isaih pacheco

Well, that was something. My only conjecture as to what in particular happened in this game is that the Michigan offensive coaching staff had a 5:30 pm dinner reservation and left a St. Bernard in charge of the playcalling in the second half, while Cade McNamara's right arm got shut in his locker accidentally and was left bruised and inoperable. I would prefer to live in a world where this conjecture is correct, because reality is probably more grim. 

The first half was good for the Maize.& Blue. Michigan outgained Rutgers 233 to 121 and led 20-3 at halftime. A smashmouth first drive that saw the Wolverines run on 15 of 17 plays on the way to a one-yard Hassan Haskins TD run seemed to suggest that this game was going to be a loose replica of the dominance of the first three weeks. A lengthy Rutgers drive stalled out in a field goal from Valentino Ambrosio and it was 7-3. That feeling of extended dominance continued after the next Michigan drive included a pair of long passes (one to Erick All, the other to Roman Wilson), followed by another Haskins TD. It was 14-3 early in the second quarter, and cruise control seemed to be on. 

There were some good moments in the first half [Patrick Barron]

The next two drives for the Scarlet Knights ended in punts, and after Michigan tacked on another FG from short range, they led 17-3. Rutgers went on a lengthy drive extended by a frustrating Daxton Hill whiff on the would-be drive-ending sack, but their (reckless) decision to go for it on 4th & 10 at Michigan's 44 yard line ended with the football glancing off of Bo Melton's hands. Michigan took over with 0:22 on the clock remaining in the half and a quick 51 yard strike to Mike Sainristil, with a roughing the passer targeting call that ejected starting NT Julius Turner, put Michigan on the two. Haskins was stuffed and then a poor Cade McNamara throw intended for Luke Schoonmaker fell incomplete, and Jake Moody was asked to thread a FG through the uprights. He did, and Michigan led 20-3 at the half. 

The recap I had in my mind at that juncture was pretty crystal clear: Rutgers is scrappy and with a few tricks up their sleeve, but Michigan is the considerably better team. That went out the window pretty quickly in the second half.

[AFTER THE JUMP: The less fun part of this recap]

This weekend Michigan plays host to America's team, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, at Michigan Stadium. Rutgers rides into Ann Arbor with a sterling 3-0 record and playing more confident under Greg Schiano than their deadbeat years with Chris Ash at the helm. That said, this is still mostly the same Rutgers you know and remember so well and that will become evident as you read further on today's FFFF, looking at the offense. 

The Film: Rutgers has played one FCS team (Delaware) as well as Temple and Syracuse (so, three FCS teams *ba dum tss*). Syracuse is nominally a Power Five team (they went 1-10 last season) and were also Rutgers' only road game thus far, so they are the easy selection, the opponent that will tell us the most about who Rutgers really is out of a group of three teams that will collectively tell us little about who Rutgers really is. Scarlet Knights ain't played nobody, but Syracuse is closer to somebody than the other options, so we're going with the Orange here. Worth remembering that this is a bad, bad team. Syracuse, in addition to their horrendous record, finished in the bottom quartile of college football teams last season in offense, both in terms of points per game and yards per game. So there are many reasons to expect Michigan will fare better than the Orange did here. You can probably tell that by reading this piece. 

Personnel: Click for big

Rutgers is running Noah Vedral out there at QB, a returning starter who we will discuss extensively here. He comes off the field on 3rd/4th & short situations for Johnny Langan, a wildcat QB who is basically just out either to run it himself or give it off, usually with a read involved. At RB there's a three player rotation, the bigger and veteran Isaih Pacheco, the speedier and versatile Aaron Young, and then fresh-faced ingénue Kyle Monangai, who hadn't seen the field prior to this year but is starting to get more of a role. If Pacheco is out there, he's going to be in the backfield and carrying the football, as will Monangai. Young is used in more variable ways, sometimes lined up at WR, sometimes in the backfield, the recipient of screens and also involved in plenty of pre-snap motion. 

At WR, both of the top two options are smaller, slot-ish types because Rutgers runs a screen-based offense (the Training Wheels Offense). Those two players are Bo Melton and Aron Cruickshank, both of which are the recipient of frequent bubble screens and Cruickshank in particular features heavily as a jet sweep option, the one with more speed, speed which once landed him on a real P5 roster (Wisconsin). Shameen Jones is the most outside WR shaped object of note in the receiving corps, standing 6'2" and he has 7 catches on the year. Beyond those three, the drop-off in options is pretty steep. TE Jovani Haskins is the most credible receiver from the tight end position, while Brandon Sanders and Isaiah Washington constitute the 4th and 5th most relevant WR's. Those three names have 9 combined catches in three games. Rutgers hasn't thrown a ton of passes. 

The offensive line consists of LT Raiqwon O'Neal, LG Cedrice Paillant, C Nick Crimin, RG Reggie Sutton, and RT saw some of both Brendan Bordner and Hollin Pierce in this game. G/C Bryan Felter showed up in my notes as a reserve OL as well. Blocking TE Matt Alaimo also played quite a bit (was not targeted with a pass), and let's just say, he did not appear in my game notes for good reasons (more on that later). 

[AFTER THE JUMP: you get to see snippets of a painful game... click for PAIN]

We're back for Part II of our The Enemy, Ranked series. Last week we covered quarterbacks and today we're handling the running backs. The Big Ten has a lot of shuffling at the running back position this year, and because of the way that college football has progressed, most teams enter the season with a committee of backs and the workload for each is yet to be determined. Michigan is much like the rest of the conference in that way, with several compelling names, but uncertainty regarding the pecking order. I set out to rank each team based on the positional group, so the quality of names at the top, as well as the depth/amount of names play a big role here. If a team doesn't have a returning starter, I defer to the program's track record at developing quality players at that position, as well as recruiting profiles, just as I did in the quarterbacks piece. 

1. Penn State

Few teams in the country have five different running backs who all have 50+ career carries to their name AND have maintained >4.0 YPC for their career. Penn State is one of those teams. The Nittany Lions enter this season with five viable players at the running back position, all of could may see substantial work this season. First up is Noah Cain, a former top 100 recruit from the 2019 class who played second fiddle to the electric Journey Brown back in 2019. Cain seemed to be in line to be the #1 back last season after Journey Brown was forced to tragically retire from football due to a heart condition, but a leg injury sustained in the first series of the season opener against Indiana in week one ended his season. That was a shame, because Cain looked primed to be a breakout name nationally after rushing for 443 yards (5.3 YPC) as a true freshman in '19, setting PSU's program record for TD's by a freshman with 8. His 2019 campaign included one of the best grades ever handed out to a running back in MGoBlog's history, when Seth lavished praise on Cain ahead of that season's Michigan/PSU duel in Happy Valley. You can go back and read that FFFF to get a sense of how good Cain could be, now in his 3rd year in the program. Though the awaited breakout year may have had to wait a season, it could very easily transpire this fall. Cain is back from injury and sits atop the depth chart. 

Cain alone would put the Nittany Lions in conversation for a spot towards the top of this list, but what solidifies PSU at #1 is the absurd glut of options behind Noah Cain. With both Cain and Brown out for the what was nearly the entirety of last season, it fell on the shoulders of Keyvone Lee, Caziah Holmes, and Devyn Ford to pick up the slack, and they did a solid job of that. Lee was the "starter" last season, with 4.9 YPC on 89 carries last season + 4 scores, while adding 12 catches too, doing it as a true freshman. He could very easily best Cain to become the #1 back. Holmes was also a true freshman last fall and rushed for 4.5 YPC on 51 carries and added two touchdowns. Ford has 119 carries over two seasons in State College, with a career 4.8 YPC, six touchdowns, and twelve catches. All of these guys would be good backups to Cain on their own, but the fact there are three of them is absurd. And then, because I guess James Franklin only buys products in bulk, PSU landed a highly experienced grad transfer RB in John Lovett from Baylor. Lovett was a multi-year starter with the Bears, boasting 355 career carries and a 5.1 YPC clip to go with it + 29 catches and 17 career TD's. 

I really have no idea how all five of these RB's are going to be able to play each week, and they're all good enough that they deserve to be on the field. In all likelihood, this position group will closely resemble tossing a single Slim Jim to a pack of five hungry dogs and watching them fight it out. Someone's going to get squeezed out and I'd be shocked if PSU ended the season without at least one guy entering the portal. That said, having five quality, experienced RB options is not a bad thing at all, and it will allow the Nittany Lions to sustain potentially multiple injuries and make it out alright on the ground, as they did last season. This group will need better OL play to improve on some of their stat lines last season, but if you're a Penn State fan, RB should be the least of your worries going into 2021. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More running backs by committees]