Tag: CJ Stokes

Former Michigan running back finds new home via transfer portal

Best of luck to him.

Former Michigan running back CJ Stokes has committed to Charlotte via his Twitter. Stokes is originally from Columbia, South Carolina, so his transfer destination is somewhat of a homecoming.

Stokes was a three-star running back in the 2022 class who received a grade of .8685 from the 247Sports consensus. The back chose Michigan over an offer sheet that included South Carolina, Penn State, and Missouri. He also received an offer from Yale, marking him as a true student-athlete.

Stokes entered the portal before the playoffs, but remained with the team throughout and contributed in practice as a scout team running back.

Stokes was a minor part of Michigan’s offense as a true freshman in 2022 and had 273 yards on 55 carries with one touchdown. He saw meaningful snaps against Ohio State but was benched this year for Mullings and had just eight yards on four carries. His entering the portal is a possible signal that he was overtaken on the depth chart by true freshman Benjamin Hall, who fills a similar role to Stokes.

Stokes is going to be coached by former Michigan staffer Biff Poggi. Poggi and the 49ers have a number of former Michigan athletes on the roster, including Eyabi Okie-Enoma, Julius Welschoff, Nikhai Hill-Green, and Damani Dent.

Blake Corum is likely heading for the draft, which leaves Donovan Edwards as the only running back with legitimate experience on the roster. As previously mentioned, Benjamin Hall and Kalel Mullings both passed Stokes on the depth chart, but neither has extensive experience running the football. It’s possible that Michigan turns to the portal to fill the void, especially if Edwards declares for the draft as well.

Keep an eye out for a between-the-tackles bruising back who can replace Blake Corum (or at least try) in the offense. Michigan needs to be able to grind out short yardage, and Corum was one of the best to ever do it.

CJ Stokes still will be with Michigan football for College Football Playoff

This is an interesting development. #GoBlue

Michigan football has one scholarship player who has entered the transfer portal since it opened on Dec. 4: second-year running back CJ Stokes.

Stokes came on strong in the first few games of his freshman year, but since his Week 4 fumble against Maryland in 2022, he has been relegated to mop-up duty behind Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards, converted linebacker Kalel Mullings and even others such as walk-on Leon Franklin and freshman Benjamin Hall. Despite his potential, it’s no surprise Stokes is looking for a change of scenery.

While many transfer prospects are out once they announce their departure, Stokes plans to be with the team. He announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he will still be with the Wolverines when they depart for Los Angeles for the College Football Playoff semifinal in the Rose Bowl.

It will be interesting to see if Stokes gets in the mix at all for the maize and blue against Alabama. While there are other options, his speed, vision and more diminutive size could provide a change of pace to what the Crimson Tide will see otherwise.

Is Nebraska interested in a Michigan running back?

The Nebraska Cornhuskers may be pursuing a Michigan running back in the transfer portal.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers may pursue a Michigan running back in the transfer portal. CJ Stokes entered the transfer portal on Monday afternoon.

Stokes appeared in only two games in 2023, carrying the ball four times for eight yards. During his freshman season in 2022, he appeared in 12 games and totaled 55 carries for 273 yards and one touchdown.

Social media investigators have discovered that offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield and director of player personnel Omar Hales are now following Stokes on social media. The running back will have three years of eligibility remaining after transferring.

Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes, and opinions.

C.J. Stokes reflects on his first year with Michigan football

You’re gonna want to read this. He’s going to be a fan favorite for years to come. #GoBlue

DETROIT — Usually when a three-star comes into any college football program, you don’t expect to see them play right away. Especially in Ann Arbor at the running back position, the expectation for Columbia (S.C.) Hammond School tailback C.J. Stokes was that he would take some time to develop before he got some run.

However, in the first three games of 2022, Stokes managed 20 carries for 114 yards and a touchdown, and suddenly, his name was on the lips of every ardent maize and blue fan.

He didn’t quite have the staying power, but it was his first year at the college level, after all. And he was playing behind star running backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards, who together ran for nearly 2,500 yards in 14 games.

Now entering his second year, while Stokes has the benefit of hindsight, he already had a good head on his shoulders. He didn’t come to Ann Arbor expecting to do too much, yet, he still had to work around the typical freshman pratfalls that potentially befall first-year players.

“I learned a multitude of things,” Stokes told WolverinesWire. “I say the biggest thing I learned was struggling with patience in the running back room. It’s really hard to just come in and start. It’s virtually impossible with the guys I got in front of me. So it was kind of like, you gotta be patient and learn that your time could come any week.

“Your time could come any week and as well as you just being ready and learning from the guys in front of you. Like you got to be able to take those mental reps and work on them as far as — if you’re watching Blake, you’re watching Dono, you got to learn from them any way you can, even if you’re not in the drill. So I’d say the biggest thing I took away from it was patience and learning from older guys.”

Learning patience is one thing, but it’s another when suddenly the press and fan base are singing your praises.

It’s easy to get a big head, but Stokes never did. To him, coming from SEC country and not being a household name in recruiting, he had to make a name for himself in a winged helmet. Something he was sure he would do due to his work ethic and playing style — attributes he suggests will continue to endear him to the fans when his time does come.

“Coming in, it was like I was a low-rent guy, was a three-star, I was from across the country. Not a lot of people knew about me,” Stokes said. “And if they did their opinion wasn’t that high, because they probably never saw me play, or don’t know anybody who saw me play. So a lot of the fans didn’t even know me. So I think just getting out there and just playing how I play gravitates people towards me. Because I play hard. And I feel like people can resonate with that. Even if they don’t play the game, they like to see somebody who plays hard.

“So I just play hard. Being a fan favorite — OK, but at the same time being a fan favorite if you do something wrong — like Week 4, I fumbled against Maryland. Being a fan favorite wasn’t good that week, but the weeks before that, it was good. So I don’t really pay attention to what the fans think is more important what the coaches think week in, week out.”

The fumble did appear to be the turning point in the season for Stokes. It was his only carry in Week 4, and it came after he had just broken through a hole in the offensive line. After Week 3, Stokes only got 35 more carries (11 of which came in the Week 12 contest against Illinois after Corum was injured) and 159 yards for the rest of the season.

But it wasn’t just because the coaches saw enough against the Terrapins and decided to shut him down. Stokes says that he was much harder on himself than the coaches were on him after his mishap, because they’re well aware of what he’s capable of, and that fumble wasn’t one of his tendencies in practice.

“When I fumbled, the coaches weren’t even — people think the coaches benched me or whatever, because of the fumble or whatever, or they were hard on me,” Stokes said. “I was harder on myself than the coaches, where I didn’t get yelled at anything like that. Because the coaches know that I don’t fumble a lot because they’ve seen me in practice. So they know it was a freak thing that happened. It was just crazy, because it was my first Big Ten carry. And that game, if anybody remembers, we weren’t killing Maryland by any means. So that fumble mattered.

“So it was just kind of thing like my first Big Ten carry, I’m a freshman, I’m just starting to get run, it was just kind of — I had to mentally pull myself back in and think, OK, you’ve had some success. Don’t let this one failure derail the whole season. So it was kind of one of those things.”

Stokes is now battling for that No. 3 spot, still behind Corum and Edwards. He hopes to get more run this upcoming season as he takes what he learned in year one and expands it in his sophomore season.

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Mike Hart shares his thoughts on freshman CJ Stokes and his possible role as the No. 3 back

Hart is great to listen to!

It’s very apparent who the top two options for Michigan football are in the backfield: Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards.

Corum did almost reach 1,000 yards lost season, but due to the injury bug and sharing reps with Hassan Haskins down the stretch, Corum was just shy of the 1,000-yard mark with 952. Now a sophomore, Edwards came into Michigan as one of the best running back recruits that the university has seen in quite a while, but being stuck behind both Hassan Haskins and Corum last year, his playtime was sporadic. But the former five-star recruit shined when his opportunity came his way.

Now in 2022, the Wolverines are set up with another fantastic one-two punch in the backfield. The big question coming into the year, was going to be who would be that No. 3 running back? Michigan tried its hand with linebacker Kalel Mullings in spring, but he has now settled in on the defense. The Wolverines still have Tavierre Dunlap who came in last season with Edwards, but it appears that true freshman CJ Stokes has received the first opportunity to take that role.

Against Colorado State, Stokes was the first back off the bench behind Corum and Edwards. He carried the ball six times for 35 yards in the game.

On Wednesday, running back coach Mike Hart met with the media and he received plenty of questions about the freshman from Columbia (SC).

Hart told the media that both Stokes and Dunlap had good camps. He said that Michigan needed to find that No. 3 guy. Hart says that it’s still not clear who is going to get more carries week-to-week between the two, but he says the bulk of the battle will between these next couple of weeks.

“I think that him and Tavi have had a good fall camp obviously,” said Hart. I think everyone knew this offseason, we had to find a guy that can get carries as a No. 3. And he runs hard. I think he has great burst. So, excited about him, still excited about Tavi. I think the bulk of battling throughout these first couple of weeks of who’s gonna get more touches, who’s gonna get more carries as that No. 3 guy.”

Coming out of high school, Stokes was a three-star recruit according to 247Sports composite. He was the 63rd-ranked running back and the 798th-ranked recruit in the entire country. Stokes had offers from South Carolina, Penn State, Missouri, West Virginia, among others. While he wasn’t some five-star recruit, Hart says that he doesn’t need that. Coach Hart says that wants to recruit “good players”. Hart called Stokes strong-minded and self motivated, Hart loves those type of players.

“I always tell you guys this — at the end of the day, I’m not — you guys know this, the recruiting guys know that I don’t recruit stars, if that makes sense,” said Hart. “I recruit good players or try to recruit good players. And he’s a kid that was under-recruited, who had great film, is fast, had track times, ran the ball hard, ran through people, could show he can catch the ball. And then at the end of the day, it’s just who he is as a person.”

“And you talk about a kid who has a strong mind, who’s confident in himself who’s not afraid of competition,” said Hart. “A kid that is gonna have success in the long run, he wants to be great. Like, you have to have kids that want to be great. Some kids like the recruiter, he wasn’t a kid that you had to call every day. He’s a kid that knew who he was, you know, and just that self-motivation. And those are the kids — the Blake Corums, the Donovan Edwards — those are kids who show up to work every day, you don’t have to worry about, Are going to go to class, we’re going to take care of those things. And those things are more important to me as a coach than kids were ranked five-stars because they go to a big school, that may not be that good.”

Running backs don’t just run the ball. In today’s day and age, you have to be able to run, catch, and pass block. Hart was asked how far along Stokes was with his pass protection. The former Michigan great said that Stokes is just like any freshman, something he has to work on. He said that Stokes can do, but they will continue to work on the consistency of doing it.

“Like any freshman,” said Stokes. “You come in it’s the number one thing any freshman recruit has to work on, is pass pro. Can they do it? Absolutely. Has he done it? Absolutely. You know what I mean? So we’ll move on and I mean, is he gonna be in on third-and-12 when I know they’re gonna bring zero blitz? Probably not. But he could be. No different than Donovan last year. No different than Blake before that. No different than any freshmen I’ve ever coached. Tavi was the same way last year. That’s the biggest jump to college football, is pass protection for any freshmen.”

You can check out CJ Stokes and the rest of the running backs this Saturday at 8 p.m. on Big Ten Network.

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Jim Harbaugh encouraged by Michigan football freshman performance in Week 1

He looked really good in his first game action! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It wasn’t bursting onto the scene in the same way that Chris Evans did in his two-touchdown performance in the 2016 season opener, but assuredly Michigan football fans were asking, ‘Who’s that?’ late in Saturday’s game against Colorado State.

The who is C.J. Stokes, a first-year running back from Columbia, South Carolina who arrived on campus in June. He drew accolades from Jim Harbaugh last Saturday when he revealed the overall depth chart, noting that Stokes would be the third tailback off the bench, while meanwhile noting that the only thing holding him back is inexperience.

Well, that held prescient in Week 1, as Stokes came in after starters Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards and saw more time and had more carries than any others who came after him — including second-year running back Tavierre Dunlap. Stokes finished with six carries for 35 yards, and had a couple of long runs, including a long of 18 yards.

“I really thought he was gonna have a big game,” Harbaugh said on Monday. “I told him that in the days leading up to the game — I don’t know if it will be this game or the next but you’ll be one of those freshmen that everybody’s talking about — he’s just good. Super important to him. He is a studier and a very, very focused. player and really talented, too, so it’s fun to see his first run be a 13, 14-yard pickup and a first down.”

We’re likely to see much more of Stokes on Saturday when Michigan takes on an overmatched Hawaii team, and then a rebuilding UConn squad the week after that. The schedule allows for him to get a bit more of that coveted experience — especially in blocking — before the Wolverines get into the meat of their schedule.

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Power ranking Michigan football freshmen by potential 2022 contribution

Who will be #Michigan’s first-year instant impact players? #GoBlue

Every year, in likely every college football team, a first-year player comes in and makes an instant impact.

At Michigan, we’ve seen several. In 2021, Andrel Anthony and Junior Colson; in 2020, Blake Corum and Roman Wilson; in 2019, Zach Charbonnet and Dax Hill; Chris Evans and Devin Bush in 2016. The list can go on indefinitely. But who will be those players in 2022?

Though the class was 23 deep (when you include Andrew Gentry), there are numerous candidates to be instant impact players. Even though we have a good idea of some players already who are likely to find themselves in the two-deep, there are others — particularly in positions of need — that could make a splash in year one.

Here are our top 10 choices, ranked from last to first, of freshmen who could find themselves on the field early and often in 2022.

National Signing Day: Michigan football signs CJ Stokes

#Michigan signs a running back in the heart of SEC country.

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Ratings

Stars Overall Position State
247Sports 3 – 51 9
Rivals 3 – 41 8
ESPN 3 – 61 10
On3 3 – 48 11
247Sports Composite 3 758 61 9
On3 Consensus 3 759 62 8

Vitals

Hometown Columbia (S.C.) Hammond School
Projected Position Running back
Height 5-foot-11
Weight 190-pounds

Recruitment

A summer visit for a prospect in the shadow of the South Carolina Gamecocks was everything for CJ Stokes. Stokes officially visited Ann Arbor on June 18 and committed to the Wolverines the very next day, bucking all three 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions for him to go to his hometown SEC school.

Stokes had offers from the likes of South Carolina, Penn State, Mizzou, Vanderbilt, Colorado, Duke, Louisville, and more.

Readiness Level

Likely won’t be ready to contribute for a year or two.

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Film

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Michigan football secures 2022 running back in latest commitment

Michigan football secures a running back out of SEC country with its latest commitment.

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With the big official visit weekend underway, Michigan football got some good news on Saturday.

On campus currently is 2022 Columbia (SC) Hammond School three-star running back CJ Stokes, who is rated the No. 704 player in the country according to the 247Sports Composite. At 5-foot-11, 190-pounds, Stokes has offers from Penn State, South Carolina and Mizzou, among others, but he’s spurning the school in the city he’s from apparently, even though the Gamecocks have extended an offer.

Stokes posted on Twitter on Saturday afternoon that, while on his official visit, he’s committing to Michigan football. He’s the eighth commitment in the 2022 class for the Wolverines.

Watch his highlights below:

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