adam samaha

Team Maize defeated Team Blue by a score of 17-7 at today's 2024 edition of the Michigan Football spring game. A game that was preceded by the championship ring ceremony and had numerous departed heroes strolling the sideline, the focus on the field was instead on a number of young players trying to make a name for themselves. As in past years, I'm not going to give a play-by-play recap for an exhibition game, but instead will give you a batch of instant reaction takes on what we witnessed: 

Offense

Alex Orji's potential... and areas for improvement. Orji quarterbacked the first drive for Team Blue, as well as the last, with  intermittent snaps in between. In that time we saw some good and some bad from Orji. He varied his touch on throws that showed a decent understanding of quarterbacking, but was mostly throwing checkdown passes. The final drive in particular saw the defense back off (Team Maize had a 10 point lead), ceding the underneath routes and Orji was efficient in connecting on those. But that's what you'd expect any QB at this level to be able to do, so I'm not putting much stock in that. 

However, there were more tantalizing moments. Orji delivered a pass to Max Bredeson with good zip and then sensed pressure before scrambling for a touchdown on the first drive. He also seemed to have another touchdown scramble on the last drive, but it was overturned on a questionable "sack" (the referees blew the play dead in rather dubious fashion). The athleticism and the ability to hit the easy stuff was on display but there were concerning moments. He put a ball behind Tyler Morris on the first drive and forced a laser into double coverage looking for Zack Marshall on the last drive. Orji also showed good pocket presence on a different snap a couple drives earlier, dancing in the pocket and eventually finding an open receiver on 3rd & 5... but he way overthrew his target. I'm not sure if the accuracy and reads are completely where they need to be, but Orji wasn't a total wreck and gave us enough reasons to believe he could plausibly be the QB in 2024. It didn't answer all the questions at the QB position, but there was enough on display to believe Orji could be a successful QB at some point in the future (whether that is in '24 or '25). 

Takes on the other QBs. Davis Warren was the starting QB for Team Maize and just like prior seasons, Warren looked pretty damn good. His arm talent is 100% there, which was most on display on a bomb to Kendrick Bell for a TD: 

🔔🔔🔔

📺 @CFBONFOX pic.twitter.com/G1jgyJAwmO

— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) April 20, 2024

There were several other strikes that Warren uncorked and he may well have been the most impressive QB today. However, it does feel a little difficult to take all of it seriously because Warren has looked terrific in spring games prior too, which hasn't necessarily translated to regulation games. 

Jayden Denegal was a bit of a disappointment in this one I felt. His drives for Team Maize had some moments, but ultimately left a lot to be desired. Yes he did hit a bomb to Fred Moore, but he also threw a wretched interception to DJ Waller (which was punched out and recovered as a fumble), threw a ball that was batted at the line, fumbled a snap that killed the two minute drill in the second quarter, and had a couple other iffy looking throws on the fourth drive. Based on the feel of this game, it would appear that Orji and Warren are the main two in-house contenders for the starting QB this fall. 

Jadyn Davis didn't play a ton, as expected. He threw a nice ball down the sideline for Peyton O'Leary that was PBU'd which showed off his arm talent, but he did appear to miss a wide open receiver on that very play. That was Davis' most notable moment during a short afternoon and based on today I would expect him to redshirt this fall (nothin' wrong with that). 

[AFTER THE JUMP: more takes]

Previously: Podcast 15.0A, 15.0B, 15.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Interior OL. Defensive Interior. Edge. Linebacker. Cornerback. Safety.

Well, the Pax Specialistica has ended. Michigan sent Jake Moody and Brad Robbins to the NFL, ending three years of joy and security, give or take. Robbins did have a rough spell at the end of last year when he was clearly "going through something," as Harbaugh would say, and Moody had one wobbly stretch a couple years back.

Things should be fine, as Michigan has a touted punter waiting in the wings and hit the portal for an established college kicker to give their freshman some time to come online. I do not think kickers should be able to transfer at all, because it is deeply funny when a power program cannot kick 30-yarders, but if they're eligible you might as well get one.

KICKING: LOCAL BOY GROWS MUSTACHE

RATING: 4

The transfer Michigan brought in is JAMES TURNER [recruiting profile], who's coming off a three-year run at Louisville. Years 1 and 3 were solid-to-excellent; he was 13/15 as a freshman and 20/22 as a junior, albeit on mostly short stuff. Half of his attempts were under 30 yards last year—now that's a team with redzone struggles—so that 20/22 only saw UL place 35th in field goal efficiency.

You are probably wondering about year two. Well. It wasn't good. It wasn't horrible; it wasn't good. Turner went 14/22. He was 0/3 from 50+ that year, so that's a bit of a mitigating factor, but 6/10 from 40-49 is not ideal. Turner dropped to 97th in FGE that year.

Michigan will be losing considerable ability to bomb it in from deep.Turner's only career make from 50+ came in 2020; he's 1/6 from range in his career and did not attempt one last year.

He's almost automatic inside 40—one career miss—and is 14/19 from 40-49. Seth goes into absurd detail about his travails and bounce back in that profile if you want to add another 3k words to your War And Preview week. The upshot is that if Turner doesn't go #collegekickers on us he won't be Moody but he'll still be one of the better Michigan kickers in recent history:

Also in things this blog finds extremely important, he has a prospecting mustache.

Buy this man a sarsaparilla. (Offer does not apply to Harbaugh, Jim.)

[After THE JUMP: he's the Doman for his time and place]

Previously: Last year’s profiles.

Ann Arbor, Michigan – 6'0"/170
[via Instagram]		Kornblue:	5*, #1 Kicker
		Kohl's	5*, #22 Kicker
		24/7:             3.03*	2*, 79, NR Ovr #8 K, #50 MI
		ESPN:             3.38*	3*, 75, #138 MW #11 K, #20 MI
		Other Suitors	None.
		YMRMFSPA	Brendan Gibbons
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello.
Notes	Left-footed.
Film:
Kornblue Kicking event in 2020: Sequel. Senior highlight is just 47-yarder vs Pioneer and a game-winning prayer. 49-yarder at Army Bowl and 60-yarder in practice. 63-yarder. Hudl.

By convention we do these writeups in reverse order of the usual position lineup, but in this case it makes sense to start with the first guy in the class. While the rest of the 2023 class came together after Michigan started beating Ohio State, Samaha pledged in final days of the miserable streak that preceded it. When his classmates showed up to the Big House barbecue to get their first impressions of Ann Arbor, Samaha was manning the grill. He grew up at Michigan. He played for Huron. Michigan was his first offer, and given their prowess on special teams and Samaha's ties, nobody else bothered. He officially committed on Thanksgiving of 2021, but by that point it was perfunctory.