Michigan Football: Zach Carpenter in transfer portal is concerning

Michigan football lost a player many considered to be the future starter at center and it just adds to the confusion surrounding the program.

It’s not known right now if Michigan football will play another game this season, but if the Wolverines do take the field, they presumably won’t have starting center Zach Carpenter.

Carpenter, a three-star offensive lineman out of the state of Ohio in the 2019 class, was expected to be the starting center to open the 2020 season before an injury opened the door for senior Andrew Vastardis.

Then, after an injury to Vastardis, Carpenter started the past two games and seemed to be moving towards locking down the position long term. However, it has been two weeks since Michigan football has played and on Thursday, The Michigan Insider reported he entered the portal.

Here’s what Steve Lorenz of the Michigan Insider (247 Sports) reported on the subject:

"“247Sports confirmed on Thursday evening that redshirt freshman offensive lineman Zach Carpenter has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. The Cincinnati (OH) Moeller product is actually the first member of Michigan’s 2019 class to enter the portal.”"

It’s never a good look for your program when a starting caliber player leaves before the season is officially over.

Maybe this is a sign that the season is coming to an end, which wouldn’t be a big shock with the size of the reported outbreak at Michigan, which led to the Ohio State game getting canceled. 

The 2019 recruiting class was supposed to be one of Jim Harbaugh‘s best at Michigan. It ranked 8th in the nation and first in the Big Ten according to the 247 sports composite rankings.

It included guys like Daxton Hill, Chris Hinton, Mazi Smith and Zach Charbonnet. While each of those guys have flashed potential, for the most part, many of the highly-ranked recruits have disappointed or failed to make a huge impact at this point.

It’s hard to say what this means about the Harbaugh saga. There have been rumors about guys leaving the program and it’s not like Michigan is the only team this happens too.

It’s part of the game anymore but still, Carpenter isn’t exactly someone you expected to see in the transfer portal and that’s why it’s concerning. More names could follow because this doesn’t feel like the usual departure, which is often due to the depth chart. We’ll see.