Arizona State offensive guard LaDarius Henderson announced today that he would be spending his final year of eligibility in Ann Arbor.
Henderson was a 6'4", 270 lb. offensive tackle prospect coming out of Waxahachie (TX) Waxahachie in the class of 2019. He was ranked as a 247 Composite 3-star and the #50 offensive tackle, and he picked ASU over offers from Boise State, Colorado State, and Illinois, among others. (Fun fact: While at Waxahachie, Henderson played for former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna, who coached the program for three seasons before stepping down.)
Now listed at 6'5" and 310 lbs., Henderson started thirteen games at left guard in 2021 - in fact, all but 12 of ASU's offensive snaps - but only played in six games in 2022 due to injury. Overall, he has 29 career starts and was named a team captain this past season. He had accepted an invitation to the East-West Shrine Game, but instead it appears he will play for the Wolverines.
Michigan is losing at least two starters after this season in left tackle Ryan Hayes and center Olu Oluwatimi; but there's a good chance that one or both guards, Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter, enter the NFL Draft in 2023. Henderson was ranked as an offensive tackle coming out of high school and played some as a backup tackle in 2020, but he's more of a guard. My guess is that Michigan plans to bring him in to compete at the guard position.
A possible depth chart for 2023 could be (as the roster stands right now):
LT: Karsen Barnhart (RS Sr.), Jeffrey Persi (RS Jr.), Evan Link (Fr.)
LG: Trevor Keegan (RS Sr.), LaDarius Henderson (RS Sr.), Alessandro Lorenzetti (RS Fr.), Connor Jones (RS Fr.)
C: Greg Crippen (RS So.), Raheem Anderson (RS So.), Amir Herring (Fr.)
RG: Zak Zinter (RS Jr.), Giovanni El-Hadi (RS So.), Dominick Giudice (RS So.), Nathan Efobi (Fr.)
RT: Trente Jones (RS Sr.), Andrew Gentry (RS Fr.), Tristan Bounds (RS So.)
Thunder, do you have any thoughts or opinions (that you'd be willing to share) on the use of the portal to plug holes? In particular, as a coach yourself, could you help us understand what might happen to the locker room dynamic by this practice?
ReplyDeleteThe flip side of this question is this: if you were a college coach, what kinds of things would you do to reduce any possible disruptions caused by bringing outside guys in like this?
This move doesn't make much sense if there isn't a corresponding departure somewhere on the OL. This guy is too good to just be happy as depth.
ReplyDelete"there's a good chance that one or both guards, Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter, enter the NFL Draft in 2023". That would explain it and I'm not sure what they have to prove as 1st team all conference players (if not all american in Zinter's case).
A reasonable "worst case" scenario for Michigan in 2023 still seems... pretty darn good:
LT: Barnhart
LG: El-Hadi
OC: Crippen
RG: Henderson
RT: Jones
All are potential to likely NFL prospects at some point and the Portal always brings surprises but for now that's pretty solid.
Flip LG/RG to align with Thunder's projection. I think if Barnhart and Jones both stick around Barnhart is more likely to end up at LT.
Deleteall you guys that were down on Cade McNamara. It turns out he had a very serious knee injury. somehow Michigan dictors didn't see a tear in his patellar. The doctor he went to see in LA saw it immediately
ReplyDeleteThis is a very bad situation. He played on the tear since the Michigan St game last year.
You fans that were down on him had no reason to do it in the first place. The fact that you were so down on him shows more about you than about Cade McNamara
Is McNamara perfect? of course not. Are you?
That's his side of the story. There's a good chance it's not the complete story. There's *always* another side to a story. Always.
DeleteThe Michigan doctors are limited in what they can reveal given rules about divulging patient information. There is zero chance the doctors at the University of Michigan -- a world-renowned medical facility -- would miss this. They saw it. What they recommended is unknown to us at this time.
People were not 'down' on Cade - they were high on JJ. And not only was JJ better, but Cade was injured. Not only was starting JJ the correct decision - it was the ONLY decision given Cade's injury. What exactly is your point here?
DeleteLOL. Great to have you back Anon.
DeleteWe'll see what Cade does at Iowa. According to him he's going there to change perceptions about him being a "game manager" and he expects that Iowa will be a high octane offense with lots of explosive plays.
That made me chuckle. BTW he's recruiting players to come join him and he admits that. So I'm with Thunder -- he's the enemy now.
Cade's best passing games of the year happened with the injury. Right or wrong it didn't seem to affect his performance unlike past QBs who got injured and played hurt - Henne, Robinson, Gardner, Speight, Milton to name a few.
DeleteI don't think many were down on Cade. We recognized that Cade is a very good college QB and helped Michigan win the league. But IMO JJ has been better (compared to Cade last year admittedly, Cade would have likely improved) and has demonstrably opened up the run game. Michigan has zero losses and yet you want to say "I told you so?" Seems like you have an agenda. Besides, if Cade was hurt, there really was no decision to your attempt to fault the coaches somehow entirely misses the mark. Good luck to Cade, I will root for him to do well.
DeleteYou know what - I'll play along mcnaANON. I've doubted Cade before and I can do it again. Maybe this time I'll be right.
DeleteHe's out here doing podcasts crapping on Michigan and coming off like a spoiled baby unwilling to even say JJ's name or acknowledge that he was clearly outplayed by JJ AND that he got an extremely beneficial situation handed to him in 2021 AND that the coaches brought him along with kid gloves. He's acting like a spoiled little rich kid.
Hot take - if the staff had diagnosed his knee injury against MSU he would have just expedited the inevitable. JJ would have started the next week and Cade would have never beaten OSU, never won a big ten championship and never been made captain. He would have left last offseason.
So... I'm not going to take the classy route like Kurt on this one. I'll play right into your hands. Keep the takes coming mcnaANON! You're absolutely right. I am hating on Cade and doubt he is good.
I very much doubt Cade will succeed at Iowa.
They will NOT win the Big Ten West, let alone the Big Ten.
Cade will struggle statistically - his numbers (pass rating, YPA, TD/INT ratio) will be worse at Iowa than they were in 2021 even though he has 2 more years behind him and (per him) Iowa is going to open up their offense.
He WILL disprove his reputation as a good game manager - mostly because he will not manage games very well.
He will be an average Big Ten QB even in year 5 of his career.
He will not be all conference.
He will not get drafted.
He will not prove any of his doubters wrong.
He will find the same thing that Jake Rudock found - passing the ball at Michigan is easier than passing at Iowa.
I appreciate what Cade did in 2021. I want to root for any UM grad. But I hate how Cade is leaving and I doubt he's going to be successful at his next step. So here I am playing along.
If Erik All was smart he'd go somewhere else.
Yes, Lank, come over to the dark side!
DeleteLOL. These guys (All, McNamara and McCaffrey) are killing me.
Delete