Jim Harbaugh sees ‘bright future’ for Eyabi Anoma
Michigan grad transfer Eyabi Anoma is now at his fourth school in five years after starting his career at Alabama. He’s put his past behind him and appears ready to flourish as an edge rusher under head coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter.
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Anoma transferred to Houston before ending up at Tennessee-Martin last year. He had reportedly been dismissed from both the Alabama and Houston teams before ending up at UT-Martin.
“Blessed to be in this position, grateful for all the positive and negative remarks,” Anoma tweeted after showing up at Michigan. “[I’m] dedicating the rest of my football career to my grandma. She would have been happy I graduated and turned things around.”
Anoma played with a number of Michigan players at Baltimore St. Frances, associate head coach Biff Poggi’s former program. Harbaugh said his own familiarity with Anoma from recruiting him, along with his former teammates’ comments, made it easy to take him.
“Eyabi graduated from Tennessee-Martin. It was a very easy process,” Harbaugh said when asked about taking someone with past ‘off-field issues.’ “Talking to his former teammates that are on our team … Eyabi is somebody we recruited, I recruited right out of high school. I always felt we finished second in that.
“I’ve always enjoyed being around Eyabi. I’m not aware of the vague off field issues you referred to. As it stands now, he’s a college graduate, really vouched for by his teammates. And he’s just a great guy to be around on a day-to-day basis.”
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Anoma earned SEC All-Freshman honors at Alabama after notching nine tackles, including two for loss, while adding one quarterback hurry in 12 games as a true freshman. He was on the Ohio Valley Conference All-Newcomer team last season at UT-Martin after notching 36 total tackles, including 9.5 tackles for loss and 6.0 sacks.
He made Phil Steele’s third team All-OVC team in FCS for his efforts.
Harbaugh has already seen a lot to like from Anoma in the first few weeks he’s had him on campus.
“Really good,” Harbaugh said. “The graduate transfer has been practicing with the team for about 10 days, 12 days. He’s been really good. He’s been a great teammate, and I look forward to seeing what he can do this coming season.
“I think he’ll hopefully be playing right way in that first game. Ther are some outstanding assets he can bring to the team. No man knows the future, but I think it looks very good and bright for Eyabi.”
Michigan needs pass rushers, and the hope is that Anoma will be that guy right away. He’ll get his chance starting Saturday against Colorado State.
