connor bazelak

One more non-conference game to go! Bowling Green comes to town this weekend for a homecoming with Carr-era coaches and assistants of yore, starting with head-man Scot Loeffler and continuing down to the likes of Erik Campbell and Steve Morrison. The BGSU Falcons are 1-1 on the season and coming off a 6-7 campaign where they qualified for a bowl for the first time in the Loeffler era but were defeated by New Mexico State in Detroit in the Quick Lane Bowl.  

The Film: Bowling Green has played two games so far this season, Liberty and Eastern Illinois. One of those teams is an FBS squad and one of them is an FCS squad. Not much choice on which game to go with this week. Better than last week, where there was no choice altogether and we got locked into a meaningless game with a low-level FCS team, but there is still a large gap in quality of opponent between Liberty and Michigan. Oh well. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

The Bowling Green Falcons are led by Connor Bazelak at QB, the same QB from Indiana (and previously Missouri). My preseason hopes that Bazelak could find a home with Scot Loeffler and return to his higher quality of play from his SEC days has so far not come to fruition. His performance in this game against Liberty was ghastly (albeit, with shoddy pressure as a factor). Bazelak was much better against EIU but hard to know how much of that was strength of competition related. Loeffler took Bazelak off the field after three interceptions against Liberty and gave Camden Orth a shot, but they are not a 1:1 substitution; Orth is a more mobile QB so if he comes on the field, it's probably a tip to the D. 

At RB, the Falcons have been dividing carries heavily in the first two games, with Terion Stewart, Jaison Patterson, PaSean Wimberly, and Ta'ron Keith all with between 17 and 7 carries this season. In the game I watched, I was not able to distinguish between these players in any major way. They all seemed competent. PFF really likes Keith, but we're going off of just seven carries for him. Not enough of a sample size to speak confidently about. 

The WR core is where we find the Dangerman, Odieu Hiliare, a second team All-MAC receiver last season who caught 58 balls for 747 yards and 6 TDs in 2022. He's not a big dude at 6'0", but you can line him up inside or outside and he probably represents the best receiver Michigan has faced this non-conference. Abdul-Fatai Ibrahim, a transfer from Alabama A&M (where he played with Hiliare, who transferred from there the prior season), has caught six balls so far this season but didn't catch my eye in this game. BGSU plays in 12 a lot thanks to an affinity for TEs, but when they're in 11 the third receiver is normally Austin Osborne. Farther down the depth chart is Finn Hogan and Jaylen Tillman, but neither have a catch this season in their ~25 snaps each over two games. 

Like I mentioned, Loeffler does like his TEs, Harold Fannin Jr. being the main catchy TE. I wasn't terribly impressed with Fannin as a blocker, but he is a decent pass-catcher and the Bowling Green offense loves to get him the football. Fannin leads the team with nine catches and 138 receiving yards through two games. Andrew Bench is the larger, #2 TE on the depth chart who was perhaps marginally better as a blocker, but neither impressed me in that regard. Levi Gazarek is the clear #3 with no obvious #4 behind him, but in terms of usage, it's the Fannin show and then everyone else at this position. 

The offensive line put up a solid showing on the ground against Liberty, part of the team's overall excellent rushing day, but was dreadful in pass protection. LT Kamren Stewart played only part of the game before exiting for presumably performance-related reasons (read: he was godawful). LG Tunde Fatukasi, brother of one-time Rutgers standout ILB Olakunle Fatukasi, has been rotating in and out of the lineup because he is also quite bad. Cedric Dunbar II is the rotational replacement for Fatukasi and didn't seem much better to me. The remainder of the IOL consists of C Alex Padgett and RG Nate Pabst, the latter of whom slid out to LT to spell Stewart against Liberty for part of the contest. Both guys were pretty up and down. Reserve G Bronson Warner is another player who can jump into the mix but I don't have many thoughts on him. RT Alex Wollschlaeger had just enough moments on the ground in run blocking to keep him above cyan status, but was also quite worrying in pass pro. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: some clips]

You know what time of year it is... football content season!! No, not recruiting. Actual. Football. Fall camp begins tomorrow for the Michigan Wolverines and as the bell rings in football season, it's time to begin posting preview content on MGoBlog. The Enemy, Ranked is back for another season and as always, we're starting with the QB position. In contrast to last season, where most B1G opponents had returning QBs we were already familiar with, this season it's primarily new faces. Scratch that, a lot of new faces. Only two teams on the schedule are returning a QB who started a majority of games for them the previous season(!), three if you count Rutgers, who returns multiple QBs that combined to start the majority of games. Everyone's wearing nametags for our purposes, be it underclassmen moving up to starter or transfers who have been added to the roster. So let's get to know the opposing signal callers besides Taulia, who we already know: 

12. Indiana

The Indiana Hoosiers have yet another new QB (will have a new starter for the fourth straight year vs. Michigan) and it doesn't figure to be any of the three players who started for them last year. Jack Tuttle is now a Michigan Wolverine, Connor Bazelak is elsewhere on this list, and Dexter Williams' is still recovering from a torn ACL. Thus, the competition is between Tennessee transfer Tayven Jackson (younger brother of Trayce Jackson-Davis) and Brendan Sorsby, who was in the program last season, buried on the depth chart. Jackson was the higher rated recruit, a top 250 4* in the 2022 class, while Sorsby was a Who Dat 3* in that same class, making it a dynamic not unlike what we see with a certain team on this list in the green and white. The difference in this case being that the two candidates are in the same class, but the higher rated recruit is a transfer. 

As of right now, the sense is that this will be a battle that lasts through fall camp, perhaps all the way up to the season opener against Ohio State. Neither player has any experience to speak of, so it's tough to get a feel for what's going on here. Most expect it'll be Jackson because of the recruiting ratings, but I wouldn't be 100% certain. Either way, I don't really trust Indiana's coaching staff to get much out of their options and with so little experience + a choice between a talented newcomer and an untalented returner, I am very down on IU's QB situation. Maybe there's room for hope but I haven't seen any of these guys play and since Walt Bell is still the OC, they're going to be throwing screens the whole game anyway. Don't expect much production out of Indiana's QBs this year. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: this list gets less grim (eventually)?]

A lot has changed with the Indiana offense since the last time we saw the Hoosiers in November 2021. Their QB at the time is now a WR. Their RB room is completely different. Longtime TE and WR stars have moved on. The OL has sustained a major injury. And there's a new OC to top it all off! Many elements are different, but the overall performance sadly isn't radically better. 

The Film: I went with Indiana's week one game against Illinois because the Fighting Illini are the best defense the Hoosiers have played and the most comparable in quality to the Wolverines. Other options were Idaho (no), WKU (no), Nebraska, and Cincinnati. The Huskers were not fitting due to their defense being a travesty, so it came down to Cincy and Illinois. Those two teams have similar defenses, though Illinois is slightly more similar to Michigan in SP+ rating. That was a primary factor in my decision, although I also was somewhat selfish- Indiana ran 104 plays against Cincy and I didn't want to expose myself to that. ~80 plays against Illinois sounded much more appetizing. 

Personnel: Click the chart for big or here for PDF. 

Indiana got Connor Bazelak from Missouri out of the portal to be the new QB. He was Missouri's starter in 2020, earning SEC Co-Freshman of the Year honors, and then reprised that role last season, finishing with a modest 16 TD to 11 INT and 2,548 yards passing. He entered the portal and came to a Hoosiers team that lost Michael Penix Jr. to the portal and was starting a true freshman by the end of last season. Desperate for competency, Bazelak is approaching that level of play for IU. 

The transition from Grant Heard to Walt Bell at OC meant that a reshuffling of the RB room was in order. The new RBs needed to be small and speedy receiving backs, "nuclear rodents" as Seth called them in HTTV. Shaun Shivers was snagged out of the portal from Auburn and Josh Henderson from UNC. Neither guy gets many carries, because Indiana is a pass-heavy offense that struggles mightily to run the football, but both play significant roles in this screen-and-checkdown passing game. 

The TE room saw the departure of longtime starter Peyton Hendershott in the offseason, who I was surprised to learn is on an NFL roster (Dallas Cowboys). The replacement is AJ Barner, a 3* from the class of 2020 who spent two seasons shadowing Hendershott. Indiana plays the majority of its snaps in 11 personnel and Barner gets damn near all of those snaps. His backups, James Bomba and Aaron Steinfeldt, come on in the rare moments that the Hoosiers play in 12 personnel or to spell Barner. Those two have combined for 82 offensive snaps compared to 371 for Barner this season. So yeah, only one name worth focusing on here. 

If you enjoyed watching an injury-riddled Indiana offense last November, the WR room is trying to ensure that you'll get to see more of that this season against Michigan. DJ Matthews Jr., a one-time FSU transfer, missed a chunk of last season with injury and is back dealing with health problems again. He had a great showing against Illinois in the game I watched but came down with an injury against Cincinnati, missing last week against Nebraska. He is questionable for Saturday, but gets the star anyway. Cam Camper is the focal point of Indiana's screen and short passing attack, but he too is questionable after contracting a non-COVID illness. Both players are starters if healthy and are designated as such on the diagram. 

Usage of the other receivers is more muddled. The clear #3 in receptions is UNC transfer Emery Simmons, who saw his workload skyrocket against Nebraska with Matthews and Camper out. Tennessee transfer Andison Coby also was heavily used against Nebraska, five catches on eight targets, while Javon Swinton sits further down on the depth chart, the rare non-transfer receiver. Rounding out this group is last year's QB, Donaven McCulley, who hasn't been used much, as well as Malachi Holt-Bennett, only boasting two catches on the season. The production and look of the WR group changes greatly depending on if Matthews and Camper are healthy. 

IU's offensive line rolls over three starters from last season, a number that would've been four if Matt Bedford were still healthy. Alas, the RT tore his ACL in week one and has been deemed out for the season. That unfortunate development has led to the promotion of Parker Hanna to the RT role, something that is not good news for the Indiana offense. Hanna has been brutal in pass protection this season. Luke Haggard returns to man the LT role opposite Hanna, one of the better players on this line but still leaky from time to time. The interior of the line saw both Old Friend Zach Carpenter and Mike Katic return as starters, neither of whom are having great seasons. Carpenter was roughed up in the game I saw but I chose to go a little easier on him and give the cyan to Katic, who was brutalized by the Illini defense. Funny enough, PFF's worst graded IOL among the starters is Tim Weaver, which speaks to the problems that Indiana is having in pass protection and opening holes in the running game. 

Indiana does rotate a few offensive linemen through. Kahlil Benson comes on to spell one of the guards from time to time, while Joshua Sales Jr. is the primary reserve at tackle. Carpenter missed the Cincinnati game with an injury and was replaced at center by Caleb Murphy, though Carpenter's return against Nebraska pushed Murphy back firmly to the bench. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: You like screens?]