Former starting linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green will be playing his fourth season elsewhere after entering the transfer portal.
Hill-Green signed as part of the class of 2020 and is now the eleventh player from that class to have transferred, including the third today after A.J. Henning (LINK) and safety R.J. Moten (LINK). I gave him a TTB Rating of 74 when he committed (LINK). He was a 3-star, the #25 outside linebacker, and #393 overall in his class.
Hill-Green played in three games as a freshman in 2020 and then started six games in 2021, making 50 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 1 pass breakup in his second year. However, his 2022 season was a wash due to injury, and he was in a battle with several other players for playing time in 2023, including incumbent Michael Barrett, up-and-comer Jimmy Rolder, and Nebraska transfer Ernest Hausmann.
It would not be surprising to see Hill-Green follow his former high school head coach at Baltimore (MD) St. Frances to Charlotte, where Biff Poggi is the new head coach.
Well...I didn't get around to posting this until late in the evening because I was busy, and by the time I hit "Publish," Hill-Green was already publicly committing to Charlotte.
ReplyDeleteI thought he was in line to be a starter. Surprised.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised. When Hausmann signed on and Barrett decided to come back that was already 2 guys for 1 spot next to Colson. We can rotate more between 2 LB spots or even try to put a guy on the edge more often but all of that is a stretch.
ReplyDeleteIt was either going to be Rolder or NHG that got squeezed and I think it's in Michigan's best interest that Rolder stick around.
We've got a really strong duo for the present (Colson and Barrett) and a really promising young combo behind them (Rolder and Hausmann). Doesn't get much better.
NHG played an important role in 2021. I'll think of him a bit like the defensive version of Cade McNamara. Appreciate him, but he wasn't an elite player and 2022 put 2021 in the rear-view pretty quickly.
I've got to agree here. I don't think Hill-Green was anything special prior to the injury, and I assumed he would be a backup - or a so-so starter - in 2023. Colson and Barrett are a solid duo, with Hausmann earning a lot of hype and Rolder seeming to be "next." So you can keep Hill-Green around for 2024 and then say goodbye to him after his fifth year, or you can keep Rolder around for 2024 and quite possibly 2025 - his third and fourth seasons - and get two years out of a guy with high expectations.
DeleteThere's a world where Rolder is red-shirted in 2023, held back from game action until/if he is needed. They did that with Greg Crippen last year to get him that year of eligibility back. Crippen was a similar case where he played more than he probably needed to as a freshman to prep him for a bigger role and ready him if someone went down with an injury, but it turned out not to be needed. Maybe in his best interest, independent of if it's in the team's.
DeleteI can see that, but I think it's less likely since there's so much rotation/substitution at linebacker. You can get through an entire season playing 1-2 centers (the starter and maybe a guy for blowout time or an occasional injury snap), but a normal competitive game usually has just 1 center. Meanwhile, probably 3-4 inside linebackers play in any given game, with more playing in blowouts. The team would probably need someone else to step up and be viable aside from Colson, Hausmann, and Barrett, and I don't know who that would be (except possibly Kalel Mullings if he's not a full-time RB).
DeleteThere's really not very much substitution at ILB compared to most other positions. These guys are typically up there with the safeties for playing the highest amount of snaps per game (i.e., rotating the least). For example:
Deletehttps://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2022/11/michigan-snap-counts-pff-grades-cornelius-johnson-steps-up-vs-ohio-state.html
Colson and Barrett played more than 90% of the snaps (78 total on defense). Rolder had 15. Mullings had 2.
You need 3 guys obviously, but you don't need 4. And the 3rd guy can be pretty wobbly (last year it was Rolder).
Blowouts? Sure - you need more - but you can use walk-ons and freshman for those spots. Joey Vazquez can soak up any number of low leverage snaps you need, to name one guy out of many. It doesn't affect anything.
The real issue becomes if there is an injury to the top 3. But if Rolder sits out game action early in the year and that injury doesn't happen till November then you still have the red-shirt in tact.
Will a RS happen for Rolder? Probably not. Very few players outside of the OL are sticking around one school for 5 years. Rolder may prefer getting 10-20 snaps per game to the added year of flexibility. In Crippen's case it was more obvious. All I would say about it is if Rolder isn't needed in the non-conference/pre-season schedule they could keep their options open by just letting Hausamann get all the 3rd LB snaps and then divvy up the low leverage snaps for the 4th guy to various freshman, walk-ons, and career backups who will be happy just to get on the field.
Also, with NHG's injury, the staff needed to play Rolder in 2022 and did not know they would get Hausmann for this year (and possibly whether Barrett would return). So the situation results in a bit of "bunching" for this season at LB. I think NHG would have played this year but Michigan has enough depth to be fine and NHG will likely get a better opportunity elsewhere.
ReplyDelete