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Junior Devin Funchess, Wide Receiver
Number: 87
Hometown: Harrison HS; Farmington Hills, MI
Height/Weight: 6'5, 230 lbs.
Three Things To Know About Devin
1. He is no longer a tight end.
Granted, he really wasn't much of a tight end to begin with. It was clear early in his days as a freshman that he wasn't all that good at the tight end portion of playing football (i.e. blocking on the line of scrimmage), but was very good at the rest of it.
In his up and down freshman season he ended up with 15 catches for 234 yards and five touchdowns. Last year Michigan lost Roy Roundtree to graduation, Amara Darboh to injury, Devin Gardner to the quarterback spot. Funchess was needed to step up, and that he did, catching 49 passes for 748 yards and six touchdowns. As the season went on he was moved completely out of the TE spot, opening up time for Jake Butt at that position while allowing Funchess to focus on beating secondary defenders and making highlight reel plays.
This year he is a wide receiver and will play wide receiver from the first game to the last game. He is also MIchigan's only returning wide receiver with anything approaching established production at the position.
2. Do tight ends do this?
Like I said, not a tight end.
3. Funch does still sport that TE number. He originally wore 19 as a freshman, but last year he switched to 87 to honor former Michigan TE Ron Kramer as part of the Legends Patch program. This is somewhat disappointing for the reason that now in 20 years someone won't get to wear 19 in honor of Funchess.