The Last 2022 Recruiting Take mgoblog.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mgoblog.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Previously: Offense. DEFENSIVE END A paring of Derrick Moore and Josiah Stewart might not be particularly far off the legendary Hutchinson-Ojabo pairing from 2021. Stewart and Moore were already Michigan's top edge guys per PFF, and they were more or less indistinguishable from the departed Braiden McGregor and Jaylen Harrell in UFR grading. Neither was exactly a star in 2023, but it's not hard to extrapolate them from very good rotation players into stars with another year of development They had pass rush win rates of 17% (Stewart) and 15% (Moore), which was good for 18th and 43rd, respectively, amongst 251 P5 edges with at least 100 snaps. Meanwhile, you may remember some grousing in this space about Stewart not holding the edge in a couple early games but once he got that figured out he was an excellent run defender. Also: the way Michigan ran its pass rush last year probably put a cap on just how highly they could grade out. Guys like Chop Robinson and Bralen Trice are s
UFR GLOSSARY is here. Also apologies for the 2009-level quality on some of these recordings my copy of the game was in low-res for a chunk of the 2nd quarter. FORMATION NOTES: Mostly basic stuff we've been charting since Loeffler was a Michigan assistant. Michigan broke out an odd formation from its nickel with the WDE (Moore, at the bottom) playing inside the RT. I called it Nickel Tite. A few notation reminders: parentheticals mean the player is covered. I'm still using hyphens for motion so if you see "H-SB" that means the slot receiver (H) motioned to a splitback (SB) position. "Offset" means the RB is at least a yard behind the QB, not to be confused with "Offset I" which is an I-formation with the FB offset BGSU used both. "Ace" is another notation that means something different if it's first (QB under center with a single back) as in "Ace TTE" or later in the descriptions (TEs to either side of the formation) as in
Glossary: Is Here. Reminder that a parenthetical is a covered receiver. Formation Notes: Let's get funky! UNLV's weird offense likes to overload a side with two RBs and a covered TE. I called the one closer to the QB the "S" and the further the "R". I called this GoGo Right. When UNLV went to a diamond Michigan sometimes put their DE all the way out with the covered TE (see #5 on the bottom). I called this 404 Spread. When not covering receivers they are putting them as far from the formation as possible. And look at this: a real Delaware Wing-T! Haven't seen one of those since the Bethel Threshers took on the old Pitchbots of Hannigan's Wake back in 'dickety-two. I also had to cut way more of these because they're probably not going to be relevant unless the Go-Go sweeps the nation. [After THE JUMP: The Go-Go is getting Brumfield Dead-Dead]
9/9/2023 – Michigan 35, UNLV 7 – 2-0 I thought about copying and pasting last week's column and seeing if anyone noticed. It would have various references to ECU instead of UNLV, but acronyms are acronyms and maybe it would slide by. The accounting of JJ McCarthy's incompletions would be off by one and factually inaccurate, sure. I was banking on the nuclear glow coming off of McCarthy's arm obliterating all detail and leaving nothing but a crater of Buddhism (but fun!). I could have gotten away with it, I'm sure. The pattern of this game was the pattern of the other game: big long Michigan drives on which some disappointing run plays are washed away in a torrent of third and medium conversions. JJ McCarthy's eyes glow white and he starts levitating. The opposition can do nothing on the interior and cannot pass protect and is only able to eke out a first down or two. Michigan irritatingly turns it over on downs due to over-reliance on a dive play. They lose