matt rhule

Michigan's first road game of the season is this Saturday against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Lincoln. The Huskers are 2-2 on the season, with an offense that features a lot of rushing, QB controversy, and turnover woes. We will do our best to cover all of that in this piece today.

The Film: Nebraska has played four teams this season, Minnesota, Colorado, NIU, and Louisiana Tech. As a policy, I do not do chart against Group of Five teams unless I have to, which leads to a bit of a predicament. Nebraska's QB in the first two games was Jeff Sims, who then exited the Colorado game with an injury. Nebraska's QB in the next two games was Heinrich Haarberg, who seems favored to get the start on Saturday. In theory this should make me compelled to do either the NIU/La. Tech game but with both defenses being wretched, I ultimately felt the best way to go about this was the following: to chart the Minnesota game (by far the best defense Nebraska has played) in order to get a feel for all the other positions + Jeff Sims, should he play against Michigan, but watch the tape of the NIU/La. Tech games and chart the throws of Haarberg in one of them, to get a feel for him. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Nebraska's probable QB for Saturday is one Heinrich Haarberg, an in-state product of Kearney, Nebraska, who was a 3* ranked 600th in the composite in the 2021 class. After two years under Scott Frost, Haarberg has gotten his chance under Matt Rhule after the injury to Jeff Sims, the Georgia Tech transfer. Haarberg has mostly profiled as a runner, surprisingly nimble for a 6'5" QB. Sims is also mostly a runner, much more tank-shaped at 6'4/220. Sims had well publicized issues with turnovers that submarined Nebraska against Minnesota and Colorado but I'm not convinced he was a worse QB than Haarberg.

At RB, the picture has changed dramatically due to the injuries suffered by Gabe Ervin and Rahmir Johnson, both of whom are done for the season. Anthony Grant is now the bellcow for the Huskers, a man with a long and winding collegiate career that began at Florida State and included a stop in JUCO with the New Mexico Military Institute. Frost brought Grant to Nebraska last season and he led the team in rushing yards with 915 (on 218 carries). Grant seemed like the bet to lead the group into 2023 but fumble problems in fall camp led to him being dropped on the depth chart. That didn't improve when Grant had a devastating fumble against Minnesota, but with all the injuries, Rhule is now stuck with him. He got 22 carries against Louisiana Tech and I'd expect that to be the same on Saturday. There were just seven non-Grant/Haarberg carries in the La. Tech game and no one got more than two of those. That one person was Emmett Johnson who is the nominal backup RB but for now, Grant is the only guy. 

The wide receiver group is quite different than last season due to the graduation of star Trey Palmer. Marcus Washington is the only returner to be mentioned prominently in last year's FFFF, an unremarkable outside target who boasts six catches through four games. The most used receiver by far is UVA transfer slot WR Billy Kemp IV, who doesn't play nearly as much as the other two receivers but has nearly double the catches of any other target. Some of that is from jet sweep forward toss plays, but most of his true catches are short stuff. Alex Bullock is the other starting outside WR, another receiver like Washington I have nothing of note to say about. Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda is the closest thing to a fourth WR but the rest of the catches go to the TEs. 

Speaking of which, the TE spot features a one-time Michigan recruiting target Thomas Fidone II. Nebraska was able to keep the 2021 near-5* in the Great Plains (originally from Council Bluffs, IA) and away from the Wolverines. After two injury riddled seasons that have resulted in him now sporting a knee brace, Fidone has started to round into a player and was the closest thing to a Dangerman on a team with uninspiring skill position players. His three touchdown receptions (one in each of the last three games) was a primary motivating factor there. Fidone has started to pull past the #2 TE, Nate Boerkircher, who seems acceptable. Sometimes Nebraska loads up with three TEs and brings Luke Lindenmeyer onto the field but he's exclusively a blocking TE. 

Nebraska's offensive line has been alright in run blocking and very rough in pass blocking. Many of the issues it has in pass pro date back to LT Turner Corcoran, a one-time blue chip prospect who is a turnstile at this point and a major anchor on the line's protection issues, earning a cyan for the second straight year. It's not all Corcoran though, as the TEs and RBs have also struggled protecting the QB and it's not like the OL is a fortress elsewhere. Ethan Piper gets his second start against Michigan at LG and is alright, a term that could be used to describe ASU transfer C Ben Scott. Neither guy is great, but they are doing enough to hang around the Mendoza line. Behemoth 6'9" RT Bryce Benhart is PFF's favorite on this line and I had no real issues with him during my viewing, while RG Nouredin Nouili is rotating with Henry Lutovsky, something I cannot figure out because Nouili didn't have many hiccups while Lutovsky is just as brutal as he was in my review of Nebraska last season. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: I hope you like watching the QB run]

Last week I looked at changes in the rosters in the B1G East so far in the offseason. Today we will do the same for the B1G West. The NFL Draft declaration date has come and gone, so we have some more clarity, though transfers are still in the process of deciding. As I said with the East piece, my plan is to come back through in a couple months and take a look at how the dust settled on these respective rosters. 

Purdue

EXITS

The Boilermakers have had a busy offseason, with their most notable exit being coach Jeff Brohm. With a new regime in, you'd expect quite a bit of turnover and there's plenty of it. Graduation/the NFL has taken all three of their stars in the passing game, QB Aidan O'Connell, WR Charlie Jones, and TE Payne Durham, as well as a huge chunk of their pass defense, starting corners Cory Trice and Reese Taylor, as well as HSP Jalen Graham and LB Kieren Douglas. They will be returning most of the OL and lead back Devin Mockobee, but that's a lot of experience and production to make up, before we even get into the portal subtractions.

To the portal the Boilermakers lost Spencer Holstege, a starting G for this year's team, as well as three useful pieces on the defensive line, Lawrence Johnson and Branson Deen, who were starter-ish rotation pieces at defensive tackle, and starting DE Jack Sullivan. All four of those players opted to pack their bags for warmer weather, with Deen opting to head to Miami, Johnson to Auburn, Holstege to UCLA, and Sullivan to rival USC. Reserve RB Kobe Lewis bailed for FAU as well, and then an assortment of bench names I am not familiar with are in the portal as well. It's going to be a pretty different Purdue team that shows up in Ann Arbor to play the Wolverines in the fall than the one we saw in Indianapolis a month ago. 

ACQUISITIONS

Well we can start with the new HC Ryan Walters, who is replacing Brohm. Walters, who turns 37 tomorrow, is considered a top young mind in coaching circles after presiding over elite defenses back-to-back seasons at Illinois, where he had minimal talent to work with. Seemed like a smart hire to me and he's reshuffled the coaching staff, bringing new DC Kevin Kane with him from Illinois (he was the associate head coach and OLB coach) and hiring new OC Graham Harrell, of Texas Tech QB fame from the late 2000s, away from West Virginia. Kane will help him rebuild the Purdue defense, while Harrell will ensure continuity with Brohm's Air Raid scheme. All three of these coaches are under the age of 40, so this is an exceptionally youthful staff. 

The biggest question for the Boilermakers with Aidan O'Connell leaving is what will happen at QB. Their big add out of the portal was QB Hudson Card from Texas, a high 4* prospect in the 2020 class who got passed over for Quinn Ewers in Austin, but played some when Ewers was injured this past season and did fine. Card seems to be the favorite to start, though Purdue managed to keep Brady Allen, their Class of 2022 QB who was a solid 4* himself, in the fold. Allen originally had his name in the portal, but pulled it out to return to Purdue, suggesting there will be a legitimate QB competition here. 

Elsewhere Purdue has added a few supplemental pieces, Isaiah Nichols (DT) and Anthony Brown (S) from Arkansas, the former being a middling rotational piece on the DL, while the latter got a redshirt as a true freshman this past season. They also got interior OL Jalen Grant, a two year starter at Bowling Green, to jump on board. None of these strike as particularly high impact additions, and I would expect them to add some more as the next few months roll along and the new staff gets their feet under them properly. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: more or less chaos]