brad hawkins

Looking back. [Patrick Barron]

Seth • May 2, 2022 • 1:22pm

Hello, fan of an NFL team. MGoBlog excruciatingly scouts every Michigan play, and scores them to inform our coverage. Since mi atleta es su atleta now, here we share what we're sharing.

Previously: RB Hassan Haskins, OL Andrew Stueber, DT Chris Hinton, DE Aidan Hutchinson, DE David Ojabo, LB Josh Ross, S Daxton Hill

Quickly: Brainy, sure tackling safety who's been with Michigan as long as Harbaugh. Not fast. Leader.

Draft Projection: Undrafted free agent.

NFL Comp: Tony Jefferson. UDFA who was a highly rated CB out of high school but didn't have the speed to stick there. Linebackerish strong safety who gets by on smarts, has helped a lot of very good defenses.

What's his story? If you start looking at Twitter for Brad Hawkins takes you'll surely come upon a genre of "Brad Hawkins is so old…" jokes. They're all true: Hawkins committed to Michigan before Harbaugh had ever coached a game, and played in more games than anyone in history, quite an accomplishment when you consider Michigan is the only FBS program still around from the time before playing careers had term limits. Also if you search MGoBlog history you'll quickly learn that "boring" is one of the nicest things we say about safeties.

Hawkins was a novel recruit for Michigan: the first guy in 50 years to commit, miss qualifying, then go to prep school and still make it to Michigan a year later. Dude was serious (and proved over an exceptional academic career that Michigan needn't have worried).

Over the year he also watched a metric ton of receivers commit to Michigan, arriving in the 2017 class with Nico Collins, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tarik Black, and Oliver Martin, plus the three guys (Kekoa Crawford, Eddie McDoom, and Nate Johnson) from Hawkins's original 2016 class. Hawkins came in as a safety, and joined the safety rotation with Tyree Kinnel and Josh Metellus in 2018. The first game proved a bit ominous for the former receiver's ball skills, as Hawkins, in position for a pick, gave up Notre Dame's winning touchdown to a walk-on who jumped over his head.

Fans were nervous when Hawkins assumed a starter's role in 2019, but he was fine…boring even! But there were bad blips, and not many big plays to make up for them. Michigan fans chanted "Ron-nie Bell!" at the receiver who dropped the winning touchdown against Penn State in 2019, but were far less understanding when Hawkins got caught rolled down on KJ Hamler, then burned.

There was also that one time in 2018 when Isaih Pacheco dusted him. For some reason those plays stand out more than the million good tackles at 8 yards that could have been so much worse.

Hawkins ceased being boring in 2020, forgetting simple things like how to set an edge during the odd late Don Brown transition to two-high zones. He was hurt before he could get comfortable. His 2021 season was a return to solid, with Hawkins directing traffic in the backfield and usually coming in slightly in the positive with two glaring exceptions: Michigan State, and Ohio State. The latter, okay, those receivers just went next to the guy they chased out of Columbus in the 1st round. The former…okay, MSU had a couple of skill players who were pointed right at Hawkins. But if you're wondering why coaches and PFF loves him and Michigan fans seem ambivalent, it's a question of all plays versus things that fan brains store away.

Positives: Doesn't bust—twice last year Hawkins gave up TDs to ineligible receivers the refs missed and he was pointing at, and those were the only two "coverage busts" he had all year despite Michigan completely changing its coverages. His two missed tackles were at the hands of Treveyon Henderson and Kenneth Walker III…understandable.

Negatives: Below-average speed: The first thing Michigan fans will tell you, thanks to a handful of bad memories, is Hawkins isn't fast. His Pro Day forty time was 4.57, where 4.55 is the NFL average. The below-average acceleration might be more of an issue. Weirdly below-average ball skills for a former receiver: dropped so many interceptions at some point I stopped counting and switched to saying "He'll get one." Was a magnet for bad calls. Rough performances in rivalry games.

[After THE JUMP: What others say, scheme fit, grading, video, conclusion]

Reasonably. [Patrick Barron]

Upon Further Review 2021: Defense vs. Iowa

Seth • December 21, 2021 • 9:00am

Event notice: Nevermind it's canceled.

Formation Notes: Iowa lined up their FB/2nd TE in a lot of different ways. I mostly treated him as a TE, so this is “Offset 12 SB” meaning offset shotgun with 1 RB and 2TEs, one of them as a “superback.”

Michigan matched this personnel group with 5-2 personnel then had Jaylen Harrell act as a true LB if they flexed the TE. Sometimes Michigan would substitute Harrell for Michael Barrett depending on the down/distance.

Substitution Notes: A lot more five-man fronts in this one, though Michigan learned to use a 4-3 (with Barrett) when Iowa went two-TE on passing downs. First three-man DT unit was Hinton-Smith-Jenkins, and second unit was Jeter-Speight-Welschof. Morris came in as a passing downs DT or Hutchinson’s backup.

[After THE JUMP: Three! Three plays and out again, ah ah ah!]

in this metaphor i guess the nebraska safety is the ball? [Patrick Barron]

201

Buckner vs Buckner

Brian • October 11, 2021 • 1:27pm

10/9/2021 – Michigan 32, Nebraska 29 – 6-0, 3-0 Big Ten

At the end of seminal 1998 poker movie Rounders, Mike McDermott walks back into the underground club where he lost his whole bankroll years before. He says he "feels like Buckner walking back into Shea." I watched Rounders again a couple months ago because having something on to pay attention to is helpful when your personal life is spiraling towards divorce.

I came to regret this, because the phrase would not leave my mind.

In my current situation, Shea is damn near everywhere. The park I walk through to get my kid from school was the site of a couple other walks, late night ones. The little court I cut through to get there is one letter off the name of the town we stayed on an anniversary trip that felt like it would be the end of the bad times and the beginning of the good ones, until it wasn't. I've lived in the same town—the same part of the same town—for 15 years. Everything and everywhere reminds me of the state of things.

Buckner walking back into Shea, if Shea was the Big Bang. Or, no: more like that episode of The Next Generation when Beverley Crusher gets stuck in a universe that keeps getting smaller.

----------------------------------------------

Consider two football teams, now. Both are ancient and dignified and scattered apart on the sands of what used to be a championship-level program. Both are run by former quarterbacks from the glory days. Neither has broken through in the way their large, absurdly devoted fanbases want. One constantly shoots itself in the foot just on the verge of poking through. The other does the same thing but somehow one feels more like a Three Stooges movie and the other a Lars Von Trier joint. Which is which depends on which team you're a fan of.

History has decided that these two teams are going to play each other, and that it's going to be close. Inevitably whatever happens now will go in the collective psychosis of the loser. The winner? Dopamine hit, sure. But if Bill Buckner walked back into Shea and fielded a routine grounder it wouldn't change a whole lot. Damage is quick, recovery is long.

If you ignore the jersey color of the winner, then, the result here was foreordained. More mania for Nebraska fans looking at a punt that went the wrong way and a late fumble and oh God whatever it takes to lose to Illinois. More caution for Michigan fans who do not trust that anything can be good. One fanbase spirals down, the other barely increments up. The moral arc of college football is always towards derangement.

After the game Cade McNamara stood in front of a reporter and told her that "previous Michigan teams lose this game." He prefaced that with a "no disrespect" gesture. That hit in the same way any "I'm not an X, but" statement does. There must be a German word for it, the phrase that disclaims the thing you're about to do and only intensifies how hard you're doing it. That was disrespect—disrespect that was on some level deserved. Previous Michigan teams have lost this game and others like it.

This Michigan team is probably going to as well, because that's what happens in college football unless you're one of the elites living in the recruiting arcologies Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State have built. And in this weird post-covid year, even two of those three. The Revenge Tour team that did seem like a playoff team lost a cosmically dumb and stupid and dumb game against Iowa, and then ate The Spot a couple weeks later. There's no shame in being caught up in the tides of college football.

I don't trust it and probably won't trust it until long after it is reasonable to do so. But okay. You went into Shea—in this case a road game against an approximately top 25 team per the fancystats—and fielded a grounder. A tricky one, even. A cool tile has gone down over some lava. Trust comes back one tile at a time, and maybe this time the Michigan team won't lose those games. And when they do maybe it won't feel like another in a long line of errors.

AWARDS

Known Friends and Trusted Agents Of The Week

[Barron]

you're the man now, dog

#1 Brad Hawkins. The crucial strip and recovery to set up the winning points, plus an equally critical fourth down stop on Nebraska's first drive. I can't say for certain that he wasn't part of some of Nebraska's big plays but I'm pretty sure none of them were on him; he in fact had to clean up one when he came over to tackle a wheel route that (probably) Green busted on. Almost knocked that ball out for another turnover on downs.

#2 Hassan Haskins. The hurdle, of course, and several other grunting runs where he makes four or five yards after contact with his combination of power and balance. 5.9 YPC against a real defense despite frequent short yardage deployment.

#3 Jake Moody. More than just a guy who makes field goals. He's a guy who makes field goals in the same exact way, casually drawing them in from the left hash mark. Kick goes up, kick looks slightly wide, have now been trained to interpret that as a sign something good is going to happen.

Honorable mention: Uh Aidan Hutchinson was PFF's defensive player of the week again so I guess he should get an HM. Dax Hill turned in one spectacular INT and several other plays. Blake Corum had 18 touches that averaged 7 yards each. Josh Ross delivered several thumping tackles. The OL checks in here with special mention to Stueber, who was paving.

KFaTAotW Standings.

(points: #1: 8, #2: 5, #3: 3, HMs one each. Ties result in somewhat arbitrary assignments.)

23: Aidan Hutchinson (HM WMU, #2 Wash, #1 Rutgers, #1 Wisc, HM Neb)
17: The OL (#1 Wash, #1 NIU, HM Neb)
12: Hassan Haskins (HM WMU, T3 Wash, T2 NIU, #2 Neb), Blake Corum (#2 WMU, T3 Wash, T2 NIU, HM Neb)
8: Ronnie Bell (#1 WMU), Brad Hawkins (#1 Neb)
7: Dax Hill (#3 WMU, HM NIU, HM Rutgers, HM Wisc, HM Neb)
6: Nikhai Hill-Green(HM NIU, #2 Rutgers)
5: David Ojabo (#2 Wisc), Brad Robbins (HM Wash, #3 Rutgers, HM Wisc), Jake Moody (HM Wash, HM Wisc, #3 Neb)
4: AJ Henning (HM WMU, #3 NIU), Josh Ross (HM Wash, HM NIU, HM Rutgers, HM Neb)
3: Donovan Edwards(T2 NIU), Roman Wilson (#3 Wisc)
2: Cornelius Johnson(HM NIU, HM Wisc),
1: Andrew Vastardis (HM WMU),Mike Sainristil (HM WMU), Mazi Smith (HM Wash), Gemon Green(HM NIU), Chris Hinton (HM Rutgers)