Need for Speed
De’Veon Smith
Maybe I’m old school, but isn’t it generally a rule of thumb that one of your top tailbacks possess a little bit of speed? Why is it that every Michigan ball carrier looks like a glorified fullback? The Wolverines handed off to a running back 23 times in the game -- the biggest gain on any of those plays went for seven yards. Not thirty-seven...not seventeen...just seven. It’s remindful of that scene from Willy Wonka when the teacher acts incredulous that Charlie opened a total of two chocolate bars and just assumes he meant 200.
De’Veon Smith is a gritty player that appears to be putting forth max effort. But he is not a starting quality tailback for a Big Ten team. Or at least one that has visions of competing for a conference championship.
Future Woodson?
Jabrill Peppers finally showed some of the elite skills that made him one of the top three players coming out of high school in 2014. Utah tried setting up wide receiver screens on a couple of occasions to the side of the field Peppers was occupying, and both times it wound up being a bad idea. The muscular cornerback easily shed the blocks and broke up the plays for losses.
His impact was not felt much on special teams or offense, save for one decent kick return late, but expect that to change as the season goes on and this team searches for more ways to produce plays that pick up 20-yards plus.
Second Guessing the Master
The Jim Harbaugh Hype Machine finally took a break on Thursday night and the game itself took center stage. And while the team’s spotty performance was due in large part due to a general dearth of big-time talent at certain positions, there were some questionable tactics employed by Lord Harbaugh.
With a chance to make a statement early in the contest by going for it on 4th-and-1 from opposition territory, Harbaugh decided to turtle, instead opting for the play-not-to-lose punt.
In the third quarter, with the Wolverine defense huffing and puffing a little bit, Harbaugh curiously decided to accept a five-yard penalty even though Big Blue had forced a first down incompletion on the play. With Utah on the move and quarterback Travis Wilson finding a bit of a rhythm, handing the Utes an extra down seemed like a strange choice. Sure enough, they’d pick up 18 yards on the very next play.
Michigan’s D was solid but unspectacular on the evening. If you are straddling that bend-but-don’t-break line on defense, when you complete a play and the offense gained zero yards, it’s probably most prudent to simply move on to the next down unless the penalty in question is a 10 or 15 yard dock.
Sensible Jersey Numbers
Kenny Allen
Why does it seem like Michigan has uncertainty in the kicking game every single year? Aren’t there any strong-footed high schoolers eager to come boot the ball in Ann Arbor? On that same note, can’t Michigan give this year’s kicker Kenny Allen a more appropriate jersey number? Seeing your kicker jog onto the field for a big kick wearing #91 gives any fan watching at home immediate jitters. Think about the great kickers from this state. Jason Hanson wore #4. Eddie Murray was 3. If Allen is smart, he’ll flip his digits and become 19, paying homage to the excellent Wolverine kickers that preceded him, Mike Gillette and Remy Hamilton.
Handcuffed Without an NFL QB
It might be tough to evaluate the impact Harbaugh can really make on this program until he has a genuine threat operating under center. In today’s football world, you can only do so much offensively and as a collective whole with mediocre play at the quarterback position.
Jake Rudock was not a complete disaster against Utah, but it appeared pretty clear that he is not a guy with the skill set to go out and lead this team to 10 or 11 wins. Harbaugh coached Andrew Luck while at Stanford, and he’ll need a similar prodigy to rise up in the next couple of years in order for this program’s level of success to be altered dramatically.
Vanilla: Better Ice Cream than Strategy
Weren’t you expecting a little more imagination from the Michigan attack? At halftime, they’d posted just three points; after three quarters, only 10. Yet, as the evening wore on, you kept waiting for some type of trickery or surprise that evidently was never going to come.
With an offense struggling to move the ball beyond the opponent’s 25-yard-line, what would have been so wrong with a fake field goal on 4th-and-5 on the first possession of the second half instead of a 44-yard try that would eventually go begging? Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but trying to win a difficult road game like this with a strictly conventional approach is a very tall task.
