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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When it comes to the wide receiver position, Michigan lost a lot this offseason.
Donovan Peoples-Jones went pro, selected in the sixth-round by the Cleveland Browns. Tarik Black transferred to Texas, where he’s become a starter. More recently, Nico Collins quietly opted out, having signed with agent Drew Rosenhaus. That leaves Michigan with one starter from last year in Ronnie Bell — who did lead the team in both receptions and yards.
Though that means that second-year players such as Giles Jackson, Mike Sainristil and Cornelius Johnson will have to step up, Jackson indicates that the newcomers could certainly help things along.
Michigan reeled in two four-stars at the wide receiver position in the 2020 recruiting class in Franklin (IL) Lincoln-Way East’s A.J. Henning and Honolulu (HI) St. Louis’ Roman Wilson. The former is known as a versatile player, perfectly suited to Josh Gattis’ offense. While Henning is fast — running a reported 4.46 40 — the latter, in Wilson, is an elite-level speedster, running a reported 4.37 40-yard dash in high school.
But, there’s a big difference between high school ball and college.
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Both players caught 800-plus yards in their final season before arriving in Ann Arbor, and the thought was they’ll need some time to get acclimated before they can be impact players. But, when that time comes, Jackson says, opposing defensive backs out to look out.
“They’re as good as advertised,” Jackson said. “A.J. – they call him ‘hot wheels.’ He just moves all at one speed. But he’s real exciting to watch, he’s fun to watch.
“And Roman – Roman, he’s fast. He’s super fast. He looks like he’s just jogging and he just separates from people. So it’s fun to watch both of them. They’re gonna be real good for us.”
That said, who does Jackson think the fastest wideout on the team is?
“I’d still say it’s me,” he laughed.
If Jackson can run as fast — or faster — than Wilson then that’s blazing, to be sure. Regardless, get all of them on the field together, and it’ll be awfully tough for defenses to cover them all.
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