julius welschof

Frieden, Freund. [Paul Sherman]

While we've been waiting out Harbaughwatch 2023, Michigan's depth chart of German mogul skiing factory workers who create incredible 1980s workout videos just took a 100% hit:

Welschof, affectionately referred to as "Juice" around these parts, stuck around for five years and tried several roles, ultimately landing on special teams. His largest contributions—and the majority of his 300 career snaps—were as a depth DT during the middle of 2021. He redshirted in 2018 and everybody got 2020 for free, so he has one year left to play.

Recruited as an Anchor prospect, Don Brown tried to turn him into a defensive tackle, and Welschof emerged in early 2020 as a rush specialist at the position. In mid-2021 he passed the walk-ons who'd been supplying regular 3rd string DT snaps. That went better than it had any right to—size was a constant issue and 100% of doubles moved him—because Welschof could spin off or slip through those doubles at any moment.

#96 the DT under the hash mark

#96 the DT on the bottom:

As the season progressed however the DT rotation solidified into Smith/Hinton/Jenkins/Jeter with Mike Morris as a rush guy, and the few snaps left for third stringers went to blooding freshmen Rayshaun Benny. MacDonald tried moving Juice out to Edge later in the season, his most memorable moment there getting edged by Stetson Bennett in the Playoff.

There was some hope, given the position lost Hutchinson and Ojabo in the offseason, that Juice's length and athleticism would translate better outside over an offseason to reshape and learn the position. However in limited 2022 opportunities Welschof never managed to get past even the elementary nuances of the position, and found himself buried behind a 6-man rotation at Edge that included a true freshman and a transfer who arrived after fall practice. He spent 2022 mostly on special teams; when he made the charting it was for blowing contain late against CSU and on Purdue's fake punt.

With everybody returning next year plus Coastal Carolina transfer Josiah Stewart there wasn't much likelihood of Welschof emerging again. In the past such guys were usually given a firm handshake and their careers would be over. Thanks to the portal (and an extra COVID year), Welschof has the opportunity to find somewhere he might have a chance to contribute.

Dude, it's only CSU. [Patrick Barron]

Help, what are all these words? The UFR Glossary.

Substitution Notes: Backups got a lot of play. Morris and Harrell were the starters at edge, with Taylor Upshaw matching them for snaps as Morris slid down to DT for pass rush packages. Backups were Derrick Moore and Braiden McGregor, with spot appearances at weakside for Eyabi Anoma. DTs were Mazi and Jenkins with Graham and Benny rotating in (more for Jenkins than Smith) and a third team of Rooks and Goode. Safety was Rod Moore and Moten, who rotated with Paige until Moore came out with the starters for Kolesar. Sainristil held down nickel all game, including when CSU went 2TE. CB was DJ Turner and Gemon Green mostly with Will Johnson rotating in for a drive here and there.

Formation Notes: Updating the “Hi” column this year to provide more information on the secondary alignment. Press/Off are self-explanatory. “Fld” or “Bdy” mean only the field or boundary CB is playing off. Reminder that "Hat" (as in: tip o' the…) means the other team's player did a thing all on his own. It can be positive (helped) or negative (nice job, guy on other team).

CSU's favorite formation was a 3-wide with the TE half-flexed. Michigan's formations were mostly the same as last year's plus this 5-1 look from Nickel personnel (that's Barrett at the top). I called it "Nk 5-1"

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They also rolled out a 3-3-5 look with Upshaw (on the 45 below the hash) dropped back like a LB. Nk 3-3-5.

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And this was the look before the 4th and 7 strip-six, which I called "Y-Stack" because the SS, WLB, and Edge are all over the TE, with Paige down near the LOS. Michigan brought the house.

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On epithets, pseudonyms, sobriquets, and general patronymity: When I say "Green" I mean Gemon; I'll use "German" when it's his brother. The Johnson is Will, and if Quinten plays he can be Q-Jo. "Moore" is Rod Moore, and Derrick Moore is "D-Mo." The Pollards are going by their first names, Micah (the LB) and Myles (the CB). NHG=Nikhai Hill-Green. Juice=Julius Welschof. And Kody Jones is K.Jones for the purposes of future-proofing. Apologies to the people who asked me to use full names, but the tradeoff is fewer mistakes.

Also "PR" means pressure, "cov" is coverage, and "RPS" is rock-paper-scissors, IE effects of the play calls. Let's do this!

[After THE JUMP: So many guys to talk about, one huge caveat]
[Bryan Fuller]

Previously: Podcast 14.0A, 14.0B, 14.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Offensive Tackle. Interior OL. Defensive Interior.

EDGE: RAT-A-TAT-TAT

  Depth Chart
STRONG OLB Yr. TACKLE Yr. NOSE Yr. END Yr. WEAK OLB Yr.
Mike Morris Jr.* Mason Graham Fr. Mazi Smith Jr.* Kris Jenkins Jr.* Taylor Upshaw Sr.*
Julius Welschof Jr.* Rayshaun Benny Fr.* Cam Goode Jr.* George Rooks Fr.* Jaylen Harrell So.*
Braiden McGregor Fr.* Ike Iwunnah Fr.* Kenneth Grant Fr. Dom Guidice Fr.* Eyabi Anoma Sr.*

Michigan won the Big Ten last year for a lot of reasons. First and foremost amongst them was the greatest defensive end pairing in school history. Aidan Hutchinson went #2 overall and David Ojabo would have been a first round pick if he hadn't ruptured his Achilles in workouts. Hutchinson smashed Mo Hurst's all-time UFR scoring record by putting up a +39.5(!!!) against Ohio State, a take that PFF echoed. Hutchinson's 15 pressures in that game is a PFF-era record.

Neither of those guys is around anymore. Instead Michigan has one guy who played pretty well as rotational piece but projects as more of a DE/DT hybrid, two guys who have played a significant amount of unremarkable football, and then a pile of question marks in various shapes. But there's good news!

Jim Harbaugh has set a new mark for offseason balderdash. In the long history of people saying probably false things about their football teams, this stands alone atop a mountain of minor mendacity. So we've got that going for us.

Michigan has one guy who's probably tracking towards being picked in the NFL draft, a couple of upperclassmen who provide the weakside end a high floor (and a low ceiling) and then just piles and piles of lottery tickets.

ANCHOR/SOLB: WORM

RATING: 4

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HELLO YOU ARE NOW FLAT [Patrick Barron]

Redshirt junior MIKE MORRIS has the athletic background—his father was a four-year starter for FSU at guard and possessed a wicked flat-top—and on-campus trajectory to believe that he's going to step into the starting lineup without much difficulty. In many years the last word in the previous sentence would have been "dropoff." This year we're figuring out how big of one.

Realistically, it's going to be pretty big. Morris flashed talent in a fair number of reserve snaps a year ago but is pushing 290. If he was any sort of edge rusher at his weight the offseason hype for him would be titanic; as it is he projects as a pocket pusher who can attack half a man and make opposing QBs uncomfortable. He's not going to rip around the outside like a Scottish werewolf.

[After THE JUMP: a whole lot of scratch-off tickets]

not great bob

hot take segment: secondary edition

asking questions like "are the ends all-americans or merely excellent?" feels pretty good

dad achievement unlocked

make or break

eh, it'll be fine to good 

The phonebooks are here.

Last trip down the bits until fall, as the spring game will get its own coverage next week and then it's just cold, dark offseason punctuated by Hello posts and HTTV work.

So many guys discussed I maxed out the site's ability to tag a post