For week zero, I'm only going to list the tight ends, because Matt Hibner was the only ex-Wolverine player in action. Next week I will expand this post to include other positions.
FORMER PLAYERS
- Louis Hansen (UConn): Hansen is expected to be the Huskies' starting tight end this fall. He's a 6'5", 240 lb. redshirt junior.
- Matt Hibner (SMU): Hibner, listed as the Mustangs' #2 tight end, caught 1 pass for 19 yards in a 29-24 win over Nevada. Hibner is a fifth-year senior listed at 6'5" and 251 pounds after spending his first four years of college in Ann Arbor.
FORMER COMMITS
- Andrew Rappleyea (Penn State): Rappleyea is listed as a 6'4", 250 lb. redshirt freshman and he's expected to be the Nittany Lions' third tight end.
Hibner would have got more run staying at Michigan. I get why he left after 4 years of limited playing time, but the grass isn't always greener, even if he's out of the shadow of Loveland. I'm sure adding Barner last year was frustrating to him, but Michigan didn't do that again this offseason.
ReplyDeleteI think that's debatable. It's really not clear where Hibner was in the pecking order to play tight end at Michigan. I suspect if he was going to be the #2 guy behind Loveland, he wouldn't have transferred. That would have been 500+ snaps available to him. My guess is he saw the writing on the wall that Klein was going to pass him (or already had) or that Bredeson, Marshall, Tonielli, etc. were creeping up.
DeleteHibner got 33 snaps in the season opener for SMU this year. That's after 26, 65, and 26 snaps for Michigan the past three years. In other words, Hibner got more snaps on Saturday than he did in three out of his four FULL SEASONS at Michigan. Last year's #3 tight end (Josh Beetham) got 61 snaps, and Hibner is halfway to that snap total after one game.
If we're strictly talking about playing time, I think Hibner probably made the right choice. If we're talking about winning...obviously, Michigan is a better program than SMU.
Especially if he has little to no shot at the League
DeleteMan, I'd have loved to kept Rapp in the TE class. Might be a big loss
@Thunder.
DeleteYou didn't mention or perhaps forgot that Hibner decided to take a red-shirt to get this current extra year of eligibility, during the season. That's unusual but not very complicated. Last year he was ahead of Beetham whenever he wasn't sitting out to get the red-shirt (early season and late season). Pretty clear that it suppressed his snap count for the season and thus he did not play a FULL SEASON. It's more like an injury shortened season (like All in 2022) than a full season.
That said -- you are probably right that from a pure snap count perspective it's not a sure thing that he would get more at Michigan in 2024. BUT he was in line for a huge increase in usage with the depth chart getting depleted with Barner gone and him and Klein being next men up.
I think it's pretty clear where Hibner stood in 2022 (TE6), and 2023 (TE 4), and likely where he stood in 2024 as well (TE3 with Klein moving ahead of him and Bredeson broken out at FB). I don't think Hibner would have been higher than the third option at TE, and if you include Bredeson he would have been 4th in the group, at best, in 2024. .
Klein is more talented and probably passes him, but they both play a lot. He is not a superstar waiting in the wings, but he is a serviceable veteran contributor. The key point is that Michigan has used A LOT of TEs historically and TE3 or 4 (influding FB) tends to be a role that is going to get you at least 250 snaps and potentially one injury from starting level snaps. Relevant here is that Klein and Loveland are flex types so Hibner could have drawn a substantial role as an in-line blocker and likely received at least 250-300 snaps in a very TE friendly scheme. He would have been the only TE weighing over 250 pounds, so I think there would have been a role.
In 2022, he was behind All, Schoonmacher, Honigford (who did not return in 2023) and Bredeson, and Loveland who did. So in 2022 he was TE6 and in 2023 nobody passed him over, but Barner was added, so Hibner was TE4. His early season and late season playing time reflected that -- he decided to red-shirt so you did not see that in most of the big ten schedule, Beetham stepped in as TE4 at that point but moved back to TE5 when Hibner was fully available again. Klein was next in usage (TE6) and then Hawes and Marshall got their feet wet but did not play beyond red-shirt levels. Tonielli had a true red-shirt and did not play at all, making him TE9.
I think probably the biggest factor, aside from quibbles about snap count, is that SMU will probably offer him more Targets. I can understand Hibner wanting to have a bigger role than the blocking-heavy duties he likely was in line for at Michigan.