i no longer hate offering scholarships to fullbacks

9/25/2021 – Michigan 38, Wisconsin 17 – 5-0, 2-0 Big Ten

There is another feeling related to the grim gray grimness discussed in last week's column after the second half of the Rutgers game was not good. It is being on the other side of that, watching some yahoo in the other team's uniform with his helmet on wrong attempting to do a complicated thing while 270-pound men try to sit on him. When he fixes his helmet one of his thigh pads falls off.That sort of thing.

Usually he's been pressed into duty by injury or, in extreme cases, a mid-game resignation letter pinned onto the center. Usually he has an implausible name and instead of career stats they just put up the grimace emoji. Usually he hands off until it is third and long and then the adventure begins.

So what you need to know about "Chase Wolf" is this: he threw one interception on eight attempts and this significantly lowered his career interception rate. Once Graham Mertz exited the game it was a matter of naming the final score. There's a pleasant feeling of relief when the opposition is on offense and things are very, very dull.

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Getting there, though: that was interesting. The play on which Mertz gave up the ghost was a slot blitz from Dax Hill. Michigan waited until the snap was imminent, then fired back a safety and rotated another one down.

Mertz seemed to think he had a hot route in the area that RJ Moten had vacated, but David Ojabo had dropped off the line and was standing with the TE; he hesitated and then got buried.

This blitz is not alien to college football, or even Michigan—Greg Mattison liked doing things like this—but it does stand up as the clearest indicator that this defense is not the defense Don Brown wanted to run. Opposing quarterbacks have talked about how difficult it was to predict what Michigan was doing on any particular snap. Rocky Lombardi in fact made a direct comparison to the previous season, when it was not at all difficult to predict what was about to happen.

Opposing coaches and color guys have said things like "this team is built to beat Ohio State"—not to say that they will, but that they aren't going to roll into The Game expecting that they're going to win by manning up Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave. If we do get a competitive outing* it'll be on the backs of plays like the above, where Michigan sends a couple of guys through unblocked and the quarterback doesn't know what he's supposed to do.

Confusion is dual-edged blade. If you can apply it, you win downs. But trying to do so inevitably exposes your own team to risk. Whenever someone is struggling we hear about the coaches "simplifying things" (in fact heard it in this game about Mertz). We have not heard that about the Michigan defense, in a transition year, running a bunch of stuff that other teams think is pretty hard to figure out.

Michigan has in fact been remarkably impervious to busts. Implausibly so, even. They've given up a total of 4 plays of 30 or more yards, and a couple of them have been in garbage time. That's tied for fourth nationally with, like, Alabama. They're also tied with Alabama in 20+ yard plays. As we approach the halfway point of the season it's probably time to start believing that this defense is in the right spot almost all the time and importing guys from the Ravens might have been a pretty good idea.

We gloried in Michigan's gaudy fancystats rankings under Brown until Michigan entered The Game with the top defense in the country and got completely shredded. Michigan's D is up to 8th in SP+ despite not having overwhelming talent, and we don't know that their WRs are going to simply outrun Michigan's secondary en route.

We merely supect. Progress!

*[This outlet is not allowing anyone to approach the football. Do not approach the football yet. Lucy is still holding it, and she is a wily beast indeed.]

AWARDS

Known Friends and Trusted Agents Of The Week

this is not the same picture that was in this spot last week [Fuller]

you're the man now, dog

#1 Aidan Hutchinson. No sacks, somehow, but absolutely rampant all the same. Drew a holding call when two different guys gave up and decided to tackle him. Flushed Mertz into various sacks not credited to him. PFF's national defensive player of the week, and yeah.

#2 David Ojabo. 2.5 sacks and another forced fumble as he teleported around Wisconsin's admittedly iffy tackles. Also dropped into the hot route on the Mertz-breaking play detailed above.

#3 Roman Wilson. Breakout game for him with six catches, including a deep, contested one on an armpunt. Popped open a ton; could have had a seventh catch if he didn't accidentally step out of bounds before acting as a safety blanket.

Honorable mention: Cade McNamara hit enough throws, including the flea-flicker, to make this comfortable despite some wobbles. Cornelius Johnson got the easy one but also came down with a tough fade for a second touchdown. Dax Hill had a sack and an INT and wasn't too much at fault on the quick TD drive. Brad Robbins averaged 45 yards a kick despite some pooches, allowed zero returns, and used the power of his mind to induce a Wisconsin muff dorf. Jake Moody was 3/3 on FGs and also offered no returns.

KFaTAotW Standings.

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

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

Who's Got It Better Than Us(?) Of The Week

[Fuller]

Flea flicker so pretty they should have run it again.

Honorable mention: Dax intercepts; Ojabo forces a fumble; Wisconsin's pass pro is overrun; McCarthy bombs it to Baldwin again.

​MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

Wisconsin's quick strike x2 drive to turn 13-3 into 13-10 at halftime was unbelievable and maddening right before a 20 minute period where nothing else happened.

Honorable mention: Michigan has to settle for 3 after the muff; M gets stuffed on fourth down on their first drive.

[After THE JUMP: war. war never changes. oh wait i mean QB debate never changes]

So I was scheduled to have a recruiting update for you today. But in light of recent events, I wanted something more metal. It's time for the BEN MASON IS AWESOME HERE'S WHY Neck Sharpies.

Since Mason's appearance on Jansen's podcast a few months ago the only mention of the senior is that he's with the tight ends. So is the fullback really dead in this offense? Based on how they used him, and how effective he was, in the Citrus Bowl against Alabama, I highly doubt it. Since that, more than "Harbaugh would never not have a fullback" is my basis for believing Mason will play a big role in this year's offense, and hopefully next year's as well, I figured I should show you what I saw.

I counted 16 MURDERFACE snaps in this game, not including a Mayfield false start. On most of those he was a centerpiece or a primary decoy, meaning he either made the key block the play was designed to run through, or he was supposed to look like it. Only one of these plays was a non-play-action pass and we can get it out of the way because Mason didn't seem to know what his job was on it, and that nearly led to a disaster.

We'll have to work on that.

[After THE JUMP: Women and Children First]