Injuries
As we move towards a deeper season with the expanded playoffs, there will be a lot of stress on players and staff to remain healthy both physically and mentally.
A bulk of the teams that played recently suffered serious injuries. The whole year Michigan suffered something and it was off. Roman, Hill Green, Edwards, Cade, All, Schoonmaker... I'm missing more, but we hobbled into this game.
Other teams too. OSU playing without JSN and the bulk of their running backs.
USC and Caleb Williams getting hobbled in the championship game for the PAC.
It will only get worse when the playoffs are expanded and teams go deeper and play harder and better matchups.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:08 AM ^
Thank you
January 1st, 2023 at 9:09 AM ^
Injuries are a part of the game. This is why recruiting and depth are crucial to winning a title. It's not necessary, but you have a smaller margin of error with less talent and depth. Adapt to the new reality or die.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:25 AM ^
That’s why it’s so painful that Urban was able to win a playoff with his 3rd string QB. Creep can roll man.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:18 AM ^
He won because of his 3rd string QB. He started handing it off to Zeke instead and he had like 3 consecutive of 220, 230 and 246 yards. He hadn't sniffed 200 all year (well, 180 vs Cincy).
January 1st, 2023 at 1:43 PM ^
I don't know how OSU beat Alabama that year but OSU played a good game. As for Oregon, the Ducks were lining up two running backs (on the same play) as wide receivers in the second half as they lost 7 of 9 wide receivers and TEs due to suspensions and injuries over their last three games (including the championship). OSU won that game because Oregon was unable to mount an offense.
January 1st, 2023 at 2:17 PM ^
Urban won with a 3rd string QB because Urban signed a deal with the devil. I am sure of that.
January 1st, 2023 at 7:17 PM ^
I am fairly certain that Satan would not deal with someone of Urban's ilk.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
Recruiting is critical but with players not wanting to ride the bench until its their turn, having real depth at the skill positions is a luxury that only a few teams will enjoy. The two games yesterday were the rare exceptions in playoff football where blowouts have been very common place. I suspect that expanded playoffs will result in blowouts due to injuries and the fact that there are only a couple of truly elite teams most years.
January 1st, 2023 at 2:02 PM ^
I think the playoffs will help the Big Ten more due to the fact that teams will not have 3 weeks to prepare for them. It will be. Week by week preparation. Now the SEC will only have 1 week to prepare for Iowa s defense if they make it to playoffs instead of a month.
January 1st, 2023 at 1:16 PM ^
Depth is going to be more difficult for most programs go forward because a lot of these kids are bolting if they are not playing by year 2 in the program (ex OL).
January 1st, 2023 at 9:10 AM ^
Yeah, for Michigan in particular, I think it was an unfortunate decision to rely on Corum as a workhorse to the extent that we did, particularly with him coming of an injury last year. We had other backs we could have rotated against the Indianas and Nebraskas of the world. Last night and the previous few games showed we absolutely had the ability to move the ball through the air more than we were choosing to. It stings that we did not make the championship game but I personally think our chance to win the title ended when Corum went down.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:28 AM ^
Do you mean 13-1 Michigan who finished off Illinois, crushed OSU, won the B1G title game and had plenty of opportunity to win their playoff game, without Corum? It was that that Michigan that shouldn’t have relied on Corum?
January 1st, 2023 at 9:45 AM ^
Yes - that Michigan. Depth is critical and Michigan did not have that. The backup running backs have no vision - remember all those open holes where we said "Corum or Edwards would have taken that to the house"? So we ended up relying on a hurt Edwards and a linebacker to punch it in. That went well. Also, imagine if JJ got hurt - this would have been an ugly season. WR depth was there in number of bodies but not in skill level. Remember all those dropped passes? Losing Blake cost us a lot of easy wins, or at least easy first halves until we pulled away - remember Rutgers where we were cruising until he got sick and got pulled? Losing Blake was a major blow to this team, and the lack of depth is a problem.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
Literally any of the four playoff teams would have had a rough go of it if they lost their 1st and 2nd-string QBs (as Michigan did when McNamara went down). OSU gave the bulk of their carries to a converted RB-to-LB-back-to-RB against Michigan because their top 2 backs got hurt and their 3rd-string RB underwhelmed as a freshman. Yes, after the 4th WR Michigan's depth gets a bit light; I'd assume that TCU and Georgia look pretty light there as well.
By comparison, Michigan lost their starting tackle in Jones and took it in stride, and had other offensive line injuries and just kept plugging in bodies with seemingly no drop-off. They have immense talent and depth at defensive tackle, and a plethora of edges even if none of them really broke out. They had some questions in the secondary after the starters but still had 3 above-average corners and some depth at safety. It's not perfect but freaking Georgia struggled to get pressure against OSU because they lacked top-level edge rushers and Jalen Carter was basically the only guy they had who could get after anyone.
Guys get hurt. It sucks. But it's college football and even the best teams with all the top talent run out of proven bodies. This isn't the NFL where you can make a trade, pull a guy from the practice squad, or sign someone mid-season. You recruit what you can, develop the players you have, but everyone has a limit to how many dings they can take.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:18 AM ^
At the beginning of the year our RB depth was bragged about. Having said that, we tend to keep our starters in games way too long, as Mike Morris being injured with 5 min left in a 34-3 route shows. I can remember getting pretty pissed watching Corum and JJ taking snaps when games were out of reach for opponents. It also stifles development of backups. Remember when Bobby Bowden used to let his entire 2nd string have a series in the first half of every game. That was smart and I don’t think it really hurt them. Good change of pace, 2nd team can pose different matchups and have different packages. We light enough downs on fire with non-read read options.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:23 AM ^
Definitely a balance to be struck here. I remember some of OSU's Cooper teams blowing out most opponents and pulling starters pretty early. Then, when they got into 4 quarter games they struggled because players weren't used to going that long.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:33 AM ^
Then I’m curious as to why you disagree with my post above. It was an incredible effort by Michigan to beat OSU and win the Big Ten when Corum went down, but I don’t think they were going to win the National Title without Corum and they didn’t. Do you want to run Stokes in meaningful plays against PSU or Iowa? Probably not. But do you need to run Corum 30 times against IU and Rutgers? Again, probably not. At the rate he was going, an injury to Corum was not only possible but likely, and I think they could have done more to avert the possibility.
January 1st, 2023 at 11:59 AM ^
i will never agree with harbaugh leaving impact players to play final minutes in blowouts. i cringed when corum was fighting off tackles in several games up 3-4 TD with under 3 min left. or starting LB's playing the last 1-2 series in legit blowouts. its maddening to watch when guys like morris limp off in those situations. especially when harbaugh makes a point to work in depth players earlier in games, half the kicking units are walkons, and coaches try to keep younger players engaged and getting reps whenever possible given transfer portal these days
January 1st, 2023 at 2:10 PM ^
So, we were two deep with star rb’s and had them both get injured. You’re complaining about our 3rd string running back not being a stud. Guess we should have found a star rb that would be ok with sitting behind two studs for a couple of years. Given that obvious situation, would you sign with Michigan as a highly rated rb? Gee, if only our staff had listened to you….
January 1st, 2023 at 9:47 AM ^
Corum got hurt because he took a direct shot to his knee in the first half of a game against one of the best defenses in the country. It wasn't some overuse injury by any means, and while it sucked to lose him a lot of this "they should have saved him some tackles" feels like revisionist history. Yes, running backs have a finite number of hits in them and so Corum's usage in college probably didn't portend him having a long NFL career but it's a violent game and guys get hit. Ronnie Bell tore his ACL in the first half of the first game last year. Cade McNamara barely played this year and rarely took shots yet was lost because of a knee injury on like his 20th dropback of the year. Neither of them were overuse-related injuries.
Michigan's title shot was hurt by Corum going down, absolutely. But despite that they still nearly beat TCU after crushing OSU and Purdue and winning their second straight conference crown.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^
The helmet hit his knee but that isn’t the cause of a miniscous or ligament injury. I don’t think Corum got surgery on his knee because it got hit by a helmet. He was running out of bounds and avoiding contact well before that play.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^
His knee hyperextended on that hit. Not sure how you can look at the way his knee buckled and think it was anything else than that specific play/hit
January 1st, 2023 at 11:17 AM ^
Look man, we can disagree on the fine points of things, but:
1. We ran Corum into the ground all season and it is not surprising at all that he suffered a leg injury given the amount of usage;
2. A lot of that time could have been spent diversifying the attack, particularly in the deep red zone where we struggled all year, and multiple posters talked frequently about how that was eventually going to bite Michigan in the ass, and it did, on the big stage.
I don’t know how those points can be argued. They often discussed on the podcast how running Corum four straight times to get a yard on the goal line was an example of the philosophy “working.” It absolutely was not working and it is a fair critique to say they both overused Corum and failed to adapt to that circumstance.
January 1st, 2023 at 1:49 PM ^
You can't say "disagree on the fine points of things" and then completely dismiss the very specific event that caused an injury.
Also, people have been arguing since time immemorial about how the coaching staff should do stuff differently because it would be better, or more efficient, or whatever. There are pros and cons with everything, and maybe if Edwards, Stokes, etc. were better near the red zone they'd have called different plays for different guys but running the ball because it usually works for you isn't crazy. Michigan's red zone TD offense for the year was 66.20%; Ohio State's 74.60%, TCU's 68.3%, and Georgia's is 67.53%. Michigan isn't going to run OSU's style of offense but otherwise Michigan's offense was absolutely as efficient as any other playoff team's offense this year.
People saying at some point Michigan will suffer some misfortune is like saying it'll rain some day - it's factually correct but it's a generic comment you make wherein you'll ultimately be right because nobody is perfect. When Corum went down the sentiment was the running game would go into the trash...and then Donovan Edwards, with one functioning hand, put up 400 yards over 2 games. Michigan's lack of an elite edge rusher, or depth issues at linebacker, or mediocre WR play, or a dodgy-at-times QB, or pass blocking at the tackle spots, were all weaknesses that were going to cost Michigan at some point this year is all I heard...and then Michigan went 13-0 and won another Big 10 title and made the playoffs. They finally lost a game because that's going to be the case for everyone but one team this year and suddenly everyone saw it coming.
Michigan wasn't perfect this year and they'll undoubtedly kick themselves for a missed opportunity. But please save me this hindsight analysis wherein a bunch of posters who (like me) are usually wrong about shit kept throwing darts at the Generic Sports Cliche dartboard and hit a bullseye on their 14th try.
January 1st, 2023 at 2:04 PM ^
You are living in a fantasy land you think Michigan’s redzone attack, including the amount they put on Corum, was not a problematic aspect of this season. You are welcome to live there, but I’m not sure why you would want to.
January 1st, 2023 at 3:12 PM ^
We’re not disagreeing on ‘the fine points’. The fact is it he took a helmet directly to his knee and it buckled. That’s something that could’ve happened just as easily on his first carry of the season as his 200th. It wasn’t a wear and tear/overuse injury and pretending otherwise is 100% conjecture on your part. Your argument is nonsense at its core; the finer points don’t even enter into it
January 1st, 2023 at 1:39 PM ^
He ran out of bounds once that entire game. This blog loves nothing more than trying to divine great insights out of disconnected events. But that was literally the first carry of the game and Corum then proceeded to carry the ball 15 more times, including multiple short-yardage plays where he ran directly into contact. He then tried to run later that half and the following game, again both times into traffic. He got hit directly on his knee by a helmet and it got injured. It's really not deeper than that.
January 1st, 2023 at 3:50 PM ^
Twice.
January 1st, 2023 at 11:24 AM ^
Corum was eventually going to get banged up the same way Mike Hart was always banged up at the end of the year from overuse. It's great to have one specific back to rely on but it was overkill how much they ran him.
January 1st, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
Maybe, but we're talking about 3 more games. And guys always get banged up; Edwards barely ran the ball and still severely injured his hand that took months to heal. Again, I don't think there's really causation here beyond "getting hit playing football increases your risk of injury vs. not being hit", which if we're going by that logic we should be rotating linemen constantly because they take way more violent hits consistently than basically anyone on the team.
January 1st, 2023 at 2:26 PM ^
Corum was a huge loss in that he was able to get at least 2 to 3 yards on most running plays. We were more consistent moving the chains with Corum and that ball control would've really helped Michigan last night. Instead, we went with our home run hitter in Donovan Edwards where it's a lot more boom or bust. So we found ourselves in 3rd and long a lot more than we liked. We stormed OSU with Donovan because OSU's defensive schemes really sucked. It's obvious that the TCU defensive coordinator really studied Mich-OSU and what not to do.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^
Everyone with a brain saw that Corum would eventually break down except our head coach.
January 1st, 2023 at 11:35 AM ^
He didn't break down though. He took a helmet to the knee. That could've happened at any point during the season. Just bad luck.
January 1st, 2023 at 3:14 PM ^
Shocking that the cube has another idiotic take - please explain to us how overuse caused him to take a knee directly to the knee which caused it to hyperextend. We’ll wait . . .
January 1st, 2023 at 11:20 AM ^
I think Michigan had the ability to pass more than they did, but that comes with A. JJ extending plays with his legs and B. Using more play action.
Our receivers do not create enough separation at the line or beat DBs simply with speed like OSUs do, that was our achillies heel this year ,and I hope to god some other guys can step up next year because otherwise it will be more of the same.
Either way they relied too much on Corum and he ended up injured.
January 1st, 2023 at 12:18 PM ^
Gosh I've been saying this to myself over and over and over. Did you see his face on the sidelines? That in and of itself summed up the game, before the final whistle.
January 1st, 2023 at 2:06 PM ^
They also could have kept DE on the game for Red zone opportunities. Losing Schooner also hurt because that left us with 1 pass catching Tight end and a blocking tight end. Also, did trente Jones make the trip because the right tackle #52 was getting his ass whooped all game
January 1st, 2023 at 9:15 AM ^
Injuries are part of this game. What’s the point of this post? If it’s an excuse as to why UM lost, I can safely tell you this was not the reason. If your post is about negativity with the playoff expansion, it’s always next man up.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:15 AM ^
It's a lot of physical attrition to ask from a bunch of 19 year olds to play potentially 17 games of football.
Imo the NCAA should cut the non conference games down by 1 to compensate (would would eliminate the annual cupcake on the schedule)
January 1st, 2023 at 9:49 AM ^
Yeah, from a practical standpoint they shouldn't be having a bunch of Baby Seal U-type bloodbath games anymore. But the economics of college football really does rest on these big schools paying these body bag games to keep smaller programs afloat. It's why Hawaii travels so much to play random teams, why you'll see Kent St. go to Athens to play Georgia, etc.
I think they should shorten the OOC schedule by a game and redistribute more money to these smaller schools but that would require the NCAA to give a shit about athletes and that's foolish.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:15 AM ^
Yes, naturally. The more exposure a person has to a violent activity, the more likely they are to get injured.
The 12 team playoff will do a lot of good to create competitive parity across college football, if the NCAA took their job seriously at all (spoiler: they don't), they would make some subtle adjustments to recruiting periods and scheduling flexibility to account for the 15+ game schedules for the teams competing for a national championship any given year.
January 1st, 2023 at 1:09 PM ^
I'd really like to see them increase the scholarship limit, to say 90. Some may argue that would hurt the smaller schools, but the transfer portal already does. Once a player demonstrates he's good he goes into the portal to trade up.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:16 AM ^
That's why you have back ups. But both us and osu last night showed that we need to stop coddling our QB to not run. The running QB on tcu is playing another week.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:20 AM ^
That's what you saw? I saw the #2 rb come in and gash us all night. Our rbs fell backwards, because that what Edwards is... He's a homerun hitter. But he takes too much of a beating on every play.
Their no name back up fell forward 11 yards every play.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:23 AM ^
I saw us in a huge hole at half time with a lot of plays in the first half where if JJ held on to run it he'd have plenty of room. Instead we waited until we were down to run him in the second half.
January 1st, 2023 at 9:34 AM ^
This and the horribly constructed blitzes against a QB whose arm was barely doing anything, were gravest failings of the game.
January 1st, 2023 at 10:00 AM ^
I saw 2-3 times in that first half when McCarthy should have pulled the ball, either as a read option or on a passing down, and didn't. Some of that is on the coaches and some of that is on him as the QB and his decision making. That makes total sense; he's a first-year starter at QB. But like both of his picks where he starred down the receiver basically at the snap, allowing the corner to sneak over, he made some mistakes early on due to jitters, game tempo, etc. and loosened up a bit in the second half.
January 1st, 2023 at 2:12 PM ^
The 1st pick was on Bell, he rounded the out pass behind the db. If he took the correct angle in front, the db would have no shot at the ball
January 1st, 2023 at 3:17 PM ^
Yeah, while i really like Bell and appreciate all he’s done - he needed to cur sharper rather than rounding off the route like he did