aiden hutchinson

If it seems like we're emptying the drawer of Kwity images while we still can, hi [Bryan Fuller]

Very Visual Podcast Tonight: Next MGoPodcast is a Zoom call with the U-M Club of Greater San Francisco, at 8pm EST tonight, with a Q&A afterwards for those who sign up and pay the gate. Mo Hurst is going to try to stop in. Taking suggestions for Gimmicky Top Fives that aren't depressing.

Previously: Offense and our hopes for Mackinac Island Fudge Ice Cream to save society were covered yesterday.

Defensive Tackle

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A lot to carry. [Bryan Fuller]

What we want to hear: The super sophomores are KILLING IT. In Mazi Smith's case this was almost literal: a bear broke into his apartment, and by the time the DNR arrived Mazi had the beast pinned and thoroughly ridiculed for atrocious pad level. Also Hinton looks like an All-American. Also the bear was returned to the wild but is going to work on that pad level and Wiltfong recently crystal balled it to Michigan. Plus some of the grow-a-tackle projects have gained a ton of weight, and that's before the CDC learned ice cream is the answer to COVID-19.

What we're hearing: Kemp was the other guy, along with Eubanks, who was made available to the press, and Kemp's lament for the line that would have been is sort of telling:

"Being able to play with [junior defensive end] Aidan [Hutchinson] and [senior end] Kwity [Paye] again — the people we have on defense, the guys we have on our offense — it’s definitely something that a lot of us were excited for."

This is some major reading between the lines but when the first team DL comes up it's always about those three guys, at least regarding any 2020-'21 action. Via an insider I email with, Kemp is probably not sticking around for a sixth year if the NCAA, as the D-I working group recommended, gives everyone this year back.

The only Hinton news this summer was his parents are behind the College Football Parents 24/7 organization that's been trying to pressure the NCAA to not be a bunch of dipshits, making them the second-most doomed organization in America today.

The only non-Kemp DT to get a mention so far this year is last year's offseason favorite hype topic Donovan Jeter, who is up 28 pounds—from 290 to 318—and for it earned mention, along with one of the freshman safeties, by Jim Harbaugh as the two "quarantine warriors."

“Another example is (defensive tackle) Donovan Jeter. Donovan probably played last year at 290-295 (pounds), and he’s up to 320-325 this year. He’s moving faster, quicker, side-to-side and forwards. That stands out.”

Jeter has sacrificed some acceleration upwards, but is still reportedly moving downwards at about 9.8 ms2. If he can get that up to 10Mand become the type of doubles-sucking nose who can't be moved backwards, I'd take it.

As for the growers, Balas did a Q&A recently($) and answered Gabe Newburg "is getting huge" to a question asking which DEs might be enlargening into DT territory. If you want to read Mike Morris switching from and end's #80 to a definitively lineman #90 as proof he's going to outgrow anchor you are right where you belong.

247's Zach Shaw noted Brown University grad transfer Elijah Pierre—who replaced Mo Hurst at Xavierian Bros—was the only player on the MGoBlue.com roster listed as "DI" for "Defensive Interior":

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But if you copy-paste that position into Word and change the case you'll see that's a lowercase 'L'. This is the in-depth analysis you can't get anywhere else.

[After THE JUMP: More goings, and it's too early for knowing who's coming up behind them]

image-6_thumb_thumb5SPONSOR NOTE: Hey folks. In addition to providing mortgages, Matt also tailgates. You can hang out and support a good cause by going to the Charity Tailgate at 327 East Hoover (if you were at the preseason MGoEvents this year and last it's the same place). Go around back to the MGoBus and say hi.

FORMATION NOTES: Increased emphasis on four-man fronts, with about 2/3rds of all snaps featuring four DL. That's up from about 50/50 in the opener, and with almost half of Michigan's 3-3-5 snaps on passing downs standard downs were heavily 4-2-5. WMU spent almost the whole day in a three-wide shotgun featuring The Biggest Boy at H-back. He featured on this play that I still find hilarious almost a week later:

Odell Miller is listed at 270 on the roster and that is a lie, a lie, a lie. Harbaugh had to admire WMU running out a nose tackle as an offensive skill position player.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: With Marshall out, Carlo Kemp got the start and did well. Rest of the DL rotation was similar to the first game, with Bryan Mone getting even more snaps because of the Solomon injury and the reduction in 3-3-5 snaps. Paye and Hutchinson semi-frequently spotted Gary and Winovich, with Rueben Jones getting a little time late. Donovan Jeter got some late snaps as well. Dwumfour rotated in semi-frequently but was a clear backup to Kemp and not in a platoon.

LB level was Hudson and Bush for every snap and a rotation of Gil and Ross at WLB, with a slight Ross bias. Jordan Glasgow and Jordan Anthony were the late replacements for Hudson and Bush. The usual CB rotation between the three guys, with Watson being more prominent than the other two—a change. Kinnel omnipresent; Metellus got pulled for Hawkins after his personal foul and somewhat frequently after that.

[After THE JUMP: Kemp story.]

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Very different types of 3-stars [Eric Upchurch, 2013]

This is take two (take one got deleted) of Part II of my attempt to put the recruiting rankings of this year’s commits in context within the ~500 previous Michigan commits we have Part I: The Offense lives here.

Since the last one I’ve been dealing with a health thing. In fact I’m writing this from the hospital, where they’ve had me holed up since last Friday. Between tests, consultations, vitals, and literally almost 100 needle pokes into my vascular system, I’ve had time to complete a substantial update to my roster database, which now goes all the way back to Gary Moeller’s first year, plus some long overdue tweaks to how I value position and regional rankings.*

I’ve also been playing around with interactive charts on Tableau:

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Click to get to the chart since I can’t figure out how to get embedding to work yet. I’m new at these so bear with me as I learn.

* [Methodology for stat nerds: I averaged the 247 composites of each rank for each position, then plotted it on a graph and used the logarithmic formula]

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STRONGSIDE DEFENSIVE END

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Young Wormley was 70 percent potential, 30 percent hair [Upchurch/Bryan Fuller]

After Michigan loaded up with linemen last year and secured two one of the top DEs for 2019, they could afford to get picky in 2018. They still got one potentially immediate contributor and two excellent choices for sleepers of the class. Aiden Hutchinson got a late ratings bump from the sites which pushed him up from a near-perfect Ryan Van Bergen comp to “not just a four star” range.

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The only relatively recent guy Michigan captured in this range was Craig Roh, but if Rivals hadn’t been so contrarian with Wormley I think that would be your closest comp. 247 was the highest on Wormley and came out about the same on Hutchinson’s kid. He’s supposed to be coming in to play defense but if you want to project him at guard, well, here’s the closest comp:

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We have to scroll down to the mid 3-stars for Taylor Upshaw and Julius Welschof:

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Note that’s not “generic three star” like Greg Brooks/Rondell Biggs, but neither is it “just missed a fourth star” like Carlo Kemp and Jibreel Black. As I said, I love the potential with both of these guys. Upshaw is the son of an NFL player who didn’t start playing football until recently. Welschof is a German athletic freak and mogul skiier who gathered a lot of interest from the big-time schools he camped at. The recruiters were always playing catch-up there too. Rivals didn’t take to Welschof—otherwise the sites placed them in the same range as some other position-switchers or needs-to-gain-weight types with high ceilings to unwrap in a few years.

Defensive end is a position where the talent apparent in high school translates more directly to an NFL career:

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(and that’s totally the reason I showed this)

Fortunately for our hopes here the only guy from the three-star bin considered an athlete on the level of Upshaw and Welschof was Shelton Johnson, and his career crumbled for off-field reasons.

[After THE JUMP: used to be better before I had to rewrite all of it]

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