2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

[WaitTilNextYear]

I dunno about you guys, but I am fiending for some Michigan football.

With ESPN releasing updated Top 300 recruiting rankings and it being only 43 days until resumption of the rivalry with Notre Dame (7 Saturdays from now), it seems like a good time to get our annual thread started.

First off, any and all speculation on the starting unit is most welcome. Here's my guess...

QB: Shea Patterson
RB: Karan Higdon
FB: Ben Mason
WR1: Tarik Black
WR2: Donovan Peoples-Jones
SLOT: Grant Perry
TE: Sean McKeon/Zach Gentry
LT: JBB/James Hudson
LG: Ben Bredeson
C: Cesar Ruiz
RG: Mike Onwenu/Stephen Spanellis
RT: Jon Runyan Jr.

SDE: Rashan Gary
NT: Aubrey Solomon
DT: Michael Dwumfour
WDE: Chase Winovich
VIPER: Khaleke Hudson
MLB: Devin Bush
WLB: Josh Ross/Devin Gil
CB: Lavert Hill
CB: David Long
NI: Ambry Thomas
FS: Tyree Kinnel
SS: Josh Metellus


As for the recruiting stuff, it smarts a bit that MSU may have the top recruit in the state of Michigan (OL Devontae Dobbs) despite what a mess that school is. But, Michigan does have plenty of blue chippers in the 2019 class (ranked #4 currently) with a couple more big names possibly being added:

DL Mazi Smith (#27)
DL Christopher Hinton (#41)
OL Trente Jones (#157)
DL Stephen Herron Jr. (#171)
OL Nolan Rumler (#183)
QB Cade McNamara (#256)
RB Eric Gray (#282)
DL David Ojabo (#283)
LB Charles Thomas (#295)

RB Zach Charbonnet and TE Erick All are likely to see their recruiting rankings rise significantly, imo.


Compelling storylines for Team 139...

1. Kill me now so I don't have to hear "make or break" and "Jim Harbaugh" and "going back to the NFL in year 20XX" in the same sentence 500 bazillion times. Can this team beat a rival? Preferably by a lot of points.

2. Don Brown and a defense that just keeps on coming. Watching Rashan Gary seek and destroy.

3. Gee, Michigan has a capable (maybe even special) QB now? If things go well, any chance of Patterson being involved in the Heisman convo?

4. Will the OL be competent or the team's worst frenemy (looking at LT and RT specifically)? How many underclassmen will be forced into key roles because upperclassmen are hurt/bad at football.

5. Has Ben Herbert and the new S&C staff really made monsters out of these kids? Does Michigan blow teams off the ball like they damn well should?

[CBoller1331]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Dang Grant Perry is still around?

Finally having a dynamic QB could be huge, plus there are no shortages of offensive weapons for Patterson with Peoples-Jones and Gentry and McKeon (I believe I saw both were named to the Mackey watchlist). Hopefully that combined with another solid Don Brown-led defensive unit will be enough to finally beat a rival (maybe even 3!!) and win a big time bowl game (perhaps even the playoff)

[Sportsforever]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Seeing this reminds me...I meant to ask; has anyone seen Psyblast around lately? I realized the other day I haven't seen a post from him in a LONG time...hope he's doing okay.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Seems like MLive mostly agrees with my proposed starting lineup:

https://www.mlive.com/expo/sports/erry-2018/07/f3e17ba8168706/projected-starters-for-michiga.html#incart_river_index

One thing I learned from this article is both QB Shea Patterson and C Cesar Ruiz were "high school" teammates at IMG Academy for 1 year. A little bit of prior familiarity there couldn't hurt with snap coordination, line calls and such.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Best of luck to Stephen Herron Jr. after decommitting from Michigan to commit to Stanford. Can't go wrong with either school. People kinda knew he was just waiting for Stanford's admissions office anyhow, so not really a surprise.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

QB: Shea Patterson
RB: Karan Higdon
FB: Ben Mason
WR1: Tarik Black
WR2: Donovan Peoples-Jones
SLOT: Grant Perry
TE: Sean McKeon/Zach Gentry
LT: JBB/James Hudson
LG: Ben Bredeson
C: Cesar Ruiz
RG: Mike Onwenu/Stephen Spanellis
RT: Jon Runyan Jr.

SDE: Rashan Gary
NT: Aubrey Solomon
DT: Michael Dwumfour
WDE: Chase Winovich
VIPER: Khaleke Hudson
MLB: Devin Bush
WLB: Josh Ross/Devin Gil
CB: Lavert Hill
CB: David Long
NI: Ambry Thomas
FS: Tyree Kinnel
SS: Josh Metellus

Updating my depth chart guess from earlier this summer (now that we're 1 week away from Notre Dame)...

It's looking like it'll be Runyan Jr at LT (with true freshman Jalen Mayfield backing up) and that James Hudson has just about overtaken JBB for RT. Interesting that the LT/RT situation has been swapped from what most probably thought a few months ago. Let's hope that's because Runyan's pass blocking/athleticism have stood out and it's not a 'lesser of two evils' type of situation. No matter who starts here, this player cannot be worse than Nolan Ulizio was last season. Outside chance at being as good as Mason Cole (who was much better on the interior in his Michigan career).

On defense, it's looking like Devin Gil (who has added a bunch of weight) ahead of Josh Ross for the final LB spot. Otherwise no surprises.

This team will go as its OTs and QB do. Certainly can say the same thing about most football teams in general, but this one especially so--it's a very complete team otherwise with maybe DL depth being a much, much more minor concern.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Game still in progress, but looking like a loss. There are a lot of issues and concerns obviously, but my absolute biggest takeaway is there are at least 2 QBs on this year's team that are light years ahead of O'Korn/Speight. That alone is cause for optimism. Outside of one bad decision by Patterson, the QB play has been--I might even use the word--good.

[l3ulvl]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

fire everyone

[TheShizNo1]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

fire everyone

Yup

Who'd have thought Lloyd Carr was as good as it's gonna get.


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[Hawaii_Stars]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

fire everyone

Nah. Maybe change offensive coordinator bc playcalling is bad.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Yeah, no. Don't fire everyone. But maybe send them to a clock management summer camp. The TD drive wasted at least 1 minute of game clock. At least Harbaugh miraculously still has all 3 timeouts.

[TheShizNo1]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Sigh. Out coached. You knew the QB could run and what does he do? Run lol. Nope, haven't had all summer to figure out how to contain that. And ****, man, beating the Indiana's and the Nebraska's of the world gets old. I would've been OK with if we didn't look downright outclassed for a half. If we can't even consistently compete, have we really come all that far?

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[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Notre Dame post mortem (24-17 loss @ ND)


Pros:

*QB play much better, both Patterson and McCaffrey run circles around last year's QBs
*defense played a good 2nd half
*score is about what most people expected (replay this game 10 times and I think Michigan wins 6 or 7)
*1 possession loss to a higher ranked team on the road in week 1 while clearly not playing in top form is about the most overlookable type of loss possible
*KO return TD
*all season goals still attainable


Cons:

*coaching! (playcalling, clock management...woof)
*penalties
*OTs are not B1G-caliber
*couldn't run the football
*defense got hamblasted in 1st half
*interior DL is a shadow of last year
*lack of interior pass rush makes the secondary look more serviceable than elite
*Metellus is still bad at football, might be worse than Hawkins
*just the general feeling that this team can't get out of its own way and is destined to come up short of its potential

[ImTellinTim]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Pretty much every big game follows the same pattern since Harbaugh came. Ho hum.

He has achieved the absolute minimum of expectations so far. Change my mind Jim. Look like you have a damn plan at some point.

[l3ulvl]

Re: 2018 Michigan Wolverines | Team 139

Sigh. Out coached. You knew the QB could run and what does he do? Run lol. Nope, haven't had all summer to figure out how to contain that. And ****, man, beating the Indiana's and the Nebraska's of the world gets old. I would've been OK with if we didn't look downright outclassed for a half. If we can't even consistently compete, have we really come all that far?

Sent from my SM-T807V using Operation Sports mobile app

Has Michigan ever stopped a mobile QB ever? Doesn't seem like the Don Brown blitzkrieg style really works that way, not that he's been around forever, it's only been a few years for him, but the program in general never seems to have anything in place to shut it down. Although it doesn't help when the opposing receivers keep making miracle catches when the QB just floats lobs out there.

Ugh