noah vedral

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]

Content note: Some readers may know me from my work on hockey and softball over the past years, but I have been lucky enough to be hired by Brian recently to write about football and basketball, so readers who focus mostly on those sports will start to get acquainted with me pretty quickly here. For those unfamiliar, I'm a recently graduated Michigan alum and you can follow me on Twitter at @Alex_Drain. For my first football piece, I'm picking up a series that has been run on this site in the past, ranking Michigan's opponents based on positional groups. Today we start with QB. 

Quarterbacks have always been important in football, but with each passing year (pun intended, I suppose), they become more and more crucial to the collegiate game. With the likes of Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, Mac Jones, Tua Tagovailoa, Joe Burrow, and Kyler Murray dominating college football in recent years, the connection between elite teams and elite quarterbacks could not be clearer in the NCAA game. It's incredibly difficult to compete for a title in 2021, B1G or national, without having great QB play, and so we begin this series looking at the most important position on the field. The good news for Michigan is that there really aren't many good QB's on the schedule this year, as the Big Ten's quarterback cupboard has become rather barren. The bad news is that the Wolverines are one of those teams with a lot of uncertainty in the cupboards. Let's dive in with the school that most obviously comes to mind when you think of great quarterbacks. I'm talking of course about Indiana. 

Michael Penix Jr. sits atop our list [IU Athletics]

1. Indiana

So, yeah. IU is not really known as a football powerhouse, but what Tom Allen has done in Bloomington has been nothing short of masterful, and last season's 6-1 regular season was the cherry on top. One of the big keys to last season's success for the Hoosiers was star QB and the holder of the B1G's most unfortunate last name, Michael Penix Jr. Penix has played 12 games over the last two seasons and has been nothing short of excellent, throwing for 24 TD's to just 8 INT's, with a 61.6% completion percentage. His performance in Columbus against the Buckeyes last season fully justifies his spot at the top of the conference among QB's, throwing for 491 yards and 5 TD's, while turning it over just once. In those 12 games that Penix has played in 2019 and 2020, the Hoosiers are 10-2, a sterling record for a program whose historical baseline is far below that. 

Penix is an unusual QB because he's a lefty, one with a cannon for an arm that can launch the ball down the field off his back foot and fit the football into tight windows. Accuracy isn't always perfect, but Penix makes things happen and is the key to unlocking the Indiana offense, taking it to higher levels than were possible with the boring and steady Peyton Ramsey. That's why Penix's health is so crucial, and it's the one thing that has held back his career up to this point. He played just three games in 2018 before an ACL tear wiped out his year and forced him to take a redshirt. Then Penix played six games in 2019 before an injury to a part of the body I didn't know existed (the right sternoclavicular joint) put him out for the year, and then his 2020 season ended a few games early due to a second ACL tear. Indiana maintains that Penix is going to be ready for the fall season and is on track to start the opener, but his health is so important to the team. When Penix plays, he's money. But it's getting to the point with Penix where we just have to conclude that he's the kind of terribly snakebitten guy you don't want climbing on ladders or being around mirrors. Which is a bit strange, because Penix isn't terribly mobile. He doesn't run much (except when it's to beat Penn State), and in theory shouldn't be so injury prone. Yet he has been. 

What keeps IU at #1, though, is they have a viable backup option should Penix go down for the fourth straight season, Jack Tuttle. Tuttle was a top 200 composite recruit of Utah back in the 2018 class who transferred to Indiana in 2019. He stepped in to play when Penix got hurt near the tail-end of last season and was fine, posting a 61.1% completion clip with 2 TD and 1 INT to beat Wisconsin and Maryland, but the Hoosiers lost to Ole Miss in the bowl game. Tuttle is not Penix, but Tuttle is still a better backup than a lot of teams have, and that's good insurance if their star goes down. But for the Hoosiers to have any chance of coming out of the B1G East, they need 12 healthy games from Penix. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More QB's!]