UMass transfer portal wide receiver Anthony Simpson committed to Michigan on Sunday. He has one season of eligibility remaining.
Simpson is a 5'11", 184-pounder. Last season he caught 3 passes for 16 yards while playing in just two games for the Minutemen before an injury ended his season. However, his career-best season was in 2023 when he caught 57 passes for 792 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Simpson was a 3-star, the #2 athlete, and the #5 overall prep school player coming out in 2021 after playing traditional high school ball at Pawling (NY) Bloomfield. He spent his first two years of college at Arizona playing for former Michigan assistant Jedd Fisch, who was the Wildcats head coach from 2021-2023. Simpson made just 8 catches for 102 yards while playing in eighteen games those first two years before transferring to UMass and playing for head coach Don Brown, who had been the defensive coordinator and Simpson's recruiter when Brown was Arizona's defensive coordinator.
Along with his receiving ability, Simpson has 14 carries for 108 yards and 1 touchdown throughout his career. He seems to be a bit of a screen and gadget guy, a little bit like current Michigan receiver Semaj Morgan. (I still think Morgan is capable of more based on his high school film, but Michigan has so far been unable to use him effectively as a downfield or intermediate receiver.) I think it's good to have multiple guys on the roster who have that skill set in order to keep defenses off balance, provide competition, and account for the possibility of injury. But it will be interesting to see how they dole out opportunities.
Michigan has now added two transfer portal receivers: one a quick slot guy in Simpson and the other a 6'5" outside guy in Indiana's Donaven McCulley. Meanwhile, they lost Tyler Morris to Indiana.
So we sort of traded Tyler Morris for Donaven McCulley. Who won the trade?
ReplyDeleteThat's the whole reason the NCAA is deciding to play the 2025 season!
DeleteNot good enough ... but, "adding size" does not mean replacing with only size
ReplyDelete#quotes
#iwasright
#obsessed
Delete#rent free
This isn't "adding size"
#quotes
#notbuilt4this
The 2025 WR room looks a whole lot like the 2024 WR room.
ReplyDeleteI bet they'll be a lot more productive though, based on
a)a competent QB, and
b)a competent OC.
At the moment it looks like this:
DeleteCharleston --> Simpson
Morris --> McCulley
I guess Charleston could come back but....not sure that's doing much for us on the field given 1 catch on the year, even if he had a significant number of snaps where he was mostly blocking.
DeleteWith regard to the slot role and helping out Morgan, I would hope that Imarian Stewart would be stepping up in 2025. Stewart was a 4-star top 50 composite recruit (albeit, just barely) so you'd really like him to start generating some buzz and doing something.
Perhaps Simpson's addition is writing on the wall to Stewart or perhaps it's motivational for both Stewart and Morgan.