The latest edition of INSIDE THE FORT, including plenty of football heading into Saturday’s homecoming tilt against Rutgers …
Starting with the team, which stands 3-0 after sweeping easily through the non-conference portion of the schedule. If you’ll recall, we said in a preseason ITF that the folks in the real Fort (Schembechler Hall) said they knew they had to start the season 4-0, for a numbers of reasons.
One, they had to win the home games, and they started with four of them. Two, three of the games were among the easiest on the schedule (all but Washington, which also proved easier than expected — but give them credit, too. They prepared extremely well for that game, and even worked a lot on the Huskies during WMU week.
Three — 4-0 gives them momentum heading into the meat of the schedule and a sense of ‘we can do this.’ They’re really ahead of schedule in that area, at this point, extremely tight as a group and showing no signs of breaking. The leadership has been outstanding, and those whose attitudes aren’t in tune with the rest of the squad aren’t being allowed to affect the chemistry of the team.
Some just aren’t playing. Others have been told, ‘that’s not the way it’s going to be this year.’
Those in the building understand this squad has a little more star power than expected in Aidan Hutchison, Blake Corum, Dax Hill and (to an extent) Josh Ross — keep an eye on Junior Colson, too, in that respect, at least by the end of the year, according to those who see him every day — but they also realize playing together and with great chemistry is the key to winning some of the tougher games on the schedule.
“They have to show up every day,” one of them told us. “There’s talent here, but not enough to go through the motions and win. But … they have, and there hasn’t been any let up.”
It starts with an offensive line that is having more fun than they’ve ever had. To this point, the source said, they’ve been THE pleasant surprise of the team. At the same time, there are much bigger tests to come.
“They’ve done what good Big Ten lines should do against the first three teams. Washington has some players, but their scheme really was flawed, and [Michigan] took advantage],” the source said. “Nobody’s saying it out loud, but everyone knows we’re going to find out a lot next week (at Wisconsin).”
They anticipate having to throw the ball more in that game, and they hope Cade McNamara is up to the task. To be clear, everyone in that building respects the hell out of the job the redshirt frosh quarterback has done preparing each week and doing what he needs to do to lead the Wolverines to victory. Some have compared his style to former Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier, but the same people told us that’s doing McNamara a disservice in one area in particular.
“This kid works so hard,” they said. He wants it so badly. He’ll watch more film in a half day than Tate watched in a week.”
As much as McNamara is respected, there are still several in the building who feel the same way … that it’s going to be hard for McNamara to hold off freshman JJ McCarthy, who is also an incredible leader. One source told us there’s still a ‘significant chance’ that the frosh starts a game this year … he’d have to earn it, but he’s had practices in which he’s been lights out.
The biggest issue he still has is being a little too ‘cowboyish’ in trying to make something out of nothing instead of cutting his losses on bad plays. He’s still forcing some the issue too often. But a lof of that has been coached out of him, and there’s no doubt among those in the building that he has a very good chance to be the next Michigan ‘great’ quarterback.
More football …
There are always going to be guys who get frustrated when they aren’t playing, and that’s natural. It’s how they handle it that matters, and the vast majority of those who aren’t thrilled have handled it the right way.
Freshman running back Donovan Edwards was hoping for more carries early in the year, and there was frustration after the Washington game. That might have been one of the reasons running backs coach Mike Hart said during his press conference he wanted to get his frosh more carries, and meant to — and that he told him that.
Edwards got his share of carries against Northern Illinois, but it’s clear that Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum are 1-2 for a reason. They’ve earned it. But Edwards knows (and has been told) he is going to get his chances and that he’s the future, so there’s no real concern he’s going to threaten to hit the transfer portal, for example.
We’ve been asked what’s been going on with a pair of Californians, defensive back Donovan Green-Warren and receiver Cristian Dixon. We can only say both have a lot (lot) of work to do to see the field in front of the guys in front of them.
****
More football, and word or two on the opponent …
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are 4-1 on the road since head coach Greg Schiano rejoined the program ahead of the 2020 campaign, but haven’t faced an atmosphere like the one they’ll be presented with Saturday at The Big House. The Scarlet Knights are preparing for it by blasting music during practice, one who was in the building this week told us, but as Schiano noted this week, the biggest challenge of playing on the road in the Big Ten is not letting momentum slip away — it’s hard to regain.
It’s harder to do so without one of your starting cornerbacks. Tuesday morning, Schiano announced that second-year freshman corner Max Melton, the brother of star wideout Bo Melton, is suspended after being taken into police custody as a result of an incident involving a paintball gun. Backup freshman corner Chris Long was also suspended.
While there was technically no timetable for the suspensions set, neither the aforementioned source nor Richard Schnyderite of The Knight Report expect either guy to play Saturday, forcing the Scarlet Knights into a tricky situation as they don’t have much depth at the position. Melton has two interceptions on the season.
We’ve been told there are rumblings in Piscataway about the potential of junior safety Avery Young, a converted cornerback who earned an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention at the latter position last season, moving back to the outside for the time being.
There’s also a possibility that Melton’s absence will mean more opportunity for former Wolverine and senior linebacker Drew Singleton, who has played 38 snaps in three outings. Rutgers lines up in a lot of nickel, with three corners on the field, but one who was at a Scarlet Knight practice this week said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Singleton on the field more, which would also align with an added emphasis on stacking the box and attempting to stop the run.
Michigan is a 20.5-point favorite, a considerable margin, but over the last two years, the Scarlet Knights have posed more of a threat than they ever have before in the Harbaugh era.
Schiano and his staff have injected new life into the program and are recruiting at a high level, making for a team on the rise in the Big Ten East, for sure.
“Is Greg Schiano known as a great recruiter? Yeah, but at the end of the day he can’t do it all on his own as I’d say the most important thing he has done so far is hire guys who can not only coach, but also recruit,” Schnyderite said.
“Two real quick examples are assistants Fran Brown (secondary) and Sean Gleeson (offensive coordinator). Both are New Jersey natives and know what it takes to recruit in the area.
“Starting with Brown and the minute he came in, he flipped kids from Purdue and Virginia Tech almost right away in Malachi “Max” Melton and Tyreem Powell. He’s very popular throughout the South Jersey / Philadelphia area, where he grew up, and you can argue right now he is currently a top 25 recruiter in the country for the class of 2022.
“Then you have Sean Gleeson, the man who convinced former four-star quarterback Brevin White to choose Princeton over Alabama back during the 2018 recruiting cycle when Gleeson was the Tigers O.C. Not too long after that he helped Oklahoma State land four-star quarterback Shane Illingworth when he was the O.C. there and most recently he’s helped Rutgers land one of their highest ranked quarterbacks ever in Gavin Wimsatt who just recently decided to take the Qwinn Ewers route and enroll very early and is currently on campus now.”
That said, much of the talent Schiano and Co. are reeling in is a year or two away from making an impact. This Scarlet Knights’ team should be overmatched Saturday.
“This is a tough one,” Schnyderite said of the matchup. “I tend to think as long as Michigan gets their run game going, it could get relatively ugly. As I said before, the Scarlet Knights run defense is still very suspect, especially after watching them give up 120-plus yards to an FCS running back last week.
“However, on the flip side, Rutgers isn’t afraid to get crazy at times as you saw last year, and they will do anything and everything in their power to win this game.”
We asked Schnyderite to finish the following sentence: Rutgers pulls off the upset if __________.
“If they can stop the run and not let Michigan control the tempo of the game,” he replied. “Stopping the run should actually be one, two and three on Greg Schiano’s to do list on Saturday, as they’ve struggled with it in the past, but if they can do that, then I think they would give themselves a good shot at winning.”
As noted in yesterday’s opponent preview, he’s not predicting that to happen.
****
A quick word on football recruiting …
Our EJ Holland said this Sept. 8 about elite offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr.:
“I've gone ahead and put in FutureCast pick in favor of the Wolverines. If Rivals allowed me to do so, I would have put it in with a low confidence level of 4. Nevertheless, I have reason to believe that Michigan has the lead right now.
“From talking to Conerly and sources out in the Pacific Northwest, I get the feeling that Conerly is looking for a reason to leave home. With Michigan hosting him for the second time in three months, the opportunity is there for the Wolverines to cement their status as the leaders in this recruitment.”
In recent days, we’ve picked up intel that leads us to believe there’s even more reason for optimism here. Conerly said Michigan treats him “like I’m one of their players already” … and there might be good reason for that.
****
Some basketball and recruiting now …
We went in depth on the team from summer workouts last week, and we’ve since seen reports that DeVante’ Jones will be a ‘big upgrade’ over Mike Smith at point guard. Our sources told us to ‘pump the brakes’ on such talk, noting that while Jones has been good, he’s a completely different type of player than Smith and needs to prove he can have success against quicker guards.
“He’s more deliberate,” or source said. “He uses his strength to get in the lane, and quicker Big Ten guards might give him trouble.”
But he’s been shooting the ball well and playing with confidence. His defense is still a question mark, but that’s the case across the board minus Eli Brooks, who’s always dialed in.
There’s no question, however, that this team is talented. Whether or not it has enough shooters is the big question mark, and they’re working to find the right combinations to ensure they have a three-point presence.
Caleb Houstan has been lights out in that area. Brooks’ numbers have improved, but Brandon Johns remains hit and miss. He’ll need to pick it up to add that weapon at that position and earn a fifth year.
On recruiting, expect four-star Gregg Glenn to be part of this class. There were serious questions about that this summer, but his ties to Juwan Howard and family — and the fact that they know they need some guys who they can groom for longer tenures (“we need some four-year guys, too — there’s only one ball”) — and this one makes a bit more sense.
He’ll announce in about a week.
Jett Howard will absolutely be part of this class, despite the consternation from the fan base about his visits elsewhere. And while Yohan Traore seems to be a long shot, the big man is visiting this weekend and has a connection with Moussa Diabate (a French connection) that gave U-M it’s ‘in’ here.
There might be some in his circle who want him elsewhere, but that’s been the case with some of the other recruits Howard has landed in the past few years, too.
It does appear as though the future is being built around the idea of Jett Howard having the ball in his hands quite a bit, so here’s hoping the pieces around him fit. He’ll be the only shooter in his class, so that will be a priority among the 2023s.
Finally, some have seen that the Pretzel Bell restaurant is sponsoring the Michigan volleyball team. Many have wondered when someone is going to step up for the football or basketball teams the way other schools' boosters have.
We can tell you that there's one who is ready to provide NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) compensation for the entire basketball team. It's just a matter of getting the guidance from the school to hep with tax implications, etc.
Again, there are plenty who want to partake ... they just need to get everyone on the same page with a plan.
Starting with the team, which stands 3-0 after sweeping easily through the non-conference portion of the schedule. If you’ll recall, we said in a preseason ITF that the folks in the real Fort (Schembechler Hall) said they knew they had to start the season 4-0, for a numbers of reasons.
One, they had to win the home games, and they started with four of them. Two, three of the games were among the easiest on the schedule (all but Washington, which also proved easier than expected — but give them credit, too. They prepared extremely well for that game, and even worked a lot on the Huskies during WMU week.
Three — 4-0 gives them momentum heading into the meat of the schedule and a sense of ‘we can do this.’ They’re really ahead of schedule in that area, at this point, extremely tight as a group and showing no signs of breaking. The leadership has been outstanding, and those whose attitudes aren’t in tune with the rest of the squad aren’t being allowed to affect the chemistry of the team.
Some just aren’t playing. Others have been told, ‘that’s not the way it’s going to be this year.’
Those in the building understand this squad has a little more star power than expected in Aidan Hutchison, Blake Corum, Dax Hill and (to an extent) Josh Ross — keep an eye on Junior Colson, too, in that respect, at least by the end of the year, according to those who see him every day — but they also realize playing together and with great chemistry is the key to winning some of the tougher games on the schedule.
“They have to show up every day,” one of them told us. “There’s talent here, but not enough to go through the motions and win. But … they have, and there hasn’t been any let up.”
It starts with an offensive line that is having more fun than they’ve ever had. To this point, the source said, they’ve been THE pleasant surprise of the team. At the same time, there are much bigger tests to come.
“They’ve done what good Big Ten lines should do against the first three teams. Washington has some players, but their scheme really was flawed, and [Michigan] took advantage],” the source said. “Nobody’s saying it out loud, but everyone knows we’re going to find out a lot next week (at Wisconsin).”
They anticipate having to throw the ball more in that game, and they hope Cade McNamara is up to the task. To be clear, everyone in that building respects the hell out of the job the redshirt frosh quarterback has done preparing each week and doing what he needs to do to lead the Wolverines to victory. Some have compared his style to former Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier, but the same people told us that’s doing McNamara a disservice in one area in particular.
“This kid works so hard,” they said. He wants it so badly. He’ll watch more film in a half day than Tate watched in a week.”
As much as McNamara is respected, there are still several in the building who feel the same way … that it’s going to be hard for McNamara to hold off freshman JJ McCarthy, who is also an incredible leader. One source told us there’s still a ‘significant chance’ that the frosh starts a game this year … he’d have to earn it, but he’s had practices in which he’s been lights out.
The biggest issue he still has is being a little too ‘cowboyish’ in trying to make something out of nothing instead of cutting his losses on bad plays. He’s still forcing some the issue too often. But a lof of that has been coached out of him, and there’s no doubt among those in the building that he has a very good chance to be the next Michigan ‘great’ quarterback.
More football …
There are always going to be guys who get frustrated when they aren’t playing, and that’s natural. It’s how they handle it that matters, and the vast majority of those who aren’t thrilled have handled it the right way.
Freshman running back Donovan Edwards was hoping for more carries early in the year, and there was frustration after the Washington game. That might have been one of the reasons running backs coach Mike Hart said during his press conference he wanted to get his frosh more carries, and meant to — and that he told him that.
Edwards got his share of carries against Northern Illinois, but it’s clear that Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum are 1-2 for a reason. They’ve earned it. But Edwards knows (and has been told) he is going to get his chances and that he’s the future, so there’s no real concern he’s going to threaten to hit the transfer portal, for example.
We’ve been asked what’s been going on with a pair of Californians, defensive back Donovan Green-Warren and receiver Cristian Dixon. We can only say both have a lot (lot) of work to do to see the field in front of the guys in front of them.
****
More football, and word or two on the opponent …
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are 4-1 on the road since head coach Greg Schiano rejoined the program ahead of the 2020 campaign, but haven’t faced an atmosphere like the one they’ll be presented with Saturday at The Big House. The Scarlet Knights are preparing for it by blasting music during practice, one who was in the building this week told us, but as Schiano noted this week, the biggest challenge of playing on the road in the Big Ten is not letting momentum slip away — it’s hard to regain.
It’s harder to do so without one of your starting cornerbacks. Tuesday morning, Schiano announced that second-year freshman corner Max Melton, the brother of star wideout Bo Melton, is suspended after being taken into police custody as a result of an incident involving a paintball gun. Backup freshman corner Chris Long was also suspended.
While there was technically no timetable for the suspensions set, neither the aforementioned source nor Richard Schnyderite of The Knight Report expect either guy to play Saturday, forcing the Scarlet Knights into a tricky situation as they don’t have much depth at the position. Melton has two interceptions on the season.
We’ve been told there are rumblings in Piscataway about the potential of junior safety Avery Young, a converted cornerback who earned an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention at the latter position last season, moving back to the outside for the time being.
There’s also a possibility that Melton’s absence will mean more opportunity for former Wolverine and senior linebacker Drew Singleton, who has played 38 snaps in three outings. Rutgers lines up in a lot of nickel, with three corners on the field, but one who was at a Scarlet Knight practice this week said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Singleton on the field more, which would also align with an added emphasis on stacking the box and attempting to stop the run.
Michigan is a 20.5-point favorite, a considerable margin, but over the last two years, the Scarlet Knights have posed more of a threat than they ever have before in the Harbaugh era.
Schiano and his staff have injected new life into the program and are recruiting at a high level, making for a team on the rise in the Big Ten East, for sure.
“Is Greg Schiano known as a great recruiter? Yeah, but at the end of the day he can’t do it all on his own as I’d say the most important thing he has done so far is hire guys who can not only coach, but also recruit,” Schnyderite said.
“Two real quick examples are assistants Fran Brown (secondary) and Sean Gleeson (offensive coordinator). Both are New Jersey natives and know what it takes to recruit in the area.
“Starting with Brown and the minute he came in, he flipped kids from Purdue and Virginia Tech almost right away in Malachi “Max” Melton and Tyreem Powell. He’s very popular throughout the South Jersey / Philadelphia area, where he grew up, and you can argue right now he is currently a top 25 recruiter in the country for the class of 2022.
“Then you have Sean Gleeson, the man who convinced former four-star quarterback Brevin White to choose Princeton over Alabama back during the 2018 recruiting cycle when Gleeson was the Tigers O.C. Not too long after that he helped Oklahoma State land four-star quarterback Shane Illingworth when he was the O.C. there and most recently he’s helped Rutgers land one of their highest ranked quarterbacks ever in Gavin Wimsatt who just recently decided to take the Qwinn Ewers route and enroll very early and is currently on campus now.”
That said, much of the talent Schiano and Co. are reeling in is a year or two away from making an impact. This Scarlet Knights’ team should be overmatched Saturday.
“This is a tough one,” Schnyderite said of the matchup. “I tend to think as long as Michigan gets their run game going, it could get relatively ugly. As I said before, the Scarlet Knights run defense is still very suspect, especially after watching them give up 120-plus yards to an FCS running back last week.
“However, on the flip side, Rutgers isn’t afraid to get crazy at times as you saw last year, and they will do anything and everything in their power to win this game.”
We asked Schnyderite to finish the following sentence: Rutgers pulls off the upset if __________.
“If they can stop the run and not let Michigan control the tempo of the game,” he replied. “Stopping the run should actually be one, two and three on Greg Schiano’s to do list on Saturday, as they’ve struggled with it in the past, but if they can do that, then I think they would give themselves a good shot at winning.”
As noted in yesterday’s opponent preview, he’s not predicting that to happen.
****
A quick word on football recruiting …
Our EJ Holland said this Sept. 8 about elite offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr.:
“I've gone ahead and put in FutureCast pick in favor of the Wolverines. If Rivals allowed me to do so, I would have put it in with a low confidence level of 4. Nevertheless, I have reason to believe that Michigan has the lead right now.
“From talking to Conerly and sources out in the Pacific Northwest, I get the feeling that Conerly is looking for a reason to leave home. With Michigan hosting him for the second time in three months, the opportunity is there for the Wolverines to cement their status as the leaders in this recruitment.”
In recent days, we’ve picked up intel that leads us to believe there’s even more reason for optimism here. Conerly said Michigan treats him “like I’m one of their players already” … and there might be good reason for that.
****
Some basketball and recruiting now …
We went in depth on the team from summer workouts last week, and we’ve since seen reports that DeVante’ Jones will be a ‘big upgrade’ over Mike Smith at point guard. Our sources told us to ‘pump the brakes’ on such talk, noting that while Jones has been good, he’s a completely different type of player than Smith and needs to prove he can have success against quicker guards.
“He’s more deliberate,” or source said. “He uses his strength to get in the lane, and quicker Big Ten guards might give him trouble.”
But he’s been shooting the ball well and playing with confidence. His defense is still a question mark, but that’s the case across the board minus Eli Brooks, who’s always dialed in.
There’s no question, however, that this team is talented. Whether or not it has enough shooters is the big question mark, and they’re working to find the right combinations to ensure they have a three-point presence.
Caleb Houstan has been lights out in that area. Brooks’ numbers have improved, but Brandon Johns remains hit and miss. He’ll need to pick it up to add that weapon at that position and earn a fifth year.
On recruiting, expect four-star Gregg Glenn to be part of this class. There were serious questions about that this summer, but his ties to Juwan Howard and family — and the fact that they know they need some guys who they can groom for longer tenures (“we need some four-year guys, too — there’s only one ball”) — and this one makes a bit more sense.
He’ll announce in about a week.
Jett Howard will absolutely be part of this class, despite the consternation from the fan base about his visits elsewhere. And while Yohan Traore seems to be a long shot, the big man is visiting this weekend and has a connection with Moussa Diabate (a French connection) that gave U-M it’s ‘in’ here.
There might be some in his circle who want him elsewhere, but that’s been the case with some of the other recruits Howard has landed in the past few years, too.
It does appear as though the future is being built around the idea of Jett Howard having the ball in his hands quite a bit, so here’s hoping the pieces around him fit. He’ll be the only shooter in his class, so that will be a priority among the 2023s.
Finally, some have seen that the Pretzel Bell restaurant is sponsoring the Michigan volleyball team. Many have wondered when someone is going to step up for the football or basketball teams the way other schools' boosters have.
We can tell you that there's one who is ready to provide NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) compensation for the entire basketball team. It's just a matter of getting the guidance from the school to hep with tax implications, etc.
Again, there are plenty who want to partake ... they just need to get everyone on the same page with a plan.
