donovan edwards is a decoy

The 2024 team is going to have at least one of its major offensive weapons back.

There's not a lot to gripe about when Michigan has played thirteen games, won thirteen games, and is the #1 seed in the Playoff. But we're going to find a way to do it anyways, because the usage of Donovan Edwards this season has been a consistent annoyance. As good as Harbaugh and his assistants have been about finding ways to crack defenses with tight ends, it's hard to get over the thought that they're wasting a five-star tool in Edwards who could be so much more. This was a point Brian made in the game column:

What are we doing with Donovan Edwards? There were a number of plays on which Iowa showed man-to-man coverage with Edwards split out. Edwards invariably motioned back into the backfield when this happened. They never took a shot at Edwards, or even looked him up on a slant.

Even more frustrating were times when Iowa would show and run man coverage and Edwards would leak out of the backfield and sit down in front of a linebacker. One angle route there and Edwards is running for a million yards. I don't know; it just seems like something is off with him. And the coaches.

He's barely been used in the pass game. #1 must fix before the 'Bama game. Alabama has lockdown corners; Edwards needs to be a factor.

So I thought we'd use this space to talk about this play and some others that have us questioning how Michigan deploys this backfield weapon, and how they could probably do a better job of using his actual skills.

[After THE JUMP: Two gripes.]

Formation Notes: UGA plays with a “Jack”—a small DE that I counted as a LB even though he sets up on the line, like below. The offensive formation here is what we call “Fritz.”

This from UGA is “Nickel Odd”—it’s like “Split” but with the DT at a perfect 0 technique. On Michigan’s side, Erick All’s split is what I’ve been calling “demi.”

Substitution Notes: Once again trueblueintexas has us covered. McCarthy rotated in until McNamara went on tilt and JJ finished the game, which works out to 46% McCarthy. Haskins got the start but the other two RBs got more run. All got most of the TE work as Michigan used more spread sets, which got Sainristil on the field more than usual and plenty of work for Henning. Andrel Anthony got on the field after but more often than Daylen Baldwin.

Hat: Instead of new “WRDIS” acronyms each week, from now on when a play didn’t work because the other team MADE PLAYS we’re going to recognize that with a tip of the hat, shortened to “Hat.” Hate hat.