brock wright

See also: The defense

Resources: My charting, ND game notes, ND roster with oddly specific heights, CFBstats

Welcome back to the Respect-a-Bowl, the rivalry in which the coaches respect each other, the players like each other, the fans get along quite splendidly, the recruiting reporters nod at each others' excellence in early scouting, and everyone concurs ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick is the world's biggest putz.

Notre Dame fans say this because he nicknamed himself "Savvy Jack" for finding ways to Dave Brandon them and everyone he deals with for every possible nickel, then gloats about it. Michigan fans say it because he was the guy who pulled the series in the putziest way possible and played hardball when Michigan wanted to restart it. He didn't have to put these games on the same road/home schedule as Ohio State and Michigan State, he didn't have to play last year's as the season opener nor this year's game in the middle of the Big Ten season. In fact it would have worked out best for both parties to resume the game in September when we normally do—Notre Dame had a bye week when we played Army and played New Mexico when we had our bye.

But Savvy Jack can't call himself savvy if a deal works out for everybody. So here we are in late October, between two Big Ten East rivals, playing Notre Dame, coming off a bye with nobody in shouting distance of ranked for the rest of the year. Given Michigan's progression over the season and the Irish's weird lack thereof, I know an entire press box worth of people ready to point at laugh at the unlikeable fellow if his tactic comes back to bite him in the ass. And I'm kinda thinking it can.

The film: Georgia is ranked around where Michigan is in S&P+ and has some athletes at cornerback and MLB I thought would be a fair proxy for some of Michigan's more exciting guys. Everything here is going to be graded on a curve here because I usually don't chart against a defense this solid.

Personnel: My diagram:

PDF version, full-size version (or click on the image)

I'm throwing out my charting this week for most of these guys since 12 total runs do not make for much of a sample. Stats aren't much use either because you already know what they tell you: against non-scrubs, Notre Dame's offense is getting the ball to very tall persons TE Cole Kmet (265 yards, 3 TDs, 10.6 YPT, 84% catch rate) and Boundary WR Chase Claypool (394 yards, 4 TDs, 84. YPT, 57% catch rate).

Claypool is Myles Boykin, basically a power forward who was so good at boxing out and collecting rebounds that they slapped a football jersey on him and taught him to go full soccer player when he feels contact from a defensive back. Kmet is an underrated receiver—an excellent route runner with a natural nose for the hole in zones—and an up-and-mostly-down blocker. Like Michigan's run game, ND's is very tight end heavy, and Kmet picked up 11 negatives in this game, only some of which can be explained by multiple false start penalties. Slot receiver Chris Finke (8.3 YPT, 68% catch rate) has 22 targets and probably as many good blocks. They'll have H-back TE Tommy Tremble (9 catches, 136 yards, and 2 TDs on 13 targets) on the field often as a third receiver, and use him more—from the USC game I watched he might be an underrated or just underutilized run blocker.

The #1 back in preseason, Jafar Armstrong missed another chunk of season and returned for one carry against USC (a four-yard loss). They're talking like he's 100% over the groin injury now and that's going to give them a run game, but Armstrong historically has been a quasi-receiver type. Lead/basically only RB in Armstrong's absence Tony Jones is on pace for 1,000 yards and is a fairly good receiver, but really he's just a guy who got more +s (and minuses) for blocking than anything he accomplished with the ball in his hands. He did get 176 yards on 25 carries (7 YPC) against USC, but on my viewing of that game I thought that was mostly on bad USC tackling.

Thus ends the high-usage skill position players. Nobody else has more than 13 targets, though freshman slot/field WR Lawrence Keys (6 catches, 7 YPT on 10 targets) had a Gallon-esque fade reception in this game. Nominal Field WR starter Michael Young didn't chart—he's at 2.1 YPT on 10 targets this year. Freshman Bradey Lenzy is a Calvin Bell Memorial end around track star (if you see #25 on the field yell "BASH!" please). Javon McKinley (200 yards and 3 TDs on 8 receptions on 11 targets) is the only outside guy besides Claypool who's over 6 feet, and McKinley's got exactly 1 catch for 11 receiving yards against teams not named Bowling Green or New Mexico over 3.5 seasons.

[after THE JUMP: Sad reminders of failed Michigan recruitments]

Note: The slew of commitments pushed this back, but I'm still taking questions via email or Twitter (use the hashtag #mgomailbag) for a recruiting mailbag that—any further recruiting developments pending—should go up tomorrow.

A4 To Your Door/No Sleepers No More

Just another totally normal Harbaugh picture. [Fuller]

Michigan hosted their "Aerial Assault" quarterback camp over the weekend. It featured such football activities as fielding ground balls and dodgeball; reportedly, the quarterbacks also threw an actual football around a little bit. Because Jim Harbaugh was involved, they kept score for the top campers, and M commit Brandon Peters came out on top, per TMI's Brice Marich:

The headliner of the camp was Avon, Indiana junior quarterback and Wolverine commit in Brandon Peters. The 6-4, 209-pound gun slinger showed off his strong arm and his footwork in several drills. He was in the top overall group and performed very well even in dodgeball. He clearly soaked in tutelage from signal callers like Jay Cutler and ultimately earned the crown as the camp’s top performer.

2017 four-star NY QB Jack Coan, the only rising junior offeree in attendance, found the camp as strange and informative as one would expect, per 247's Steve Lorenz ($):

"The camp itself was one of the most unique experiences I've ever had since I started playing football," Coan said. "I didn't go into the camp expecting to play baseball or dodgeball or anything like that, but it worked and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had from a camp standpoint. I learned a lot from a lot of great current and former players and coaches. It was really great to work with someone like Jay Cutler and a coach like Coach Harbaugh who has seen the position from every different angle."

Coan also took a campus tour while in Ann Arbor. Michigan seems to be in pretty good shape for him.

2018 Paramus (NJ) Catholic QB Allan Walters also worked with the top group. He showed enough to earn an offer, and he was still having a hard time expressing his excitement when 247's Steve Wiltfong caught up with him:

"I'm so excited I can't express it," Walters said. "I don't know a better offer for a quarterback. Harbaugh and Michigan that's unbelievable. I'm in shock and so excited."

Walters also has early offers from Rutgers and Temple. The ever-strengthening connection between Michigan and Paramus Catholic should help here.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]