9/24/2022 – Michigan 34, Maryland 27 – 4-0, 1-0 Big Ten

Blake Corum hopped outside because he had no choice. There he met a Maryland safety, who deposited his shoulder in Corum's midsection. A defensive end shed Luke Schoonmaker and jumped on Corum from the side. Corum was still a half-yard short of the first down. He wore one 260-pound Terrapin like a cape; the second was trying to break him in half.

Corum took a step. He took another step. Tilted forward at a 45-degree angle, he looked like an Scandinavian World's Strongest Man competitor who has been tasked with dragging a semi the length of a football field—minus 150 pounds, a foot, and a beard you could knit a suspension bridge out of. He took two more steps, each of of them a Xeno's paradox approaching the first down marker, until finally that impossible line was breached. Eventually the whole thing collapsed into a heap, and Michigan's offense got to keep playing football.

On the sideline, I imagine Mike Hart muttered something like "ok, son" to himself. Maybe he cocked an eyebrow. In the booth upstairs, Fred Jackson left the planet for several seconds, returning only so he could proclaim the prophecy had finally come true. The tether back to this world from the astral plane whispered "you told them so," and brooked no references to Avery Horn.

It is in this way scripture is written.

-----------------------------------------------------

This year's preview clucked about exactly one Blake Corum thing:

CORUM DOES LACK ONE HART TRAIT. That would be the ability to drive a ruck of Penn State defenders six yards at a time. This is a tradeoff we'll make for the ability to dust anybody in the country not named Nakobe Dean, but it is an important thing to note in the context of this year's team.

We spent an awful lot of time slotting linebackers and other large persons into a short-yardage role. Meanwhile Corum was silently squatting several times a day until his legs could be used to hold up buildings. Once after a WTKA podcast Sam mentioned that Corum was upset that people thought he could not handle the job on third and one. Message received. Doubts removed.

But of course, the above was not the only thing Corum did in short yardage situations.

BLAKE CORUM SAID SEE YA ⚡️@UMichFootball takes the lead back before the half pic.twitter.com/BfsHZYDp2n

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 24, 2022

He added another long bounce touchdown on third and four, and when Maryland did set the edge he went to work inside. He has the vision to pop outside, the discipline not to do it when it's not there, the long speed to dust safeties out of position, the jitter to dust safeties in position. He is also a very nice person.

On a day where Michigan faced an actual opponent and could have had things go the wrong way, Corum put them in front and then gave them breathing room in the fourth quarter. Several people on Twitter were complaining that Joel Klatt was saying things like "take away Blake Corum and this team would be struggling," and, well, yeah. Take away the Mona Lisa and the Louvre is just a collection of guys in silly hats. "Michigan has the best back in America is not a bug," it's a feature.

At some point opponents are going to freak out about Corum and weight will shift back to JJ McCarthy's shoulders, and that's fine. Saturday clarified exactly what is line 1 on the opposing scouting report. If McCarthy corrects from last week's wobble it's all on the table.

AWARDS

Known Friends and Trusted Agents Of The Week

 

you're the man now, dog

#1 Blake Corum. See above. Numerically: 30 carries, 243 yards. That'll do.

#2(T) DJ Turner and Gemon Green. Stared down the second-best set of receivers they'll see this year and roundly defeated them. Rakim Jarrett and Dontay Demus totaled 24 yards between them. Jeshaun Jones had 48. Everything was contested. Turner had an absurd interception-type substance. Test: passed. Full points for both.

#3(T) Luke Schoonmaker, Joel Honigford, and Max Bredeson. This space speculated in the game preview that Maryland did not have the personnel to match up with Michigan heavy sets, and it appeared that the coaching staff came to the same conclusion. This resulted in a ton of two and three TE sets that sent Blake Corum off tackle as the tight ends neutralized the playside end and then dumptrucked the second level. Two points each.

Honorable mention: JJ McCarthy did complete 69% of his passes and this is the internet. Mike Sainristil just about got in the cornerback party at #2 but he did have a critical error on Maryland's second TD drive. Otherwise, exceeding all reasonable expectations and then some. Mazi Smith had a key TFL and came on late. RJ Moten had a key interception. Mike Morris was relatively effective as a rusher and had a sack and a thumping hit.

KFaTAotW Standings.

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

18: Blake Corum (#2 CSU, #2 Hawaii, HM UConn, #1 Maryland)
14: JJ McCarthy (#1 Hawaii, #2 UConn, HM Maryland)
11: Mazi Smith (#1 CSU, T3 Hawaii, HM Maryland)
10: Ronnie Bell (HM CSU, HM Hawaii, #1 UConn)
6: Gemon Green (HM UConn, T2 Maryland)
5: DJ Turner (T2 Maryland), Kris Jenkins (#3 UConn, T3 Hawaii)
4: Junior Colson (#3 CSU, HM UConn)
3: Mike Morris (T3 Hawaii, HM Maryland)
2: Roman Wilson (HM CSU, HM Hawaii), Max Bredeson (T3 Maryland), Luke Schoonmaker (T3 Maryland), Joel Honigford (T3 Maryland)
1: Braiden McGregor (HM CSU), Eyabi Anoma (HM CSU), Derrick Moore (HM CSU), Jaylen Harrell (HM CSU), Rod Moore (HM CSU), Makari Paige (HM Hawaii), Rayshaun Benny (HM Hawaii), Mason Graham (HM Hawaii), Cornelius Johnson (HM Hawaii), Donovan Edwards (HM Hawaii), AJ Henning (HM UConn),  Caden Kolesar (HM UConn), Mike Morris (HM Maryland), Mike Sainristil (HM Maryland), RJ Moten (HM Maryland).

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

Corum inserts the dagger on third and short.

Honorable mention: Corum inserts another dagger on fourth and short. McCarthy finally hits that deep ball to Bell. Turner and Moten pull off excellent interceptions, mostly. Smith consumes RB in backfield for TFL.

MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

First drive of the third Q: McCarthy misses an RPO pull read on third and four, Isaiah Gash gets two yards, and Michigan punts on fourth and two in plus territory. An all-around recipe for frustration.

Honorable mention: Two Maryland fans six rows in front of me are wearing absurdly oversized baseball caps that make me irrationally upset. CJ Stokes fumbles his only carry. JJ McCarthy does a lot of running around inadvisably. Taulia Tagovailoa sits in the pocket and enjoys afternoon tea.

[After THE JUMP: bumps]

OFFENSE

[Fuller]

Well, I mean, Zaphod's just this guy, you know? JJ McCarthy was not perfect and did a number of frustrating things. Also he was 18/26 for 220 yards and was one deep ball away from averaging 10 YPC. The duality of man, man.

I completely understand the rabbling here. There was a lot of alarming wandering around in the backfield, particularly two plays that were very Early Devin Gardner. One was the world's longest QB scramble and an important first down. One was an absurd Ishtar journey that resulted in a fumble (sort of*) and third and twenty-five. This is not ideal.

I don't know. McCarthy's first real bad play was another capital-j Journey on which he had Blake Corum on a wheel route against a defensive end and did not pull the trigger:

Blake Dang Corum

This turned me into Jesse Pinkman. BRO. BROOOOOOO. BRO. Whichever guy called that play was hopping up and down and eating his hat when McCarthy didn't throw that.

Decisions kind of snowballed from there. There were certain points where I was crabby in the stands because I thought Michigan's playcalling wasn't helping matters and then you hop to the tape and that run up the gut to Isaiah Gash is an RPO that sends AJ Henning into the flat against a corner blitz:

Hat is vomited up so someone else can eat hat. Wither the guy who pulled it against Hawaii and rifled in a touchdown to Ronnie Bell?

And then well whatever I just do this:

It's amazing how all that just melted away in the face of some bad decisions and missed deep balls. Yeah, this was probably a bad JJ McCarthy game. If this is a bad game, ok.

*[McCarthy was clearly in possession of the ball and throwing it forward. For review not to overturn that was absurd. That actually helped Michigan since the throw was intentional grounding and the fumble-type substance was a few yards closer to the sticks, but it was very wrong]

On the other hand. Maybe Cornelius Johnson should have caught that ball?

[Barron]

We never got a replay but it did not feel like the defensive back got a hand on it. I kind of feel like if you get sproingled in your motte and bailey that you should catch the ball. NFL types wanted to see some contested catches from him this year; this was a missed opportunity.

One frustrating item. Just last week we saw SMU's Rashee Rice repeatedly dunk on Maryland defensive backs. Rice is a big leapy guy in the vein of a couple of Michigan receivers and other than the unplanned chuck above we did not see Michigan test anyone on a back shoulder fade or other Nico Collins go-get-it special.

DEATH TO WING TIGHT END BLOCKS ON SHORT YARDAGE. I understand that you've got to do some things to preserve a bit of mystery when you're doing the football. But if you're just going to do the obvious thing, for the love of God let your inline tight end be in line. The whole reason the column leads off with Blake Corum heroically lifting two Terrapins six feet is because Michigan motioned Luke Schoonmaker across the formation and asked him to block a DE with an inherent disadvantage:

TE motioning to bottom

That not an L for Schoonmaker, it's a stalemate. If that stalemate is at the line of scrimmage Corum just burrows inside of it and doesn't have to clean out the stables. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen wing TEs asked to do things against DEs who are bigger and stronger than them and—since the TE is not actually inline—have an inbuilt ability to set the block in the backfield.

Your inline TE will have a tougher time pulling across the formation and may be covered up and unable to go downfield. On short yardage, so what? Argh!

Preferred deep guy. Michigan has targeted all of their top three guys deep but it feels like Roman Wilson is the preferred option there, because he's super fast. Here he got three targets and was very open on two—the third saw a safety able to impede his path to the ball a little bit.

Making Wilson your preferred guy puts a premium on putting the ball right on your dude because his advantage is getting past the guys, not putting them on a poster on an underthrown ball. So your risk level is lower but the rate of downfield successes probably lower.

Totally fine. Gio El-Hadi got a start against a Big Ten team and that was just fine. Michigan is notably right handed on the ground, though, and when things did go over the left it was often one of those 3TE sets—El-Hadi and Hayes did not get a whole lot of gradable blocks.

The OL also gave up minimal pressure. That's necessary but not sufficient since Maryland does not have an edge guy of note and loves dropping eight.

DEFENSE

uncommon [Fuller]

Call it even? Two main developments. One: the secondary got a stiff test and passed it with flying colors. Two: Michigan got very little pressure from its front four. Overall, a push? I would feel much better about this assertion if Michigan hadn't given up a ton of big chunk plays on Maryland's last, relatively futile drive. Before that you were looking at 300 yards and 20 points—six of them on 50+ yard field goals—for what looks like the second or third best offense in the league outside of Michigan.

DE measuring stick acquired. Mike Morris was about what we thought: reasonably good Wormley-esque rusher and very good run defender. He was Michigan's most effective DE in this game, which is good for him. It is less good for Michigan. Rivals's Trevor McCue notes that Morris generated six pressures, a hurry, and a sack in this game. Thumbs up. The rest of the cast did not keep pace:

Jaylen Harrell kind of disappeared in this one. He only won against his blocker 11% of the time against Maryland, bringing his season number down to 17%. … Taylor Upshaw continues to struggle at the other EDGE spot. … The only player with a lower pass rush grade than Upshaw is George Rooks.

Around these parts we were somewhat hopeful but mostly skeptical either of the veterans would turn the corner, metaphorically or literally, and while Harrell did blast the right tackle over on one play that was about his only impact. (The facemask flag is whatever; it happens.)

The guys in the "wildcard" section of the season preview are faring better, but in limited snaps. Okie has just 26 on the season; Moore and McGregor are flashing erratically but just not deployed enough to really get a read. It's like Uche got split across three guys. We just don't know what it looks like if one of them gets the bulk of snaps. Okie did flush Tagovailoa into his most Taulia moment of the day, the near INT to Sainristil. Speaking of…

on you [Fuller]

Best late-career position switch ever? The only thing separating Mike Sainristil from the Known Friends section was the pass that set up Maryland's second touchdown:

You can see him go "oh crap" one second late.

Other than that, yow. He had the crucial stop that set up Michigan's two-minute drill touchdown when he thunked a TE and then tackled the Maryland Five Star WR Du Jour:

And even when Jarrett did get a majority of his receiving yards in this game this is how he did it:

If you told me that Rakim Jarrett would fare worse as a (mostly) slot receiver against Mike Sainristil than Dax Hill I would not have believed you. Draftable? Feels draftable.

[Fuller]

Being in position is half the battle. Gemon Green spent much of his early career in Channing Stribling Hell where every time he was near a receiver he'd phase out of existence at the critical moment. This space has always advocated for cornerbacks who are right in the grill of their man, because "now hit the ball" is a much easier fix than "get three yards closer." Green did not exactly hit the ball in this game but he did enough to make Maryland deep balls nigh impossible. He's keeping Will Johnson on the bench.

Linebackers: oof. Junior Colson did not have a good game at first blush. He shot some gaps he shouldn't have, had some tackles run through, and his positive plays are unlikely to outdistance the negative ones. The most painful goof was the Tagovailoa scramble, where he passes his guy off to a cornerback and then stays super deep until it's almost too late, then gets beat when he does come up:

Shortly thereafter he was very passive on the goal line while unblocked and Maryland scored from the two.

Meanwhile Kalel Mullings got run over by the Maryland backup RB. That guy is a hoss, but so is Mullings. I was a little frustrated that we never saw anyone flash into the backfield despite Michigan holding up pretty well against doubles and keeping that linebacker level clean. Maybe Nikhai Hill-Green comes back next week and is a major upgrade; other than that I think we're stuck with a pretty meh group.

Young guys flash. Rayshaun Benny couldn't quite make this play but man is it encouraging all the same:

I'm not going to get on a guy for tackling up high when he's just swum past an OL and is not fully balanced. My man need some help, and the guy he needs help from is Eyabi Okie. Okie has a corner blitz outside of him and has no force responsibility. Shed at all costs, drive at all costs. Do something. Anything. Any bit of robbed momentum there is fourth down.

Not even mad. Love me a good shovel pass, particularly when paired with a jet sweep threat the other way:

Now, the formation tips this. But still, that's a counter step from the TE with that jet fake, and then a speed option threat. It's real nice.

SPECIAL TEAMS

not even momma is gonna love you after this one [Fuller]

Vestiges of Weird Maryland. Credit to the Terps for mostly not being Weird Maryland—maybe it's too early in the year for that—but doinking the opening kickoff off your facemask such that the opposing team actually recovers it is an all-timer.

We had an extensive discussion on the podcast about ways you could score a touchdown faster than Michigan did in this game; suffice it to say that we had hard time coming up with even outlandish scenarios that could top this. I'm surprised we haven't seen official recognition this was the fastest TD in Michigan history.

KEEP DOINKING HIM? Very disappointed that Michigan's next kickoff was deep in the endzone and Felton could just fling his hands in the air. Another muff is absurdly unlikely, but you've got to give them the chance. See above about Weird Maryland.

Not often Moody gets out-Moody'd. Two 50+ yarders from Maryland versus Moody hitting 2/3 with one 50+ and one miss from 43.

MISCELLANEOUS

Mary Sue U. FULL ALONZO HIGHSMITH FROM MARY SUE COLEMAN

"please don't do anything rash, ma'am" –Ronnie Bell [Barron]

DEVASTATING.

What was with the weird QB substitution? Taulia Tagovailoa takes a big hit and briefly exits the game. He comes back. He plays fine. Corum inserts the dagger to give Michigan a two-score lead with a few minutes left. This game is mostly out of reach but not entirely. So why does Maryland put their backup in? I wonder if Tagovailoa had a borderline concussion.

Perspective. Here's some opponent-adjusted EPA/play for you:

 

Maryland might actually be pretty good, Michigan is 4th nationally based on (admittedly squiggly early-season) opponent-adjusted number crunching, and ye gods Iowa.

Dude. We had our first mind-bending fourth down decision in this game when Michigan punted on their first drive of the second half, in plus territory, on fourth and two, while Corum was on a heater. I can only assume that disappointment on the missed RPO read influenced that decision? I guess? I am stretching for something because otherwise that does not compute.

Obligatory officiating discussion. Maryland entered this game as the second-most penalized team in the nation and exited it with one call for five yards. The officials missed an egregious ineligible man downfield call and ignored holding both ways in a manner that facilitated offensive football but did not strike me as entirely fair. Also, I mean… the DJ Turner interception wasn't even worth a booth review? I have bad news for people who thought John O'Neill retiring was going to make things better.

HERE

GIFS:

Best and Worst:

So yeah, looking at the final score this was a 7-point game, but once Michigan pulled ahead in the 4th it never felt THAT close.  Before that last drive Maryland had 127 yards in the second half to Michigan’s 229, and Michigan was finally starting to get some pressure on Maryland’s QB and shutting down Maryland’s running game – they only had 33 yards rushing in the second half before that last drive.  Maryland didn’t really have an answer for Corum on the ground and had McCarthy just thrown the ball to his open receivers with a bit more consistency this game would have likely been the double-digit one we all expected.  That isn’t intended to take away from Maryland – they played really well and look improved on both sides of the ball compared to last year.  But this wasn’t even like the Rutgers game last year where the Scarlet Knights outgained Michigan and generally controlled the second half; this was more one of those games where a limited number of possessions led to a tightening at the end of the game that hopefully shook some of the rust off the team but doesn’t portend bad times ahead.

SP+ had a 94% win expectancy, FWIW.

State of our Open Threads:

It was a stark change from the UConn game - UConn saw all of nine fucks given and twelve shits given. Indeed, it was barely a thread at all. This week, we were a bit more stressed, as you might imagine. We gave 153 fucks and 118 shits. The parallel to last season's Rutgers game was fairly evident too - after giving a mere eighteen fucks and twelve shits against Northern Illinois, we jumped to 176 fucks and 76 shits for the Rutgers game. Like most seasons, the start of conference play brings hypertension and headaches in the Big Ten.

Anyway, here's the "fuck" / "shit" chart to date:

For a game like that, the "fire" talk was fairly restrained.