ali fayad

Offense was yesterday, but after I was finished I realized I forgot to give a depth chart status. Then I thought we could use the Don Brown Dude Code for depth charting. Then I repurposed the icons that Brian got from some internet Flash game during the blog's distant past.

Icon	Name	Meaning
	Rock Star	Player is an All-American/1st rounder/bends the game around him.
	Dude	Trusted good starter. Probably All-B10 or in the running.
	Guy	Playable B10-caliber guy, very fine in a rotation.
	Iffy	Probably don't want him playing extended snaps at this point.

Defense in General

The question we're asking is: Is Wink gonna blitz too much?

But they're acting like it's: What does "blitz too much" mean?

What are we hearing? First off I need to be going on about something again, because I was out of town last week and thus missed my chance to remark on Michigan's hiring of former WMU and Memphis line coach Lou Esposito. If the name sounds familiar to you (you're misremembering famous Canadian hockey players and) you remember this author's longstanding appreciation of Bronco linemen like Ali Fayad (DE on the top).

Fayad was the first but they kept coming. Ralph Holley. Braden Fiske. Andre Carter. Marshawn Kneeland. At one point while UFR'ing the offense versus WMU I decided to look up who was responsible for these guys, and have been hoping Michigan would have an opportunity to pluck Esposito ever since. Can he recruit? I dunno. But he can coach.

Michigan also made the addition of defensive analyst Lionel Stokes official, while Alejandro found Pernell McPhee enrolled as a grad student in the School of Social Work. Stokes was LaMar Morgan's guy at Louisiana and before that an FCS coordinator. McPhee is expected to be an analyst as well, but NCAA rules allow grad assistants to be on-field coaches for a couple of years so maybe he's gonna do that.

Staff set, let's turn back to a bullet defined the offense bits this week, which was the front seven is being rather harsh on the passing game. Henschke:($):

Wink’s pressures and blitzes “handled” the offense thoroughly. … The defense is always ahead of the offense early but 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.

There's also this from Ernest Hausmann:

Jean-Mary is imploring the group to be more disruptive in the pass game.

Wink, while calling himself the system's OG, did little to suppress the talk that he represents a more basal, aggressive antecessor of the Mac-Minter defenses.

I am more aggressive than Jesse and the proof is in the pudding. So we’ll see how it works and if we can get to the quarterback rushing three, we will rush three. That’s the way football is. You just got to see how it changes because people are adjusted to us, too.

What it means? Dear only fanbase in football that wants to hear their DC talk about blitzing *less*: Jesse Minter was able to use a lot of sim pressures without committing that many rushers, but Wink's correct that opponents have this on tape and will adjust. If you want feints to keep working you have to punch too. The pressures will go up, but it'll be in the context of all the sim pressures that Minter was using, not the blitz-to-play-man that he ran in Baltimore with the league's most expensive secondary, or in New York with the league's worst starting field position. Chill. Not you Wink.

[After THE JUMP: Dudes, potential rock stars, and a big bummer.]

If you hadn’t heard I’ll be your new UFR guy.

Formations:

WMU responded to Michigan’s heavy stuff by setting up with their MLB down off the butt of the NG. Usually that resulted in that guy eating a face full of guard several yards downfield. I called this “3-4 Mike.”

Michigan’s 4th and 1 formation had 3 TEs and 6 OL: Trente Jones was the rightside TE, Honigford and Schoonmaker were on the left, and All is the H-back.

I called it “Beef.”

[After THE JUMP: Beef.]

Essentials

Overview

Michigan begins its fascinating 2021 season against the second easiest team on the schedule, Western Michigan. There are any number of storylines to latch onto entering this game, but perhaps the most overlooked is that this game is the first at the Big House with fans since the end of November 2019. Have to think the players will be amped up to run out of the tunnel and touch the banner in front of a roaring crowd and an actual band again, having settled for a small section of cheering parents and piped in PA music last season. 

WMU finished 4-2 in 2020 on an All-MAC schedule. The program has fallen back down to earth since PJ Fleck took his boat and relocated it to Minneapolis, but they've been a firmly solid mid-major team in the Tim Lester era, typically going about .500 for the year and slightly above that clip in conference. That normally puts Western on the knife's edge of going to the 38th most important bowl game. Their two losses last season were by a combined 12 points, and they saw receiver D'Wayne Eskridge get drafted in the 2nd round to the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Positional groups against other positional groups]