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 10:54 AM ^
JH has been working on this since he arrived here! He's had a few mis-starts with hires that didn't work out (elevating Drevno, Pep), and the recruits brought in for those systems that didn't work because the of wrong hire. I think now, with Gattis, and the three years of recruiting focused on this kind of offense, is beginning to pay off.
Harbaugh has been crapped on for the offensive struggles at Michigan, and perhaps fairly so. But I will never say that he hasn't been working on it...
October 25th, 2020 at 7:40 AM ^
October 25th, 2020 at 9:37 AM ^
Agreed, the defense for all the vanilla in previous years was "we don't want to show all the options". I guarantee you that what the future opposing DCs saw tonight does not give them any comfort. This offense looked very OSUish-and that is a very good thing.
October 25th, 2020 at 7:46 AM ^
What surprised me was how enjoyment of the game felt natural, as if this is how things should be.
October 25th, 2020 at 7:47 AM ^
1) Milton. He wasn’t a world beater but he didn’t need to be. He looked so much better than I anticipated. My expectations were dead low, and he proved me dead wrong. He looked so calm and in command. Couple throws were off but not so egregiously off that I don’t think it can be fixed. That throw he made on the run to Jackson was a pretty darn good throw and Jackson could’ve come down with it.
2) Green - He looked far better than I expected him to. Seemed to be in the right place at the right time frequently, and that bodes well with this being Game 1 against probably the second best passing attack we’re going to see all year. Wasn’t always perfect but he played a great role in Bateman having a very quiet, unproductive night (relatively speaking). Zordich is a wizard.
3) OL- guess we don’t really know how good Minnesota’s defenses but still, they looked like they were in sync, which is something Michigan doesn’t see very often. Especially not this early in the season.
4) Kwity - He a man. So glad he came back.
October 25th, 2020 at 7:54 AM ^
Barrett by far. Just fast and mean. Being an offensive player I really had my doubts.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:21 AM ^
1. Vastardis - the whole OL played really well, in synch and made adjustments. That requires a C who coordinates everything.
2. Green and Gray - Minny even ran some picks in the 2nd half for Bateman.
3. Wilson and Corum - true frosh looked the part and made some OK plays.
4. Gattis - mixed it up, had some timely calls and used Mason extensively.
5. Moody - maybe he should called Wild Thing since his consistency stayed in A2
October 25th, 2020 at 8:45 AM ^
Yeah. Left 9 points on the field. Missed every field goal. Not great, Bob.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:41 AM ^
It surprised me that all the jackaloons on this board thought Milton wasn’t Mobil. When your 6 5” and run a 4.5, you can run. Is he Vince young? Who knows, but the kid looks confident and I’ll take that over an afraid to get hit Patterson.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:46 AM ^
Bet his golf handicap is worse than Shea's.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:12 AM ^
And I’m ok with that, as I’m sure all Michigan fans are.
October 25th, 2020 at 10:48 AM ^
For the record, I always thought Joe Milton was a gas station.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:42 AM ^
You guys named a bunch of great answers and captured the rare feeling of euphoria after a blowout opening game. Been a long time. The first TD by Charbonet when he was essentially untouched was such a good feeling after how badly the game started.
Now....what about concerns? Moody is one, but wild thing exists. The long snapper might be an issue.....still confused by Cheeseman opting out. Then there's safety. While the corners were ok, when Dax left (please be ok!!) we got to see that freshmen safeties aren't great. Paige will get better, but really struggled.
I will be eager to see how the DTs graded out. Seemed fine?
October 25th, 2020 at 9:35 AM ^
1. Makari Paige. He had some rough plays, but he is a true freshman in his first gams so he gets a lot slack. What surprises me is how much he played and that he is ahead of guys like Quinten Johnson, Sammy Faustin, etc.
2. The amount of guys they rotated in surprised me. More than usual on defense.
3. Gemon Green I thought played well and looked like he can be an excellent corner.
4. O-line was a surprise in that I expected some more growing pains.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:43 AM ^
Night game on the road and showing up! Happy to have that surprise
October 25th, 2020 at 9:50 AM ^
Lots of positives that most have mentioned already. Unfortunately, Moody was a surprise in a bad way. Hopefully him/Nordin get it figured out.
D stopping the run. I figured they would do better, Minnesota ran the ball quite well.
October 25th, 2020 at 10:15 AM ^
Zach Charbonnet - Surprised that he only got 3 more touches for the remainder of the game after the 70-yd TD, and finished with 70 total yds. (I know Zach doesn't call the plays.)
I get that we have multiple options at RB. Maybe Michigan did not want Minnesota keying on 1 RB, or we don't want any of the backs taking a beating this season. Keep them fresh and save them for later games.
October 25th, 2020 at 10:33 AM ^
Does anyone still have Julius Welschof's skiing video that came out when he signed? Dude is an insane athlete.
October 25th, 2020 at 10:48 AM ^
Gemon Green was surprisingly good. I think with more experience and confidence, some of those PBUs turn into INTs.
October 25th, 2020 at 11:20 AM ^
My wife surprised me the most. She pulled out a superb chocolate mousse at halftime.
Happy to see Welschof getting some playing time. An interesting story there.
October 25th, 2020 at 7:19 PM ^
Julius Welshof with the first sack of the season surprised me. I did not have that on my Bingo card.