Week in Review: Michigan football spring practice

The first week of Michigan football spring practice is in the books. Most of the week was spent in t-shirts and shorts before the pads went on Friday. No drastic conclusions will be drawn. There is lots of spring left and 7 months before the season kicks off.

Still, throughout the week we were able to get a decent amount of info including some big-time name-drops from head coach Jim Harbaugh.

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JJ McCarthy enters 2023 as the uncontested starter at quarterback. It is not common for Michigan under Harbaugh to have a clear QB1, but it is not often Michigan has had a talent like JJ McCarthy returning.

McCarthy's first season was one for the record books after being limited most of the offseason and not throwing regular passes until fall camp.

"Hit run, throw — everything he did, it’s about as good as you could be," Harbaugh said. "A first-year starter, no question about it. I don’t think anybody’s ever seen anything—I haven’t seen anything like that, first-year starting quarterback. 13-0 on Christmas and we’ve never been undefeated at Christmas. I call that a season for him."

McCarthy will now take the lead from day 1 for Michigan and assuming he can stay healthy will have a full offseason to prepare. It will be high expectations for McCarthy, as he is expected to take a big leap in year 2. Something Harbaugh says won't be an issue.

"As far as anything you tell him, I mean, any coaching point that you give, he just he absorbs it and will make the correction immediately. It’s tremendous."

Amorion Walker has been given lofty expectations since committing to Michigan, grouped in the "freak show" 2022 class of wide receivers with Darrius Clemons and Tyler Morris.

Last season Walker saw the field at wideout and defensive back. Heading into spring camp we were hearing he would get the "Sainristil treatment" and practice with both sides. Now we know, not only is Walker playing exclusively at corner with a chance to prove he can play both ways, Harbaugh says he already considers Walker CB2.

"I consider him a starter right now, based on the way he’s—just off the first few practices"

Walker is 6 foot 3 180lbs, with a big frame for corner, something not new to Harbaugh. Possibly Walker's biggest supporter at corner is the player he would be starting across from fellow sophomore Will Johnson. Johnson has talked Walker up at times, including sharing a video of Walker running a ridiculous unofficial 6.1 shuttle drill.

It is very early, and Harbaugh can use the term starter loosely, but the fact Harbaugh isn't treating this like an experiment and already offered that level of praise for Walker means he is a player to keep an eye on this offseason.

Some of the first news we received about the offensive line was that Arizona State transfer LaDarius Henderson is not yet with the team and will join in the summer. Henderson is expected to compete for a starting job on the offensive line, along with Stanford transfers Drake Nugent and Myles Hinton. Nugent and Hinton are recovering from postseason surgeries and are not a full go at spring practice.

That led Harbaugh to name a group of starters including, Karsen Barnhart, Trevor Keegan, Greg Crippen, Giovanni El-Hadi, Trente Jones, Zak Zinter, and Jeff Persi. Now, that is 7 names and there are only 5 starting offensive linemen, but again Harbaugh can be loose with term starter. These are players he thinks should be starting, and some won't simply because Michigan has too much talent. That is clear because along with the 10 names I have already mentioned, Harbaugh added 6 more.

It's no secret this is a deep group and the coaches will have a tough time selecting their starting five. The one thing we can learn from Harbaugh's comments is no one will be given anything along the line. Transfers were not brought in to jump current Wolverines, and Harbaugh is giving the edge to last year's Wolverines if anything.

It will be a position battle to watch all offseason, one that I won't be shocked to see bleed into the season.

Blake Corum suffered a knee injury last season against Illinois, one that would ultimately prevent him from making any impact against Ohio State and would finish his season.

Corum is still recovering from surgery and is not yet a full go for practice. Harbaugh expects his 2022 unanimous All-American to be back to full strength by June. In the meantime, Corum is not just standing on the sidelines.

"He’s out there every day. He’s not going through the drills. He had surgery. So, give it the time that’s needed to recover and build the strength back and make sure that he’s in a great place. I mean, every guy that’s not participating in spring ball, they’re actively continuing strength and conditioning. They’re actively fulfilling the protocols that the doctors have for their rehabilitation. I don’t see anybody loafing or taking it easy."

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