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Inside The Huskies

In Advance of Husky Visit, Big House Has a Lot of New Occupants

The Wolverines experienced massive offseason turnover on roster and coaching staff.
Dan Raley|
In Advance of Husky Visit, Big House Has a Lot of New Occupants
In Advance of Husky Visit, Big House Has a Lot of New Occupants

They like to say that not much changes at the Big House.

Guaranteed 100,000-plus crowds show for every Michigan home game when the world isn't infected.

The players wear helmets as recognizable as any in college football.

The team history is as rich as anyone's across the nation.

However, coming off a pandemic-shortened 2-4 season, the current state of Wolverines football remains as unsettled as it's ever been. 

The Big House has been an open house, with people coming and going like home buyers.

As Washington prepares to visit Ann Arbor on September 11, after these two teams canceled out of their Seattle engagement nine months ago, Michigan football has experienced unusual change.

Coach Jim Harbaugh survived the turmoil, but he had to replace six of his 10 assistant coaches.

He's dealt with massive roster turnover — 15 of his players entered the transfer portal, six more than the Huskies lost.

One of them, wide receiver and kick returner Giles Jackson, has traded in his maize and blue uniform for the purple and gold, joining the Huskies this summer before returning to Ann Arbor in September to face his old teammates.

Harbaugh's starting quarterback Joe Milton is now at Tennessee, as is UM reserve linebacker William Mohan.

Another Wolverines quarterback, Dylan McCaffrey, the brother of former Stanford and current NFL running back Christian McCaffrey, left to play for their father Ed at Northern Colorado.

Sophomore running backs Zach Charbonnet and Christian Turner have resurfaced at UCLA and Wake Forest, respectively. Charbonnet led the Wolverines in rushing in 2019 with 726 yards and 11 touchdowns. 

Defensive end Luiji Vilain also will play for Wake Forest with Turner.

Linebackers Adam Shibley, Ben VanSumeren and Cornell Wheeler moved on to Notre Dame, Michigan State and places unknown, respectively. VanSumeran made two starts in 2020. 

Offensive linemen Zach Carpenter and Willie Allen left for Indiana and Massachussetts, respectively. Carpenter started two games last season.

Defensive tackle William Paea and defensive back Hunter Reynolds, reserves at Michigan, both transferred to Utah State.

Senior punter Will Hart was the 2018 Big Ten Punter of the Year after averaging 47 yards per kick, averaged 44.2 in 2019 and then was passed over last season, prompting his exit to places unknown.

To replenish the roster, Michigan brought in a pair of newcomers that the Huskies, at least some of them, should know.

Defensive tackle Jordan Whittley, who last played in 2019 and is shown in the accompanying photo, joined Harbaugh's roster from Oregon State, while quarterback Alan Bowman came to Wolverines from Texas Tech, where he threw passes to Ja'Lynn Polk, now at the UW. 

Harbaugh has just over three months to introduce the newcomers, plug all the holes and pull everything together before hosting Washington in a nationally televised game from the Big House, also known as Michigan Stadium

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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