josh beetham

FORMATION NOTES: Though Nebraska was touted as a 3-3-5 coming in, in this game they were highly multiple. I had them in some variety of a 4-3 on a majority of plays, mostly under-shifted with a five man line.

Note the unusual depth of the linebackers, generally around five yards instead of three. Nebraska played with light boxes a fair bit and would spin down a safety late. Michigan didn't do anything unusual.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Henderson got his first start at LT, kicking Barnhart to RT. When Tuttle Time started Michigan put El-Hadi at LG and Trente Jones at RT, then gradually replaced the rest of the starters. Notably, Andrew Gentry played at LT and Jeff Persi played at RG. This is a shift from earlier in the season when Gentry snaps were at guard, and suggests to me that they've decided he's LT of the future and are going to rep him there the rest of the year.

RB snaps were split down the middle between Corum and Edwards, though Edwards got a half dozen snaps on the Tuttle time drive. Mullings got 8. Non-RB skill position snap counts again favored TEs, but less so than last week:

• Barner: 36
• Loveland: 35
• Johnson: 32
• Wilson: 26
• Morris: 25
• Clemons: 24
• Moore: 20
• Bredeson: 20
• Morgan: 18
• English: 16
• Beetham: 16
• Klein: 14

Clemons got in for a fair number of snaps with McCarthy on the field and got a dig target, which is a good sign for his future.

[After THE JUMP: it expands]

Previously: The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver.

THE POTATOMAN COMETH

RATING: 5

Depth Chart

Flex	Yr.	Inline	Yr.
Colston Loveland	So.	AJ Barner	Jr.*
Matt Hibner	So.*	Max Bredeson	So.*
Marlin Klein	Fr.*	Trente Jones	Sr.*

[Barron]

Last year's preview had a brief aside about COLSTON LOVELAND [recruiting profile]. It made a very bad prediction about playing time:

…true freshmen COLSTON LOVELAND and MARLIN KLEIN have a 0% chance of seeing meaningful snaps without a zombie apocalypse.

Uhhh no. Bad prediction. At least this from the post-Illinois UFR was better:

I think he's getting a crucial chunk pass off PA in The Game.

Yessir!

That preview did single Loveland out as the freshman tight end who was supposedly the Next One, per insider chatter. By the time the Big Ten Championship game rolled around, he was the Current One:

And lo, here we are. I'm not sure I can recall a guy going into his true sophomore season who 1) hasn't really played a lot and 2) has the world convinced he's going to be an All-American like Loveland. Here's BTN analyst Rick Pizzo after taking in a Michigan practice:

"You have a tight end in Colston Loveland that I think may be the breakout star in the Big Ten this year. Mark this down: he is going to be an NFL All-Pro at tight end."

Well then.

[After THE JUMP: why]