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The No. 2 jersey is available for grabs.
Fifth-year senior Michigan cornerback Blake Countess announced on his Instagram account that he will transfer elsewhere to finish his collegiate career in 2015:
Countess leaves Michigan after appearing in 38 games for the Wolverines, during which he accumulated 114 tackles, 3.5 tackles-for-loss, 13 pass deflections, six interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown, and one fumble recovery. He had a superb redshirt sophomore season in 2013 when he tallied six interceptions, which matched the most by a Wolverine in a season since Charles Woodson's eight in 1997, and 169 interception return yards, which was the third-most in the nation. For his efforts, Countess was named to the media's All-Big Ten first team and the coaches' All-Big Ten second team.
Though Countess underwhelmed when Michigan shifted to an aggressive man-press scheme last season, he still was expected to compete for a starting position with Jourdan Lewis and incoming Stanford graduate transfer Wayne Lyons this fall. Even if Countess wasn't a starter, he would have been the nickelback or a key reserve to spot the others.
Now, Michigan is a bit thin at cornerback. Lewis and Lyons will be the two starters in the boundary and the field, respectively, but there's little proven talent behind them. Channing Stribling and Brandon Watson will be the two that vie to be the third corner, with Stribling having more experience and Watson having a stronger showing in the spring game.
Stay tuned for more developments.