heinrich haarberg

Michigan's first road game of the season is this Saturday against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Lincoln. The Huskers are 2-2 on the season, with an offense that features a lot of rushing, QB controversy, and turnover woes. We will do our best to cover all of that in this piece today.

The Film: Nebraska has played four teams this season, Minnesota, Colorado, NIU, and Louisiana Tech. As a policy, I do not do chart against Group of Five teams unless I have to, which leads to a bit of a predicament. Nebraska's QB in the first two games was Jeff Sims, who then exited the Colorado game with an injury. Nebraska's QB in the next two games was Heinrich Haarberg, who seems favored to get the start on Saturday. In theory this should make me compelled to do either the NIU/La. Tech game but with both defenses being wretched, I ultimately felt the best way to go about this was the following: to chart the Minnesota game (by far the best defense Nebraska has played) in order to get a feel for all the other positions + Jeff Sims, should he play against Michigan, but watch the tape of the NIU/La. Tech games and chart the throws of Haarberg in one of them, to get a feel for him. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Nebraska's probable QB for Saturday is one Heinrich Haarberg, an in-state product of Kearney, Nebraska, who was a 3* ranked 600th in the composite in the 2021 class. After two years under Scott Frost, Haarberg has gotten his chance under Matt Rhule after the injury to Jeff Sims, the Georgia Tech transfer. Haarberg has mostly profiled as a runner, surprisingly nimble for a 6'5" QB. Sims is also mostly a runner, much more tank-shaped at 6'4/220. Sims had well publicized issues with turnovers that submarined Nebraska against Minnesota and Colorado but I'm not convinced he was a worse QB than Haarberg.

At RB, the picture has changed dramatically due to the injuries suffered by Gabe Ervin and Rahmir Johnson, both of whom are done for the season. Anthony Grant is now the bellcow for the Huskers, a man with a long and winding collegiate career that began at Florida State and included a stop in JUCO with the New Mexico Military Institute. Frost brought Grant to Nebraska last season and he led the team in rushing yards with 915 (on 218 carries). Grant seemed like the bet to lead the group into 2023 but fumble problems in fall camp led to him being dropped on the depth chart. That didn't improve when Grant had a devastating fumble against Minnesota, but with all the injuries, Rhule is now stuck with him. He got 22 carries against Louisiana Tech and I'd expect that to be the same on Saturday. There were just seven non-Grant/Haarberg carries in the La. Tech game and no one got more than two of those. That one person was Emmett Johnson who is the nominal backup RB but for now, Grant is the only guy. 

The wide receiver group is quite different than last season due to the graduation of star Trey Palmer. Marcus Washington is the only returner to be mentioned prominently in last year's FFFF, an unremarkable outside target who boasts six catches through four games. The most used receiver by far is UVA transfer slot WR Billy Kemp IV, who doesn't play nearly as much as the other two receivers but has nearly double the catches of any other target. Some of that is from jet sweep forward toss plays, but most of his true catches are short stuff. Alex Bullock is the other starting outside WR, another receiver like Washington I have nothing of note to say about. Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda is the closest thing to a fourth WR but the rest of the catches go to the TEs. 

Speaking of which, the TE spot features a one-time Michigan recruiting target Thomas Fidone II. Nebraska was able to keep the 2021 near-5* in the Great Plains (originally from Council Bluffs, IA) and away from the Wolverines. After two injury riddled seasons that have resulted in him now sporting a knee brace, Fidone has started to round into a player and was the closest thing to a Dangerman on a team with uninspiring skill position players. His three touchdown receptions (one in each of the last three games) was a primary motivating factor there. Fidone has started to pull past the #2 TE, Nate Boerkircher, who seems acceptable. Sometimes Nebraska loads up with three TEs and brings Luke Lindenmeyer onto the field but he's exclusively a blocking TE. 

Nebraska's offensive line has been alright in run blocking and very rough in pass blocking. Many of the issues it has in pass pro date back to LT Turner Corcoran, a one-time blue chip prospect who is a turnstile at this point and a major anchor on the line's protection issues, earning a cyan for the second straight year. It's not all Corcoran though, as the TEs and RBs have also struggled protecting the QB and it's not like the OL is a fortress elsewhere. Ethan Piper gets his second start against Michigan at LG and is alright, a term that could be used to describe ASU transfer C Ben Scott. Neither guy is great, but they are doing enough to hang around the Mendoza line. Behemoth 6'9" RT Bryce Benhart is PFF's favorite on this line and I had no real issues with him during my viewing, while RG Nouredin Nouili is rotating with Henry Lutovsky, something I cannot figure out because Nouili didn't have many hiccups while Lutovsky is just as brutal as he was in my review of Nebraska last season. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: I hope you like watching the QB run]