jadyn davis

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.

------------------

* [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.]

-------------------

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.

------------------------

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

A week and change on from the national title, attention now turns to the basketball program what Team 145 is going to look like. This may be an exercise in futility since there's a distinct chance that Jim Harbaugh takes an NFL job this offseason, throwing everything into a mild state of higgeldy-piggeldy. But they'd probably just plug in Sherrone Moore, avoid significant portal departures, and be more or less the same minus a predilection for weird press conferences.

So.

QUARTERBACK

Obviously the biggest question mark on the team in the aftermath of JJ McCarthy's draft entry. The options on campus do not feel like plugging in JJ McCarthy, to say the least. They are:

• Jayden Denegal, a 6'4" pocket passer who was a high three star on the composite and got a reasonable amount of garbage time last year. He'll be a redshirt sophomore next year.
• Davis Warren, a former walk-on who's looked solid in a couple of spring games but was hurt (probably) much of the year, ceding non-JJ snaps to Denegal.
• Alex Orji, a Tebow-esque runner who got on the field for various snaps down the stretch where he always ran the ball. Michigan did dial up a pass for him in the Rose Bowl but 'Bama covered it and he ran out of bounds for a two yard loss.
• Jadyn Davis, a true freshman who was a five star but has slid down recruiting boards to be a fringe top 100 prospect. Davis did join the team for bowl practices and has buckets of experience in high school.

In the season preview I asserted that the best case scenario for Michigan entering 2024 is that Orji was the clear frontrunner and I still maintain that because we have an indication he does have an elite skill. I'm not sure the Tebow/Denard offense can be a national title winner in the year of our lord 2024; neither am I sure Michigan can pivot a ton of option stuff that would be necessary. Even so: Orji has It on the ground, and I'm not sure anyone else can say they're there as a passer.

[After THE JUMP: loaded RB room… not so loaded WR room] 

Late last week I put out a post on the message board asking for questions for a mailbag, as I haven't done one since the summer and now seems like a good time to fit one in. To no one's surprise, nearly all of the questions were football related. I picked the best 14 questions and if yours wasn't chosen, better luck next time. I did my best to pick as many good ones as possible, but there is never enough space for them all. Two quick notes on question topics: 1.) there were a lot of questions that are Rose Bowl gameplan-ish and I decided I will answer them in FFFF rather than here and 2.) several Donovan Edwards questions that I chose not to answer because you can read Seth's piece from last week. 

Assuming Coach stays and JJ leaves, what does the offense look like next year? (-Ray) 

I answered a version of this question in the summer that was focused on 2024 generally but now is a good time to check back in on the picture. The question assumes JJ is leaving, so the answer that has to be provided first is "who is playing QB?". I'm not sure any of us would feel great with the in-house QB options playing, but if JJ decides to leave in January it puts Michigan in a tougher spot in the portal, since many transfer QBs will have decided by then. If Michigan were able to land Dante Moore in the portal now, perhaps he could be an option, and obviously true freshman Jadyn Davis is an option, though I do not like the idea of a true freshman QB ever starting if his name is not Trevor Lawrence. I think Davis or Orji starting should be the fallback, with the idea that Michigan would dip into the portal in January or maybe after spring to look for options. 

Having either a transfer picked up later in the cycle or a Davis/Orji QB situation certainly limits the offense's ceiling compared to this year and it's the result of QB recruiting problems in the 2022/2023 classes. That said, the offense will be set up decently well to help whoever the QB is. I like the RB position no matter what Donovan Edwards plans to do, since Kalel Mullings has flashed and so has Ben Hall, not to mention that Cole Cabana could be operational and you're adding in a blue chip RB recruit in Jordan Marshall at a position where true freshmen can have big impacts.

The WR room is a bit in flux but if Michigan can land Donaven McCulley, that's a legit option in addition to Tyler Morris, who should have a larger role, and the current true freshmen (F. Moore/S. Morgan). Of course, having Colston Loveland around helps a lot too. It's unclear what the OL composition will look like, since a lot of it hinges on NFL decisions from Barnhart/Trente/Myles Hinton/Nugent, but if even half come back, adding that next to Greg Crippen and Gio El-Hadi gives Michigan's OL a solid starting point. In other words, the RBs should be good, receiving options should be between adequate and good, and the same can be said for the OL. Life will be made easier on the QB, but there will still be a pretty sizable stepback overall if you don't have JJ as the singal-caller. Thankfully, the 2024 defense should be nasty. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More questions]