jonathan sutherland

Previously: The Offense

Resources: My charting, PSU game notes, PSU roster, CFBstats, Last Year

I remember a game I FFFF'd one year for Michigan State against PSU, and I got furious at one point because the usual suspects were taking cheap shots at the PSU NT's knees, and finally knocked the guy out of the game. Part of that was this occurred right after Robert Windsor had a string of great pass rushes on a series of all long downs. I don't remember the exact series but it went something like false start-sack-throwaway-defensive penalty-sack-sack-give up and punt, and Windsor had gone OFF. The next series the cheap shots started, and Windsor left the game, and from there he developed a reputation as a guy who screams upfield every play, damn the consequences, and is utter hell on bad OLs. State's certainly was.

Maybe he's still that guy? I dunno. But I have a theory that defensive tackle play in this day and age is to defense what quarterback play is to offense, i.e. of outsized importance. If you want a good example of this, pull up any Clemson, Bama, or Ohio State game in the last five years. Or Mo Hurst highlights. Or for a more recent demonstration, the last quarter of Penn State, when I couldn't tell if anyone else was any good because the poor quarterback had only half a second to fling the ball out of the backfield before #54 was in his chest.

The film: Penn State at Iowa last week.

Personnel: My diagram:

PDF Version, full-size version (or click on the image)

Hope you print this one out because hooo boy are there a lot of guys to remember. A lot of them have site tags if you want to torture yourself with when Michigan tried to recruit them (or didn't).

The front seven are all returning starters or heavy rotation players replacing nominal ones. NT Robert Windsor (+27/-0) we'll discuss later, and I'm sure you're familiar with WDE Yetur Gross-Matos (+13/-3 against Alaric Jackson) by now. SDE Shaka Toney (+9/-6) is a pass rush sort who split time last year with the more stalwart Shareef Miller. Toney avoided a pretty clear targeting penalty late in the Iowa game that should had him pulled for the first half of ours—thanks John O'Neill. DT Antonio Shelton (+7/-3) is the guy I liked better than Windsor last year because he's more responsible. He's ceding a lot of snaps to the backups, mostly Fred Hansard (+3/-3), a very large top-250 type, and 2018 top-100 DT PJ Mustipher (did not chart).

The rotating cast of pass rushing backup ends starts with Toney's new platoonmate, Jayson Oweh (+3/-4), the #76 composite recruit last year, who did some work inside on Tristan Wirfs, and an equal amount of freshman errors in edge protection. Shane Simmons (+3/-0) was a fringe five-star back in 2016, and is only just now starting to pay that off. Daniel Joseph (+1/-0) was in the same class, just outside the top 250. They can also throw the linebacker depth chart on the edge. I mention them all because Gross-Matos limped off at the end of this game.

Linebacker recruiting clearly benefitted from going through the early part of 2016 without any. They still have some familiar faces. SAM Cam Brown (+4/-0 run, +2/-3 coverage) is the same weird, tall, anti-tight end specialist. WILL Micah Parsons (+6/-2 run, +3/-7 coverage) was last year's #5 overall player to the 24/7 composite, and the #2 prospect at weakside end. His athleticism is still well above that of a typical linebacker, but his coverage remains very much "this guy is an elite defensive end prospect"-ish, mostly because he tends to get mesmerized by the backfield and doesn't get enough depth. His slow reads don't matter as much in the run game because he accelerates like a running back. Between Brown and Parsons starts the same walk-on they put out there against us in '16, MLB Jan Johnson (+2/-0 run, DNC in coverage), who's fine, but now just technically the starter. Most of his minutes have gone to Ellis Brooks (+3/-0 run, +0/-1 coverage), a 4-star in 2017, and Jesse Luketa (+1/-1 run, +2/-2 coverage), a top-250 guy last year. Brown comes off the field often for a nickel safety, and Parsons doesn't leave it, but they'll find a few snaps here and there for #18 overall true freshman Brandon Smith (+0/-3 run, DNC coverage), who's not quite ready.

[After THE JUMP: And they all have stars]

Spring practice brings all the recruits to the yard

We've just had a bit of a down period where

• Michigan "offered" every single recruit in the 2017 and 2018 classes,
• those recruits said they were interested, and
• visits were suggested to be on the docket but not actually scheduled.

Here's the platonic ideal of the form from VA LB Teradja Mitchell:

As for what's next for what's next for Mitchell, he plans to visit Florida and Florida State this spring, but no dates have been set. Then this summer, he hopes to get to Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State.

He claims no favorites at this time.

All right then. Thankfully, the opportunity to see a Jim Harbaugh practice is beginning to clarify who's actually interested and who's just talking. Two guys in the "just talking" category appear to be MS RB Cam Akers and CA RB Najee Harris. Harris scheduled a trip to OSU that does not include a swing by Michigan. Lorenz doesn't offer an explanation on Akers but "is from Mississippi" suffices for our purposes.

Visits of the recent past

WI OL Tyler Beach completed a visit last week. Surprise: it went well.

Port Washington (Wisc.) 2017 OL Tyler Beach on his #Michigan visit: "I'm having an awesome time." pic.twitter.com/Gj68OchGpQ

— Brice Marich (@BriceMarich) March 12, 2016

Beach maintains that M and Wisconsin are at the top; he's visiting ND, NW, and MSU in the near future but those schools are making up ground per Brandon Brown:

"I plan on committing in April or May," Beach said. "Michigan and Wisconsin are my top choices right now and I'll just pick whatever place feels right."

If Michigan gets Beach I want to see Wisconsin message boards put in an octagon with Washington mods.

OH OL/DL Howard Watkins was also on campus around the same time. Watkins is a new name out of Cincinnati Colerain, Joe Bolden's alma mater; he says he's been a Michigan fan his whole life. He's currently under the radar, unranked by 247 and a two-star guy to Scout, so he might have to impress as a senior. He's got an Indiana offer.

Watkins's teammate and OH CB Amir Riep already has an offer, as top 100 prospects almost universally do. His is certainly an all-caps one instead of an air-quotes one:

Today was a great day! pic.twitter.com/kafrOTwx1U

— Amir Riep (@Riep_Amir) March 13, 2016

Former Colerain HC Kerry Coombs is OSU's DBs coach so this might be a high hurdle; he's got a ton of OSU predictions on the Crystal Ball. Lorenz relates that word from inside Schembechler is that Michigan believes they have a "very legitimate chance."

TX RB Eno Benjamin still maintains that Iowa leads after a Midwest swing. He announced a top-ten-and-change that purports to be in no order but kind of seems in order:

Thank You & God Bless. pic.twitter.com/0fSWNKGxiz

— Eno Benjamin™ (@eno_benjamin5) March 14, 2016

I can't remember the last time Michigan and Iowa were both involved with a kid from outside the Midwest.

Visits near future

Michigan will host AL S AJ Harris and AL DE LaBryan Ray this weekend; they are popularly thought to be a real contender for Harris but were previously on the fringe for Ray. The end result is likely to be the same: it'll take something special to convince an Alabama DE with a Bama offer to spurn the Tide.

Michigan has a better shot with IN LB Pete Werner, who will visit Thursday and Friday before a Saturday visit to Notre Dame. Wiltfong expects one or the other to lead in the aftermath and says Werner is expected to make an "academic decision."

IMG OL Cesar Ruiz and Robert Hainsey will visit for the spring game. It's tough out here for a Cable Subscriber:

Michigan has a ton of competition for both gentlemen but should be in both top 5s. Hainsey is likely to be playing with or against Michigan—outside of Pitt his visit list is just about all Big Ten schools.

Michigan might land a visit from WA OL Henry Bainivalu per Washington mods who have spent the entire spring working the speed bag in anticipation of more Michigan-Washington recruiting battles.

Blame Recruit Canada

Michigan will be of more interest than usual to a couple of kids now hailing from Virginia: both VA DE Luiji Vilain and VA S Jonathan Sutherland are originally from Ontario and have moved to the US in order to make themselves more attractive to football programs. That makes Michigan one of the closest programs to home for both.

Vilain lists a bunch of schools when issued the "recruiting the hardest" question, but if you squint the local-ish programs may have an edge:

"I was pretty excited about Michigan and Michigan State," Vilain said. "I've been waiting on those two."

He will attend Sound Mind, Sound Body and hit up both instate schools.

Sutherland's list is more defined: North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Michigan. He will also visit Michigan while he's in Detroit for Sound Mind, Sound Body.

Fine, 2018 exists and let's mention it briefly

This week in "MGoBlog grudgingly talks about the recruiting class after the current one":

• The top in-state name to know next year is MI OL Marquan McCall, a two-way lineman currently inside the top 100 on 247. He will visit for the spring game. Michigan is the favorite.
• Lorenz reports that Michigan is going after a number of kids in Las Vegas, amongst them Bishop Gorman teammates Dorian Thompson-Robinson, a dual-threat QB, and Brevin Jordan, an OLB/TE. Michigan would be "tough to beat" for Thompson-Robinson if they offer; Michigan is expected to do so when he swings by M and OSU this week. Mom is an M alum.
• MI DE Aidan Hutchinson is the son of former Michigan DL Chris Hutchinson. He visited last week and is a guy to keep an eye on for an offer. I'm guessing Michigan will wait for his junior season to finish before doing so since that could be a situation where the phone calls goes "We'd like to off—" "YES".
• OH LB Antwaun Johnson, another recent visitor, named Michigan his leader, twice, after returning from Ann Arbor. Encouragingly, he is scheduled to return for the Spring Game. The catch: no OSU offer yet.
• NJ OL/DL Tyler Friday has Michigan, Ohio State, and Rutgers as an early top three. He wants to visit all those schools.

Name Alert!

IL TE Griffin Hammer.

Griffin Hammer is +3 with an extra 1d6 damage to chimerae.

Etc.: Happy trails to MO WR Jaevon McQuitty, who committed to Nebraska. More or less happy trails to TX OL Austin Deculus, who announced a decision date of May 20. He hasn't visited or scheduled a visit; that's 99.9% seeya. LSU is the expected choice so Michigan might get back in if Les Miles's tenure gets wobbly again.

GA QB Davis Mills committed to Stanford, ending any chance the Cardinal starts sniffing around CO QB commit Dylan McCaffrey. Trieu ranks MI OL/DL Phil Paea the #2 DL in the Midwest. Sounds like he's in line for a four-star bump from Scout.

MI OL commit JaRaymond Hall visited this weekend as well. He's an in with McCall, his teammate. Bama still leads for FL OL Netori Johnson and his amazing hair even after his decommit. MI WR Donovan Peoples-Jones keeps it close to the vest, lather, rinse, repeat.