Name: Greg Crippen
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 301 lbs.
High school: Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy
Position: Center
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #51
Last year: I ranked Crippen #35 and said he would be a backup center (LINK). He played in one game.
TTB Rating: 65
Crippen is taking a roller coaster ride in the season countdowns so far in his career. I ranked him in the 80s as a freshman, and he played in six games, burning his redshirt. Then I ranked him #35 last year as a backup center, but he played in just one game behind Olu Oluwatimi, getting his redshirt back. Now I'm putting him at #56 and he will probably win the Rimington.
More seriously, Crippen started for the Maize team in the spring game, but the spring game was sans Stanford transfer Drake Nugent. Nugent is expected to start, but there's also competition from Raheem Anderson II. I was more impressed with Anderson (who started for the Blue team) than Crippen and I would rank the centers as Nugent, then Anderson, then Crippen. Crippen and Anderson can both play a little bit of guard, but they're probably not the primary backups there. Whoever isn't starting in 2023 needs to get some experience, because it's possible that Michigan will lose all five starters to the NFL before 2024.
Prediction: Backup center
I am convinced he would be a starter on at least 80% of power 5 teams. And yet - here he is in the 50s and I think the ranking is spot on.
ReplyDeleteI think 80% might be a stretch. I just don't think he's there yet. Maybe he'll get there. Just like with other transfers...I think it shows the coaching staff wants competition. As much as Sam Webb wants to talk up Raheem Anderson - and some people want to talk up Crippen - I don't think Michigan would have recruited Drake Nugent if they knew they had a stud waiting in the wings.
DeleteYou could be right but my read on the situation is not that Michigan was digging around the Portal for OCs.
DeleteGuys like Olu or Nugent, one of the top 10-20 nationally -- you take them if they are interested, unless you have somebody who is clearly better than that. If that type of dude is in the Portal and they are interested, you try to make it work.
I don't see it as an indictment of Crippen at all. Same goes for El Hadi or Persi in the case of bringing in Henderson.
With Crippen he was getting groomed to start in 2022 back in 2021. So unless he's just topped out or gone backwards (not what we've heard) he's good enough to start on the Michigan OL. If he's good enough to start on the Michigan OL, then he's good enough to start on the vast majority of other OLs in the country.
I'll drop it down to 70% though ;)
Anderson is all the rage. Both need to get on the field, at either Guard or Center in order to break away (similar to Right Tackle last year)
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