After last year's breakthrough against OSU, the volume of Michigan's football preseason is lower than usual (for me anyway). Nevertheless, Michigan returns a very good squad against a weak schedule and should compete for a conference title.
The loaded and experienced offense will have to carry the load this year for a young D with some real holes. At QB, Michigan has 2 very good players in Cade McNamara and JJ McCarthy. Cade was underrated last year, but his conservative throw selection was buoyed by an elite D. This year Cade will have to take and hit more shots to keep the crazy-talented JJM off the field. JJM has all the tools you'd want from a QB, but he had plenty of freshman mistakes last year that kept him as the clear second option. I expect Cade will start the season as the starter, but JJM will take over midway through when Michigan needs a more effective O. Both will gets tons of snaps this year. At RB, Michigan lost Hassan Haskins to the NFL but returns crazy-talented Blake Corum and electric Donavan Edwards. They may struggle in short yardage but both these guys are home run threats on every touch. They'll be running behind a very strong OL again, which returns 3 starters in LT Ryan Hayes, OGs Zach Zinter and Trevor Keegan, and they've brought in a Rimington award finalist (best C in the country) in Oluwatimi from UVA. Trente Jones is expected to start at RT, and Karsen Barnhart can back up almost every position on this line. They should maul in the run game and be very good in pass pro, although the OTs may be susceptible to elite bendy ends. The TEs in Erick All and Luke Schoonmaker are also excellent blockers, and All is a very good target. At WR, Michigan is far more stacked than they deserve for a team that runs the ball so much. Cornelius Johnson looks like a NFLer on the outside, Ronnie Bell returns from a torn ACL to play in the slot, and Michigan has strong returning starters in Roman Wilson, AJ Henning, and Andrel Anthony. They also nabbed a couple of exciting freshmen in Amorion Walker and Darrius Clemons.
On D, it's a different story. This team will struggle to replace 2 1st rounders in Heisman finalist Aidan Hutchinson at SDE and Dax Hill at S/CB, and 2nd rounder WDE David OJABO. Generally speaking the D should be very good against the run, with the biggest questions surrounding how to generate pressure. The team returns everyone in the secondary and the D will lean heavily on the secondary living on islands in order to generate said pressure--through a D system aped from the Ravens. While not elite recruits or toolsy (outside of RJ Moten), the secondary should be sound and organized. There's not a high ceiling on returning players at CB but there should be some depth. Perhaps the biggest thing to look out for is elite recruit Will Johnson as CB breaking thru as early as possible to bring elite athleticism, and perhaps fellow top 100 recruits Keon Sabb or Zeke Berry also breaking thru later in the season. LB may be improved with talented and super-fast LB Junior Colson having another year in college ball. Guy covers a ton of territory but took a lot of wrong steps last year. Hill-Green is the other returning LB that should see lots of time. At DT, Michigan is hoping Mazi Smith can be a real force on a lot of snaps or at a minimum make life easier for DT-mate Kris Jenkins. There's not much depth behind them. DE is the biggest hole on the squad, with only Mike Morris giving any confidence as an opening day starter. Taylor Upshaw is interesting, Braden McGregor has potential, and there are a couple of other guys that are interesting, but they all profile as run-stoppers first as opposed to bendy game-disruptors. The X factor on the DL may be the development of top 50-100 recruit Derrick Moore. Reports say he's coming in fairly polished, but realistically the hope has to be that he can break thru later in the season.
What gives me hope for big(gish) things this season is the schedule setting up so nicely. Michigan starts with 4 games that they should absolutely win and get to work on weak spots (Colo. St, Hawaii, UConn, Maryland) before heading to Iowa City on 10/01. Getting Iowa earlier in the season than later is hugely helpful, as late season Kinnick is brutal. Michigan gets PSU and MSU at home with a bye week in between, and has 3 relatively easy games (@Rutgers, Nebraska, Illinois) before The Game @the Shoe. This season looks like it will be defined by 4 games--the 3 division rivalries and the early tilt @Iowa. 8-4 is the floor, 9-3 probably the biggest part of the curve, 10-2 eminently reasonable, 11-1 not out of the question, and 12-0 unlikely as always but possible depending on the strength of the rivals and bad Kinnick juju.
GO BLUE!
The loaded and experienced offense will have to carry the load this year for a young D with some real holes. At QB, Michigan has 2 very good players in Cade McNamara and JJ McCarthy. Cade was underrated last year, but his conservative throw selection was buoyed by an elite D. This year Cade will have to take and hit more shots to keep the crazy-talented JJM off the field. JJM has all the tools you'd want from a QB, but he had plenty of freshman mistakes last year that kept him as the clear second option. I expect Cade will start the season as the starter, but JJM will take over midway through when Michigan needs a more effective O. Both will gets tons of snaps this year. At RB, Michigan lost Hassan Haskins to the NFL but returns crazy-talented Blake Corum and electric Donavan Edwards. They may struggle in short yardage but both these guys are home run threats on every touch. They'll be running behind a very strong OL again, which returns 3 starters in LT Ryan Hayes, OGs Zach Zinter and Trevor Keegan, and they've brought in a Rimington award finalist (best C in the country) in Oluwatimi from UVA. Trente Jones is expected to start at RT, and Karsen Barnhart can back up almost every position on this line. They should maul in the run game and be very good in pass pro, although the OTs may be susceptible to elite bendy ends. The TEs in Erick All and Luke Schoonmaker are also excellent blockers, and All is a very good target. At WR, Michigan is far more stacked than they deserve for a team that runs the ball so much. Cornelius Johnson looks like a NFLer on the outside, Ronnie Bell returns from a torn ACL to play in the slot, and Michigan has strong returning starters in Roman Wilson, AJ Henning, and Andrel Anthony. They also nabbed a couple of exciting freshmen in Amorion Walker and Darrius Clemons.
On D, it's a different story. This team will struggle to replace 2 1st rounders in Heisman finalist Aidan Hutchinson at SDE and Dax Hill at S/CB, and 2nd rounder WDE David OJABO. Generally speaking the D should be very good against the run, with the biggest questions surrounding how to generate pressure. The team returns everyone in the secondary and the D will lean heavily on the secondary living on islands in order to generate said pressure--through a D system aped from the Ravens. While not elite recruits or toolsy (outside of RJ Moten), the secondary should be sound and organized. There's not a high ceiling on returning players at CB but there should be some depth. Perhaps the biggest thing to look out for is elite recruit Will Johnson as CB breaking thru as early as possible to bring elite athleticism, and perhaps fellow top 100 recruits Keon Sabb or Zeke Berry also breaking thru later in the season. LB may be improved with talented and super-fast LB Junior Colson having another year in college ball. Guy covers a ton of territory but took a lot of wrong steps last year. Hill-Green is the other returning LB that should see lots of time. At DT, Michigan is hoping Mazi Smith can be a real force on a lot of snaps or at a minimum make life easier for DT-mate Kris Jenkins. There's not much depth behind them. DE is the biggest hole on the squad, with only Mike Morris giving any confidence as an opening day starter. Taylor Upshaw is interesting, Braden McGregor has potential, and there are a couple of other guys that are interesting, but they all profile as run-stoppers first as opposed to bendy game-disruptors. The X factor on the DL may be the development of top 50-100 recruit Derrick Moore. Reports say he's coming in fairly polished, but realistically the hope has to be that he can break thru later in the season.
What gives me hope for big(gish) things this season is the schedule setting up so nicely. Michigan starts with 4 games that they should absolutely win and get to work on weak spots (Colo. St, Hawaii, UConn, Maryland) before heading to Iowa City on 10/01. Getting Iowa earlier in the season than later is hugely helpful, as late season Kinnick is brutal. Michigan gets PSU and MSU at home with a bye week in between, and has 3 relatively easy games (@Rutgers, Nebraska, Illinois) before The Game @the Shoe. This season looks like it will be defined by 4 games--the 3 division rivalries and the early tilt @Iowa. 8-4 is the floor, 9-3 probably the biggest part of the curve, 10-2 eminently reasonable, 11-1 not out of the question, and 12-0 unlikely as always but possible depending on the strength of the rivals and bad Kinnick juju.
GO BLUE!
