al wistert

also he can run [Patrick Barron]

Sponsor note. Are you thinking of starting a business? Maybe handing out water to FSU football players who are unprepared to play in the sweltering temperatures at [checks notes]… their home stadium? Or maybe you'd rather create an army of people to collect giant tips after dissuading Tennessee fans from going inside Neyland?

hoeglaw_thumb[1]_thumb (2)

Well, those are fantastic ideas. You'll need some paperwork to get off the ground; you'll need someone to write up contracts for you. You'll need… a lawyer. Richard Hoeg is that lawyer. Call him. No ideas are bad ideas. Except going to Tennessee.

Well, then. My preseason projections that Tru Wilson would hold on to a plurality of Michigan snaps did not account for this possibility:

Harbaugh also said that Charbonnet had won the starting job with or without Wilson's injury. Also:

Zach Charbonnet had nine pickups in protection, which, I don’t think we’ve had a back get nine pickups in a protection since we’ve been here, one single back,” Harbaugh said. “And to be 100 percent, nine out of nine, that’s like, wow. That’s really good.”

If Charbonnet is instantly Also Tru Wilson as a pass protector nothing is keeping him from a monster freshman year. Here's rooting for a big fat zero on one of my stupid predictions.

A shift. Here's a bit from PFF's preseason top 25:

In 2018, Patterson flashed with almost 60% of his yards coming through the air. He co-led the Big 10 in adjusted completion percentage on second or third and long with Dwayne Haskins. The Wolverines ran on almost 60% of first- and second-down plays.

As Dave mention on the podcast, Michigan's first down run rate was 45% against MTSU. That may be even a bit more of a sea change since Michigan was very run heavy once McCaffrey came in.

[After THE JUMP: Avenatti has the goods?]

[Ezra Shaw via CBSSports]

Ty Law's in the Hall of Fame. Tom Brady's the GOAT. And a bunch of former Michigan players just had their first go in the new AAFL. So I'm making a 53-man pro team out of Michigan alumni.

Previously:

Rules are the guy's Michigan career is irrelevant except he has to have at least been on the field for Michigan—this is all based on how good he was as a pro. Pro Bowls, starts, and longevity are more important than team success. It's also not simply a list of the greatest pros—I'm building a team. I already did the offense. Here's Part II.

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Defensive Tackle: Tom Keating (1964-'75)

Start about 5:28 and watch #74

Tom Keating played nose tackle for some of the greatest teams of the '60s and '70s, and was the fulcrum for one of the nastiest (and most successful) defenses in the history of the game. Keating's claim to fame at Michigan is he was the first Michigan player to touch the banner while captaining the defensive line for Bump's worst two teams.

Keating's pro career started slowly. Drafted by the Vikings (NFL) and the Bills (AFL), Keating chose the latter as they were one of the premier teams in the game. That proved a mistake, as Keating relegated to a rotation spot on a stacked Bills roster (they were AFL Champions his first, second, and fourth years in the league).

Keating walked in 1966, and joined the Raiders. He was an immediate AFL All-Star, and by his second season in Oakland Keating was celebrated as the Aaron Donald of his time, anchoring a legendary Raiders defense that dominated the end of the 1960s. Except for the one season (1968) Keating missed with a leg injury, he was the premier DT in the league, and when the AFL merged with the NFL, he was the best in either. Their best defense was probably in 1970, the first year after the merger. But that was the year all of the Raiders' quarterbacks got injured and they had to re-sign kicker George Blanda to play quarterback. The injuries finally caught up in 1973 in one year mentoring what would become the front of the Steel Curtain. Keating's last great year was 1974 with the Chiefs, and he retired after 1975.

[After THE JUMP: One that got away]

benny friedman

You know those “make your all-time” lists that circulate in the offseason? Suddenly they got serious.

Previously:

This week: I’ve been leaving out pre-Nineties players because I didn’t gain consciousness until well into the Eighties. We’ll leave the Best of Bo for Sap. These are Pre-Bo. Also this one’s going to be long because a lot of these guys are probably unfamiliar to you. 

I did not run any of this past Greg Dooley, who studies this stuff, or the UM Bentley Library guys who curate it, or Craig Ross, who was alive for all of it, and I reserve the right to edit based on anything they might choose to add because they know this stuff way better than I do.

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Rules: Players are considered for how they compared to other players of their own time—a 180-pound center from a Point-a-Minute team wouldn’t survive a series versus one of Woody Hayes’s defensive lines; on the other hand Bump’s players didn’t have to worry about cholera. Pre-platooning players can be eligible for both sides of the ball.

Cutoff Point: To avoid overlap the majority of his playing time had to come before 1969. Just give Bump some credit for recruiting the excellent 1968 class.

Foul Language Warning: The faint at heart might want to skip tight end.

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Quarterback: Benny Friedman

2018-06-11 benny friedman

Kinda tough to throw a spiral with that [The Michigan History Project]

Who was Michigan’s greatest quarterback ever debatable, but this much is not: He was certainly Jewish.

I’m going with Benny Friedman over Harry Newman. Friedman was the game’s first great passer, but still more Denard Robinson than Tom Brady. Back in the day freshmen were still not allowed to play varsity, so in 1923 the Glenville (yes, a powerhouse even then) product had to resign himself to embarrassing his classmates. In 1924 Yost was Barry Alvarez-ing over his handpicked successor George Little, and Little refused to put Benny, already a campus legend, on the field. Until, that is, Michigan lost to Red Grange’s Illinois, and a furious Yost joined the campus chorus to play Friedman. The result was immediate and spectacular. After ‘24 Yost sent Little packing, inserted Friedman as his starting QB, and in concert with a certain future Michigan head coach, outscored opponents 227 to 3*. The following year they lost only to eventual national champion Navy (a team Benny and Bennie handled 54-0 at home in ‘25). Friedman also kicked every field goal and extra point, led the team in rushing, returned a kickoff 85 yards, threw more TD passes than the rest of the Big Ten combined, and called every play.

* [As luck would have it the 3 went to Northwestern in a ridiculous 3-2 mudfest that got the safety rule changed and nearly got Evanston burned to the ground; Craig Ross wrote about it in HTTV 2015.]

Honorable Mention: Harry Newman, who went 24-1-2 as a starter and should be counted among Heisman winners except they called it the Fairbanks Trophy back then. Big Bob Timberlake

[After THE JUMP: Icons and Legends]