ryan walters

Last week we covered the six old B1G East teams and their ongoing offseasons, what they gained and lost in the portal and how NFL Draft declarations are shaping their spring rosters. Now we turn to the rest of the conference, the seven old B1G West teams and the four new west coast teams. Eleven is a lot of teams to cover in one piece, so I've broken this up into two pieces. Today we'll handle five of the old B1G West squads, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Iowa, while later this week we'll feature Nebraska/Minnesota + the four new teams. 

Wisconsin 

EXITS

The Badgers' biggest exits come on the offensive side of the ball, as they see one-year stop-gap starting QB Tanner Mordecai graduate. Moredcai wasn't an incredible B1G player, but it does create a void that Wisconsin had to dip back into the portal to plug (more on that in a moment). The most impactful loss was likely RB Braelon Allen, who is testing out his pro pursuits after multiple years of being the beating heart of the Wisconsin offense. Following these two out the door are OL starters Tanor Bortolini and MIchael Furtney, as well as starting TE Hayden Rucci, who are all onto pro pursuits, be it football or office jobs. Wisconsin didn't lose much to the portal on offense, WRs Chimere Dike (transferred to Florida) and Skyler Bell (UConn) being the biggest names, while some of their depth OL moved on in G Trey Wedig (Indiana) and OT Nolan Rucci (PSU). 

Defensively the Badgers fell victim to poachers, losing their young starting LB Jordan Turner, who is relocating to MSU and new head coach Jonathan Smith. They also lost starting DL Rodas Johnson to Texas A&M, which, when combined with the eligibility/NFL related losses of LB Maema Njongmeta, EDGE/OLB CJ Geotz, and CB Jason Maitre, leaves the Badgers in a bit of a mini-reshuffle on defense. DT Gio Paez is also graduating and moving on, while some background characters like DE Darian Varner hit the portal. I wouldn't say that the Badgers got devastated but there is some real turnover on both sides of the ball, as Luke Fickell's second team will certainly look different than his first. 

[Getty Images]

ACQUISITIONS 

Wisconsin hit the portal to replace the departed Mordecai at QB, snapping up Miami's old QB Tyler Van Dyke. Van Dyke was once seen as a rising star with NFL aspirations after his 2021 season, but did not perform well in 2022 under Josh Gattis. That said, he rebounded some in 2023 before hitting the portal. It will be an interesting test of Fickell's offensive staff to see what they can get out of Van Dyke this fall. To fill the Braelon Allen hole, Wisconsin is leaning on the returning Chez Mellusi as well as new RB Tawee Walker from Oklahoma, who rushed 102 times for 513 yards and seven TDs last season. Walker was second in carries at Oklahoma and should make an instant impact at Wisconsin. 

Elsewhere on the offense Wisconsin added LSU TE Jackson McGohan, a 3* in the 2023 class. At that position and at that age, we should expect McGohan to be a reserve piece this season and maybe factor in down the line. WR Tyrell Henry joins the Wisconsin receiver depth chart from MSU, having caught 24 balls for the Spartans last season. He could be in line for a starting job but if nothing else, Henry helps bolster the WR depth chart after losing a couple players at that position. 

The higher volume of adds came on the defensive side, where Fickell worked to completely build a new LB depth chart. He brought in three new ILB types, plus a couple EDGE/OLB pieces. The ILBs start with Jaheim Thomas, a player Fickell coached at Cincy who then did a year at Arkansas, posting solid grades as an SEC starter. You'd figure he'd be in line for starting snaps, while the other two are more developmental pieces. Tackett Curtis was a high 4* Michigan recruited in the 2023 class but chose USC, where he started as a true freshman and was predictably terrible because he was a Tr Fr coached by Alex freakin' Grinch. Curtis may need a year to sit and learn football but the talent is high. Seabstian Cheeks sat a couple years at UNC and is a local guy coming back to his home state. 

Those ILBs have transformed the depth chart at that position and Fickell also worked hard to reshape the EDGE/OLB room. John Pius arrives from William & Mary having been an elite, All-American caliber FCS player. I'm not sure he'll start, but you'd expect him to play a role. Leon Lowery transfers in from Syracuse after starting for the Orange last season to underwhelming PFF grades. To help the DT position, Elijah Hills comes in from Albany after being a multi-year starter for the Great Danes, and Fickell also added rotational corner RJ Delaney from Toledo. It's not clear how many of these transfers beyond Thomas will be defensive starters, but after seeing some talent drained from the roster via the portal/NFL, Fickell used the portal well to pick up intriguing names who can bolster the depth. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: the other four teams]

Michigan was passing a lot more in this year than we've seen from traditional Harbaugh outfits, and even by that standard this game was pretty extremely tilted to throwing the ball. Sometimes that's the gameplan, and it makes sense to be with a Heisman-candidate at quarterback.

Except I don't think that's the story here. Michigan's offense would love to run the ball, and their opponents would love to take that away from them. Again, Purdue was an extreme. So before we all panic about the running game I thought I'd use a moment to go over how the "No Name" defense works, what Purdue was doing to shut down Michigan's running game, and how Michigan still found ways to get around it without exposing McCarthy to runs. Like so:

How does Purdue's defense work? Why did this work so well against them? Why didn't Michigan's normal power runs work as well? Let's pull out our sharpies.

[After THE JUMP: Pinching edges punished precipitously]

11/4/2023 – Michigan 41, Purdue 13 – 9-0, 6-0 Big Ten

It is a measure of how spoiled Michigan fans are that when their quarterback completes two-thirds of his passes for 9.1 yards an attempt—with some drops in there—everyone is perturbed about What Happened To JJ McCarthy. In a larger sense, nothing at all, get a grip. In a smaller, paranoid sense: well, yeah. Purdue's defensive approach did pose some questions to a Michigan offense that was dead-set on not providing answers after going up 17-0 before the PSU-MD-OSU gauntlet to end the regular season.

The number one thing Purdue did was rush a bunch of DTs. The third guy in the middle rarely did anything directly, but he eliminated the possibility of those "look for work" blocks you see when an interior OL doesn't have anyone to block and decides to hog-wallop someone engaged with one of his buddies. Also because he was rarely getting any rush, Purdue did a much better job than anyone else on the schedule at keeping McCarthy in the pocket.

The results alternated between downs where Michigan got the man-to-man they expected and McCarthy could just throw it to Roman Wilson for 20 yards and ones where Purdue popped into a zone. On those snaps McCarthy hesitated, and then his Let's Break The Pocket And Fire All The Missiles timer went off. He'd move to do that, find that the doors were closed, and then fire inaccurate balls because his feet weren't in the right place. He was caught between states.

This is to say that a big chunk of the problems that caused JJ McCarthy to only complete two-thirds of his passes for 9.1 yards an attempt are fixable, and will probably be fixed.

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The rest of the game went like they all have so far: the defense gives up approximately nothing. There are a couple mistakes that set the opponent up for their desultory first-half score, and then the opponent gets to have a touchdown after the stadium has emptied out. The only unusual things were a couple of fourth-quarter drives for the starting offense, possibly because they haven't played a full four quarters all year and Michigan wanted them to get that under their belt before Penn State, and the relative wobbliness of McCarthy.

Afterwards, Ryan Walters was mad. Was he mad that Connor Stalions had somehow robbed him of victory? Was he mad that Illinois didn't win last year? I don't know. Everyone seems absolutely furious about Stalions going overboard on an activity that is everyday, commonplace, and Walters personally participated in.

Everyone is just as mad as they can be, except Michigan fans. That last outpost of sanity is set to fall in a couple days if and when the Big Ten levies an unprecedented suspension to the head coach of a team that would have won every game they've played this year by multiple scores if Connor Stalions happened to be a massive Colorado School of Mines fan instead of Michigan. At this point, Michigan will join the frothing masses. The already frothed will be furious that Michigan's players are still allowed to compete for a championship. They will fulminate about how desperately unfair it all is, and Michigan fans will fulminate about the same thing.

All of this because of the idea that Michigan has somehow ruined the sport because one guy got a marginal advantage in a part of the sport that can easily be defeated by writing things down on a piece of paper and sticking it on your wrist. This is going to go down as the stupidest moral panic in the history of the sport.

We are headed for the biggest Die Mad of all time. Nothing can stop it. The only question is who will in fact be Dying Mad. The stakes have never been higher, or dumber.

AWARDS

Known Friends and Trusted Agents Of The Week

[Fuller]

you're the man now, dog

#1T Michael Barrett, Braiden McGregor, Jaylen Harrell, Derrick Moore, and Josiah Stewart. Michigan's rotate ALL THE GUYs approach on defense has made it difficult for anyone on the defense to dislodge offensive players, particularly JJ McCarthy from the top spot. And, yeah, the highest number of pass rush snaps any individual defender got in this game: 17. But Michigan collected 20 pressures on 30 dropbacks, so I'm sticking all these guys in at the top. Three points each. McGregor and Harrell get bonus points for combining on a third and short stop.

#2 Roman Wilson. Nine catches on ten targets, and while the tenth was a low but catchable ball the important thing was that no Purdue defensive back was able to even make it a contest. Zero of his targets were contested.

#3 Will Johnson. Interception, a couple more PBUs, ceded three yards a target per PFF. More discussion below.

Honorable mention: Well okay yes JJ McCarthy completed two-thirds of his passes for 9.1 yards per attempt. Colston Loveland had a beautiful back-shoulder catch and nearly brought in a circus catch; Semaj Morgan is fast. Rod Moore had an endzone PBU and a second PBU that was less salutary.

KFaTAotW Standings.

(points: #1: 8, #2: 5, #3: 3, HMs one each. Ties result in somewhat arbitrary assignments.)

44: JJ McCarthy (#1 ECU, #1 UNLV, #2 Rutgers, HM Nebraska, #2 Minn, #1 IU, #1 MSU, HM PUR)
23: Kris Jenkins (HM ECU, T2 UNLV, #1 BGSU, HM Rutgers, #1 Neb, HM MSU)
15: Mason Graham (HM ECU, T2 UNLV, #1 Minn, HM IU, HM MSU)
14: Roman Wilson (T2 ECU, HM UNLV, HM BGSU, #3 Nebraska, #2 PUR)
13: Mike Sainristil (T3 ECU, HM BGSU, #1 Rutgers, HM IU, HM MSU)
11: Mike Barrett (HM UNLV, T3 Rutgers, #2 IU, T1 PUR)
10: Blake Corum (HM ECU, HM UNLV, #2 BGSU, HM Rutgers, HM Neb, HM IU), AJ Barner (HM BGSU, HM Neb, HM Minn, T3 IU, T2 MSU), Braiden McGregor(T3 UNLV, #2 Nebraska, T1 PUR)
9: Colston Loveland (HM Rutgers, T3 IU, T2 MSU, HM PUR)
7: Cornelius Johnson (T2 ECU, HM UNLV, HM BGSU, HM Minn), Derrick Moore (T3 UNLV, HM Neb, HM MSU, T1 PUR)
6: Kenneth Grant (T3 ECU, T2 UNLV), Junior Colson (#3 BGSU, T3 Rutgers, HM MSU), Jaylen Harrell (HM UNLV, HM BGSU, HM IU, T1 PUR), 3: Will Johnson(#3 Minn, #3 PUR)
4: Ernest Hausmann (T3 ECU, T3 Rutgers), Max Bredeson (HM Rutgers, HM Neb, T3 IU), Josiah Stewart (HM Minn, T1 PUR)
2:  Josh Wallace (T3 ECU), Semaj Morgan (HM Rutgers, HM PUR)
1: Tommy Doman (HM ECU), Donovan Edwards (HM ECU), Tyler Morris (HM UNLV), Quinten Johnson (HM Rutgers), Kalel Mullings (HM Minn), The Offensive Line (HM Minn), Keon Sabb (HM Minn), Ben Hall (HM IU), Rod Moore (HM PUR)

Who's Got It Better Than Us(?) Of The Week

Donovan Edwards gets one on one with a linebacker, signaling that Ryan Walters's stuff isn't going to work in this one.

Honorable mention: The ease with which Michigan converted their goal to go opportunities. Semaj Morgan puts the game to bed with the world's most wide open jet sweep. McCarthy nails a back shoulder to Loveland. Will Johnson gets a pick somewhat reminiscent of his first against Purdue last year.

MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK

Purdue stuffs a fourth and one near the end of the first half. This was not the first gaffe in the period of gaffes but it was the one that established it was going to be an annoying quarter and a half.

Honorable mention: Punt hits a gunner, leading to a turnover and a Purdue field goal. DJ Waller gives up a long reception. Purdue scores with 30 seconds left, robbing Michigan of the cover and giving a thousand screeching Ohio State fans on twitter the ability to say THEY DIDN'T COVER.

NICK SAMAC PATHETIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK

Ryan Walters gives Jim Harbaugh the drive-by handshake because he's just so mad that Michigan may or may not have had their signals. Expect news to break this week about Walters; there's a reason Michigan was using wristbands in this game.

Dishonorable mention: N/A