AP All Americans - 3 Wolverines Honored
The AP released their All American teams today and 3 Wolverines earned honors:
- Zak Zinter - 1st Team Guard
- Blake Corum - 3rd Team RB
- Kris Jenkins - 3rd Team Interior Lineman
Other Big Ten 1st Team:
- Olu Fashanu, Tackle, PSU
- Marvin Harrison, JR, WR, OSU
- Jer'Zahn Newton, DT, IL
- Cooper DeJean, CB, Iowa
- Tory Taylor, Punter, Iowa
https://apnews.com/article/ap-allamerica-team-45e5dac6434336de5712779fbc0e7e6f
December 11th, 2023 at 1:45 PM ^
hot take: our punter was better
December 11th, 2023 at 1:55 PM ^
Lol, agreed. Probably because their's got more opportunities thanks to nepo-baby Brian F's inept offense.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:16 PM ^
Also, he has 1,200 yards of roll on his punts because he punted in a way that they weren’t able to be caught. Which I guess is a skill. But his punt air yards (if there were such a thing) would not be that impressive I’m betting.
December 11th, 2023 at 3:32 PM ^
Yeah but that's the whole point -- long, unfieldable punts.
Doesn't matter if they roll 1200 yards or if it's through the air. Net yards is the real measure, and I assume his was pretty good (until Semaj Morgan caught one).
Our punter was fantastic too and obviously not shitting on him, I'm merely disagreeing with your logic.
December 11th, 2023 at 3:49 PM ^
And you'd have to say that he was more critical to his team's success. Iowa with a mediocre punter probably doesn't win as many games.
December 11th, 2023 at 4:27 PM ^
He's literally the difference between the Iowa shirts: "punting is winning" and the Nebraska shirts: "we almost always almost win"
December 11th, 2023 at 4:33 PM ^
Yup. Taylor has more punts and more punt yards than any other punter in the country.
He had 86 punts for 4,119 yards.
The next closest was the Navy punter with 3,583 yards on 80 punts.
Sports-reference.com goes back to 2000 for punting records and Taylor's 2023 season is the most punt yards they've recorded. So-called SDSU "punt god" Matt Araiza is 3rd with 4044 yards in 2021.
Taylor's 2022 season, during which he also led the country, is good for 17th on the list.
They wore out his leg b/c they were so inept on offense.
Tommy Doman, otoh, only punted 42 times. Literally fewer than half the punts of Taylor.
December 11th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
Being an All-American is almost always a combination of skill and contributions. A guy who punts 8 times a game has a lot more chance to make contributions than a guy who punts 3 times a game. It's like if you have a RB who averages 6.5 yards per carry but only gets 150 carries, he isn't making AA over a guy who averaged 5.0 yards per carry on 300 carries.
Plus, it's really funny for Iowa to have the first-team AA punter.
December 12th, 2023 at 5:15 AM ^
I just checked Team Rankings to see who had the fewest punts per game. LSU at 1.9, which is the lowest I found going back 10 years. Georgia not far behind at 2.2, and Michigan tied for around 15th fewest at 3.2. Alabama in the middle of the pack at 4.5.
December 11th, 2023 at 1:47 PM ^
So Iowa had more first team AP All-Americans than either Michigan or OSU.
What a country.
December 11th, 2023 at 4:45 PM ^
Yeah, Iowa with more than those two programs is a vibe.
December 11th, 2023 at 6:10 PM ^
So Iowa must be twice as good as Michigan. Did I do that right?
December 12th, 2023 at 5:02 AM ^
That's got to be there recruiting pitch...minus a detail or two.
December 11th, 2023 at 1:58 PM ^
No Mason Graham? Oh, AP. I gotta call bullshit on this.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:09 PM ^
No disrespect to Jenkins but these post season teams are proving the media doesn’t pay attention to the trenches.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:24 PM ^
Unfortunately these (like most of the awards) are typically focused on counting stats, so our heavy rotation on the DL hurts our guys chances. Though I will say I agree with the sentiment re Graham, I'm a little surprised that Jenkins was picked and Graham wasn't...
December 11th, 2023 at 2:27 PM ^
It’s got to be the counting stats and the undercurrent of bias toward upperclassmen. Very deserving for Jenkins though.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^
Is Fashanu one of the most overrated player in B1G history?
December 11th, 2023 at 2:17 PM ^
He's gotta be up there. At no point have I watched him and thought he's the best left tackle in the nation. And the "he hasn't given up a sack" stat feels as much due to Allar just bailing on throws almost immediately as him actually holding up against good pass rushes.
December 11th, 2023 at 4:27 PM ^
That, and Fashanu plays on a line with 4 other guys who are going to get beat before he does.
December 11th, 2023 at 11:20 PM ^
He does hold with the best of them. Good thing for some that is not against the rules (the written ones anyway).
December 11th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
I foresee he'll be bear-hugging Aidan on Sundays.
December 11th, 2023 at 4:21 PM ^
He's up there with virtually every OSU OL of recent vintage.
December 11th, 2023 at 4:46 PM ^
I see him getting mock drafted incredibly high. I just don’t see it. Good? Yes. Elite elite? No.
December 11th, 2023 at 5:19 PM ^
He's definitely a great pass-blocker IMO .... less so run-blocker.
But in the NFL, where the QB is a 9-figure investment and RBs are much more of a fungible commodity, you're going to value pass-blocking considerably more.
December 11th, 2023 at 8:06 PM ^
Depends on whether you include the MSU steroid era.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:15 PM ^
Well deserved. Will never quite get the Fashanu getting this much love but at some point I will accept I just don't get offensive line play.
Zinter in particular has looked great all year so glad to see him rewarded.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:17 PM ^
Utterly meaningless horse shit. These popularity contests have no merit. There are lots of deserving players who are passed up every time one of these beauty contests comes up.
Corum in the top ten of the Heisman voting, but third string running back?
C'mon, man.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:39 PM ^
While I agree that it's a weird disconnect, which is more surprising? That he was top 10 in the Heisman voting (3rd highest RB btw, so going just off of that he should have been 2nd Team AA, not 1st Team), or that he was 3rd Team AA? Or both?
I mean the flipside is that if you look just through the lens of this year (i.e. not influenced by the fact that he was clearly the best RB in the country last year), and see a RB with just over 1000 yards at 4.7 YPC, would you have expected him to be AA at all? His 1028 yards is 38th in the country, and his YPC is probably around there too for regular RBs (hard to filter out all the guys that have high YPCs on like one or two attempts). If he didn't lead the country in TDs, I doubt he'd have made it at all. We know he's brilliant, especially with his cuts, but objectively he did take a big step back from last year on just a couple fewer carries per game...
December 11th, 2023 at 3:03 PM ^
Agree.
The first team RBs were Ollie Gordon III and Cody Schrader. Although they ended up 7 and 8 in Heisman voting and might explain how Corum was third team. Similarly, Corum was a Doak Walker finalist in 2022 but not in 2023. The reality is that Corum is way ahead in TDs, arguably the most important statistic. 24 to Ollie's 20, but Ollie has 1614 rushing yards to Blake's 1028.
The awards largely look at total yards, yards per carry and then TDs. Blake had to carry against 4 of the toughest rushing defenses (Nebraska was also very good this year at less than 100 ypg) while Ollie rushes in the Big 12 which only has one team that plays defense (Texas). That Texas team held Ollie to 34 yards on 13 carries and 0 TDs in the Big 12 Championship.
Finishing should be worth more than running between the goal lines, but that's not how these beauty contests work.
December 11th, 2023 at 3:31 PM ^
Finishing should be worth more than running between the goal lines, but that's not how these beauty contests work.
The counter argument is that the type of TDs matter. Going into the PSU game, Corum didn't have a single TD run of more than five yards. He now has three, although one of those was six yards. So while 24 TDs--four more than the next guy--is very impressive, having 22 of those 24 be six yards or less, with the majority just pounding it in from a couple yards out, takes a lot of the shine off that stat.
In that vein I would disagree that finishing is (intrinsically) more important than running between the goal lines. I would say that Blake had a number of non-TD runs that were way more impressive than the majority of his TDs. When you think about it, a one or two yard TD is really no different than converting a 2nd or 3rd and short, it's just that one happens to be worth six points while the other is a first down...
December 11th, 2023 at 5:33 PM ^
My recollection is that last year's CFP started with a stop by TCU on 4th and goal from the 2. We tried a trick play. Meanwhile, what did we do in similar circumstance with OSU this year? Blake pounds it in on both 3rd and 4th down. IMO, he had it on 3rd down but easily went in on 4th.
Then, early in the 2nd quarter of the CFP game last year, despite the fact that Roman should have gotten the TD, we need to punch it in. On 1st and goal, we fumble. That's a play we don't even consider at midfield in almost any circumstance.
Despite having a bevy of RBs last year in the CFP, we don't attempt to simply punch it in like Blake did regularly this year. If either one of those are successful, we play Georgia in the finals last year.
As we all know, a shorter field limits the play selection and the adrenaline picks up on both sides. I disagree that short yardage at midfield is no different than pounding it into the goal.
December 11th, 2023 at 3:46 PM ^
Honestly, Corum for most of the year was an exceptional short-yardage back but merely good as an every-down back. I think from PSU on he looked fully like his 2022 self, but that was only the last quarter of the season.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:17 PM ^
I’m very surprised that Will Johnson didn’t make it and slightly surprised that Mikey didn’t make it.
December 11th, 2023 at 3:21 PM ^
I can't believe Mikey in particular didn't make it. 5 INTs, 2 FFs, 4 TFLs and 2 sacks!
We just shut out a team with a first team CB, a third team CB and third team DB.
We're getting ready to play the other first team CB as well as the one first team DB and a second team safety.
I'll take Mikey and Will over all these guys.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:18 PM ^
I believe this makes Z a consensus all american, waiting on TSN and AFCA to be unanimous
December 11th, 2023 at 2:21 PM ^
Saintristil and Graham were AA players IMO
December 11th, 2023 at 2:34 PM ^
Of interest for the semi-final game, Alabama has 3 first teamers on defense, a 2nd teamer on defense and a 2nd teamer on offense
December 11th, 2023 at 2:55 PM ^
Which is 2 more player selections than the AP gave Alabama during its NC run in 2017, but "this isn't a vintage Alabama team."
December 11th, 2023 at 3:54 PM ^
In 2017 I, and a lot of others, also thought Bama didn't belong in the field. (Said the same about them in 2011, and about OSU in 2014 and 2016). They of course went on to win it all (as they had in 2011 and OSU did in 2014).
The past doesn't mean anything here but I thought it neat to point this out.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:34 PM ^
does anyone have a picture of the hallway michigan has with all the All-Americans? love those goofy sweaters lol. Zinter will be a great addition.
December 11th, 2023 at 2:47 PM ^
I think our heavy rotation hurt us here the most. I am "ok" with it, but I really hope we tighten rotations and try to win some hardware (we've been saying this for weeks though).
December 11th, 2023 at 3:00 PM ^
Feels a bit light to have only one AA at any level on our defense. Agree with some of the posters above that this is likely a "counting stat" effect. All the punts to Iowa!
December 11th, 2023 at 4:37 PM ^
I don't take awards seriously (for reasons well-discussed here) and I feel Mason Graham was snubbed, but let's imagine a world where they actually get it right.
Fact is, our defense was by committee. Our DTs were monsters (again, I ain't complaining about Jenkins AND I feel Graham was snubbed) but a lot of our success was because our DEs were very good, our LBs were very good, our CBs were very good, and our safeties were very good. We just have a lot of very good players, and the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
I wouldn't trade our defense for any other's. But for individual awards, "very good" isn't good enough.
All-American means "one of the best in the country at your position", which I don't feel applies to most of our defense beyond a few DTs. Barrett is a very good linebacker but he's not a Devin Bush Jr. or Nakobe Dean. Harrell is a fine DE but he's most definitely not an Aidan Hutchinson or Nick Bosa. Sainristil I feel is on the AA bubble, you can make a case and he's the heart & soul of the defense, but he kind of has this thing where some of his spectacular plays (and resulting counting stats) are offset by getting burned on gambles. He's not a "don't even bother testing him" lockdown slot corner.
They're mostly not All-Americans. But when they're all on the field together, your offense is doomed.
December 11th, 2023 at 5:05 PM ^
Good way of putting it. Outside of our DTs, Will Johnson has the best case for being a snub, but when you miss a third of the season it's tough to win an award like this.
December 11th, 2023 at 3:10 PM ^
Awesome for the individual accolades.
I'm guessing the only hardware this team cares about is still out there to be won on the field.
Beat Bama!
December 11th, 2023 at 3:31 PM ^
Winning it all with ONE 1st team AA who didn't play in the CCG or playoff will be quite the acheivement.
December 11th, 2023 at 10:43 PM ^
This team is beautifully nameless and faceless.
They used to always say that’s how they see their opponents.
a freakin team
December 11th, 2023 at 3:32 PM ^
My initial impression is that Michael Barrett being snubbed will only make him stronger.
December 11th, 2023 at 4:10 PM ^
Notre Dame has 4?? What are we even doing here?