[Campredon]

Substitution/formation notes: Nothing at all different from the last couple of weeks, which brings us right to our normally-I’d-link-this-in-the-chart-but-let’s-put-it-above-the-jump of the week, which features Khaleke Hudson blowing up two Rutgers players and creating an opportunity for Michigan to down a punt at the two-yard line. Pretty convenient for a “khaleke hudson shatter machine” tag to already exist.

[After THE JUMP: punt clear-outs, Thomas’ continued success, and a saved touchdown]

Kickoff
Play	Qtr	Time	Score	Kicker	From	To	CvrTeam	Rtn	Rlt	Tackle
Right	1	15:00	0-0	Foug	35-R	EZ	n/a	TB	O25	n/a
Any kick that doesn't allow Barkley a chance to touch the ball is a good idea.
Middle	2	12:06	7-0	Foug	35-R	EZ	?	TB	O25	n/a
Grant thinks about taking it out, hesitates, and kneels just barely inside the goal line. Janarion freaking Grant. He and Barkley have both decided to return it and killed the attempt before leaving the end zone, which is all the evidence needed to declare Michigan's KO team one of the best in the conference if not the country.
Right	2	2:49	14-7	Foug	35-R	O4	O30	27	O31	Hewlett
Nate Schoenle saves a touchdown. Grant catches the ball and has his wedge take out the two nearest players. He feigns inside, which gets Hawkins flat footed. Hawkins tries to get over the top once he sees Grant cut back outside but can't get near him. Schoenle flies in and dives to get a hand on Grant. It's enough to knock Grant off balance, at which point he stumbles and falls.
Corner R	2	00:23	21-7	Foug	35-R	EZ	?	TB	O25	n/a
To the back of the end zone. Grant could have stepped back and fielded this if he wanted, but he just lets it hit behind him and bounce out. Can't blame him, really.
Left	3	15:00	21-7	Foug	35-L	O5	?	20	O25	Schoenle/Ross
Grant fields it at the five and gets 10 free yards before he has to try and avoid Michigan's coverage team. Kelly-Powell does a nice job getting into the middle of the wedge, which allows Hewlett to scrape over the top and hit Grant. He doesn't take him out, but slows him enough for Schoenle to wrap up Grant's legs while Ross grabs him around the shoulders.
Middle	3	11:30	28-7	Foug	35-L	EZ	O25	TB	O25	n/a
Kicked to the middle of the "C" in "Michigan," immediately knelt.
Left	4	14:10	35-14	Foug	35-L	O3	O25	14	O17	Glasgow
Grant carries to the 15, where he attempts to cut off the back of one of his blockers. Hawkins smashes said blocker and moves him back into Grant, slowing him to a stop. Glasgow gets inside his blocker and jumps on Grant just as St-Juste, who has been waiting as a sort of overhang player on the edge, jumps into the fray.

Kickoff Return
Play	Qtr	Time	Score	From	To	Player	Rtn	Rlt
Corner R	1	15:00	0-0	35-R	M8	Thomas	17	M25
Thomas fields this at about the 8, steps like he's going to carry outside the numbers, then turns it back inside. At the time he makes his cut to the sideline he's got nothing but blocked Rutgers players in front of him, but the tackler gets off Mbem-Bosse's block to pull Thomas down near the sideline.
Right	2	10:52	7-7	35-R	M15	Thomas	10	M23
Thomas misreads the trajectory and has to field it off a bounce at the 15, but he's able to advance it upfield. He cuts inside oncoming traffic and sees Ben Mason with a solid block, then decides to follow that. The Rutgers defender is off the block by the time Thomas gets there, but there were two other Rutgers players in the vicinity who were also ready to make the tackle. No negative yardage for Mason, and Thomas gets credited with nine for advancing the ball and falling forward on contact.
Right	3	7:01	28-14	35-L	M7	Thomas	32	M39
Partridge says you're going to have to make a guy miss if you're a kick returner and oh man, does Thomas make a guy miss. He digs in at the 11 and cuts around a Rutgers player and doesn't run into another until the 35-yard line. The kicker flails and ends up on the ground, and the only thing that keeps Thomas out of the end zone is a diving stop. Thomas then spikes the ball and gets a delay of game penalty; this is both a glaringly obnoxious penalty to pick up as well as glaringly obnoxious for it to have even been called considering what Thomas did.

Field Goal
Qtr	Time	Ln	Dn	Ds	FGDis	Hash
3	1:05	M20	4	1	37
IN. Harbaugh said Nordin didn't have his usual solid, flush hit on the kick and that's what we'll go with. He just missed.

Punt Return
Play	Qtr	Time	In-Air Yd	From	To	Player	Rtn	Rlt
Right	1	8:20	48	EZ	O46	DPJ	-14	M40
Peoples-Jones (-14yds) calls a clear-out with his coverage team about ten yards away from where the ball's going to land. He's backing away from the ball before it lands, and even though he's running on an angle he's still at least a yard away from it as it tumbles past him before going out of bounds at Michigan's 40. Another learning-on-the-job moment the likes of which we haven't seen in weeks. He could have run to the ball and tried to FC it and if it bounces away it's the same result.
Left	1	4:07	67	O38	EZ	n/a	TB	M20
Booming kick that lands at least five yards into the end zone. Michigan will take the touchback, thank you very much.
Left	2	7:11	38	O47	M15	DPJ	Ball +8	M23
DPJ calls for another clear-out. The ball hits a Rutgers player at the 15 and takes a Michigan bounce.
Left	2	1:50	39	O10	O49	n/a	Dwnd	O49
Peoples-Jones tries to clear out the area where he thinks the ball will bounce and does so with one exception: Rutgers' Dacoven Bailey. Bailey sees Peoples-Jones point and turns, and upon turning he sees the ball coming down on him. He seems to instinctively reach for it, pulls it in, and gives Michigan's field position a boost by not allowing it to hit and roll.
Middle	3	13:30	48	O10	M42	DPJ	4	M46
Sort of an odd decision to begin with since any return is predicated on DPJ making a guy miss who's about two yards away upon reception, but he steps through the diving tackle attempt so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Peoples-Jones is then brought down by two other Rutgers players immediately in front of him, whom Michigan's coverage team can't do anything about because they were outraced down the field and can do nothing more than block them in the back (which they don't). One Rutgers defender spins DPJ around, and somehow this causes him to fumble. Recovered by Hawkins.
Middle	4	15:00	62	O6	M32	DPJ	6	M39
Peoples-Jones appears comfortable fielding things that are going over his head--this one dragged him back about 10 yards from where he initially set up--but not so much when it comes to shorter kicks he'd have to run forward to field. He catches this one and goes nearly sideline to sideline beore finding a lane up the opposite side. He's just trying to outrun pursuit but manages to get six yards out of it, so not altogether terrible to field this when you have that kind of speed.
Middle	4	12:05	70	O29	M1	n/a	TB	M20
Unreal. Longest punt I've seen this year, but they clearly don't think precision is necesssary. Rutgers is content to let their punter just boot it as deep as possible; this hits at the 1 with enough force that a coverage team isn't downing it. It rolls through the end zone for a touchback.
Right	4	3:21	57	O17	M26	DPJ	17	M43
Peoples-Jones fields this on the move to his left, which causes the first Rutgers gunner to slip past him. After that he tries to outrun one up the sideline but is spun out. This looks incredibly simple on film but big in the box score; impressive to field with that little space and get to the 39, and also impressive to get an assist from the refs (+4yds), who spot this at the 43.

Punt
Play	Qtr	Time	Kicker	In-Air Yd	From	To	Rtn	Rlt	Tackle
Left	1	10:22	Robbins	39	M42	O19	FC	O19	n/a
Robbins hits this one high and to the corner. Grant calls for a fair catch while also chasing it down and running immediately out of bounds. Pinning them inside the 20 with no chance for Grant to return the punt is excellent.
Middle	2	9:50	Robbins	59	M13	O28	FC	O28	n/a
Looooong punt that I self-timed at 4.03 seconds from foot to Grant's hands. Not the most hangtime we've seen from Robbins but the gunners (Thomas and Watson) and Metellus did a nice job getting downfield in a hurry and past their Rutgers counterparts to force the FC.
Corner L	4	00:50	Robbins	48	M40	O12	Dwnd	O2	n/a
Really nice punt from all involved parties. Robbins places this almost on the numbers to his left at the 12. Hudson demolishes his blocker, shoving him back into the returner, who has yet to signal for a fair catch. The two Rutgers players fall down, the ball hits at the 12, and a horde of Michigan players are in position to down it before it rolls into the end zone.

Let’s go to the charts.

Yeah, I agree. Relatively low-key day, this one.

KO Summary
Player	Returns	YdsGained	YdsLost	TotalYds	SsnYds
Team					24
Schoenle		69		69	69

KR Summary
Player	Returns	YdsGained	YdsLost	TotalYds	SsnYds
Crawford	0				-17
Hawkins	0				43
Thomas	3	39			100 (4gms)
Hewlett	0				-10

PR Summary
Player	Returns	YdsGained	YdsLost	TotalYds	SsnYds
Peoples-Jones	3	23	14	9	89
Hewlett	0	0	0	0	-10
The ball	0	8	0	8	-11 (4gms)
Refs	0	4	0	4	4

Thomas was impressive again, at least. It’s worth noting that the YdsGained column refers to yards that I think the players generated themselves, not a sum total of return yards from the box score. Impressive for Thomas to have provided an entire field’s worth of position for the offense in just four games.

Then you watch him do the above and it’s like oh, actually, yes, that makes quite a bit of sense. That is the quintessential talented-freshman-KR return: almost a horrible fumble, also almost a TD. He’s so lanky and his stride so long that he doesn’t have the violence in his cuts that tiny backs do, but the proof is in the numbers.

Which brings us to our other freshman returner. An interesting day for him that I don’t think is fair to term a setback but certainly seems like, at the very least, a learning-on-the-job type of day. Peoples-Jones’ first return was his worst, costing Michigan the equivalent of a chunk play which the offense was obviously (at that point) going to have trouble generating.

Part of this I understand. He got himself into hot water against Cincinnati for not calling things out quickly enough, so on one hand it makes sense that he’s signaling for a clear out fairly early. On the other, it’s hard to watch this and think that a guy with his speed couldn’t close the necessary five yards on this and fair catch it. It’s not fair to Peoples-Jones that most of us see a ghosted version a la Mario Kart of Peppers teleporting to the spot of the ball for the emphatically polite fair catch but yeah, that’s what I’m seeing.

The next punt of the afternoon is more difficult to judge. If he’s calling the clear out because of the Rutgers player in the vicinity, that’s his field to take for the purpose of calling the fair catch. If, on the other hand, he’s tracking the spin of this ball and can tell that it’s going to take an advantageous bounce, more power to him. The spin of the ball is obviously something we can’t track from the broadcast angle, so the jury remains out.

Later in the second quarter comes a punt that would cause an involuntarily kissing of the fingers and a hearty utterance of “Buoni Rutgers” if it were an Italian dish. Why allow the other team to call a clear out and potentially have the ball push them 15 yards further back when you have those kind of fielding skillz? Really, though, this easily could have been a repeat of the first punt.

Everything is fine with this return—the last punt of the day and an actual return—until the very end, where Peoples-Jones gets spun around by the arm and fumbles in the process. There were people in the comments section earlier this season concerned about his propensity for holding the ball away from his body but that isn’t the case here; the reverse angle replay shows he has it in tight. If anything it might be a little low. Michigan ends up recovering so this ends as a teachable moment instead of disaster.

My main takeaway from this particular slate of punts is that Peoples-Jones isn’t comfortable fielding the ball when he has to move laterally to get to it. It’s something to keep an eye on, but nothing that raises red flags at this point.

I have no clever segue for this but I think Nate Schoenle is healthy again.

nbd just saving six points and making Janarion Grant almost spike a ball in frustration while also mashing guys in the run game.

What does it mean for Minnesota and beyond?

Thomas is on fire. As much as a kick returner can be, anyway. Just 37.8% of Minnesota PK Ryan Santoso’s kicks have gone for a touchback this year (compared to Foug’s 62.2%), so Thomas should have an opportunity to field however many kicks come his way.

Weird couple of weeks for Nordin. Something seems off and now there are unsubstantiated rumors that he’s hurt, which means we may see how [Seychel? Tice?] looks when pressed into action.

Peoples-Jones should get his fair share of chances. Minnesota’s offense looks pretty blech. Peoples-Jones has yet to repeat a mistake, so this game should go a long way toward telling us what were mistakes against Rutgers and what was intentional.

Coverage teams will be tested again. They passed with occasional literal flying colors against Barkley and Grant in consecutive weeks, and now the kick return unit has to go against Brooks and Smith. At least Minnesota’s punt returner doesn’t seem to be dangerous; Drew Hmielewski is averaging a hair over 6 yards per return on four returns this season and didn’t get the job until Antonio Shenault, who was averaging 2.8 yards per return, was injured.