4 Michigan football freshmen could make claim as nation's top WR class

Michigan's passing game coordinator Pep Hamilton isn’t quite ready to name any leaders among his receiving corps, but one thing’s for sure: the four freshmen, a group that may have a legitimate claim as the nation’s top receiver class in 2017, have stood out.

Two of the freshmen, Tarik Black and Donovan Peoples-Jones, have been on campus since January as mid-year enrollees. Both earned praise throughout the spring, with Black turning in a standout performance in the spring game and Peoples-Jones arriving as the nation’s top-ranked receiver prospect.

Their classmates, Oliver Martin and Nico Collins, didn’t arrive on campus until earlier this summer. But they, too, have made an early impression.

More:Is Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh overrated? A few of his peers think so

“They’re working hard, it’s a very talented group,” Hamilton said Wednesday. “I think they intensify the level of competition among that receiver group. To say that they made progress is somewhat of an understatement.

“... Tarik Black, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Oliver Martin, Nico Collins, that young receiver group, they’re very talented. But then we have some not-as-young receivers in Nate Johnson, Nate Schoenle, and of course Eddie McDoom, all of those guys, Mo Ways ... Kekoa Crawford. Those guys are pushing each other.”

According to Hamilton, Collins (perhaps Michigan’s tallest receiver at 6-foot-5) is a “big, talented receiver” for whom the “sky’s the limit” — especially as he continues to practice through camp.

And for the Wolverines and their young receiving corps, that will be the key to success. Player-led workouts earlier this summer were important because they allowed the receivers and quarterbacks to work on timing. As Hamilton said, quarterbacks can’t wait for receivers to get open — they have to trust that they will and throw to the spot. That summer work gave the position group a “chance” to “hit the ground running,” and the continued development of players such as Collins and his classmates will determine just how effective Michigan’s passing attack can be.

“I think overall as an offensive unit, we’ve improved from a continuity standpoint,” Hamilton said. “... I think the players are starting to gain more of a conceptual understanding of what it is we want to do schematically on offense, and as a result, they’re playing faster.”

More:'Had me at hello:' Charles Woodson named honorary captain for U-M/OSU

RETURN PARITY: In the spring, Chris Partridge mentioned he had more than a dozen players in the mix at the punt and kick returning spots — the very definition of a wide-open competition.

That remains the status quo through the early part of fall camp.

“We got a bunch of guys that are competing for the spots and working hard and getting better and better, so there’s still the same (situation),” Partridge said. “There’s a wide variety.”

It isn’t just the returning jobs, as well — Partridge has yet to name a starter at either kicker or punter, and he won’t be doing so anytime soon.

“They’ll all have a chance to compete at a high level every day, so yeah, that’s going to go up until the very end,” Partridge said. “Same with the punters, same with the return guys, same with the snappers. They’re all even right now, and they’re all competing for the job.”

Entering his second year on the job, Partridge has tried a new approach with the special teams as a whole. He believes each component is critical to the unit’s success and has tried to “build it all up” by teaching every unit what the others are doing, from kicking, punting, returning and blocking kicks, and emphasizing the importance of each.

That approach is evident in his sentiment regarding who returns kicks and punts. Last year, it was Jabrill Peppers and Jourdan Lewis who handled the bulk of responsibilities — two of Michigan’s most indispensable players. The Wolverines have suffered injuries on special teams in the past, with Jeremy Clark tearing his ACL while covering a kickoff and Peppers suffering an injury during a special teams rep in practice — an injury that held him out of the Orange Bowl.

But Partridge doesn’t consider that angle when determining who he wants at returner. To him, it’s important enough where he won’t skimp on the position for the sake of avoiding potential injury.

“Returning — especially punts, but kicks also — is one of the hardest things to do, so the best guy on the team is going to do that, that’s able to do that,” Partridge said. “There’s no, ‘He’s a star, he can’t do it,’ there’s none of that. It’s the best guy who’s able to catch punts and get vertical, the best guy who’s able to catch kicks, get vertical and break tackles, those are the guys that are going to do it. And they’re all competing for it.”