Jim Harbaugh talks Michigan Football depth chart

Jim Harbaugh joined the In The Trenches Podcast and offered a bunch of tidbits about Michigan football’s depth chart. 

Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh turned some heads on Saturday when he announced that Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy would each start during the first two weeks of the season.

McNamara will start against Colorado State. McCarthy will make his first career start against Hawaii. After that, Harbaugh said the team would make a decision.

That will add some interest to the first few weeks of the season and just because one quarterback starts doesn’t mean the other won’t play.

Harbaugh talks about freshman impact players

However, that’s far from the only interesting thing that Harbaugh said about the Michigan depth chart. Mason Graham was revealed as a freshman starter at defensive tackle in the base defense.

Mazi Smith and Kris Jenkins are going to start and will play most of the time if just two defensive tackles are on the field. Kenneth Grant was another name mentioned.

It’s interesting that Graham could be the first freshman starter from this class but Will Johnson is in the mix for some playing time and it sounds like he’s basically considered a starter too which isn’t a surprise. He’s the No. 1 overall player in the state of Michigan for the 2022 class and Harbaugh said this about the cornerbacks via the Maize and Blue Review:

"“Take corner for example, DJ Turner, Gemon Green, Mike Sainristil, those are your starting corners. There’s two in base but there’s three when you go to nickel. Mikey is our starting nickel but they’ll interchange in base as well. You’ve got three starters there. Will Johnson is right there as well coming out of camp. Tremendous, maybe our best freshman that’s on the roster. He just looks great at corner. Those four, I consider them all really first-team players.”"

Harbaugh also said there are five wide receivers that he considers starters: Ronnie Bell, Cornelius Johnson, Roman Wilson, A.J. Henning, and Andrel Anthony. And just like McNamara did when he spoke with the media last, Harbaugh talked about Peyton O’Leary as a guy who is emerging.

"“The top five is Roman, Cornelius Johnson, Ronnie Bell, no receiver one, they’re all ones along with Andrel Anthony and AJ Henning. Those five will be strong in a rotation as starters. Another guy who has surged is Peyton O’Leary. Peyton O’Leary is backing up Cornelius Johnson right now at the X position. He’s had a Cooper Kupp-like training camp, he almost has that nickname around here. So that’s been tremendous.”"

We’ll have more thoughts on the Michigan depth chart moving forward and remember, it’s game week this week.