Disclaimer:  I’m going to be honest – I didn’t plan on this game being quite so…um, interesting and so didn’t really set aside a ton of time to write this diary.  Perhaps I was looking ahead a bit.  Regardless, if this feels a bit light on discussion please accept my apologies and I’ll try to make it up after next week’s win.

Best:  11-0

I’ll spend time this diary discussing all that went wrong in this game but up top we have to recognize that Michigan is 11-0 for the first time since 2006 and assured of back-to-back 11+ win seasons for the first time since Fielding Yost roamed the sideline and everyone played football with 26-year-old dock workers and meat packers smoking pipes and popping cocaine-laced throat drops at halftime.  Now, on the one hand this isn’t as uncommon as you may think, as schools as diverse as Alabama, Oklahoma, Clemson, and OSU to Michigan State (Dantonio was and remains an asshole but the man can coach), Penn State (during the Frames era), and even old nemesis App St. have accomplished this feat this century.  In fact, over a dozen teams have accomplished this feat since 2000.  But Michigan hadn’t until now, and considering how many people were ready to dump Harbaugh in the Huron River after 2020 to be back to this level of dominance is truly amazing and should be cherished.  As we’ve seen across college football, greatness is not a given and so I’ve really enjoyed watching this season unfold as it has.  Michigan had a great team last year, accomplished a ton of their goals, and then found a way to reload at key spots and take another crack at it this season.  I want every fan to remember how rare that’s been in this team’s recent history and regardless of what happens against OSU to enjoy this run Michigan is on. 

And similarly, I really don’t care this was a close win in the trappiest of trap games.  Every team in college football has experienced such a game this year; hell, TCU has basically every weekend since September.  While I’m not one who puts too much stock in “gut shot” moments (good teams don’t need to be reminded they can lose football games), it was nice to see this team come back against a good defense down some key performers, especially since they’ll be heading to Ohio in front of a fanbase ravenous for revenge.  They did a similar thing last year against PSU and it seemingly gave them some confidence about closing out a tough opponent, and so provided none of the injuries from this game linger into this weekend a win is a win and people shouldn’t get too worked up about it. 

Worst, Then Best:  Corum Going Down

I’ll keep this brief – we likely won’t know the status of Blake Corum until the team takes the field against OSU.  It was a good sign that he walked off the field and an even better sign when he ran back out and took a carry in the second half.  He absolutely looked a bit limited and it was smart to not give him any more run afterwards but I think people rushed too quickly to the Grant Newsome injury as an analog when Corum went down despite them being dissimilar in key ways.  For one, Newsome’s leg was pretty firmly planted in the field at the moment of contact and bent at a bad angle; Corum took a shot to the leg but it was in the air as he ran forward.  Furthermore, there’s a big difference between a 350+ lb guy being hit and a ball of muscle like Corum, who is more used to that type of contact and was already heading down when he was hit.  Do I think it hurt like hell to be smacked by a 200-ish pound player then?  Absolutely.  But this wasn’t some non-contact injury like Hendon Hooker suffered; this was the type of hit you see in football even if you wished defenders didn’t sort of roll into guys. 

I also think people rushing to blame his injury on Harbaugh’s playcalling or overuse were just looking for an excuse to complain about Harbaugh moreso than make a coherent argument about the injury here.  Corum has proven to be a workhorse this year and Michigan was driving to take what would have been at least 3 points, if not a TD.  It made sense for him to be playing then and at the time of injury Michigan had been mixing up their runs and passes pretty consistently (it was 15 pass plays vs. 19 run plays by my count at the time).  It was just a freak injury and given the weather conditions and style of defense being played there was little reason to risk throwing the ball when, up to that point, Michigan had been moving well against the Illini.  Hell, Corum had 100 yards in that first half before he went down.  And Illinois, despite being on a 2-game skid, is a really good defense and the game wasn’t remotely out of reach for them; you need to play to win at that moment and so I had no issue with Corum being out there and being leaned on as he has all year.  He’s a Heisman contender for a reason and you can’t shy away from relying on him because of the fear of potential injury in a competitive game.

Meh:  Bed Rest

Injuries are inevitable in any athletic pursuit, but especially in a physically demanding and violent sports like football.  Every week you see players get knocked out of drives, games, and seasons through plays that are just part of the game, the inevitable consequence of irresistible forces slamming into immovable objects.  Until recently injuries were largely categorized into two buckets – ones you could “rub some dirt on” and play through and the others so debilitating that a player was physically unable to continue.  The first category was always fraught with opportunities for abuse (the plot of Varsity Blues revolves around this type of negligence), and more often than not served as a gateway to the more debilitating maladies found in the latter category.  Luckily, there’s been a shift in coaching and player health outlook over the past 10-15 years, undoubtedly due in no small part to the connections found between CTE and concussions, and so concerted efforts have been made to limit player injuries and speed up recovery through judicious rest and treatment. 

Michigan clearly looked as this game against Illinois as one that could be won without some major contributors suffering from the usual dings and dents of a long football season, and so a fair number of them either didn’t dress or were kept off the field.  That list included Donovan Edwards, Trevor Keegan, Mike Morris, and Luke Schoonmaker, all major contributors who are expected to be available against OSU in a week.  I’m sure a couple of them could have played if absolutely necessary; Morris and Schoonmaker in particular were both dressed and in an emergency probably could have been brought in.  But with a season-defining game coming up and Illinois coming off 2 dispiriting losses it made sense to rest these players.  And it’s a testament to Michigan’s depth that, say, true freshman Colston Loveland started the year as the 3rd or 4th TE on the roster and has started the last two games with little drop-off as a receiver or blocker, including in this game where he did a reasonable approximation of Erick All’s catch-and-run against PSU last year.  But it was still noticeable at times that Michigan was down some players and, frankly, it nearly bit them in the end when they were relying on C.J. Stokes and Isaiah Gash to move the ball on the ground. 

On the one hand I absolutely recognize the importance both schematically and from a human level the logic behind these decisions to rest players; Illinois’s physical defense and run-first offensive philosophy coupled with rough weather conditions were pointing at this being a low-scoring, violent contest that could exacerbate lingering injuries before OSU.  The concern in that case is less about catastrophic injury, as guys being injured in the course of football plays is inevitable and largely unavoidable at the macro level, but that minor injuries that don’t quite heal right are going to sap a player of his effectiveness in games where the margins are tighter and that half-step slower or that throw an inch too far turns a game.  In other words, a guy tearing his ACL being tackled is far less avoidable than an injured ankle being re-aggravated because some overzealous lineman takes liberties in a pile or a slippery field causes a leg to slip.

But on the other hand, one consistent theme this year in games against “lesser” foes like your Indiana’s, your Rutgers’s, your Illinois’s is a nonchalance, bordering on indifference, in gameplanning and player availability.  Michigan has been a great second-half team all year but especially against some of these opponents it feels like that’s when they finally start to pay attention and run a gameplan designed to attack that week’s opponent.  Once Corum went out in this game it was clear Michigan’s offense wasn’t going to be able to consistently grind down the field given available personnel; that’s not a knock against Stokes or Gash as much as the reality that neither of them are Heisman contenders or 5* do-everything athletes.  And once it was clear that Michigan either didn’t want to, or didn’t trust McCarthy to, throw downfield there were 8-9 guys in the box on every first down and Michigan just kept eating TFLs and minimal gains for seemingly every drive.  Part of that is baked into the Harbaugh/Weiss gameplan but also part of it was being stuck with limited options on the bench. 

Given the rest of the schedule player availability won’t be an issue; it’s all hands on deck against OSU and any following postseason contests.  But this is a game where Michigan playing it a bit safe off the field almost led to a disastrous result on it.

Best:  In The Moody

Honestly, there isn’t much to say beyond Jake Moody saving Michigan with an incredible performance.  He accounted for 13 of Michigan’s 19 points on the day, including the game-winning FG with 13 seconds left on the clock.  Even more impressively that came after 2 more FGs in the quarter as Michigan’s offense clawed their way back into the game.  On the year Moody is 25-of-30 but that’s a bit misleading; he’s 2/5 on 50+ FG attempts (including a YOLO 62-yard attempt against UConn to end the first half) and his only miss inside of 40 yards was the blocked attempt by Indiana.  Special teamers, especially kickers, tend to be overlooked until immense pressure is placed on their shoulders in the highest of leverage situations, and then suddenly everyone expects them to nail these incredibly difficult plays like a machine.  Now, that pressure is inherent in the position to an extent and the great ones tend to play it off well, but nothing Moody did in this game should be taken for granted.  Past Michigan teams, and really most college football teams, lose games because their kickers play like humans.  Moody transcended that in this game and, as he has all year, played like reigning best kicker in the country.  And my guess is he’ll be just as instrumental in Columbus if Michigan pulls the upset.

Best:  Senior Moment

Ronnie Bell was in the same recruiting class as Jake Moody, considered the 212th-best WR in the class and likely ticketed for a mid-level basketball team had Michigan not taken a flyer on him.  He emerged as a potential contributor as a true freshman and then proceeded to lead the team in receptions in 2019 and 2020, which probably says something about something in the passing department but is nothing but an unqualified accolade for Bell and his development.  He wound up tearing his ACL against WMU to start 2021 and missed UM’s run to the college football playoffs.  But he’s bounced back this year with gusto, again leading Michigan in receptions by a healthy margin while also being Michigan’s best blocker at the WR spot.   There have been issues at times with his hands, most infamously against PSU in 2019, but he has been one of the steadier, consistent performers at the WR position in quite some time and may well be the best receiver Harbaugh has had at Michigan.  

In this game he led the team in targets with 8, catching 3 of them including 2 first-down receptions and a third that was a yard short.  But his biggest play was on a punt return early in the 4th quarter as Michigan desperately needed to start scoring.  Michigan had finally booted Illinois off the field after two successful scoring drives but Illinois’s punter launched the ball 44 yards nearly to Michigan’s 20.  Given the state of the offense and the time remaining it wasn’t likely Michigan was going to march down the field and score, so flipping field position was incredibly important.  Bell, subbing in for an injured A.J. Henning, proceeded to dazzle with a 40-yard return that set Michigan up at the Illinois 26 and while the drive stalled outside the endzone they still picked up 3 key points.  Though Bell could return for a 6th year he’s headed to the NFL and so it was great to see him show out so well in his final game at Michigan Stadium and really help turn around a game that was dangerously close to getting away from the Wolverines.

Worst:  Blame it on the Rain (In the Tunnel)

In yet another week of sports journalists desperately in need of a thesaurus, there was another “incident” in Michigan Stadium’s tunnel at halftime in this game.  No, it wasn’t jawing between two rivals, or a program suffering from systemic rage issues taking out their aggressions on unsuspecting targets, or even the throwing of kids lunches at each other.  No, Bret Bielema, who lost his mother this week, started yelling at officials that Michigan was taking too long in their locker room  at halftime and he wanted his players to be able to leave first.  That’s it – that’s what’s considered an “incident” now.  Mind you, Bielema was already pretty salty at the end of the first half as he was seen complaining about “phantom” penalties and the like despite his team being called for (checks notes) 2 penalties for (flips notes page) 15 yards in the first half, with one being a false start by the offense on 4th-and-1 and the other a rather blatant hold on the second-to-last play of the half when they were clearly just trying to run the clock out.  Now, I can’t imagine trying to do my job mere days after a parent died so my condolences to him and his family, but he was clearly on edge all game and the fact he lost his mind about what turned out to be a 2-minute delay leaving the lockerroom at halftime (notably occurring shortly after Blake Corum got hurt and was being looked at) shouldn’t have been covered with the same breathless commentary as applied to MSU’s assaults.  Hell, PSU and UM players shoving in the tunnel is significantly more of an “incident” than what happened here.  I’m sure we’ll keep hearing about how dangerous this tunnel is until structural changes are made because “cranky guy yelling at closed door” doesn’t draw eyeballs but this was a nothingburger that was still grating to see discussed as if it was yet another moment of insanity.

Worst:  These Guys

The refereeing in this game came under a ton of fire.  The extremely weak holding call on Zinter that negated Roman Wilson’s 31-yard reception was the type of play you see dozens of times in the game; Illinois got away with basically the same play later on in the game when Devito scrambled around before converting on third down.  And there were even more egregious holds that weren’t called; one that stood out was a play where Michigan’s defender got past the Illinois guard and the guy just turned around and grabbed the defender (Upshaw?) around the waist.  Holding, much like pass interference, going largely unpunished unless it’s egregious or demonstrably affects the play, this didn’t feel like it fit either such case and should have been let go.  There was also the issue with the recovered fumble on Corum’s injury, when the officials determined there was an immediate recovery by the Illini when clearly there was at least a second of confusion where everyone thought the play was dead and both the Illini player and Andrel Anthony were standing near the ball.  Beyond the fact it feels unfair to punish the team whose player just went down with a pretty awful injury, this felt like a situation where confusion reigned and it would have been fine to award Michigan the ball. 

And as for Illinois, would it shock you to find out that the guy who lost his damn mind in the tunnel at halftime had some issues with the officiating as well?  The key complaint was about the 4th-and-3 conversion by Gash that set up the winning score.  It’s the type of play that exists in the gray area of football; the corner engaged Loveland and so it wasn’t an issue that Loveland kept running forward and, in the process, blocked two defenders.  At the same time, I’ve seen people argue that Loveland didn’t try to break the contact and turned it into an illegal block, which I’m not quite sure means anything in football terms but has been stated.  To me it seemed mostly that the two Illinois defenders screwed up and inexplicably gave Gash a 5-yard cushion on a 3-yard play.  This type of play is in every team’s playbook and it usually works because referees are disinclined to blow a whistle when everyone is just sort of rubbing and racing, and so complaints here felt like sour grapes.  And then a play later Illinois got flagged for an obvious defensive pass interference play that they still seemed shocked by, as if WRs typically try to one-arm catches while spreading their opens wide like a Creed music video.  The Johnson “catch” was a bit dubious but the review didn’t really help or hurt UM; they had more than enough time to spike the ball and if anything saved some time for Illinois to try a Hail Mary.

Overall it felt like the officiating was off all day to a degree, but to their credit they didn’t turn it into a slog of flags like the Indiana game.

Meh:  More Game Management

I’ll keep this brief – it’s clear at this point that the passing offense suffers from a combination of mediocre play from the wide receivers AND struggles at the QB spot.  For weeks I’ve been hearing about how these receivers are letting McCarthy down and while there have been examples of this (including in this game) he’s also been consistently missing guys downfield and making bad decisions with the ball.  In this game alone he missed Loveland twice on what would have been game-winning TD passes, and a couple of times tucked and ran when pressure got to him even though there were receivers open nearby.  In conference season he’s averaging 6.9 ypa and has completed about 50% of his passes over the past 3 weeks.  People bemoaned Cade McNamara as a hinderance to the passing game last year but his numbers were significantly better last year (65% completion percentage with 7.8 ypa) in conference at this point and his DSR was significantly higher.  And he was doing it largely with the same set of receivers; yes he had Erick All but he didn’t have Ronnie Bell.  At this point McCarthy is basically who he is for the year; a good athlete who can make the short-to-intermediate throws but isn’t consistent downfield and you can’t put too much on his shoulders.  Heck, in this game UM broke out a bunch of RB screens (which were great to see and super-effective) but felt a bit like an acknowledgement that trying to throw downfield wasn’t in the cards.  Yes, some of that was the weather but it’s been weeks now where Michigan takes maybe 1-2 shots downfield and that feels intentional to protect McCarthy.  I still think the ceiling is high for him but it is time to recognize that being a first-year starter in the Big 10 is hard and that perhaps we all had unrealistic expectations goosed by some awful OOC teams.

Quick Hits:

• Andrel Anthony dropped a potentially game-winning TD in this game and that’s inexcusable but I also think people are expecting a bit too much out of him based largely on his performance against MSU last year.  He was absolutely feeling it in that game and MSU’s pass defense was atrocious, but throw that game out and you’ve got a 3* project who is developing but still has some maturation physically and mentally ahead of him.  I don’t foresee him having a Ricky White-style career where the MSU game is his only really highlight but expectations coming into this year felt a bit irrational.
• I expect the linebackers to come in for some low grades in this game.  Illinois was able to move the ball at times because their offensive line was able to move Michigan’s defensive line but there were numerous plays where Chase Brown turned a 4-yard pickup into a 8+ yard pickup because guys couldn’t stick to gaps and/or tackle once they got to the guy.  Yes, Illinois’s offense is predicated on making this hard on defenders and Brown is a great player but if you’re asking me how next week’s game goes sideways it’s because the linebackers can’t keep gains down.

Next Game:  The Game

Nothing really needs to be said.  UM and OSU will meet as undefeated teams for the first time since 2006 with everything to play for.  OSU looks great on paper but has struggled at times, including against Maryland this week, and especially if weather conditions are mucky might have some issues moving the ball.  Win and Michigan is on to the playoffs; lose and it’s probably a really nice bowl game somewhere.  Either way, buckle up for an insane end of the season as, frankly, it probably should be most years.