harrison waylee

Week #2 of FFFF kicks off today with NIU's offense. Michigan's (seemingly) weakest opponent actually has had a rather interesting seasonto date, knocking off a power five opponent in week one (Georgia Tech) and then playing in an absolutely crazy game last week against Wyoming, one that saw the Huskies score 43 points and come back from 42-16 down, yet still lose. Thomas Hammock's team seems rather intriguing as they prepare to head to the Big House this weekend, even if it is not entirely clear whether they are substantially better than their offseason projections, ones that saw them rank at the bottom of most of The Enemy pieces I wrote in August. Today we will take a look at the offense, featuring an old foe at QB in Rocky Lombardi, and a collection of mostly unfamiliar faces at the other positions. 

The Film: For this one I did choose to go with the Georgia Tech game. Though the 50-43 shootout with Wyoming would have been entertaining to break down, it's less useful because even though GT is a bad power five team, they are still closer in terms of talent to Michigan than Wyoming is. So, let's go with the Yellow Jackets, but it's important to keep a couple things in mind: this is not the Paul Johnson GT teams of yonder. In fact, Georgia Tech hasn't been good for a few years now. They were 6-16 over Geoff Collins' first two seasons entering this one and particularly for this piece, GT's defense was real bad last season. In 2020, GT was 110th out of 128 teams in scoring defense and a similar 109th in total defense. For reference, they ranked similarly to Illinois last season defensively, and remember, Illinois' 2020 defensive catastrophe is why we no longer get to enjoy the spectacle of Lovie Smith's beard in the B1G. So when I say that NIU scored 22 points and gained 300 yards against Georgia Tech, it's important to note that was a good showing by the Yellow Jackets defensively given last season. It was still not enough to win, though. 

Personnel: Click for big: 

Yep, the Huskies are rolling Rocky Lombardi out there at QB, the ex-Spartan and owner of the greatest football name of all-time. He hands it off to one of two dudes, speedy RB Harrison Waylee or slower RB Clint Ratkovich. Those two guys will get nearly all of the carries for NIU, with Waylee getting significantly more than Ratkovich. Hammock's team does like to use a FB, Brett Bostad. He didn't have any carries in the game I saw, though, and he does not appear in the Wyoming box score. That said, Bostad will be out there in short-yardage situations as a blocker only. 

At receiver, Tyrice Richie is the favorite target, leading the team with 7 receptions through the first two games. He will be used on the occasional running play too, getting a pair of carries in the game I saw. Cole Tucker wasn't a major part of the GT game, but then raked in 6 catches for 72 yards against Wyoming. Similarly, Trayvon Rudolph had just 1 catch in the GT game, and though he only had 2 against Wyoming, those went for 65 total yards on the back of a 40-yard TD reception so it's worth mentioning him. The WR group is rounded out by Messiah Travis, who has had one ~20 yard catch in each of the first two games. NIU likes to roll with two and three TE's, but Miles Joiner is the only main receiving target of them and he's not exactly Cade Otton. NIU tends to like him in the flat. Liam Soraghan and Tristen Tewes are more of blocking TE's. 

The OL returns four starters and is a stable unit. Only center Brayden Patton had any real buzz about him entering the season and this group generally graded out poorly in PFF's data. As you will see, I thought they had a good game against GT, and thought that RG Logan Zschernitz stood out in particular as a pulling guard on some of their better running plays. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Huskies are pest-control... because they KILL Yellow Jackets]