wmu 2021

For the first time in nearly two full years, Michigan Football played host to an opponent at Michigan Stadium with fans in the stands. The roster looks significantly different than it did in 2019: out are some of the larger receivers of the Pep/Drevno era and in are an army of smaller, lightning quick skill position players, hand-picked by Josh Gattis to fulfill his oft-mocked promise of Speed In Space. Today was probably the closest to Speed In Space that we've gotten at Michigan, with the players picked to fill the scheme finally executing the scheme. This game was theirs. 

Blake Corum stole the show first. The flashes of brilliance were there last season but today we saw the fully optimized Corum, the blazing speed dusting tacklers and his meaty thighs the size of car tires giving him the strength to break tackles, should opponents get a hand on him. Corum busted an 18 yard run on the opening drive and then finished the possession catching a swing pass and taking it 14 yards to the house. Then to begin the second drive, Corum took the kickoff back to the Western Michigan 21. He had a 30 yard TD run later in the game too, and finished with 111 yards on 14 carries, and 22 yards on 2 catches, with 2 total TD's. Corum's presence has been announced and the B1G has been put on notice. 

Hassan Haskins was his usual self, too. 13 carries for 70 yards and a TD, which he scored on a 22-yard run. Michigan's OL was only occasionally able to regularly open holes (their best moments were on the last possession of the first half), but most of the time, it didn't matter. Haskins' strength and Corum's speed allowed both guys to generate yards on the ground with ease. As the game went along and was firmly in hand, Gattis began to unveil more of the slot menaces who terrorized Western Michigan in brief appearances. Roman Wilson had a 43 yard rush around the edge and AJ Henning took an end-around 74 yards to the house. Give those guys space, and they will give you the speed. 

Cade McNamara got the start for the Maize & Blue, as expected. He went 9/11 through the air, and his only two incompletions were passes batted down at the line by star WMU defensive tackle Ralph Holley. McNamara looked calm, made the simple plays, and delivered two excellent deep balls down the field, both of which were caught by Ronnie Bell. The first was a spectacular one-handed catch negated by a brutal offensive pass interference call. The second went for 76 yards and a TD. Michigan's offense has rarely been stellar at generating explosive plays under Jim Harbaugh. That was not the case today, as talent beat lesser talent, and skill position players showed out. 

McNamara threw it quite a bit early, but then Michigan snagged a solid lead and were getting chunks on the ground at will and so they felt little need to make McNamara work. He was lifted for heralded true freshman QB JJ McCarthy with 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. McCarthy's possessions were overall mediocre due to leaky 2nd team OL play and drops, but the young QB looked confident and then showed us all why he's the future for Michigan at QB. On a third and long, McCarthy evaded a rusher, rolled to his right, and then delivered a strike to Daylen Baldwin who had a step on a CB and took it to the end zone. The ball traveled over 35 yards in the air and in total was a 69 yard passing TD. The talent oozes out of the young QB. 

Pictured: a guy who also had a good game [Bryan Fuller]

Defensively, things started shaky. Michigan's new-look secondary appeared leaky in zone, ceding short passes too easily. WMU marched down the field 75 yards for a TD on their first drive to even the score at 7. They would not score again until the 2nd teamers were on the field. Michigan's blitzes began to get home, and Aidan Hutchinson was dominant, four tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble. As the game went on, Kaleb Eleby struggled to have time to throw and that shut down several once-promising Western possessions. 

Defensive tackle play came and went for Michigan, but where issues emerged, the edge players were often able to make up for it. Cornerbacks generally were alright, and when problems popped up, they were related to zone, as opposed to players getting toasted. Dax Hill was the standout in the secondary, leading Michigan with 6 tackles, flashing his freakish closing speed and dominant in sniffing out plays in the flat. 

Special teams play was generally strong, but with a major disappointment. Jake Moody made his lone FG and was perfect on PAT's, Brad Robbins looked solid when needed to punt, the coverage units were strong, Michigan blocked Western's lone FG attempt, and Blake Corum had the aforementioned kick return. The main problem was Ronnie Bell getting injured on a return, an injury that appeared to be quite bad. He did not return, and our photographer Patrick Barron reported that Bell was in a wheelchair on the sideline. That will be a big loss if he has to miss extended time. 

Michigan advances to 1-0, while WMU drops to 0-1. Michigan hosts Washington next Saturday in a big week two matchup at the Big House at 8:00 pm. There is no content after the jump. 

Essentials

Overview

Michigan begins its fascinating 2021 season against the second easiest team on the schedule, Western Michigan. There are any number of storylines to latch onto entering this game, but perhaps the most overlooked is that this game is the first at the Big House with fans since the end of November 2019. Have to think the players will be amped up to run out of the tunnel and touch the banner in front of a roaring crowd and an actual band again, having settled for a small section of cheering parents and piped in PA music last season. 

WMU finished 4-2 in 2020 on an All-MAC schedule. The program has fallen back down to earth since PJ Fleck took his boat and relocated it to Minneapolis, but they've been a firmly solid mid-major team in the Tim Lester era, typically going about .500 for the year and slightly above that clip in conference. That normally puts Western on the knife's edge of going to the 38th most important bowl game. Their two losses last season were by a combined 12 points, and they saw receiver D'Wayne Eskridge get drafted in the 2nd round to the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Positional groups against other positional groups]