Throughout the offseason, TMBR is ranking the position groups Michigan football will face in 2022. Beginning with quarterbacks, we'll rank each position group on both sides of the ball and special teams.

Before we begin, here's Michigan's 2022 schedule for reference.

Week 1: vs. Colorado State

Week 2: vs. Hawaii

Week 3: vs. UCONN

Week 4: vs. Maryland (HC)

Week 5: at Iowa

Week 6: at Indiana

Week 7: vs. Penn State

Week 8: vs. Michigan State

Week 9: at Rutgers

Week 10: vs. Nebraska

Week 11: vs. Illinois

Week 12: at Ohio State

UCONN is a strong candidate to land at or near the bottom in nearly all of our positional rankings. They have a crowded running back room packed with a redshirt freshman, three sophomores, a junior, and a fifth-year senior.

Sophomore Nathan Carter returns for the Huskies. He was in a shared carries role as a true freshman and totaled 578 rushing yards on 125 carries on top of 19 catches for 127 yards.

While Carter is slated to lead the way, junior transfer Will Knight comes in from Garden City Community College by way of Old Dominion and Delaware in his first two seasons. The Delaware High School All-Time leading rusher scored nine touchdowns with a team-leading 656 yards rushing at GCCC.

The room has upside, but it's anything but proven.

Hawaii has 10 backs in its room, including four seniors, but this situation seems to be clear.

Senior Dedrick Parson returns, and he's the lead back for the Warriors in 2022. Last season, he split carries and totaled 618 yards on a team-high 118 carries.

The struggle for Parson will be running behind his offensive line. However, Hawaii beat writers believe Parson has "taken his game to a new level."

Colorado State has two leaders in the backfield in senior A'Jon Vivens and Avery Morrow, one of a few Nevada transfers who followed Jay Norvell to CSU.

"Vivens, a former receiver, could thrive in this offense, and Morrow has experience from his time at Nevada. They're the clear top two," Kevin Lytle of The Coloradoan said. "David Bailey was in-and-out at times in spring ball but could play a role, especially in short-yardage situations. Redshirt senior David Aggrey also received a significant number of reps in camp."

Colorado State ranks ahead of Hawaii because of its one-two punch and the experience they bring. Plus, going into a season knowing your top two backs is advantageous and should result in the Rams hitting the ground running -- pun intended.

Indiana's running back room was depleted by Stephen Carr's departure and two transfers, including Tim Baldwin, midseason.

They have a new running backs coach, a new offensive coordinator, and two new running backs added via the transfer portal.

That's a lot of news and a lot of unknowns. For that, they rank at the bottom of the conference to me.

However, they find their way ahead of Colorado State based purely on their talent. Transfers Shaun Shiver (Auburn) and Josh Henderson (North Carolina) should be better than what a few teams ahead of them have.

There are just too many question marks to position them any higher.

Last season, Nebraska's leading rusher was its quarterback, Adrian Martinez, totaling 525 rushing yards. Behind him was running back Rahmir Johnson, who tallied four touchdowns and 495 yards.

It's a bit of a mess in Scott Frost's running back room. Texas transfer quarterback Casey Thompson moves well but can't be relied on as the team's leading rusher.

Nebraska made an under-the-radar flashy addition in junior college transfer Anthony Grant, the NJCAA Divison I Player of the Year, in 2021.

Grant rushed for 1,730 yards and 18 touchdowns on 241 carries, leading the junior college ranks in rushing attempts, rushing yards, rushing yards per game (144.2), and rushing yards per carry (7.2) helping lead New Mexico Military Institute to a national championship.

USC transfer Markese Stepp could find his way in, and so could Gabe Ervin, Jr., who suffered a season-ending injury last fall.

The Huskers have nothing figured out with their backs, but there's undoubtedly some upside.

"In 2021, Grant rushed for 1,730 yards and 18 touchdowns on 241 carries, leading the junior college ranks in rushing attempts, rushing yards, rushing yards per game (144.2), and rushing yards per carry (7.2). He was named the 2021 NJCAA Division I Offensive Player of the Year and an All-American after he helped New Mexico Military Institute to a national championship." -- Abby Barmore, HuskerOnline

Maryland lost its two top rushers from last season.

The Terps will rely on senior Challen Faamatau to lead the way with a talented group of underclassmen behind him. Faamatau was third on the team in rushing before getting hurt.

Freshman Colby McDonald has a chance to overtake Faamatau and is a bit of a media favorite to break out this season.

With Taulia Tagovailoa at quarterback, Maryland's focus won't be on a shining back as it'll most likely pass the ball more than any team in the conference.

Maryland had the most passing attempts from a starting quarterback in 2021. Tagovailoa attempted 474 passes, and C.J. Stroud, who attempted 49 passes against Michigan, had 441.

The Hawkeyes have to replace Tyler Goodson, the Big Ten's fifth-leading rusher, and like many teams on this list, Iowa's room is hard to predict.

None of the backs in its room have much experience as redshirt sophomores who sat behind Goodson and Ivory Kelly-Martin their first two seasons on campus.

In Iowa's bowl game, redshirt sophomore Gavin Williams rushed for 98 yards, while Leshon Williams ran for 42.

Those two are the no-doubt 1-2 punch for the Hawkeyes now. Unlike Goodson, they're not going to hit the edge as often, running with a more old-school, power style.

“Tyler Goodson was definitely open-space, very quick,” Betts said. “Dangerous in the open space. That’s not saying these aren’t — they’re dangerous in space, too. But they are different runners. Every runner has their own skillset, own way of doing things," Iowa running backs coach Ladell Betts said. "And I think both of these guys have that ability to go north-south, and they’re not afraid of contact. They’ll run through people, and they’ll get yards after contact. What I like seeing is those chains continue to move. Make it easy for the play-caller to feel good about calling another run.”

Again, the unknowns are challenging. But one thing is for sure, Iowa will block and play the style it always has under Kirk Ferentz, and it'll work more times than not.

Rutgers rebuilt its offensive line via the transfer portal, which lends more confidence in what its running back room can do without Isaac Pacheco.

Redshirt freshman Kyle Monangai, junior Aaron Young, and freshman Jamier Wright-Collins populate a three-man room with no clear leader. Monangai is the favorite and has the most experience by a long shot.

"Aaron Young, Kyle Monangai, and Jamier Wright-Collins are spear-heading the ground game. Young is out this spring, but the other two are getting reps along with Al-Shadee Salaam and being coached by Andrew Aurich, who previously coached the offensive line with the Scarlet Knights the last two seasons.

"Rutgers brought in four transfers along the offensive line in the offseason and signed seven more freshmen, though not all of them are on campus just yet. Still, the meshing has been clean with the new group." - Chris Nalwasky, The Knight Report

Penn State's backs have been a disappointment the last two seasons. Last year, it didn't have a running back clear 100 yards in a game.

Junior Keyveone Lee was the 17th-best rusher in the Big Ten. Minnesota had three rushers with more yards than Penn State's top rusher, while Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin had two.

Lee is the guy again this season. Senior Devyn Ford will get carries, and an intriguing freshman duo of Kaytron Allen & Nick Singleton has the skill sets to push for touches.

Mel Tucker worked his transfer portal voodoo magic again and landed Jalen Berger from Wisconsin.

"Berger displayed decent speed, power, acceleration to go with quality side-step moves in a limited role at Wisconsin last year, mostly on Wisconsin’s interior zone and gap plays. His speed and quickness were on display a bit better when he was used on the occasional toss sweep or outside zone.

Fair or unfair, transfer portal running backs at Michigan State will be compared to Kenneth Walker III. Walker hadn’t had a great, breakthrough season at Wake Forest prior to his arrival at Michigan State, but had some explosive plays on his highlight reel with his burst and cutting ability. Walker’s athleticism seemed to improve at least a notch or two in 2021 after spending a year in the Michigan State conditioning and nutrition program. It will be interesting to see if Berger makes similar gains.

At this stage, it’s too early to label Berger as a difference-maker type of acquisition, but there is a relatively high ceiling of potential." - Jim Comparoni, SpartanMag

They also landed Jarek Broussard from Colorado, who was a Tucker recruit from his time in Boulder. Broussard has as good of a chance as Berger to be the starter, given his familiarity with the staff and his skill set.

Over the last two seasons, Broussard ran for 1,556 yards and seven touchdowns on just 298 attempts. He chose the Spartans over Oregon.

Elijah Collins and Jordon Simmons return, but adding two backs in the portal doesn't paint a pretty picture for their chances.

Illinois has a sneaky, sneaky-good rushing attack returning to Champaign. The Illini had two running backs with more yards than any Penn State running back.

Junior Chase Brown, Jr. finished seventh in the Big Ten with 1,005 rushing yards and averaged 100 yards per game.

Additionally, freshman Josh McCray, who ran for over 500 yards, returns to the backfield to spell Brown, Jr.

It's an experienced, familiar 1-2 punch that should give Illinois its best rushing attack in years.

Well, are you surprised?

TreVeyon Henderson is back from a 1,255-yard freshman season to pair up with quarterback C.J. Stroud for the conference's unequivocally best offense.

Meanwhile, there are more of them.

Sophomore Miyan Williams ran for over 500 yards on 71 carries in 2021 and went for over 100 yards in the spring game. While freshman Evan Pryor shined while scoring a touchdown and showcasing his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield.

With Pryor in the fold, the Buckeyes have a legitimate three-man room with a drawn-out role for each.

Henderson is the lead back, Williams is an effective spell, and Pryor is a short and long-distance receiving threat.

The rich get richer.

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