Sunday Reader: Closing the book on spring, NFL Draft
With spring football wrapped up and the NFL Draft concluded, take a quick look back on the last week or so around the Mitten.
Spring football is complete with Western Michigan capping things with an 8-6 win for the gold team in a scrimmage on Saturday.
Things will now shift into summer gear for a while (more on what that means for Mitten Football later this week) as players take the next month or so off before getting back for summer workouts and coaches turn up the wick on building their 2027 recruiting classes through the summer.
Also, the NFL draft just happened, and a bunch of players from the Mitten are getting signed as UDFAs.
Before getting into the Sunday Reader, check out Mitten Football’s spring game takeaways from the four we covered.
Andrew Graham
Andrew Graham
Andrew Graham
Andrew Graham
Now, let’s dig in.
Quick hits
Central Michigan: Daniel Gomez might’ve had the best spring of all the quarterbacks relative to expectations. Gomez was treading water as a true freshman, as expected, managing his role on the scout team and doing his best to get acclimated as a quarterback at the college level.
A year later, the redshirt freshman looks quite at home and offensive coordinator Jim Chapin said the quarterback has excelled in his development and knowledge of the offense as he elevates in his second year. Gomez still projects to be a backup, but development like this is big for spring.
Eastern Michigan: EMU is working on adding some more future non-conference games against the in-state Big Ten teams. EMU is scheduled to play at MSU in 2026 and at Michigan in 2027 and 2030.
AD Scott Wetherbee would be content to start scheduling those games more regularly again, he said recently, after EMU had gone away from playing the Spartans and Wolverines for a stretch.
Michigan: ICYMI, Michigan hired one of Bill Belichick’s consiglieres from his time with the New England Patriots, Berj Najarian, who most recently was Bill O’Brien’s chief of staff at Boston College.
Per reporting from ESPN, Najarian will be tasked with a lot of the “front office” type stuff for Michigan, handling contracts, negotiations and general strategy in the monied player movement era of college football.
Michigan State: Pat Fitzgerald and Co. got their first commit from the Chicago area, nabbing defensive lineman Ohimai Ozolua from St. Rita. It’s an important pipeline that Fitzgerald is trying to establish, bringing prospects from his native Chicagoland to mid-Michigan.
The Detroit News’ Connor Earegood wrote a good story about that recruiting shift recently. Highly recommend it.
Western Michigan: Construction is well underway for the new weight room and nutrition station and various other facilities for Western Michigan. Managed to peer at the work being done while leaving after the spring game and it’s coming along, but still has a ways to go.
All signs point towards the work being completed before the start of the 2026 season, as planned, getting the Broncos into their new digs as the Bill Brown Alumni Football Center gets some shiny new facilities.
Thoughts on Nadame Tucker, Michael Heldman going undrafted
Heldman was a fringe choice to be selected, but has the body type that fits in the NFL. He tested well at CMU’s pro day and put together a dominant senior season against MAC competition. It just didn’t line up for a team to take him.
The biggest thing that might’ve kept Heldman from being selected is that, while he’s good at everything, he’s maybe not exceptional at one thing. Either way, he’ll bring a boulder on his shoulder to New Orleans where he signed as an undrafted free agent.
“I would love to get drafted, but, you know what? Regardless, whatever team wants me, they're getting a dog,” Heldman said at CMU’s pro day. “And they're getting a man who can help change many things, but not forcefully, 'cause I'm more of an open doors type guy"
As for Tucker, the production was enough to get him drafted. He’s just an odd duck as an NFL evaluation goes. For starters, he’s old for a rookie, set to turn 26 in June. He also came to football later in life, starting playing in high school. His production, while eye watering, was just over one year, and NFL teams probably questioned if it's repeatable.
There are also some questions about off-the-field issues at Houston, too, where Tucker spent multiple seasons but struggled to see the field. In contrast, at Western Michigan, by all accounts, Tucker was fantastic to work with.
Ultimately it’s impossible to know the set of facts NFL teams had before them and how decisions got informed, but Heldman and Tucker will each now try to prove that all wrong as undrafted free agents.
CMU lands pair of post-spring game OL commits
It’s a pair of in-state pledges for the offensive line in the past few days: Coopersville’s Hunter Hankamp and Oxford’s Liam Samborski.
Hankamp plays tackle and projects there for college with a 6-foot-4 frame. He’s an early building block for the Chippewas’ 2027 class and comes from the Grand Rapids area/west side of the state, an area CMU will need to recruit well.
Samborski is an offensive tackle prospect, standing 6-foot-5 and weighing around 280 pounds, an ideal frame for the CMU strength staff to build on. Samborski also has a wrestling background, and is one of the top heavyweights in the state on the mat.
Wrestlers tend to make great offensive linemen, and CMU got a good one.
Undrafted players signed for NFL teams
* Indicates rookie minicamp invite
- Nadame Tucker, edge, WMU — Chargers (Chris O’Leary reunion!)
- Tate Hallock, S, WMU — Chargers (Ditto!)
- Michael Heldman, edge, CMU — Saints
- Rodney McGraw, edge, WMU — Dolphins
- Dodji Dahoue, OL, EMU — Giants
- Mickey Rewolinski, OL, EMU — Seahawks*
- Dontae McMillan, RB, EMU — Ravens
- Jordan Kwiatkowski, LB, CMU — Patriots
- Dominic Zvada, K, Michigan — Giants
- Donaven McCulley, WR, Michigan — Dolphins
- TJ Guy, edge, Michigan — Ravens
- Malik Spencer, S, MSU — Commanders
- Omari Kelly, WR, MSU — Bears
- Elijah Tau-Tolliver, RB, MSU — Ravens
- Jack Velling, TE, MSU — Falcons
- Josh Eaton, CB, MSU — Seahawks*
- Malcolm Bell, CB, MSU — Browns*
More will trickle in throughout today, but this is the bulk of it some 15-hours post draft. Jesse Minter and the Ravens evidently like their guys from the Mitten, also drafting Michigan's Rayshaun Benny on Day 3.
General dearth of spring game juice
It doesn’t feel like a shock or particularly controversial to note this, as the days of getting tens of thousands of fans to get a peak at the team in spring seem to have waned.
Teams are also less intent, generally, on fully scrimmaging or simulating a game fully so far away from the season, and many programs have opted for mixed spring showcases where there’s 11-on-11 portions but also practice periods with different drills and things to show fans.
There are a litany of factors contributing to this, from the nature of acclimating rebuilt rosters with plenty of transfers each spring to coaching staffs generally being smarter and wiser about how hard they go on players in spring, six months prior to fall camp and the season.
It’s not that anyone is less urgent or there’s less work to get done in spring, but the nature of it has shifted, and teams are far less concerned about putting on a show for fans at this stage of the calendar.
They’re happy to welcome fans out to the 15th spring practice and scrimmage in front of them, sign autographs after and provide an accessible event in the offseason. But it’s hard to deny that the spring games, in general, felt a little flat this year. And it’s not a crisis, either — just a way the world might be changing.
The hardcore fans and families still come out, but if college football programs want to garner more attention for spring football, the current path seems to be drying up.
