Watched the entire game yesterday. We will have an “In The Trenches” later this week, but as I was going along, here were some thoughts.
• Florida’s first drive was a microcosm of the last few weeks, and then it wasn’t. You had a cornerback, redshirt junior Jeremy Clark, in position to pick off a pass (like we saw in the Minnesota game) and he just stands there and lets the Florida guy almost take it away from him.
You had linebackers that couldn’t get to the perimeter on runs to the edge, and looking like that would be a problem all day. When Treon Harris dropped back to pass and started scrambling, senior LB James Ross drops and drops and drops and creates a huge running lane for Harris.
But then you saw something to be encouraged about. You saw Clark make a nice play batting a ball away in the end zone. You saw redshirt sophomore nose tackle Maurice Hurst Jr., using his quickness and speed to beat the center-guard combo for a stop. You saw redshirt junior defensive ends Chris Wormley and Willie Henry outmuscle the man opposite them.
And then you saw senior end/OLB Royce Jenkins-Stone blow up the fake field goal. The crazy thing on that play was Michigan was going to block that kick. They haven’t had a blocked FG or punt all year but they were getting that one.
Also, the play is designed to be a pass to the kicker but if you watch junior cornerback Jourdan Lewis, he recognizes it immediately and if Florida did get the pass off, he would have tackled that guy behind the line of scrimmage.
• We were wondering what some rest would do for this defensive line, and these guys owned the line of scrimmage. Hurst had his moments and junior Taco Charlton got stronger as the game went along (which was sort of his M.O. as the year unfolded) but Wormley and Henry … my goodness.
Henry was absolutely throwing the right tackle around while Wormley became the single biggest reason that the stretch play started going nowhere for the Gators. They couldn’t outflank him. He just kept running right through the tackle, blowing that play up and forcing the back to either tuck inside where linebackers actually were waiting for him, or go outside where a drawn-down safety was sitting.
• We’ve been hard on the linebackers all year, and rightfully so, and there were some early moments that were all too familiar, but senior Joe Bolden had the best game of his career, in my opinion. It started with some solid coverage out in the flat, breaking up a pass in the first quarter. Then, on the exact same play that Ross allowed Harris to run wild, Bolden held his point along the line instead of backtracking, forcing Harris to run out of bounds for a one-yard gain.
He was all over a stop near the goal line, and he had a really nice play diagnosing a screen pass and putting a stop to that (which led to a Wormley sack).
Coaches and teammates have always said that Bolden is one of the best guys for film watching, but for whatever reason that hasn’t translated for him on the field. Well, perhaps with a month to really get to know an opponent, he was able to set himself up positionally to read and react so much more quickly. The lateral speed was still lacking, but after the first series, he made up for it by being in the right spot at the right time.
Kudos to Bolden.
• All year it’s been obvious why Jim Harbaugh loves redshirt junior wide receiver Jehu Chesson but if you needed any more evidence than check out Michigan’s first series when junior tailback De’Veon Smith goes for a 24-yard run.
Chesson is on the opposite side of where the run goes and he just drives his defender down the field and down the field and down the field and as that guy tries desperately to get an angle and get to Smith, Chesson just pancakes him into the turf 25 yards down the field about a yard further than Smith finishes.
It was good to see junior tight end Jake Butt really pushing his man back on that same run. I spoke to an NFL scout last week that said Butt made the right decision coming back because he’s a late second round/early third round pick right now. When I asked why so low with his receiving skills, he said simply because he’s not a powerful blocker.
“First rounders are either crazy athleticism that can split out wide more like a receiver, and his athleticism is above average but not crazy good, or they’re complete tight ends that can do it all, and there’s a big part of his game lacking right now,” the scout shared.
• I’ll return to Chesson in a minute, but more about the blocking. Freshman receiver Grant Perry has a tremendous block on redshirt junior tailback Drake Johnson’s first long run, removing a safety from the equation. He got called for a holding on a long Chesson reception that was really a 50-50 call. He dives at the legs and when the DB doesn’t fold, he grabs his ankle. At that point Chesson was already running past, and you probably rarely see it called, but Harbaugh didn’t complain.
On Johnson’s TD run on the opening series, senior fullback Joe Kerridge … well done sir. Well done. He gets on the linebacker and just keeps him occupied for the entire duration of the run, which took about two seconds longer than designed. And when Johnson makes his cut back, the only guy that could have stopped him was the linebacker but he is being bullied by Kerridge.
• On 1st and 10 from the UF 19-yard line on that first drive, Michigan wants to run a little quick pass to Chesson in the flat but Florida times a blitz perfectly and breaks through the line as the ball is being snapped. It should have been a 10-yard loss and might have forced a field goal. Instead, Smith steps up and just crushes the blitzing DB and keeps him off of Jake Rudock, who gets a pass off.
It’s incomplete but Johnson goes for 12 yards on the next play so instead of a drive killer, it was just a small blip in the otherwise successful series.
Smith is the best blocking back, in pass protection, I’ve seen since Chris Floyd in 1997. Mike Hart was good. Chris Perry was good. Smith is better.
• Along the offensive line, fifth-year senior Graham Glasgow graded out the best followed sophomore left tackle Mason Cole, redshirt junior right tackle Erik Magnuson and redshirt junior left guard Ben Braden. Redshirt junior guard Kyle Kalis was a mess. Now, Jonathan Bullard is a damn fine defensive tackle and will play on Sundays, and Kalis drew him as a matchup plenty, but Kalis got handled most of the day.
Skene and I will go through a few of the running success and failures for “In The Trenches” and it won’t be kind to Kalis.
Next year’s line could see freshman Grant Newsome take over at left tackle and Cole move to center. I like Magnuson and think he’s making enough improvement. But Michigan needs a significant upgrade at the two guard spots.
• It seemed to me that senior safety Jarrod Wilson was playing Jabrill Peppers’ role with Peppers out with an injury. He looked like a part-time dime linebacker and part-time nickel back. He did a really nice job too. That was one of Wilson’s best games, with a key interception in the end zone in the second quarter.
Lewis was in position to knock the ball down too, but Wilson went up and met the ball at its highest point for the pick.
• Coming back to Chesson for a minute (sorry for skipping around so much), but let’s talk three plays.
First, is him catching the ball flat-footed on an eight-yard route, about two shy of the first down on third down. There are three defenders with 2-3 yards of him that could have stopped him shy of the sticks. Instead, Chesson accelerates, takes the best angle (towards the center of the field) and gets another 15 yards. He has the best acceleration since Denard Robinson.
Second play, Chesson gets held at the line of scrimmage, still fights his way through and catches an over-the-shoulder throw for a first down. On the fade, if Chesson isn’t held, he catches that ball in stride instead of having to dive for it, and he has a good angle on the safety. He gets at least 15-20 yards and with his speed and ability to cut back into the middle of the field, he maybe scores.
Third play, take our pick of the 30-yard touchdown where he makes a double move on All-American cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III and just leaves him in the dust or the long 45-yard reception that shows off just how far he’s come, getting off the line cleanly, beating his man and taking off to catch the ball in mid-stride.
I’ll say this about the chemistry between Rudock and Chesson – if it had been this good earlier in the year, Michigan beats Utah and Michigan State. Utah for obvious reasons (there were two overthrows that should have been TDs) but MSU because it was a weapon they couldn’t even attempt against the Spartans because it didn’t exist yet.
One final note on Chesson, in the second half, Michigan runs a fake handoff to Johnson and then fakes a throw to Chesson in the flat and three defenders go for it. The middle linebacker bites. The strong safety bites and they just completely vacate the middle of the field. Butt slips out and catches a 15-yard pass.
We saw that type of attention towards Peppers earlier in the year and Chesson has come so far that a simple fake to him and the entire Florida defense reacts.
• Rudock’s throw in the second quarter on a 2nd-and-9 to Perry on a 25-yard out was an NFL throw. Rudock was obviously in the game late so that Harbaugh could showcase him to the NFL. His final completion came as he went left and threw across his body. We’ll have more on Rudock’s NFL potential later this week, but I have little doubt (especially watching how many scrub QBs play in the NFL) that he will play on Sundays.
• Senior tight end A.J. Williams will be missed. When Michigan ran right, it consistently ran between Magnuson and Williams, who went from a very average blocker to a really fine blocker this season.
Who will play that role next year? Butt can be better and redshirt sophomore Khalid Hill and redshirt freshman Ian Bunting, but they’re all receiver-first types. Perhaps freshman Tyrone Wheatley Jr., can play some of tight end and offensive tackle, and being that devastating blocking tight end U-M needs.
• The third quarter was a perfect storm for the defensive line. You had a group that was gaining confidence and you had a Florida offensive line that was fading. Wormley, Henry, Charlton and Jenkins-Stone just took over.
Two yards for Florida in the third quarter. Two!
• Imagine a secondary next season of Peppers, Lewis and junior safety Dymonte Thomas. Now get really, really excited. Thomas blossomed in November and was playing his best ball. In the Citrus Bowl, his elite athleticism (he’s the closest athlete they have to Peppers) was on display.
• Remember early in the year when Johnson was wide open for an underneath route and Rudock overthrew him in that Minnesota game. Friday, they play a simple game of catch for an eight-yard touchdown.
I’ve been covering Michigan football for 13 years, been watching U-M for 30, and the only quarterback that I think can match Rudock for what he did in these final five games is Drew Henson in 2000.
• Sione Houma. Sione Houma. Sione Houma.
Man should never have to buy himself dinner wherever he goes the rest of his life if there is another Michigan Man in attendance.
• Friday was the first time all year that Michigan scored a touchdown on the opening possession of the first and third quarters.
• Florida’s first drive was a microcosm of the last few weeks, and then it wasn’t. You had a cornerback, redshirt junior Jeremy Clark, in position to pick off a pass (like we saw in the Minnesota game) and he just stands there and lets the Florida guy almost take it away from him.
You had linebackers that couldn’t get to the perimeter on runs to the edge, and looking like that would be a problem all day. When Treon Harris dropped back to pass and started scrambling, senior LB James Ross drops and drops and drops and creates a huge running lane for Harris.
But then you saw something to be encouraged about. You saw Clark make a nice play batting a ball away in the end zone. You saw redshirt sophomore nose tackle Maurice Hurst Jr., using his quickness and speed to beat the center-guard combo for a stop. You saw redshirt junior defensive ends Chris Wormley and Willie Henry outmuscle the man opposite them.
And then you saw senior end/OLB Royce Jenkins-Stone blow up the fake field goal. The crazy thing on that play was Michigan was going to block that kick. They haven’t had a blocked FG or punt all year but they were getting that one.
Also, the play is designed to be a pass to the kicker but if you watch junior cornerback Jourdan Lewis, he recognizes it immediately and if Florida did get the pass off, he would have tackled that guy behind the line of scrimmage.
• We were wondering what some rest would do for this defensive line, and these guys owned the line of scrimmage. Hurst had his moments and junior Taco Charlton got stronger as the game went along (which was sort of his M.O. as the year unfolded) but Wormley and Henry … my goodness.
Henry was absolutely throwing the right tackle around while Wormley became the single biggest reason that the stretch play started going nowhere for the Gators. They couldn’t outflank him. He just kept running right through the tackle, blowing that play up and forcing the back to either tuck inside where linebackers actually were waiting for him, or go outside where a drawn-down safety was sitting.
• We’ve been hard on the linebackers all year, and rightfully so, and there were some early moments that were all too familiar, but senior Joe Bolden had the best game of his career, in my opinion. It started with some solid coverage out in the flat, breaking up a pass in the first quarter. Then, on the exact same play that Ross allowed Harris to run wild, Bolden held his point along the line instead of backtracking, forcing Harris to run out of bounds for a one-yard gain.
He was all over a stop near the goal line, and he had a really nice play diagnosing a screen pass and putting a stop to that (which led to a Wormley sack).
Coaches and teammates have always said that Bolden is one of the best guys for film watching, but for whatever reason that hasn’t translated for him on the field. Well, perhaps with a month to really get to know an opponent, he was able to set himself up positionally to read and react so much more quickly. The lateral speed was still lacking, but after the first series, he made up for it by being in the right spot at the right time.
Kudos to Bolden.
• All year it’s been obvious why Jim Harbaugh loves redshirt junior wide receiver Jehu Chesson but if you needed any more evidence than check out Michigan’s first series when junior tailback De’Veon Smith goes for a 24-yard run.
Chesson is on the opposite side of where the run goes and he just drives his defender down the field and down the field and down the field and as that guy tries desperately to get an angle and get to Smith, Chesson just pancakes him into the turf 25 yards down the field about a yard further than Smith finishes.
It was good to see junior tight end Jake Butt really pushing his man back on that same run. I spoke to an NFL scout last week that said Butt made the right decision coming back because he’s a late second round/early third round pick right now. When I asked why so low with his receiving skills, he said simply because he’s not a powerful blocker.
“First rounders are either crazy athleticism that can split out wide more like a receiver, and his athleticism is above average but not crazy good, or they’re complete tight ends that can do it all, and there’s a big part of his game lacking right now,” the scout shared.
• I’ll return to Chesson in a minute, but more about the blocking. Freshman receiver Grant Perry has a tremendous block on redshirt junior tailback Drake Johnson’s first long run, removing a safety from the equation. He got called for a holding on a long Chesson reception that was really a 50-50 call. He dives at the legs and when the DB doesn’t fold, he grabs his ankle. At that point Chesson was already running past, and you probably rarely see it called, but Harbaugh didn’t complain.
On Johnson’s TD run on the opening series, senior fullback Joe Kerridge … well done sir. Well done. He gets on the linebacker and just keeps him occupied for the entire duration of the run, which took about two seconds longer than designed. And when Johnson makes his cut back, the only guy that could have stopped him was the linebacker but he is being bullied by Kerridge.
• On 1st and 10 from the UF 19-yard line on that first drive, Michigan wants to run a little quick pass to Chesson in the flat but Florida times a blitz perfectly and breaks through the line as the ball is being snapped. It should have been a 10-yard loss and might have forced a field goal. Instead, Smith steps up and just crushes the blitzing DB and keeps him off of Jake Rudock, who gets a pass off.
It’s incomplete but Johnson goes for 12 yards on the next play so instead of a drive killer, it was just a small blip in the otherwise successful series.
Smith is the best blocking back, in pass protection, I’ve seen since Chris Floyd in 1997. Mike Hart was good. Chris Perry was good. Smith is better.
• Along the offensive line, fifth-year senior Graham Glasgow graded out the best followed sophomore left tackle Mason Cole, redshirt junior right tackle Erik Magnuson and redshirt junior left guard Ben Braden. Redshirt junior guard Kyle Kalis was a mess. Now, Jonathan Bullard is a damn fine defensive tackle and will play on Sundays, and Kalis drew him as a matchup plenty, but Kalis got handled most of the day.
Skene and I will go through a few of the running success and failures for “In The Trenches” and it won’t be kind to Kalis.
Next year’s line could see freshman Grant Newsome take over at left tackle and Cole move to center. I like Magnuson and think he’s making enough improvement. But Michigan needs a significant upgrade at the two guard spots.
• It seemed to me that senior safety Jarrod Wilson was playing Jabrill Peppers’ role with Peppers out with an injury. He looked like a part-time dime linebacker and part-time nickel back. He did a really nice job too. That was one of Wilson’s best games, with a key interception in the end zone in the second quarter.
Lewis was in position to knock the ball down too, but Wilson went up and met the ball at its highest point for the pick.
• Coming back to Chesson for a minute (sorry for skipping around so much), but let’s talk three plays.
First, is him catching the ball flat-footed on an eight-yard route, about two shy of the first down on third down. There are three defenders with 2-3 yards of him that could have stopped him shy of the sticks. Instead, Chesson accelerates, takes the best angle (towards the center of the field) and gets another 15 yards. He has the best acceleration since Denard Robinson.
Second play, Chesson gets held at the line of scrimmage, still fights his way through and catches an over-the-shoulder throw for a first down. On the fade, if Chesson isn’t held, he catches that ball in stride instead of having to dive for it, and he has a good angle on the safety. He gets at least 15-20 yards and with his speed and ability to cut back into the middle of the field, he maybe scores.
Third play, take our pick of the 30-yard touchdown where he makes a double move on All-American cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III and just leaves him in the dust or the long 45-yard reception that shows off just how far he’s come, getting off the line cleanly, beating his man and taking off to catch the ball in mid-stride.
I’ll say this about the chemistry between Rudock and Chesson – if it had been this good earlier in the year, Michigan beats Utah and Michigan State. Utah for obvious reasons (there were two overthrows that should have been TDs) but MSU because it was a weapon they couldn’t even attempt against the Spartans because it didn’t exist yet.
One final note on Chesson, in the second half, Michigan runs a fake handoff to Johnson and then fakes a throw to Chesson in the flat and three defenders go for it. The middle linebacker bites. The strong safety bites and they just completely vacate the middle of the field. Butt slips out and catches a 15-yard pass.
We saw that type of attention towards Peppers earlier in the year and Chesson has come so far that a simple fake to him and the entire Florida defense reacts.
• Rudock’s throw in the second quarter on a 2nd-and-9 to Perry on a 25-yard out was an NFL throw. Rudock was obviously in the game late so that Harbaugh could showcase him to the NFL. His final completion came as he went left and threw across his body. We’ll have more on Rudock’s NFL potential later this week, but I have little doubt (especially watching how many scrub QBs play in the NFL) that he will play on Sundays.
• Senior tight end A.J. Williams will be missed. When Michigan ran right, it consistently ran between Magnuson and Williams, who went from a very average blocker to a really fine blocker this season.
Who will play that role next year? Butt can be better and redshirt sophomore Khalid Hill and redshirt freshman Ian Bunting, but they’re all receiver-first types. Perhaps freshman Tyrone Wheatley Jr., can play some of tight end and offensive tackle, and being that devastating blocking tight end U-M needs.
• The third quarter was a perfect storm for the defensive line. You had a group that was gaining confidence and you had a Florida offensive line that was fading. Wormley, Henry, Charlton and Jenkins-Stone just took over.
Two yards for Florida in the third quarter. Two!
• Imagine a secondary next season of Peppers, Lewis and junior safety Dymonte Thomas. Now get really, really excited. Thomas blossomed in November and was playing his best ball. In the Citrus Bowl, his elite athleticism (he’s the closest athlete they have to Peppers) was on display.
• Remember early in the year when Johnson was wide open for an underneath route and Rudock overthrew him in that Minnesota game. Friday, they play a simple game of catch for an eight-yard touchdown.
I’ve been covering Michigan football for 13 years, been watching U-M for 30, and the only quarterback that I think can match Rudock for what he did in these final five games is Drew Henson in 2000.
• Sione Houma. Sione Houma. Sione Houma.
Man should never have to buy himself dinner wherever he goes the rest of his life if there is another Michigan Man in attendance.
• Friday was the first time all year that Michigan scored a touchdown on the opening possession of the first and third quarters.
