The freshman class that Michigan signed last week is ranked 17th in the 247 composite rankings, 17th to Rivals, and 19th to On3, The class has, pending their pursuit of 5-star Nyckoles Harbor in the later signing period, zero top-100 players. This is quite clearly below the level Michigan normally recruits at. To have a class like that after a second straight year of beating Ohio State by three scores, winning the Big Ten championship, and going to the Playoff is, without question, a disappointment. I'm one of the people who kept saying over the first half-decade of Harbaugh that beating Ohio State was the key to unlocking a higher level of recruiting. So far, it has not. This has led to two major questions about the 2023 class, which might be seen as the optimistic and pessimistic versions of the same question: Pessimist: Why is a 13-0 Michigan recruiting like 8-5 Michigan? Optimist: Is this class like the 2018 class? Every other question is another form of what this all signifie
The day after Michigan crushed Ohio State in Columbus last fall, Luke Fickell was announced as the Badgers' new head coach, and two Badger commits, 6'3"/290 DT Roderick "Trey" Pierce III and 6'2"/320 NT Jamel Howard, reopened their recruitments. On Wednesday night Michigan completed the first half of an attempted double-flip of Wisconsin's DT class. Pierce, the higher-ranked one, has been rising over the cycle. When he committed to Wisconsin last May he was close the 1,000s, and had slipped into them by fall. Senior tape started to change opinions dramatically. He crossed the 4-star line at Rivals earlier this month and might be heading that way on a couple of the other sites. That senior tape, and the explanation for why it changed so many opinions, came with a major new body and new position; Pierce was a 245-pound defensive end this time last year. He's now listed at 290 to the two sites that update that the most frequently, and 285 to Ri
This series is a work-in-progress glossary of football concepts we tend to talk about in these pages. Previously: Offensive concepts: RPOs, high-low, snag, mesh, covered/ineligible receivers, Duo, zone vs gap blocking, zone stretch, split zone, pin and pull, inverted veer, reach block, kickout block, wham block, Y banana play, TRAIN, the run & shoot Defensive concepts: The 3-3-5, Contain & lane integrity, force player, hybrid space player, no YOU’RE a 3-4!, scrape exchange, Tampa 2, Saban-style pattern-matching, match quarters, Dantonio’s quarters, Don Brown’s 4-DL packages and 3-DL packages, Bear Special Teams: Spread punt vs NFL-style So counter trey and its counter, BASH, are a pair of offensive concepts we're going to see more of, possibly from and certainly against Michigan. While things like it were part of the Single Wing offenses of the early 20th century, Tom Osborne's Nebraska teams really made Counter Trey a staple of power running. Michigan ran a bun
The UFR Glossary. Substitution Notes: Edge was the most interesting; Morris and Upshaw were the starters and played 2/3 of snaps but Okie rotated in for 4-down fronts and outplayed McGregor and Upshaw. D.Moore came in to pass rush when Morris was inside. Paige started over Moore then rotated drives with Moten. CBs were the usual Turner/Green with Johnson spelling each for a drive. Sainristil came off for an extra DL when Iowa went to 2WR sets. LBs were mostly Colson and Barrett but Rolder and Mullings got in a little bit. Mazi Smith went almost the whole way (PFF missed that Goode was in late), with Jenkins and Graham his 5-2 mates (backed up by Benny) and Morris or Upshaw playing pass rush DT. Grant got one goal line snap. Formation Notes: An "X" in the defensive formation means a DE split way, way outside. For example I'm calling this "Nk Split X" because it's Nickel Split but the split edge (Eyabi Okie, on the top) is even wider than a Wide-9. How it be
Previously: Podcast 14.0A, 14.0B, 14.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Offensive Tackle. Interior OL. BEFORE WE GET STARTED War never changes, but the preview posts do. We've held onto the idea that a 3-4 really a 5-2 since one of your starting "OLBs" is 292 pounds is not really a thing in 2022 even if Michigan says it is. They did last year, and we didn't believe them, and then they ran out one linebacker for big chunks of the Michigan State game. Was this a good idea? No. Does it force us to reconsider some things, preview-wise? Yes. Also. I worked on this depth chart for a month and then Harbaugh … just podcasted it out, with full on OLB/tackle/nose/end Ravens 3-4 nomenclature. So. Here is what we believe will happen with the defense this year: ANY SPREAD LOOK, STANDARD DOWN: 4-2-5 nickel that looks bog standard Don Brown pre-snap complete with viper-type person who is either Michael Barrett or Mike Sainristil. ANY SPREAD LOOK,