ANN ARBOR, Mich. — If you listen to what Michigan football coaches say about the tight ends on campus, there’s something of an extreme disconnect compared to the national perception.
Across college football media, the expectation is that the nation’s top tight end resides in Athens, Georgia or Iowa City or South Bend, Indiana. But the Michigan coaches insist that either Erick All or Luke Schoonmaker are deserving of the Mackey Award this upcoming season.
For All, he’s just been ticking up since he arrived. An early enrollee in the spring of 2019, he was spoke of as a future superstar, but his production didn’t match the hype. In 2020, when he finally got a chance to shine, the man who was known to catch everything in practice was dropping seemingly every ball thrown his way.
That’s a bit hyperbolic, to be sure, but 2021 finally saw the Ohio native break out, showcasing a mixture of athleticism and grit. Whether it was his game-winning touchdown at Penn State or the devastating downfield block he threw on Michigan’s first touchdown against Ohio State, All was out there making plays, one after the other.
He has a new position coach this year in Grant Newsome, the former Wolverines left tackle. What he’s seen from his star senior is someone who approaches the game like a kid in a candy store.
“He’s awesome. He’s still got that enjoyment and freshness for the game,” Newsome said. “He’s got that enthusiasm, I guess, that you normally see with really, really young guys, where it’s just every day, it’s his first time out there. He just wants to do everything. He wants to catch every ball, make every block. But, at the same time, he’s just matured so much. The way he’s taken a leadership role, not only in the tight end room with Marlin and Colston, but also amongst the whole team. It’s been awesome to see.”
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When All arrived in Ann Arbor, he may have been eager, but he didn’t have the body to match what was needed to play the tight end position. He was something of a string bean, coming in at 6-foot-4, 225-pounds — hardly the size necessary to compete in the Big Ten. Fast forward to now, and All is officially listed at 255-pounds, 10 pounds heavier than last season.
Yet, he can still move like a wide receiver when going out for a pass, while hunkering down on the end of the line when he needs to stay in and block for a run.
“He’s still playing athletic, he’s still moving really, really well,” Newsome said. “So I think it’s still going to help him — his in-line blocking, adding a little more weight. It’s crazy, he just looks bigger. He’s still really, really cut. You wouldn’t know that he put on weight and looking at the scale. He told me how much he weighed the other day and I couldn’t believe it. I made him go back on the scale to verify it. But he looks great. Coach Herb and the staff have done an amazing job developing all those guys, but especially Erick. He looks great, as does Schoony.”
Of course, getting to this point takes a lot of work, behind-the-scenes things that fans will never see. Whether it’s morning lifts, nutrition, sleep — you name it — All has put in the work to amass positive gains.
The most important thing for a player that showcased the type of talent he has was to bulk while not losing those skills — like receiving — that make him great. According to Newsome, he hasn’t lost a beat in terms of speed. In fact, he’s maybe gotten faster.
“When he got here, he was probably 220 pounds, so to now be 252, 257 — whatever it is right now — and still be fast, still have all the athleticism,” Newsome said. “He’s probably even gotten faster than he was when he got here. Again, it’s a credit to coach Herb and his staff and the work that they’ve done and the work that Abigail O’Connor has done to continue to develop him, not only from an athletic perspective, but to be able to put that weight on and still maintain all that athleticism.”
Michigan is very high on what it has in the tight end room, and it might be the deepest group in the country, with All, Schoonmaker, Joel Honigford, Carter Selzer, former four-stars Matthew Hibner, Louis Hansen, Colston Loveland, and former three-star Marlin Klein, who originally hails from Germany. This isn’t even to mention legacy walk-on Max Bredeson, younger brother of Ben Bredeson, the former left guard, and Jack Bredeson, the former Michigan pitcher.
Most are intriguing options, but All has the possibility to be a superstar, as we’ve seen in games like Penn State, MSU, and assuredly many more to come.
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