Michigan with two Mackey Award candidates from one of the deepest tight end rooms in memory
The Michigan offense will have plenty of weapons this year, including a loaded wide receiver room, two outstanding backs, and two potentially outstanding quarterbacks. They’ll be complemented by an offensive line that might be even better than last year’s Joe Moore Award-winning group (nation’s best).
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And then there’s the tight end room.
We’d been waiting year for Erick All to reach his potential, and he blew up in his junior year. He started eight of 13 games, played through a gimpy ankle at times and caught 38 passes for 437 yards with two touchdowns. He overcame the drops from previous seasons and made huge catches, including the game-winner for Michigan at Penn State in which he outran the PSU defense on one leg.
Schoonmaker, meanwhile, registered 17 receptions for 165 yards and three touchdowns. That included two big grabs that set up touchdowns in a Michigan Big Ten title win over Iowa, including this one -handed gem:
High expectations for Michigan tight ends
Together, All and Schoonmaker have opened eyes. Both Michigan high tends are on the Mackey Award watch list for nation’s best tight end.
“I have really high expectations. They have high expectations for themselves,” Michigan first-year tight ends coach Grant Newsome said this spring. “And we have high expectations, myself and the rest of the staff in the building. Our expectations are that Schoony and Erick should be competing against each other to be the best tight end in the country.
“You want every guy in the building to have that expectation, but I think the reality of it is we have two really talented guys at the top of that room, and obviously other talented guys below them. Those are two guys that have the chance to be really, really special.”
And so do the others. Young Michigan tight end Louis Hansen, a former four-star, has all the tools. Frosh Colston Loveland showed great potential in the spring game … those two could be the next great 1-2 punch, while Joel Hongiford, Matt Hibner, Carter Selzer, and Max Bredeson have all gotten their accolades from the coaches.
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For now, though, it’s the All & Schoonmaker show at Michigan. Both will likely be playing in the NFL next year, but for now they might be the best tight end combination in the country.
All has speed, skill, and blocking desire to be special.
“First off, he’s a truly dynamic athlete. You guys saw the Penn State game last year. To do that — catch that ball and outrun their secondary — on a bum ankle,” Newsome said. “He was two weeks off a high-ankle sprain when he was doing that. He’s a really, really special athlete dynamically.
“His mentality, we have to try to pull him back sometimes because he just wants to kill everything. He wants to hit, hit, hit, hit, hit .That’s great, and we’re trying to be smart about that, especially in spring ball and the beginning of the season. But you’d much rather be trying to pull someone back instead of constantly pushing him forward.”
That’s never an issue with the Michigan senior. Newsome said he could line All up across from former NBA standout and behemoth Shaquille O’Neal and All would find a way.
“He’d say, ‘all right — cool.’ And then he’d come off and say, ‘he’s a coward,'” Newsome said with a grin. “It’s something you’ve got to love.”
John Mackey Award watch list
Austin Stogner — South Carolina
Erick Ali — Michigan
Luke Schoonmaker — Michigan
Camren McDonald — Florida State
George Takacs — Boston College
Gavin Bartholomew — Pittsburgh
Dalton Kincaid — Utah
Mike O’Laughlin — West Virginia
