Michigan football countdown to kickoff: 8 days until 2022 season

There’s much anticipation heading into the Michigan Wolverines football season, and TheWolverine.com is counting down the days until the Sept. 3 opener against Colorado State. We’ll discuss current Michigan events, the upcoming season and/or take a look at a significant number that correlates with how many days remain until kickoff, whether it be a player’s jersey number, a year, a date, a score, etc.

With eight days until Michigan football kicks off the 2022 season, we take a look at two Wolverine wideouts who have donned the No. 8. First, Jason Avant, who’s now the U-M radio sideline man, and current graduate Ronnie Bell, a two-time captain and one of the top standouts on the 2022 squad.

Jason Avant

Avant played at Michigan from 2002-05. Like many great Michigan receivers, Avant had a quiet freshman season (two catches for 21 yards) before breaking out as a sophomore. He racked up 47 receptions for 772 yards and two scores his second year. That’s when he burst onto the scene and began a three-year stretch that solidified himself as one of Michigan’s top playmakers of the 2000s.

A Chicago, Ill., native, Avant ranks among Michigan’s greatest all-time receivers. He is fourth in program history with 169 career receptions and 10th with 2,247 career receiving yards. He registered at least one reception in 35 straight contests, the third longest streak in Michigan history. He was selected in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft (109th overall) by the Philadelphia Eagles and played 11 NFL seasons.

Avant played with Michigan wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy while in Ann Arbor. Bellamy takes pride in the position groom, and has a picture of Avant and five other U-M wideouts who were his teammates in his office.

During fall camp, Bellamy was handing out comparisons for some of Michigan’s receivers to some of the best ones he played with. He gave freshman Darrius Clemons the nod as the Avant type — though he has a long way to go to actually achieving the same status Avant reached.

“Darrius Clemons right now, the young buck,” Bellamy said. “Now he’s not as polished as Jason, but he will be. He will be. But he’s the guy that, ‘Coach, watch this.’ He’s that guy, he’s a bigger guy, 210, and now he’s strong as an ox, is explosive and loves contact. Jason was like that.

“Jason and I played together here and as Jason was learning how to be a receiver before he was catching passes and running routes, Jason was the guy that would dig the safeties out, go block linebackers, kind of do the dirty work, per se.

“And Darrius is that guy that says, ‘Coach put me in, I don’t care if it’s to block, put me in.’ No, he’s that guy right now that kind of carries that torch and it’s pretty cool for a young guy to kind of carry that torch, and the guys know about Jason, as well. He spoke to the team and they’ve seen videos of Jason, so D.C. is that guy right now.”

Ronnie Bell

Michigan’s leader in receiving yards in 2019 (758) and 2020 (401) suffered a fluke, non-contact knee injury in last season’s opening game against Western Michigan. Before he went down, he proved to be even better than ever, registering a 76-yard touchdown reception on a slot-fade route and returning a punt 31 yards (that was the play in which he was injured).

Bell spent last season and the beginning of this offseason rehabbing after a mid-October surgery. He surprised himself by breaking some personal records in agility drills during the summer. He and Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh have said he’s better than ever heading into the 2022 campaign, which could be his last. He’s a two-time team captain and ready to roll.

“I feel blessed, man,” Bell said Friday. “I’m beyond excited about every single day. I feel really good. My body feels great, so I’m making plays, and it’s fun, man.

“Excited is an understatement, man,” Bell said a couple weeks back. “I was so ready to go since … I was saying something to Coach the other day, we were mentioning how the games are three weeks out, and I was like, ‘I’ve been thinking about playing a game for a year now.’ I’m beyond excited. I’m ready to go.”

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