myles hinton

Last season was the final word on a uniquely American pastime, a maximalized rugby/soccer offshoot that began with a spring 1879 trial of Walter Camp's new rules, and concluded with its final championship last January.

Stipulating that Michigan is the final victor of college football's remarkable 144-year year run, like any good MMRPG reaching the end of original content doesn't mean we have to stop playing.* The winners of the first and last games of the mainline series not only plan on continuing to compete in the endgame, but are actively preparing to do so right this very moment. Let's see what's happening. But first the ground rules.

How spring lies: The vast majority of spring chatter is pablum. Established starters get praised for their leadership, focus, and offseason workout regimens. Obvious new ones get compared to the guys they're stepping in for. Coach pressers spin vagarities then name some dudes. Insider information is often more precise, but also usually planted.

How spring truths: Typical things that stand out as positives are players that every practice observer feels they need to mention (e.g. Sainristil), surprisingly short position battles (same), and young depth guys who don't need to get hypes but are brought up anyways (Loveland in '22). Typically negative heuristics are position changes, getting named after a younger player at one's position, battles that go on longer than they should, and when the questions they're answering aren't the more pressing ones we're asking (conversely if we're worried about backups and they talk about the starter it's a good thing).

Thus the format where we start with expectations, and measure what we're hearing against those.

Quick note on paywalled info. There is some, noted with ($). If I'm sharing it anyways it means there's either a lot more for subscribers at the link, or the info therein is so old it's already well percolated through social media and by that point it's better to credit the original source than pretend it doesn't exist.

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* [That only happens once the corporate overlords who bought the IP stack so many subscription fees, microtransactions, shortsighted DLCs, and too-disruptive in-game ads into the thing that the critical mass of people who were hanging onto the diluted product for nostalgia finally let go.]

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Quarterback

Oh Denegal is having a bad week, is he?

The question we're asking is: Who's the quarterback?

But they're acting like it's: That.

What are we hearing? No thought of portal, Jadyn Davis has INTANGIBLES, and Orji is seizing the job because nobody can throw well enough at this point to make up for what Orji can do with his legs.

With Tuttle "working through something" the official channels are making every candidate equal. Tyler Morris:

Each one has their own thing that they're good at, I would say," Morris explained. "I wouldn't necessarily say there was one that's caught my eye, but there's been days where one might stand out for the day and then the next one -- the next practice, another guy. … Alex, obviously he can move. Davis just getting the ball to people. Jayden Denegal, he made some good throws. Jadyn Davis, I mean, he's made some great throws too."

Mason Graham seemed to confirm some insider notes I've gotten that Orji's running ability is standing out from a group that's been struggling to throw it to their own guys.

"I mean they’re all doing a good job — but Alex Orji can make plays with his legs ... You don’t know what he’s doing, even when he doesn’t have the ball because he’s a weapon. … when there’s somebody back there that can just run at any given time and you’ve gotta chase him down, it’s in the back of your mind throughout the game."

Brian Jean-Mary also noted that while he's been impressed by the ground game, the offense is "finding its footing." That is a nicer way of saying the first practices with pads have resembled an Iowa spring game via both Sam and Josh Henschke ($):

Wink’s pressures and blitzes “handled” the offense thoroughly. As for quarterbacks, we’re told that a lot of interceptions were thrown this week and there were some inconsistencies from all quarterbacks. … the offense needs time to get rhythm and gel, a lot of early pressure by Wink doesn’t necessarily allow that but it’s good practice.

When we do hear about a play in the passing game it's not coming from the pocket, which there's one guy who's likely to still be standing when not in it. Josaiah Stewart on Orji:

He can escape the pocket, but believe it or not, he can throw," he said. "People might not believe that, social media or whatnot, say he can't throw, but he can throw. I've seen him throw dots down the field, and it's worse when you just almost get there and he gets the ball off, and it's a touchdown. He's great at doing that. He's great at escaping and getting the ball downfield."

On their podcast (video) Henschke shared that his insiders think Orji is #1, Davis Warren #2, not far behind is Jadyn Davis, who is your presumptive starter in 2025, and then Denegal, who didn't have that great of a week. Jadyn "continues to stack good days."

What it means?

Orji hasn't grasped the offense but he's probably going to have to lead it, because his legs are a bona fide Big Ten-caliber weapon, and none of the other QBs' skills rise to that yet. Denegal shouldn't be written off for one bad week but it sounds like it was quite the bad week. Jadyn Davis chatter is meaningful for the future.

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[After THE JUMP: Focused on becoming the best on and off the field.]

FORMATION NOTES: Maryland was one of those multiple outfits so I don't have a representative alignment for you to ponder. Their favored alignment was a three-deep shell:

Those safeties would get significantly nosy.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Hinton started in place of Henderson and got 53 of the 71 snaps; Jones got the final 18 and had 9 snaps as a bonus OL prior. Skill positions:

• Cornelius Johnson: 65
• Barner: 55
• Loveland: 52
• Morris: 47
• Morgan: 27
• Bredeson: 15

Wilson had just four and Michigan did work in a few snaps for Moore, Clemons, and O'Leary. Gentry got one snap as OL7. Corum had a 2-1 advantage over Edwards with a Mullings cameo.

[After THE JUMP: kind of a scary lead in to OSU]

FORMATION NOTES: PSU was a pretty standard 4-3 over for most of the game, preferring to shade a linebacker over the slot.

They did not generally have to add extra guys to the box, except when Michigan got super-jumbo. They had their normal 4-3 out there for a couple Big Big Boy snaps but then adjusted:

I labeled this a 7-2. PSU's problem is that while the five guys on the right are DL, the two standup guys over the TE side are 220 and 230 and they're going up against Hinton, Jones, and Barner.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Obviously the Big Big Boys package was new and fairly important. Michigan had 56 snaps; they had 7 OL on for 13 of them and 6 for four of them. Trente Jones thus got 17 snaps; Myles Hinton got 13. Skill positions:

• Barner: 44
• Wilson/Johnson: 38
• Loveland: 34
• Bredeson: 20
• Morris: 10
• Morgan: 5

Corum had 36 snaps to Edwards's 22; Mullings got 3 in two back sets with Edwards.

[After THE JUMP: holding up a sign that says RUN the entire second half]