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The Michigan Wolverines are back on the football field tonight on perhaps the biggest stage that the first week of the season can offer in this current climate. The Battle for the Little Brown Jug against Minnesota will not only be ABC’s Saturday Night Football game, but ESPN’s College GameDay will also be in attendance to kick off the day of college football action on TV.
The chance to live up to the hype has finally arrived for the Wolverines, who have dealt with an offseason of questions about the makeup of the roster and a lot of new pieces at several positions, headlined by Joe Milton at quarterback. Training camp ended last week. Game week has come to a close.
Michigan does not provide an official depth chart, so the players that will fill out the lineup tonight are far from etched in stone. However, based on preseason meetings with players and coaches as well as stating the obvious with the stars on the roster, there’s a pretty clear idea of where things stand in most spots.
With the dust settling on preseason preparations, here is the projected depth chart heading into tonight’s game.
Michigan Football 2021 Projected Depth Chart — Week 1
| Position | First Team | Second Team | Reserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position | First Team | Second Team | Reserves |
| Quarterback | Cade McNamara | J.J. McCarthy, Alan Bowman | Dan Villari |
| Running Back | Hassan Haskins | Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards | Tavierre Dunlap |
| Wide Receiver | Ronnie Bell | Daylen Baldwin, Roman Wilson | |
| Wide Receiver | Cornelius Johnson | A.J. Henning | |
| Wide Receiver | Mike Sainristil | Cristian Dixon, Andrel Anthony | |
| Tight End | Erick All | Luke Schoonmaker | Matthew Hibner, Louis Hansen |
| Left Tackle | Ryan Hayes | Karsen Barnhart | Jeffrey Persi, Tristan Bounds |
| Left Guard | Trevor Keegan | Chuck Filiaga | Raheem Anderson |
| Center | Andrew Vastardis | Zak Zinter | Reece Atteberry, Greg Crippen, Raheem Anderson |
| Right Guard | Zak Zinter | Andrew Stueber | Nolan Rumler, Greg Crippen |
| Right Tackle | Andrew Stueber | Karsen Barnhart, Trente Jones | Giovanni El-Hadi, Joel Honigford |
| Defensive Tackle | Christopher Hinton | Jess Speight | Rayshaun Benny |
| Nose Tackle | Mazi Smith | Donovan Jeter | Jordan Whittley, Ike Iwunnah |
| Defensive Tackle | Julius Welschof | Mike Morris | Gabe Newburg, Kris Jenkins, George Rooks, Dominick Guidice |
| Outside Linebacker | Aidan Hutchinson | Taylor Upshaw | Braiden McGregor, TJ Guy |
| Inside Linebacker | Josh Ross | Junior Colson | |
| Inside Linebacker | Nikhai Hill-Green | Mike Barrett | |
| Outside Linebacker | David Ojabo | Jaylen Harrell | Kechaun Bennett, Tyler McLaurin, Joey Velasquez, Anthony Solomon |
| Cornerback | DJ Turner | Vincent Gray | Darion Green-Warren, Andre Seldon |
| Free Safety | Daxton Hill | RJ Moten, Jalen Perry | Rod Moore |
| Strong Safety | Brad Hawkins | Makari Paige | Quinten Johnson |
| Cornerback | Gemon Green | George Johnson | German Green, Eamonn Dennis, Ja'Den McBurrows |
| Kicker | Jake Moody | ||
| Punter | Brad Robbins | Tommy Doman | |
| Kick Return | Ronnie Bell, Blake Corum | ||
| Punt Return | A.J Henning |
Michigan and Minnesota’s showdown on Saturday night is set for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC as the network’s game of the week. The Wolverines sit as 3.5 point favorites heading into the contest with the over/under for total points scored set at 53.5.