Michigan football adds former five-star edge Eyabi Anoma as grad transfer

The Michigan Wolverines were not done adding players to their roster, as former five-star prospect and Alabama linebacker/edge Eyabi Anoma has officially transferred to U-M as a graduate student. The new was first reported Wednesday night by Anthony Broome of The Wolverine.

Even though he is not on Michigan’s online roster just yet, Anoma is a graduate transfer and is immediately eligible, according to a U-M spokesperson.

Despite his lofty five-star ranking coming out of St. Frances in Baltimore, Anoma has had an interesting collegiate path thus far. He originally attended Alabama and had a successful freshman season, but left the university following some academic issues. Following a redshirt season at Houston, he was dismissed from the team due to violating team rules, including skipping classes, skirmishes with teammates and more.

He wound up at UT Martin, where he compiled 36 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, six sacks, three quarterback hurries and one blocked kick in 2021. That was coming off another redshirt season in 2020.

At UT Martin, Anoma was listed as a JACK linebacker at 6-foot-6 and 270 pounds.

Now, Anoma is at his fourth college home at the University of Michigan, and hopefully his last. On paper, this appears to be a kind of risky take by Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines. However, he clearly has the talent to compete with what Michigan has at the edge spot right now following the losses of Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo to the NFL.

Anoma also has a familiar connection at U-M in the form of his former head coach at St. Frances — Biff Poggi. If there is anyone who can get him right, perhaps it’s Poggi. Only time will tell if this will work out, but it’s worth giving it a shot to see if he can live up to his No. 4 overall ranking coming out of high school.