Michigan Football: Realistic expectations for Eyabi Anoma, if eligible immediately

Late Wednesday night the news broke that former five-star recruit Eyabi Anoma has quietly enrolled in the school’s directory at Michigan.

The once top five overall recruit in 2018 who originally chose Alabama over four years ago and has been through the buzzsaw of the college football landscape, is now on his way to Michigan football as a grad transfer.

After scrolling through the school’s directory Anoma’s name was found and though nothing has been confirmed yet, the writing appears to be on the wall for Anoma.

The hardest process of all of this is getting into the University itself. With that seemingly taken care of Anoma is primed to join the Michigan football roster sooner rather than later. However, we are still waiting to see if he will be eligible immediately.

This is potentially game-changing news for a group that needed all the help it could get while trying to replace the school’s most prolific tandem of sack masters of arguably all time.

Jim Harbaugh and Jesse Minter have got to be ecstatic about this news. It makes their job a little easier when a guy like this shows up on your doorstep basically out of the blue. He entered the transfer portal for the third time in four years from Tennessee-Martin on August 15th. In 2021 while at UT-Martin he flashed those glimpses that made him a world-class talent in the first place.

Of course, transferring that much and adding in the fact that he got kicked out of Houston after he left Alabama, expectations for a troublesome young man have got to be tempered. There’s a high probability that he may do nothing at Michigan period, but his skills are just too special to let them slip through the cracks that easily.

Michigan football will improve immediately if he’s eligible

Defensively, the unit automatically becomes better as a whole when you mix in a player of his caliber. He won’t be a serious threat immediately, but time is on Michigan football’s side for this to blossom into something consequential.

Depending upon the obvious circumstances, if Anoma plays and gains experience, then maybe over time he can grow into a formidable piece to a defense that wants to keep its 2021 momentum going for as long as possible.

In the meantime, Anoma will have to work endlessly to prove he is here to stay in Ann Arbor, but it’s not unrealistic to say that he’s got the most talent of any pass rusher on the current roster.

If given the proper time and development, Anoma, could be a starter from day one. That won’t be the case here, but if he can prove that he is worthy enough to earn action on the field, then coach Harbaugh will have no choice but to unleash his no longer secret gift from the football gods against the opposition.