Michigan spent the winter losing its tight end to the NFL Draft and gaining a new head coach who runs a spread. The guy left standing in the middle of it is Zack Marshall, a three-star nobody fought over who blocked his way onto the field and then quietly became the room's best pass-catcher. Now the job is his.
6′4″ · 245 lb · Solana Beach, CA · Carlsbad
CFB Index
A single number blending on-field production (an EPA-based value lane) with box-score output for this player's position.
0-100, scaled within each position's own cohort — not directly comparable across positions.
How he plays
Creates mismatches lined up all over the formation.
EPA / target: 78th percentile.
The full scouting readThe numbers
receiving yards · 2025
16 catches · 1 TD · 12.4 per catch
Best game: 5 rec, 72 yds, 1 TD, vs Washington
His career numbers, season by seasonThe story
Michigan spent the winter losing its tight end to the NFL Draft and gaining a new head coach who runs a spread. The guy left standing in the middle of it is Zack Marshall, a three-star nobody fought over who blocked his way onto the field and then quietly became the room's best pass-catcher. Now the job is his.
Michigan spent the winter losing its tight end to the NFL Draft and gaining a new head coach who runs a spread. The guy left standing in the middle of it is Zack Marshall, a three-star nobody fought over who blocked his way onto the field and then quietly became the room's best pass-catcher. Now the job is his.
The offseason story in Ann Arbor is that the tight end is supposed to disappear. Marlin Klein declared for the 2026 NFL Draft, Kyle Whittingham and coordinator Jason Beck arrived preaching a spread, 11-personnel look, and the easy read was that Michigan would simply throw a wideout out there and forget the position. Instead the math pointed the other way: with only one tight end on the field most snaps, that one snap belongs to Marshall, and Maize n Brew slotted him onto its list of players "you're probably underrating right now."
The receipts are modest but real. Pressed into duty last year largely because Hogan Hansen got hurt, Marshall caught 16 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown, a tidy 12.4 yards a grab with a long of 37 — the most production of any returning tight end on the roster. The scouting word on him is fearlessness over the middle, the slipperiness to find soft spots in zone, and yards after contact, all bolted onto the blocking that got him on the field in the first place. He has said his own focus is being a dominant run blocker, and that in Beck's offense "everyone is an option on any given play."
That is the stake the boards keep circling. Michigan returns Bryce Underwood for a Year-2 jump and a scheme designed to stretch the field; a tight end who can block on early downs and then leak out as a safety valve is exactly the connective tissue an inexperienced passer leans on. The question for 2026 isn't whether Marshall starts — he's the slight nod already — it's whether the unheralded kid can turn a 16-catch sample into a full season as the every-down tight end on a team with real ceiling.
A blocker first, a receiver second, but the second part is catching up fast. Marshall earns his snaps in the run game — that's how a lightly recruited three-star plays his way onto a Michigan two-deep — and then makes his money in the soft middle of the field, working the seams and the in-breakers where his frame and patience let him sit down in zone. There's no flash to it: he averaged 12.4 yards a catch on his 16 grabs with a long of 37, which reads less like a vertical threat and more like a chain-mover who picks up extra yards after the catch and isn't scared of traffic over the ball. Think safety valve and short-area mismatch rather than field-stretcher — the kind of tight end a young quarterback finds when the first read isn't there. (No play-by-play percentiles were available in the packet; this is a scouting read.)
The offseason story in Ann Arbor is that the tight end is supposed to disappear. Marlin Klein declared for the 2026 NFL Draft, Kyle Whittingham and coordinator Jason Beck arrived preaching a spread, 11-personnel look, and the easy read was that Michigan would simply throw a wideout out there and forget the position. Instead the math pointed the other way: with only one tight end on the field most snaps, that one snap belongs to Marshall, and Maize n Brew slotted him onto its list of players "you're probably underrating right now."
The receipts are modest but real. Pressed into duty last year largely because Hogan Hansen got hurt, Marshall caught 16 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown, a tidy 12.4 yards a grab with a long of 37 — the most production of any returning tight end on the roster. The scouting word on him is fearlessness over the middle, the slipperiness to find soft spots in zone, and yards after contact, all bolted onto the blocking that got him on the field in the first place. He has said his own focus is being a dominant run blocker, and that in Beck's offense "everyone is an option on any given play."
That is the stake the boards keep circling. Michigan returns Bryce Underwood for a Year-2 jump and a scheme designed to stretch the field; a tight end who can block on early downs and then leak out as a safety valve is exactly the connective tissue an inexperienced passer leans on. The question for 2026 isn't whether Marshall starts — he's the slight nod already — it's whether the unheralded kid can turn a 16-catch sample into a full season as the every-down tight end on a team with real ceiling.
His career
A blocker first, a receiver second, but the second part is catching up fast. Marshall earns his snaps in the run game — that's how a lightly recruited three-star plays his way onto a Michigan two-deep — and then makes his money in the soft middle of the field, working the seams and the in-breakers where his frame and patience let him sit down in zone. There's no flash to it: he averaged 12.4 yards a catch on his 16 grabs with a long of 37, which reads less like a vertical threat and more like a chain-mover who picks up extra yards after the catch and isn't scared of traffic over the ball. Think safety valve and short-area mismatch rather than field-stretcher — the kind of tight end a young quarterback finds when the first read isn't there. (No play-by-play percentiles were available in the packet; this is a scouting read.)
Written by our staff.
Career arc
Coaching lineage · 2024–2025
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Sherrone Moore → Biff Poggi. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Season context · Team result + system
Where this profile ranks vs the TE cohort
Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles
Concern: rec tds (21st percentile).
Real play-by-play efficiency
Season trend
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season. Most bars are box-score rates; EPA / success-rate bars are computed from real play-by-play (offense only — no defensive EPA model exists yet).
Situational · Share of own targets (PBP, 2025)
Third-down role
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 8 games
Home vs Road
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home3g | 3.0 | 47.0 | 14.9 | 0.3 |
| Road5g | 1.4 | 11.6 | 8.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-74g | 1.0 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+4g | 3.0 | 41.5 | 12.9 | 0.2 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Kyle Whittingham
Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.
Player standing · 2025
Earning real snaps in the rotation without a starting job.
Recognition
Production · CFB Index Score
Three-star recruit. Now #119 at the position.
2026 outlook
Outside shot for All-Big Ten
Based on 2025: #21 of 26 Big Ten TEs
15% estimated, 95% confidence interval 13–17%. Base rate measured from players who finished at a comparable rank in their conference and came back the next season. It is an estimate from a small sample, not a forecast of this player.
SIGNATURE GAME · Week 8 · 2025
W 24–7
vs Washington
5 rec · 72 yds · 1 TD
With B. Underwood — 230 yds · 2 TD · 0 INT · QBR 63.7 · 25 rush yds (7 car) · J. Marshall — 133 rush yds (25 car) · 1 TD
Signature plays · top plays by |EPA|
The plays that mattered most
Game log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 8 games
| Wk | Opp | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LONG | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 2 | L 13-24@ Oklahoma | 1 | 12 | 12.0 | 0 | 12 | |
| Wk 4 | W 30-27@ Nebraska | 1 | 6 | 6.0 | 0 | 6 | |
| Wk 6 | W 24-10vs Wisconsin | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 0 | 11 | |
| Wk 8 | W 24-7vs Washington | 5 | 72 | 14.4 | 1 | 19 | Season-high 72 yds |
| Wk 10 | W 21-16vs Purdue | 3 | 58 | 19.3 | 0 | 37 | |
| Wk 12 | W 24-22@ Northwestern | 2 | 6 | 3.0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Wk 13 | W 45-20@ Maryland | 2 | 30 | 15.0 | 0 | 20 | |
| Bowl | L 27-41@ Texas | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Total | 16 | 199 | 10.6 | 1 | 37 |
Play style
A blocker first, a receiver second, but the second part is catching up fast. Marshall earns his snaps in the run game — that's how a lightly recruited three-star plays his way onto a Michigan two-deep — and then makes his money in the soft middle of the field, working the seams and the in-breakers where his frame and patience let him sit down in zone. There's no flash to it: he averaged 12.4 yards a catch on his 16 grabs with a long of 37, which reads less like a vertical threat and more like a chain-mover who picks up extra yards after the catch and isn't scared of traffic over the ball. Think safety valve and short-area mismatch rather than field-stretcher — the kind of tight end a young quarterback finds when the first read isn't there. (No play-by-play percentiles were available in the packet; this is a scouting read.)
Our classifier reads him the same way: creates mismatches lined up all over the formation.
2026 Outlook
Michigan
2026 Depth chart
Returning starter
Tight end · Michigan · editorial
Returning around him
2026 Award watch
Michigan · Last season: 9-4 (AP #18) · Talent rank #11 · 2026 recruiting class #12
Player DNA
Lined up out wide as often as inline. Creates mismatches downfield.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Ben Yurosek’s 2023 season.
Matches Ben on
Differs from Ben on
Through 1 college season, his career arc tracks closest to Kyle Pitts’s path through Florida.
Matches Kyle on
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Gavin Bartholomew's sophomore season at Pittsburgh (2022).
Matches Gavin on
Differs from Gavin on
CAREER HIGHS Receiving • Catches: 5 - vs. Washington (Oct. 18, 2025) • Yards: 72 - vs. Washington (Oct. 18, 2025) • TDs: 1 - vs. Washington (Oct. 18, 2025) • Long: 37 - vs. Purdue (Nov. 1, 2025) At Michigan • Named the team’s Most Improved Player on Offense (2025) • Two-time Academic All-Big Ten...
3 more on the roster · Michigan team page