8A — Thursday, February 14, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Position review: Tight Ends
With the Michigan football
team’s 2018 regular season in the
books, The Daily looks back at the
performance of each unit this year
and peers ahead to the future in
2019. In this edition: tight ends.
When the Wolverines went
8-5 in 2017, one of the lowest
points in a disappointing season
was the performance of the
receiving
corps.
Just
three
players cracked 300 yards on the
season — barely. Wide receiver
Grant Perry had 307 yards,
followed by junior tight end Zach
Gentry and sophomore tight end
Sean McKeon with 303 yards
and 301 yards, respectively.
And while the wide receivers
struggled
as
a
result
of
inconsistent quarterback play,
the tight ends became security
blankets for the rotating string of
Michigan starting quarterbacks.
Gentry, especially, at 6-foot-8,
was valuable as a checkdown
option almost every time he was
on the field.
In 2018, junior quarterback
Shea Patterson locked up the
starting job and continued the
trend of leaning on the tight ends.
Gentry finished the season with
the third-highest receiving total
at 514 yards and two touchdowns.
Junior Nick Eubanks — after
catching two passes for 61 yards
in his sophomore season —
caught eight receptions for 157
yards and a touchdown.
HIGH POINT: Early on in
Michigan’s Oct. 6 game against
Maryland, Patterson faked a
handoff to senior running back
Karan Higdon and dropped back
to pass. The offensive line gave
him time to set up for the throw
and he saw Gentry wide open on
a crossing route 31 yards down
the field.
Gentry made the catch — his
first of a career-high seven on
the day.
It was a tight-end heavy
drive, as evidenced by McKeon’s
catch three plays later that put
Michigan
on
the
Terrapins’
16-yard line which set up redshirt
sophomore kicker Quinn Nordin
for a field-goal attempt to put the
Wolverines ahead, 3-0.
At the end of the game, which
Michigan won 42-21, Gentry had
notched a team-high 112 yards
on seven catches for an average
of 16 yards per catch. The next
closest receiver was sophomore
wide receiver Nico Collins, who
finished with one catch for 51
yards.
It was a career day for Gentry
and exemplified his development
since
Michigan
coach
Jim
Harbaugh decided to change him
from quarterback to tight end.
“He’s really worked hard,”
Harbaugh said. “Everything you
want a tight end to be, he’s really
growing into a prototypical type
of tight end.”
LOW POINT: The Ohio State
game may well have been the
low point for the entire team
last season, but it was certainly
the low point for the tight ends.
The three main tight ends —
Eubanks, Gentry and McKeon —
were held to four catches for 21
total yards combined.
Eubanks saw most of his usage
throughout the season as a deep
threat, with a season average of
19.6 yards per catch. But against
the Buckeyes, his two catches
totaled eight yards with a long
of seven — not quite the numbers
he’d been putting up earlier in
the season. McKeon caught just
two passes for 13 yards.
After spending a whole season
as one of the go-to check downs
for Patterson, Gentry didn’t
make an appearance on the stat
sheet in his final regular season
game as a Wolverine.
Early in the second quarter,
Michigan had the ball on the
Ohio State 13-yard line on third
down with six yards to go.
Patterson found Gentry on his
way into the end zone and gave
him a chance to catch it. But
Gentry couldn’t hang on, and
Michigan was forced to kick a
field goal that left them one point
off the lead.
Later in the game, Gentry
dropped another would-be catch
that would’ve gone for a first
down. Instead, he left the game
with a concussion. Gentry was
expected to cap his career season
with
a
strong
performance
against the Wolverines’ biggest
rival, but the end result was
certainly disappointing.
THE
FUTURE:
After
a
breakout season — despite the
slow finish to his year at Ohio
State — Gentry declared for the
NFL Draft. That leaves McKeon,
Eubanks
and
a
handful
of
freshmen and sophomores that
haven’t seen much, if any, game
action in the returning tight end
group.
McKeon’s production dipped
in his junior season after a
strong
sophomore
campaign
in 2017. This past season, his
lone touchdown came against
Western Michigan in the second
game of the season and he never
had more than 29 receiving
yards in a single game. With
Gentry departing, McKeon will
be expected to step into that role
and return to his 2017 numbers.
In
his
first
three
years,
Eubanks’ role took a backseat
to McKeon and Gentry, who
asserted themselves as the two
primary tight ends. He was
largely used as a deep threat and
targeted less than a handful of
times in each game. But now that
Gentry is gone, Michigan will be
in need of a second tight end that
has game experience. Eubanks
figures to be that player.
Outside
of
McKeon
and
Eubanks, Michigan lists six
tight ends on the roster. The
most important names to know
among the returning group are
sophomore Carter Selzer and
freshmen Mustapha Muhammad
and Luke Schoonmaker.
Muhammad, who has yet to
appear in a game, was a four-
star recruit out of Texas and
ranked No. 168 in his class, per
247Sports. Selzer was lightly
recruited, but at 6-foot-8 may
replace Gentry as a big pass-
catching threat in his third year
after playing in just three games
in 2018. Schoonmaker has made
only one game appearance, but
he did it all for his Connecticut
high school and will add a wide
range of skills for Michigan.
The
Wolverines
signed
only one tight end in the 2019
class — four-star Erick All. All
enrolled early and has a chance
to contribute starting in the fall.
The tight ends have always
been a valuable position group
for Harbaugh. With the addition
of new offensive coordinator
Josh Gattis, it remains to be seen
how much the tight ends will be
utilized, but Gattis has a talented
group with which to work.
International experience paying dividends for Hillmon and Brown
Last
May,
while
her
classmates at Gilmour Academy
in
Cleveland
were
officially
receiving
their
diplomas
in
front of their teachers, friends
and families, Naz Hillmon was
playing basketball.
She was 1,402 miles away in
Colorado Springs, Colo. in the
midst of trying out for the USA
Under-18
Women’s
National
team. Just two years prior,
Hillmon had been cut from
the U-16 team. Having made a
considerable impression, USA
Basketball invited her back for
another go-around.
Despite a stressful final day of
cuts, Hillmon secured her spot
on a team loaded with Division-
One talent.
“Honestly I thought I was
going to make it the first time
more than I did the second
time,” Hillmon said. “It was very
nerve-racking just because there
is talent there that you’ve maybe
seen in AAU (Amateur Athletic
Union) and high school but for
all of them to be at one space
was different. You don’t see
that often, and I hadn’t been to
college yet.”
In
August,
she
and
her
teammates traveled to Mexico
City
to
participate
in
the
FIBA U-18 Women’s Americas
Championship.
There,
they
visited the ancient Teotihuacan
Pyramids and sampled Mexican
street food.
“We were able to travel a little
bit,” Hillmon said. “That was
my first time out of the country,
so being able to experience
that culture and eat some of
the foods was cool. There was
this restaurant and some of my
teammates were eating crickets.
I remember that. It freaked me
out.”
On top of their off-court
adventures, Hillmon and her
teammates won the gold medal
— the program’s ninth in a row.
Even after starting only one
of the team’s six games, Hillmon
averaged 10.3 points and just
under six rebounds during the
tournament. Her role off the
bench was a new experience,
but one she fully embraced
in preparation for life at the
next level and her role as the
Wolverines’ sixth-woman.
“It’s one of those things
where you have to be ready no
matter what,” Hillmon said.
“Even in AAU, I rarely came
off the bench so I had to know
that when I came in, I couldn’t
make the same mistakes as the
group of girls already there. And
I knew in that period I had to
do something. I had to cheer on
my team and mentally prepare
myself to get in the game.”
In her first season with
the
Michigan
women’s
basketball
program,
Hillmon
has flourished. The freshman
forward leads the team in both
scoring and rebounding. During
the Wolverines’ current four-
game win streak, Hillmon is
averaging 16 points and 8.5
rebounds in just 23 minutes.
Hillmon
isn’t
the
only
Michigan contributor with ties to
international basketball, though.
In
fact,
starting
sophomore
forward Hailey Brown has four
years on Hillmon in terms of
national team experience.
A native of Hamilton, Ontario,
Brown has played in 41 games
as a member of the Canadian
national team since 2013.
Like Hillmon, Brown’s most
recent involvement with the
national team came the summer
before her freshman year at
Michigan. Brown helped Canada
win a bronze medal at the 2017
U-19 World Cup in Udine, Italy,
averaging 10 points and nine
rebounds in 26 minutes per
game.
“That’s
something
I’ll
remember because that’s the
highest we’ve ever placed in
the
world
championships,”
Brown said. “That was definitely
an amazing experience and
I had the opportunity for my
family to go up there with me
as well, so I got to share it with
my teammates, coaches and
my family. That was a great
memory.”
For both Hillmon and Brown,
putting
on
their
respective
country’s jersey goes far beyond
the medals and on-the-court
accolades, though.
“You always talk about playing
for the front of the jersey, not the
back. And that’s
the
ultimate
front
of
the
jersey,” Hillmon
said. “You’re not
representing
yourself at that
point.
You’re
representing
your nation. Not
everybody
gets
that opportunity
and
you
understand that.”
Brown
added:
“You’re
representing
your
family,
your community, your school,
your teammates, coaches. As a
program, we always talk about
the national team players who
paved the way for us to get there,
so that’s something we respect
when we put on the Canadian
jersey.”
Aided
by
their
prior
international
experience,
Hillmon
and
Brown
transitioned
quickly
to
the
college
game.
Hillmon
has
factored
in
significantly this
season, while Brown started
27 games last season before
going down with a season-
ending injury. Going up against
elite talent from all over the
world and getting a chance to
experience the unique styles of
the international game went a
long way in preparing them for
their times as Wolverines.
“Both of these young ladies
were
extremely,
extremely
nervous because they missed
summer
school
coming
in,”
said
Michigan
coach
Kim
Barnes Arico. “They thought
our freshmen were going to be
way more advanced than they
were because they were here all
summer. But the opportunities
they had really put themselves
ahead of even our freshmen who
are allowed to be here over the
summer.”
And
Barnes
Arico
is
no
stranger to the international
game herself. She spent two
years with USA Basketball as
an assistant under head coach
and three-time Olympian Dawn
Staley with the under-18 and
under-19 teams in 2014 and
2015. Having coached women
of Hillmon and Brown’s age at
the international level, Barnes
Arico knows just how beneficial
that experience is to their
development.
“I was with young kids all
summer before they went into
their freshman years of college,”
Barnes Arico said. “Without a
doubt, that experience, whether
that was practicing against that
level of talent every day or then
playing
internationally,
that
level prepared them for their
first years of college.
“They didn’t come in as
normal college freshmen.”
BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Freshman forward Naz Hillmon played for Team USA last summer, averaging 10.3 points and just under six rebounds off the bench during the tournament .
Zach Gentry departs for the draft, but Michigan returns plenty in the way of talent and depth for 2019
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Redshirt junior tight end Zach Gentry declared for the NFL Draft after a season in which he finished third on the team with 514 yards, with two touchdowns.
They didn’t
come in as
normal college
freshmen.