tom allen

Michigan Football has a (largely) finalized coaching staff for the upcoming 2024 season and today marks the closing of the transfer portal window that began when Jim Harbaugh exited to the NFL. Changes may continue to rosters after spring ball, but today marks the point at which Michigan joins the rest of college football in terms of staff and roster stability, the dust settling on the changes of the winter period. That reality allows us to turn our attention to the rest of college football to see what's been going on elsewhere in the B1G, as we did last offseason. Just like last year's series, over the course of the next three pieces (we now have 17 teams to cover!) I will recap what transfer portal and NFL declarations have wrought upon Michigan's conference foes, in addition to any staff turnover. Today we are covering the six teams in what used to be the B1G East: 

Ohio State

EXITS

Ohio State lost a handful of impact players, but as a whole came out relatively unscathed from NFL Draft season (apparently due to an ambitious NIL effort to retain the roster). Elder statesmen like the LBs Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers, as well as longtime S Josh Proctor, WR Xavier Johnson, OG Matthew Jones, RB Miyan Williams, and TE Cade Stover are out the door for a mix of eligibility exhaustion and NFL Draft reasons. These were players who'd been around a long time and ultimately felt it was time (or were forced) to move on, none of them being terribly surprising. 

Relatively few underclassmen took off, the only three notable names being QB Kyle McCord, whose transfer to Syracuse was well-publicized, and then DT Michael Hall Jr. and WR Marvin Harrison Jr.. The loss of Harrison cannot be understated because he was an exceptional player, but that was mostly priced in given MHJ's supreme draft position. Hall was the best pure pass rusher on OSU's DL (or at least the best get-off) in your author's opinion, but still had room to sharpen up as a run defender. Alas, it seems he will be rounding out his form at the next level, where an NFL team will have the chance to inject some legitimate pass rush skill into the middle of their defense. 

Hmm [Patrick Barron]

ACQUISITIONS 

The upshot of shelling out massively to bring the talented junior class back for one more crack at it is Ohio State had relatively few holes to fill in the portal. Most of their moves came on the offensive side of the ball, making one of the oddest transfer portal pickups in scooping up Alabama C Seth McLaughlin, quite possibly the worst snapper your author has ever seen. Maybe McLaughlin can succeed as a guard where he's not asked to snap the ball, but putting his bad snaps aside, McLaughlin was one of the weakest members of Alabama's OL as a blocker too. Strange. 

The skill position talent changed some, with OSU outsourcing its TE spot by raiding the in-state Ohio Bobcats for Will Kacmarek. He seems middling, PFF grades in the low 60s as a MAC TE. The bigger get was star RB Quinshon Judkins from Ole Miss, who bailed on the Rebels even as Ole Miss was doing their own version of crazy dropping bags on portal targets. Judkins, paired with TreVeyon Henderson, ought to give the Bucks an elite RB combo for the 2024 season. The key to it all on offense is new QB Will Howard, though we should mention 5* Julian Sayin, who "transferred" from Alabama after Nick Saban's retirement (Sayin had just barely enrolled at Bama). Sayin is a massive get for the future, but it is likely Howard who holds the keys to whether this all-in season ends with the ultimate prize. Howard was a solid starter at Kansas State, but whether he can win a national championship is very much to be determined.

Another name we should get on the record is Chip Kelly, the new offensive coordinator. Bill O'Brien was originally hired to fulfill this role, but BO'B bailed before he ever really got started, taking the Boston College head coaching job when that opened up. Kelly then quit on coaching UCLA (where he was seemingly on the verge of being fired) to take this one. Kelly should add new flavor to the Ohio State offense and seems better fit than Ryan Day to take advantage of the mobile Will Howard's skillset. Finally on defense the Buckeyes picked up Alabama star S Caleb Downs, finishing off their massive offseason of spending to build this roster. Downs is a very good player and rounds out what may be college football's best defense in 2024. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: all the other teams]

Previously: Indiana Offense

We turn attention from a struggling Indiana offense to a struggling Indiana defense. Though the Hoosiers held Ohio State and Louisville, to undefeated teams, to <30 points, they have also allowed 44 points to Maryland and were gashed for 474 yards by 1-5 Akron. Today we'll take a look through the tape and figure out what challenges, if any, IU's defense poses to Michigan's offense. 

The Film: We're sticking with Louisville, which we used for the offense. Reasonably recent opponent who is also good and a contest where Indiana played pretty well, so we can get a sense of this defense on a good day, as opposed to all the terrible tape. 

The Personnel: Click for big.

[Seth: JJ got his shield. Henderson has LT locked down. I also had to show Bredeson somehow.]

Like usual, Indiana is playing with three true defensive linemen and then a stand-up BULL on the defensive line, two true ILBs + a "HUSKY", functionally a slot corner + four true DBs. I have always described this as a 4-2-5 and feel it's the most convenient definition. Those defensive line spots are headlined by EDGE Andre Carter, a transfer from WMU who is a pretty solid player. Why Indiana was the P5 school he ended up at, I'm not quite sure, but they are lucky to have him. He clocked in just below star status for me and PFF agrees, but Carter is Indiana's best DL and had some nice bullrush moments against Louisville. 

The defensive tackle starting jobs are held by Philip Blidi and LeDarrius Cox, who are somewhere between "meh" and "not great" for me. Blidi is a guy PFF likes but I did not come away impressed, while we are in agreement on Cox being subpar. The reserves are Marcus Burris Jr. and Patrick Lucas Jr., with Burris coming on in passing downs and showing me some rush moves I liked. Lucas was not memorable, on the other hand. The stand-up BULL spot has been split between Lanell Carr Jr. and Myles Jackson. Jackson got a lot of playing time against Louisville and I was not impressed at all, with his 240 lbs. size still making him vulnerable to getting thumped by a tight end, even if he's the larger of the two options. Neither Carr nor Jackson have great pass-rush grades (and both are poor in coverage) but PFF does like Carr more as the rusher. 

The traditional inside linebackers are Indiana's two most used defenders by snap count, both playing at least 88% of the team's defensive snaps this season. Aaron Casey is the star of this tandem- and the defense- an aggressive MLB who has his flaws as a tackler but is a force to be reckoned with running downhill and firing into the backfield for a pressure or a TFL. His fellow starter is WILL Jacob Mangum-Farrar, a Stanford transfer who was pretty up-and-down against Louisville, some nice plays and some ugly miscues but treading water okay. Matt Holht is the primary backup at ILB, only getting a few snaps in the game I charted but they were not pretty ones. Indiana wants Casey and Mangum-Farrar on the field. 

HSP/"HUSKY" Noah Pierre is the other returning starter on this decimated Indiana defense after Casey, a savvy veteran who can do a little bit of everything, decent tackler, can defend the run, cover alright, and is a key blitzer at Tom Allen's disposal. Their two starting outside corners are Jamari Sharpe and Kobee Minor, neither of which are lockdown guys but Minor was a pleasant surprise against Louisville in my charting and PFF backs it up with a grade surpassing 70. Nic Toomer and Jamier Johnson are the reserve corners for Indiana, I don't have a ton of notes on Toomer but Johnson didn't look great vs. Louisville.

Finally, at safety, Phillip Dunnam and Louis Moore are the every-down starers, with Dunnam being a curious case for me, a player I thought was terrible against the Cardinals but the PFF grading is uniformly positive on. Veteran Josh Sanguinetti is the third safety but has been seldom used this season, even though he's been dotting FFFF charts for three seasons now. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Meh]

FORMATION NOTES: Indiana frequently looks like Iowa, and then they pounce.

Eight man front with a soft shell behind it, ok whatever, and then the deep S and the cornerback activate and fling themselves at Corum. Indiana was very multiple in this game, moving between even, under, over, and odd fronts with an emphasis on even. They threw a lot of stuff at the OL.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: With Wilson out, Andrel Anthony and AJ Henning got more run; Anthony got 28 snaps to Henning's 21. Colston Loveland got ~15 snaps. Barnhart replaced Jones at TE. Otherwise standard.

[After THE JUMP: It's true. It's not fatal, but it's true.]