Previously: Rutgers Offense We're back for the defense half of FFFF, focusing on the side of the ball that our opponents for this weekend specialize in. Rutgers has started the season 3-0 largely on the back of its offense so it's time to ask: how scared should we be of Sir Henry's finest defenders this weekend? The Film: We're going with Virginia Tech again for reasons previously stated in the offense piece, recency and the likelihood that the Hokies are indeed better than Northwestern and Temple (not assured, but likely). Personnel: Don't get mad, Seth is testing the powers of the Michigan Cyan Circle Positive Jinx [click for big]: Rutgers' EDGEs are familiar to those who read this column last season, or Michigan recruiting news dating back four years. Old Friend Aaron Lewis is still around, his chops against the run still up for debate (they seemed fine in the game I charted) but his overall importance to this Rutgers defense is not. The one
Previously: Rutgers Offense We're back for the defense half of FFFF, focusing on the side of the ball that our opponents for this weekend specialize in. Rutgers has started the season 3-0 largely on the back of its offense so it's time to ask: how scared should we be of Sir Henry's finest defenders this weekend? The Film: We're going with Virginia Tech again for reasons previously stated in the offense piece, recency and the likelihood that the Hokies are indeed better than Northwestern and Temple (not assured, but likely). Personnel: Don't get mad, Seth is testing the powers of the Michigan Cyan Circle Positive Jinx [click for big]: Rutgers' EDGEs are familiar to those who read this column last season, or Michigan recruiting news dating back four years. Old Friend Aaron Lewis is still around, his chops against the run still up for debate (they seemed fine in the game I charted) but his overall importance to this Rutgers defense is not. The one
Previously: Quarterback, Running Back, Receivers, Offensive Line The Enemy, Ranked now shifts to the defensive side of the ball as we break down Michigan's opponents for the 2023 season. Today we start in the trenches, looking at the opposing defensive lines. While perhaps not quite as grim as offensive line, I can't say I came away from this exercise terribly enthused by the opposing defensive lines. Yet again you can partly chalk that up to the schedule, avoiding Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, but I also am not sure how great of a year for the B1G on the DL this is in general. Regardless, let's get going: 12. Bowling Green DE DT DT JACK Jordan Porter Anthony Hawkins Dontrez Brown Demetrius Hardamon Ali Saad Davonte Miles Billie Roberts Chasius Howell Today we start off with a tight battle for the bottom of the list between BGSU and the team just ahead of them, but I ultimately opted to go with the Falcons in 12th place. Bowling Green's DL last season w
Previously: Rutgers Offense After studying the rough display that is the Rutgers offense, we get a much more respectable unit today in the Rutgers defense. Greg Schiano has consistently been able to coordinate solid defenses in his career, and the Rutgers defense looks in line with that. They rank 29th in SP+ defense and are allowing fewer than 300 yards per game (22.5 points per game against this season). At the very least, it's watchable football. The Film: I will delve more into this later on in the piece, but the list of opposing offenses that Rutgers has faced is lacking in quality. The only top 50 SP+ offense that they have played happens to be our bitter rivals down in Columbus and while I'd prefer not to pick the Ohio State buzzsaw offense and have something between "terrible" and "the best in the country", I have little to offer. The only other option was possibly Minnesota, but after the hassle that it was to get footage of that game for t