama liked him at tackle.
Roanman
Yeah, Welschof had even less film, but at his height (6'6") he was always more of a straight-line guy. That's one reason why he was fine on the kickoff squad, because he could really run...but his ability to play low and change direction was always an issue.
DeleteWelp ... my theory of linebackers in the bottom rankings is broken. :-)
ReplyDeleteOjabo was another European import. Supposedly he came to Michigan because the weather reminded him of home in Scotland LOL.
ReplyDeleteI am reluctant to label Begiglel as another Welshof without considering that he could be another Ojabo as well. Maybe something in between.
I agree with the Red Shirt and would add that I don't even see him playing at all.
Red-shirt can mean a lot of things these days. Used to mean you don't play much, didn't have much role, certainly not on any meaningful downs. Not anymore -- last year we had a red-shirt out there in the big ten and national championship games (Matt Hibner) filling out the back end of the short TE rotation. The year before we had Greg Crippen as second string on the depth chart and ready to start if injury required (fortunately it never did). This year we'll likely see Jaydn Davis get his maximum amount of games in under the red-shirt cap while seeing a decent number of live snaps. It's a new world where red-shirts can still be key roster pieces.
For Beigel, I agree with Thunder in the old school sense of the word red-shirt -- he probably won't see the field. Just like Ojabo and Welshof did not see the field when they were freshman in 2018 and 2019. Koumba did get a game in so you never know, but regardless, I don't see Beigel being ready to contribute.
I don't recall Hibner playing any snaps at TE. Special teams, yes.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see how they handle Jaydn Davis.
Hibner only played tight end in three games last season: BGSU, Rutgers, and Iowa.
DeleteBy the way, Ojabo spent at least his last three years of high school in the United States and played football at Blair Academy as a junior and senior.
DeleteSo there is a slight difference between Ojabo/Beigel/Vilain and the rest of the other players mentioned (Welschof, St-Juste, Koumba, etc.), who did not play high school ball in America at all.
Ojabo was 17 when he moved from Scotland to NJ. That was the first time he ever played American Football. At 19 he was a freshman on the Michigan team.
Deletehttps://www.bbc.com/sport/american-football/59873760
Luiji Villain was a first team AA high school player according to USA today at Episcopal high school in Alexandria VA. He was listed on the team in 2015 and 2016. St Juste's dad played for the Miami Hurricanes.
Ojabo and Welshof and Koumba are facing a degree of change that is far bigger than anything guys from south Canada (i.e., everyone from Canada) are encountering. Football is not a foreign concept in Canada, nor is going back and forth to the US for athletic camps, etc.
Hibner was a former top 150 recruit who wants a bigger role. Last year he was TE #4 but elected to red-shirt rather than get the handful of snaps per game that job generally entails. So he did not play in many games as a result.
DeleteHe was a depth player with a minor role even when available. So playing 32 offensive snaps on the season does not sound like much -- but that was with the (self-imposed) red-shirt restriction keeping him out of all but 4 regular season games. Context; Orji played 17, Tuttle 55, and fan favorite Kaleel Mullings played 87.
Hibner's 32 snaps mean that he was a notable contributor on the national championship team despite being a red-shirt senior (not that kind of red-shirt senior, the kind that is actually senior, that red-shirts). He has 2 years of eligibility left wherever he ends up, making our red-shirting senior last year a red-shirt junior next year LOL.
After he sat out the requisite number of regular season games to ensure his red-shirt was in tack he was back to full availability for OSU and the post season. During that time he was drawing snaps at TE and on special teams. Obviously the coaches are not going to play a guy just to play a guy with the hopes of keeping him on the roster for next year - certainly not against PSU, OSU, or Alabama. Hibner didn't play any snaps at all against PSU, OSU, or Alabama.
Now he's gone entirely even though he seems like could have a pretty sizeable role if he stuck around. With Beetham also headed to the Portal Michigan has a dearth of experienced options at TE, and an especially large void for a traditional in-line blocking TE . This is really surprising to me but I guess they have confidence in the young guys. Seems like a big flashing opportunity sign to some grad transfer TEs from lower divisions that might have NFL aspirations, but what do I know.
@ Lank 4:29 p.m.
DeleteOjabo did not move from Scotland to New Jersey when he was 17.
"'It was time for me to take the next step,' he said on Wednesday, reflecting on his decision to move to the United States, alone, at 15. He wound up at Blair Academy, a private school in New Jersey."
https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2021/09/nigeria-born-scotland-raised-michigan-football-lb-continues-remarkable-rise.html
He was already in America and had been playing basketball and soccer. He made the decision in the spring of his sophomore year to play football the following year, when he would be a junior.
@ Lank 5:04 p.m.
DeleteHibner was a top-150 player to 247 Sports only, and he was WELL below that on the other sites and in the Composite. He was a 3-star to Rivals and ESPN, #475 in the On3 composite ranking, and #397 in the 247 Composite. After four years, to latch onto 247's ranking and ignore the composite rankings when the Rivals/ESPN rankings seem closer to the truth for a guy who never played much is kind of misleading.
He wasn't a top-150 recruit. He was *barely* a top-400 recruit.
Also, Hibner was always an H-back type of guy and not an in-line guy, so his presence would not have made much of a difference in the Y-TE area.
Delete@Thunder
DeleteRE: OJABO
Beigel played 2 years of high school football in america also. As did Klein. Which would put them on equal footing with Ojabo through that lens.
Which school was Ojabo at prior to Blair? It's kind of beside the point isn't it? He was playing soccer not playing football! On one hand you have a guy who emigrated from Scotland having never once played football until he was 17 and was learning the basics of the rules in his junior year of high school On the other you have a guy (St Juste) whose dad played it in college and was getting to go around to a bunch of camps in the US and in Canada playing a sport that is widely popular, just over the border from the US. Who is more "international" and has a bigger transition to the college game do you think? I don't think it's as black and white as "attended high school in Amercia or not.
Hopefully we can at least agree that Vilain was not very international considering he was literally qualified as "All American". If we ranking them by who is "most international" in terms of the learning curve and challenges to being a contributing college player at Michigan, I think it would go something like:
1. Koumba 2. Welshof 3. Ojabo 4. Klein 5. Beigel 6. St Just 7. Villain
Ojaba had an advantage of growing up in an English speaking place, but Klein and Beigel at least were playing football some before their 2 years in the US in high school. The Canadian guys barely count, though at least St Juste had a bit of a language barrier to manage growing up in Montreal.
This is like calling a guy from Toledo an out of state recruit.
RE: HIBNER
LOL OK - Besides being top 150 to 247, he was a top 15 TE recruit (#12 composite) according to the consensus rankings, ranked right behind Luke Lachey.
https://247sports.com/Season/2020-Football/CompositeRecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool&Position=TE
He got some hype as a recruit, is the point here. I agree with you it doesn't really matter any more, but for a guy with 2 years left and some lofty rankings (even if only one of the major sites) and who played in the national championship game to look for a better opportunity even if he has a DECENT one at Michigan.
To ignore the REASON he didn't play much is far more egregious than ignoring his composite ranking (which was still solid). Hibner was TE#4 last year and would have played a lot more if he wasn't red-shirting or if Michigan didn't have Loveland and Barner ahead of him soaking up most of the targets.
Finally, Hibner has the size to play Y if he wanted to. A lot of guys come in as flex wide-receivers and get to be more in-line over time. Reimersma and Gentry began as QBs -- maybe they "would not have made much of a difference in the Y-TE area" either, until they did the work to get to making quite a bit of difference.
I don't expect Hibner to go to the NFL or anything but the coaching staff seemed to want him back even though he had already signaled he was going to the Portal last fall.
@ Lank 2:01 p.m.
DeleteI'm not really interested in ranking the players by "most international" or whatever. It's just noteworthy for developmental expectations to recognize that international prospects are often a little further away from immediate playing time than domestic productions.
Ojabo attended Blair. He did not move to America as a 17-year-old and start playing football. I'm just trying to make sure we get facts straight.
Same with Hibner.
Sometimes we're getting too caught up in interpretations of facts rather than just letting the facts speak for themselves.
Well I'll agree with you there but there are different facts out there and what these facts "speak for" is notable interpretation. Like, the fact that Villain was an all american in high school and the fact that Hibner was a top 15 TE recruit are facts that may speak to one thing and the facts that Villain grew up in Canada and the fact that Hibner elected to red-shirt as a senior speak to another thing, potentially.
DeleteLmao .... DESPERATE for disagreement
ReplyDeleteWho you talking about? Oh wait - the same as every other time.
Delete