stupid sexy jimmy clausen

Poor Damn Ronnie Bell. Some weird drops stuff hit the internet a few days back. First a CBS article mostly focused on Miami QB Jarren Williams, who hit the portal after the Hurricanes took Houston transfer D'Eriq King. The article makes the case that Williams stats underrate him because Miami had a ton of drops and then incidentally bombs Michigan's WR corps:

Williams' on-target rate was a full 16 percent better than his completion rate. Of the 106 FBS QBs with at least 200 pass attempts last season, only one had a more considerable disparity between their completion percentage and on-target rate. That was Michigan's Shea Patterson, who had an on-target rate of 75.2 percent while completing only 56.2 percent of his passes for a 19 percent difference (so maybe it wasn't his fault at Michigan, either).

Per this article Michigan WRs had the worst catch rate in the country. If this caused you to do a double-take we are on the same page. I went back to UFR charting through 11 games and that does not line up with my takes, to say the least. A guy on twitter summed it up:

If you go by the most difficult receptions (circus catches) on UFR through the IU game, they caught 41% of those. 72% on moderate difficulty. 94% on easy. Only explanation is that this service is saying balls mgoblog thought wasn't catchable as 'on-target'.

— ikestoys (@ikestoys) January 24, 2020

Routine catches make up a majority of charted attempts so I am nowhere near that.

The same service tossed some individual numbers to Tom Fornelli and ah yes there it is:

Highest drop rate among FBS receivers with a minimum of 50 targets in 2019 pic.twitter.com/ltVsIx2vOr

— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) January 26, 2020

All those balls that dinked off Bell's fingernails apparently count. (Also how does Michigan have a catch rate of just 75% if Bell, who got the most targets, is the worst guy in the country with an 83% catch rate?)  Are we filing this as a drop?

I'm not. This is why UFRs have clips and context.

[After THE JUMP: the dirtiest player in the game]

SPONSOR NOTE: Upon Further Review is sponsored by HomeSure Lending and Matt Demorest. Rates are the lowest they've been in three years so it can't hurt to check whether you can save money on a refinance. Or you could buy a house in Ann Arbor! Good luck with that!

Matt's relocated the bus to Pioneer this year, BTW, and invites everyone to stop by and say hi. There's beer. I mean, obviously. Matt. Matt and beer: a good pairing.

FORMATION NOTES: The return of McKeon resulted in more two TE sets, and what's this? A fullback? A fullback.

Kudos to ABC director for his wide shots and frequent overhead replays.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Mostly the usual at QB and OL, with Milton and McCaffrey getting in late. Hayes was used as a tight end in a nameless 80 jersey for a couple goal line snaps. Second-team line remains Hayes/Filiaga/Vastardis/Spanellis/Hongiford.

RB rotation was mostly Haskins/Charbonnet with Wilson getting in towards the tail end of competitive time; Turner and Van Sumeren got some late action. Mason got 5 snaps as a FB/TE.

Eubanks was still TE1 in terms of snaps, because he sticks on the field for passing downs. McKeon got about half the snaps; All got some 3 TE snaps in the redzone and the occasional live-fire snap outside. Bell/Black/DPJ/Collins split WR snaps about evenly, with Sainristil added as pretty much an equal member to the quartet. Jackson and Johnson got some garbage snaps.

[After THE JUMP: a steamrolling]