Excessive Examination: Media Guide Roster

First things first, to obtain your very own digital PDF copy of all 208 pages of the 2011 Michigan Football Media Guide, click here.

Now, on to the excessive examination.

Incoming freshman numbers:

No.	Name	Position	Height	Weight
3	Russell Bellomy	QB	6-3	178
5	Justice Hayes	RB	5-10	175
8	Blake Countess	DB	5-10	175
20	Tamani Carter	DB	5-11	175
21	Raymon Taylor	DB	5-10	170
24	Delonte Hollowell	DB	5-9	170
35	Greg Brown	DB	5-10	180
36	Joe Kerridge*	FB	6-0	239
38	Thomas Rawls	RB	5-10	220
40	Antonio Poole	LB	6-2	210
44	Desmond Morgan	LB	6-1	225
45	Matt Wile	K	6-2	210
47	Frank Clark	LB	6-2	210
58	Chris Bryant	OL	6-4	330
60	Jack Miller	OL	6-4	268
61	Graham Glasgow*	OL	6-6	316
62	Dallas Williams*	OL	6-3	312
71	Gary Yerden*	OL	6-5	328
79	Tony Posada	OL	6-4	330
82	Chris Barnett	TE	6-5	250
92	Keith Heitzman	DE	6-3	237
95	Chris Rock	DE	6-5	250
97	Brennen Beyer	DE	6-3	225

First thing that stands out to me is where is redshirt-freshman OL Christian Pace and where is incoming LB Kellen Jones? It is rumored that both have been battling injuries, Pace at UM, and Jones in HS. There is no word on this yet, but expect this to address at Big Ten Media Days.

Second thing I notice, they assigned #21 to DB Raymon Taylor. This signals to me that there is no plan to retire Desmond Howard's number. Sigh.

Also, UM has added some walk-ons. Including a FB, Joe Kerridge. And a trio of OL, including Graham Glasgow who was just recently said he would be walking-on at OSU. [HT: TWB]

And of course, there are a few jersey number changes to existing players, bullet style:

• CB JT Floyd switched from 18 to 12.
• CB Terrance Talbot switched from 37 to 22, which is now the same # as LB Jake Ryan and Darryl Stonum (who is on the roster, so those off-the-field issues haven't ousted him from the roster so far). Stonum is not such an issue because Talbot will not play offense. But it is an issue on defense because Jake Ryan is expected to see the field extensively this season.
• S Josh Furman switched from 14 to 6.
• Teric Jones was 14 last year, he has no number on the current roster.
• QB Jack Kennedy was 25 and is now 14. How and why a Michigan QB was #25 in the first place is beyond me.
• S Thomas Gordon was 30 and is now 15.
• LB Isaiah Bell was 34 and is now 26.
• LB Merell Evans switched from 9 to 51. This could be so he can see some special teams action as Martavious Odoms will be wearing his #9 on punt/kickoff returns.
• G Ricky Barnum was 56 and will switch to outgoing Stephen Schilling's 52.
• TE Brandon Moore will now be 89, he was 88.

Caught Ira doing a nice rundown of roster changes and going into great detail on each player this morning on WTKA. It's worth a listen:

  Ira Discusses 2011 Media Guide Roster by MaizeBlueNation