Who Surprised You Tonight?
Lots of players to choose from but I'll limit my answer to five:
1. Joe Milton - No explanation needed
2. Michael Barrett - Low hanging fruit, I know, but his athleticism and the violence with which he played was jaw dropping.
3. Blake Corum - The recruiting sites can say whatever they want, that dude is a 5 star RB in my book
4. Julius Welschof - He's still obviously raw but I saw him consistently do good things out there. Probably still a year away but I'm genuinely excited
5. Erick All - Impressive effort, impressive mental toughness to forget his dropped touchdown on the previous play, clearly physically gifted. Harbaugh is right about his potential.
October 25th, 2020 at 12:57 AM ^
Agree with all 5 you mentioned. In addition to those:
1. Gemon Green. Looked like our #1 CB tonight after not knowing if he even was going to be a starter.
2. Andrew Vastardis. Was real solid on some of his pulls
October 25th, 2020 at 1:41 AM ^
Filiaga had a couple effective pulls too. (He is a load!)
October 25th, 2020 at 2:15 AM ^
I couldn't agree more! That dude moved like someone 40 pounds lighter on a number of pulls.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:04 AM ^
Kudos to everyone mentioned above. It was The Team! Can we mention Ben Mason?-Why not?
Vastardis played like he's been there for three years. Does he have any more eligibility after this year?
October 25th, 2020 at 8:08 AM ^
Everyone has at least one more year because of Covid.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:34 AM ^
This is true but I think AV is going to med school.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:20 AM ^
The team looked great. The only real surprise for me was the poor kicking of Moody. Think there is a good chance we see Quinn next week
October 25th, 2020 at 12:24 PM ^
Are you a doctor or do you know something we don't? We don't know the extent of Nordin's injury. The first step is for Moody to shave his eighth grade mustache!
October 25th, 2020 at 9:35 AM ^
Agreed, I love the intensity he showed.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:04 AM ^
I’m gonna be honest. I followed Michigan football this off-season the least I have my entire life. So a lot of these guys surprised me a lot. lol. Like what I saw.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:44 AM ^
Same. And I think we're a part of large number who are in the same boat.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:46 AM ^
I tell you what. It’s kind of fun. Feel like a kid again when going into the season was not knowing much besides what I read in my Lindys College Football preview 12 year old me picked up at Walgreens. Lol.
October 25th, 2020 at 10:43 AM ^
Agree with those who've said that they didn't read or hear much about Michigan Football's COVID-19 Pandemic team. I had no idea what to expect, but, for the most part I was pleasantly surprised.
For those of us in the Medicare Generation who began to follow college football during the fifties or early sixties, if we wanted to know anything about the upcoming college football season, all we usually had in those days was the Street and Smith's annual yearbook like this one from 60 years ago.
October 25th, 2020 at 11:14 AM ^
Street And Smiths was another go to of mine. Any magazine i could find with info.
October 25th, 2020 at 3:34 PM ^
I'm the same Bear. There were kids out there that I had no clue who they were.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:21 AM ^
Tampa Bay surprised me. I mean 2 errors by the Dodgers on that play. 1 pitch away from setting up Kershaw to win a World Series tomorrow night for the Dodgers. That ending was so surprising.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:26 AM ^
Welschof looked good rushing the passer and I think Barrett definitely flashed the potential to be a very good Viper. Others guys I wasn't as surprised by as much, I thought Joe would have a pretty decent to good game with a good gameplan and Corum's high school film was incredibly impressive and he looked very polished in it.
October 25th, 2020 at 7:15 AM ^
Totally agree with your thoughts on Barrett. Other massive surprise for me were all the true freshman getting run on offense.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:01 AM ^
I knew the freshman were really fast and I think Corum, henning, and wilson are gonna be stars
October 25th, 2020 at 10:38 AM ^
I was really taken back by how fast these young guys actually are now. I know it had been talked about for a while, but the speed was noticeable on the field. And during a condition where it wasn’t ideal with how cold it was.
I will say the other thing that surprised me was the first play with Corum on the field and getting the ball. It seems like if they can keep rolling plans like this the offense has finally moved to the 21st century.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:27 AM ^
Green, Barrett
October 25th, 2020 at 1:37 AM ^
Honigford playing tight end surprised me. When Stueber went out for a play or two, Zinter replaced him. I know they are talking him up, but I didn’t expect him to be the first off the bench. Barnhart is still probably the sixth starting offensive lineman, but he is working at tackle. Seeing Roman, Henning and McCurry getting time at WR was surprising. Van Sumeren got a lot of snaps on defense. He didn’t make a lot of impact. I was just surprised by how many snaps he got.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:43 AM ^
I noticed that too. He played a significant number of the defensive snaps.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:41 AM ^
"Surprised"
at how the band jumpers are back on when they blazed the team for not being ready for this team.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:37 AM ^
You must be new to sports.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:48 AM ^
Haskins & Barrett were all over the field.
October 25th, 2020 at 2:37 AM ^
And not the OSU Haskins or Barrett, cuz fuk those guys.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:39 AM ^
It does kinda make you think Brian might be right that we are just in an OSU kid’s simulation when you see “Haskins” & “Barrett” repeated on rosters.
October 25th, 2020 at 11:16 AM ^
If we end up with a kid named "Cardale" or "Fields" in the near future, we'll know for sure
October 25th, 2020 at 1:53 AM ^
One of the best parts of college football is watching guys emerge from seemingly nowhere.
Milton and Barrett - wow. Both announced their emergence with authority!
Corum, Wilson, Green, Vastardis, All. Lots of exciting new faces.
Really excited to see SO MANY guys get run. Injuries/Covid are gonna take their toll - the more bodies we have with experience, the better.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:31 AM ^
And this is a part of my most pleasant surprise-the coaches. I do not recall the playing roster ever extended this generously under the Harbaugh reign. The number of players who were granted playing time when the game remained on the line and their seamless contributions is a harbinger of good things on down the line. Michigan's ceiling went through the roof tonight.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:39 AM ^
No need to redshirt this year.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:54 AM ^
Am I the only one who saw Wilson on the back of the uniform a few times and first thought Tru?
October 25th, 2020 at 2:06 AM ^
Lots of good picks already. I'll just echo Andrew Vastardis...5th year senior and a 1st year starter. It's become the prevailing opinion that guys who don't see the field for that long must not be any good (and there is data to support that), but he was outstanding tonight.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:07 AM ^
I had asked if Vastardis has any more eligibility after this season and the answer is no. Too bad because this dude played with poise, experience and smartness like he's been there for a few years.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:13 AM ^
I’m curious why the answer is no. I thought everyone had another year. Is it something to do with him being a walk on for some portion of his career?
October 25th, 2020 at 5:44 PM ^
The answer isn’t no.
Every single player on the roster this year is AUTOMATICALLY eligible to play an extra season. So, if you include the redshirt rule, they now all have 6 years to play 5 seasons—no questions asked.
Additionally, for every single player for whom this WOULD have been their last season of eligibility (Vastardis, Kemp, etc,), their scholarship won’t count against a teams maxim 85 scholarship limit for the 2021/2022 season if they return.
Bottom line: for players like Vestardis, Kemp, etc., as long as a school can afford the scholarships & wants a player currently in their “last” year of eligibility to return next year, there is literally zero downside for the school in doing it. No matter who they are, under no circumstances will a player be forced to leave in 2021/2022 if both he & the school want to have him on the roster.
October 25th, 2020 at 2:12 AM ^
The O-Line. Minnesota is far from the toughest defense they will face but for a unit that’s never played together and with a few guys with limited game experience they seemed to really know what they were doing, opened some big holes, and keep Milton mostly clean. Big Ed needs a raise.
October 25th, 2020 at 2:30 AM ^
Hunter Biden
October 25th, 2020 at 6:37 AM ^
Bitch, please...
October 25th, 2020 at 10:19 AM ^
Hunter Biden kicks ass. He can be my wingman any time!
October 25th, 2020 at 11:23 AM ^
The first football game in almost a year and this is what you post dude.
October 25th, 2020 at 2:43 AM ^
Barrett. Wow am I impressed
October 25th, 2020 at 11:54 AM ^
Michael Barrett for sure. Pure football player.
October 25th, 2020 at 4:19 AM ^
I’m gonna go with Bench Mason. Didn’t score a touchdown all last year, catches the ball and has the athleticism to go airborne and score. If he can add a couple catches per game, that will be like found money!!
October 25th, 2020 at 5:50 AM ^
Honestly it's not close... the OLine. Everything they lost and this group looked 5 times better than last year and other years the past decade or 2.
October 25th, 2020 at 6:57 AM ^
Thoughts
1. Our oline is very good
2. Milton did a nice job on design runs
3. We have a team speed
4. Worried about interior D line,
5. Barret is a bigger Hudson
6. Secondary did a solid job on one of the conferences best Qb and WR combos
October 25th, 2020 at 7:25 AM ^
Harbaugh. He had these guys ready to go, I saw very few brain farts. Michigan has a long history of coming slow out of the gate (*cough* App State *cough*), not this season.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:34 AM ^
The growth in Harbaugh’s willingness to integrate new concepts and get his entire staff on the same page was on full display. Gattis must have felt like a kid in a candy store, called a great game, but the whole thing starts with Harbaugh vision of what could be.