kalel mullings should play rb this is not a linebacker take

The system for depth charting:

And if his name's in red they plan to redshirt him.

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Quarterback

Can your friends pull this out their little haaaat? [Bryan Fuller]

The question we're asking is: Would Orji be really mad if we look in the portal?

But they're acting like it's: How cool does Orji look in pads?

What are we hearing? Orji has some wow moments, and the next moment he'll throw another pick. Devin Gardner went to a practice then went on with Sam. Orji:

he looks like a GI Joe… like an action figure (with) a Michigan uniform on, and obviously a bigger version. This dude is built like a rock. When you say hey, what do I want the athlete to look like? That's exactly what it should look like. … The thing for Orji is he's got all the talent in the world, man. (But) you see some opportunities in practice where he missed some throws that… man… you want him to make that throw.

GI Joe like he's shooting blue lasers?

He has some things where his feet aren't always in the right place. His feet aren't as clean as you want them to be. Sometimes you lose accuracy, and you lose timing.

Then Semaj Morgan joined them.

I feel like every quarterback has their unique quality. Orji he just a freak athlete; anything you can think about in a football player he probably can do. Then we got Davis Warren like strong powerful arm, and he's really fast; he be running 22 miles per hour when we run Sprints. Then we got Jayden Denegal; he can throw the ball real accurate. And he big; he can run you over—he's gonna get that first down when we need it. Then we got Jaydyn Davis although very young he's very well-rounded. And I will tell you he's not scared to throw the ball, and that's that's something that I love about a quarterback. I don't care what the coverage is; I don't care who's on me; if you feel like the person in front of me's not better than me, throw me that ball! Jayden Davis understands that.

In the aftermath, Sam devoted a 3R Report($) that said they've been focusing on dropback passing with Orji, and also that Jayden Denegal's struggles didn't continue past the first four practices.

There was clear separation between Orji and him at that point, but not as much since then. He's closed the gap in recent practices with his improved accuracy and has shown better skills on the move than outside observers might expect at first glance.

Davis Warren has a cannon that can't hit the broad side of NCAA hypocrisy, and Jadyn Davis is not going to be put in a position to jeopardize his future, but his accuracy is excellent, especially on the run. From a practice insider, Orji is still in the driver's seat but there's going to be a major drop-off from McCarthy. Botched snaps, interceptions, and plays where the QB doesn't see anything and starts to panic are things that happen to teams that don't have JJ under center, in case you've forgotten, but they've been jarring to some of the used-to-JJ the people seeing them in practice.

Tuttle's still hurt, but Michigan is expected to poke around the portal, which opened this week, and wherein Chris Hummer thinks Michigan will have their pick of the litter. 247's Matt Zenitz adds that UCLA and Northwestern are the only schools currently desperate($) for a starter, but USC and Auburn might provide competition if an elite name enters. Henschke thinks Michigan will be in the market ($).

What it means? Michigan probably does want to add some competition from the portal, but going about it without triggering a tampering investigation or losing one of their own is tricky, and probably only worth the risk for a game-changer. Odds are just as good they stick with Orji and put Jadyn Davis, who could use a season to gain weight before facing Big Ten linemen, on the McCarthy plan.

Depth Chart? I'm still expecting them to redshirt Jadyn Davis unless he passes Denegal.

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[After THE JUMP: Let's talk about 4th tight end and 9th OL.]

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]

FORMATION NOTES: Rutgers ran a normal-ass defense.

They were in a 4-3 virtually all day. The safeties were not exceptionally nosy and the linebackers did not blitzball. Normal defense.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Nothing unusual except for the Henderson/Hinton rotation you're already aware of. Some interesting WR/TE snap counts, though:

• Barner: 49
• Johnson: 46
• Wilson: 45
• Loveland: 40
• Bredeson: 20
• Morris: 18
• Moore: 9
• Hibner: 5
• Morgan: 3

TE #3 had more snaps than WR #3. There can't be another program in America that's done that this year.

[After THE JUMP: reach out and mash face]