The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE WOLVERINE 2020 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 155 Name Pos. Appearances Ind. Grade Brian Cole WR 3 F His Michigan career was short-lived, appearing in just three games as a freshman in 2015 before be- ing dismissed from the team in January 2016. Cole transferred to East Mississippi Community College and then eventually to Mississippi State, where he racked up 78 tackles and two picks as a safety from 2018-19 with the Bulldogs. Andrew David K/P 0 F He transferred to TCU after redshirting as a fresh- man at Michigan in 2015, and averaged 38.0 yards on 35 punts during his time with the Horned Frogs from 2016-18. David then headed to Northwestern for the 2019 campaign and tallied 36.3 yards on 29 boots. Zach Gentry TE 33 B The four-star quarterback quickly switched to tight end and enjoyed a successful tenure at the po- sition. Gentry wrapped up his Wolverine career with 49 catches for 817 yards and four scores, before departing after his redshirt junior season and be- coming a fifth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Karan Higdon RB 39 A- The Sarasota, Fla., native was a workhorse run- ning back for the Maize and Blue in both 2017 and 2018, rushing for 994 yards and 11 touchdowns in the former and 1,178 yards and 10 scores in the latter. Higdon went unselected in the 2019 NFL draft, however, despite being a unanimous All-Big Ten first-team honoree as a senior. Shelton Johnson DE 0 F He did not appear in a game as a freshman in 2015, before Jim Harbaugh announced he was suspended in August 2016. Johnson's name disap- peared from the roster prior to the 2017 campaign with no reason ever given as to why, and he never surfaced again in collegiate football. Reuben Jones DE 15 D A career backup, Jones bounced between defensive end and linebacker during his time with the Wolver- ines and finished his U-M career with only five tackles and one stop behind the line of scrimmage. As a graduate transfer in 2019 at West Virginia, he racked up 34 tackles, five tackles for loss and three sacks in 12 games. Tyree Kinnel S 47 B He became a staple in Michigan's secondary from 2017-18, starting all 26 games and compiling 144 tackles with 8.5 stops behind the line of scrimmage during that span. Kinnel was not chosen in the 2019 NFL Draft. Alex Malzone QB 2 F He committed to Michigan as a four-star signal- caller when Brady Hoke was still the head coach, but chose to stick with the Wolverines after Harbaugh was brought on board. Malzone transferred to Miami (Ohio) following the 2017 season, after never having thrown a pass at U-M, but only attempted four passes in three appearances in 2018, his only year with the RedHawks. Name Pos. Appearances Ind. Grade Grant Newsome OT 10 Incomplete He burst onto the scene as a sophomore in 2016 when he started the first five games of the year at left tackle, before suffering a gruesome career- ending leg injury in Michigan's Oct. 1 win over Wisconsin. Newsome considered coming back to football several times following the injury, but ul- timately decided to give up the game and join the Wolverine staff as a student coach. Grant Perry WR 47 C+ Though never a star, Perry was a consistent con- tributor from day one. He finished his career with 72 receptions for 765 yards and three touchdowns while playing in 47 of the team's 52 games from 2015-18. Jon Runyan Jr. OT 35 A- The first three years of his collegiate tenure were uneventful (just 10 appearances), but he went out in impressive fashion by starting 25 games at left tackle from 2018-19. Runyan was voted as a first-team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches each of his final two years in Ann Arbor, and went on to become a sixth-round selection of the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 NFL Draft. Name Pos. Appearances Ind. Grade Nolan Ulizio OL 16 C- He started the first six games of 2017 at right tackle, but was then benched and only appeared in four contests the following year. Ulizio wrapped up his time at Michigan with six starts, before transferring to Pittsburgh in 2019 and starting all 13 games at right tackle for the Panthers. Keith Washington CB 9 D He transferred out of U-M after he appeared in nine games as a backup during his redshirt freshman campaign in 2016, and headed to Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi for the 2017 season. He wound up at West Virginia, where he enjoyed a successful two-year stint, finishing with 63 tackles, five interceptions and a spot on the 2019 All-Big 12 second team. Tyrone Wheatley Jr. TE 24 C- He started three times during his time at U-M, reel- ing in six receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown. Wheatley then transferred to Stony Brook and caught six passes for 36 yards in 2018, before heading to Morgan State in 2019 and failing to post any statistics. Class Of 2015 Summary Players In Class — 14 • Rivals Ranking — 49th Final Grade: C- The class as a whole was largely a bust, with four of the 14 players not even making it to their third year on campus. On the flip side, running back Karan Higdon, tight end Zach Gentry, left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. and safety Tyree Kinnel all developed into quality multi-year starters for the Maize and Blue, while left tackle Grant Newsome was on his way to accomplishing the same if not for a career-ending injury he suffered in U-M's 2016 win over Wisconsin. While the aforementioned group served as productive college players for the Wolverines, only three members of the 2015 class heard their names called in the NFL Draft — Gentry, Runyan and Brian Cole, who was selected due to his production at Mississippi State. It's worth noting that the athletes who stuck around for all four years (or in Run- yan's case, five) helped turn the Michigan cul- ture around in a big way, representing the first class that came in after Brady Hoke's disastrous 5-7 season of 2014. The club won a minimum of eight games every year from 2015-19, and posted a trio of top-14 national finishes. The haul also helped turn the tide on the Michigan State rivalry, finishing with a 3-2 re- cord from 2015-19 after the Spartans won six of the seven meetings from 2008-14. The fact that the 2015 crop finished with very few high-level performers shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise, especially when considering the timing of Hoke's firing (December 2014, when much of the class had already been assembled) and the short amount of time Harbaugh had to try and make his last-minute additions. Zach Gentry came to Michigan as a four-star quarterback, but wound up becom- ing a productive tight end that snared 49 passes for 817 yards and four scores before being drafted in the fifth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL