Tyree Kinnel
Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Grant Perry. Perry is Michigan’s fourth-leading receiver by yards, though he has just 6 receptions on the year. However, he has been a reliable target at slot receiver for both Jake Rudock and Wilton Speight over the past year and a half, and he’s a decent blocker. Unfortunately, he found himself in some trouble over the bye week a few weeks ago, and he appears to be working himself out of the doghouse. Michigan didn’t need him on Saturday, but it would be nice to have all options available down the stretch.
Hit the jump for more on Saturday’s win over Maryland.
Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Drake Harris. Harris seems to have been the main benefactor of Perry’s absence. While he has created some separation at times and made a nice, contested catch on Saturday (nullified by penalty), he doesn’t have much to show for it with just 1 catch for 7 yards on the season. Perry is a better fit in the slot and has been more productive thus far.
Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Tyree Kinnel. Kinnel tied a career-high with 3 tackles on Saturday and made his first career tackle for loss on a sweep. On that particular play, he saw the play coming from his deep half, took a perfect angle, sprinted downhill, and dragged down the Maryland running back for a 5-yard loss. It’s pretty impressive to make a TFL for -5 yards from the safety position, especially when you’re not blitzing or even lined up in the box. Michigan should be in pretty good shape with at least one of the safety positions once Dymonte Thomas and Delano Hill graduate.
Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Mike McCray II. I could have just as easily included this switch in the previous category, but McCray appears to be a little banged up with a leg injury that caused him to miss some time on Saturday. He also has had a lingering shoulder injury that caused him to miss the entire 2015 season, and it continues to be a concern. McCray’s backup, Devin Bush, Jr., entered Saturday’s game and played well, but he hasn’t played a ton of defense so far this year. I wouldn’t mind seeing him get some more reps to keep McCray healthy.
Play of the game . . . Mike McCray’s chase-down tackle. At the end of the first half, Maryland threw a tunnel screen to wide receiver D.J. Moore that looked like it was going to get Maryland on the scoreboard. The Wolverines sent a blitz and the screen caught them off guard. Safety Dymonte Thomas did what safeties should do and stayed in front of the play, but he was just one man in front of several Maryland Terrapins and all he could do was make Moore bob and weave down the field. Just when it looked like Moore was going to burst into the endzone – despite stumbling over a blocker’s foot – the 242 lb. McCray appeared, wrapped up Moore’s legs, and brought him down at the 2-yard line, preserving the shutout (at least until Maryland kicked a field goal in the fourth quarter).
MVP of the game . . . Wilton Speight. Speight was awarded the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after completing 19/24 passes for 362 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also had 3 carries for 16 yards, including his first career rushing touchdown, a 10-yard scramble up the middle. Something else that showed some growing maturity: he actually slid! The 6’6″, 243-pounder has made some poor choices when scrambling and taken some big hits this year, but he got down and avoided injury in this one. Along with throwing some dead-on deep balls and scrambling to create time for receivers to get open, I thought he played the best game of his career.
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I found it interesting that Speight was mostly spot on downfield, including balls where he was running out of the pocket, but was pretty wild on his short passes, two of which were caught anyway. I thought that he left maybe 20/30 yards and a passing TD on the table from poorly thrown short balls.
He missed high to Wheatley in the end zone, threw a knee high dart to Peppers, Evans juggled reception was low and wide, Hill’s circus catch on the sideline was a bad ball, there was a fifth that i can’t recite. His feet were pretty set most of the time, his motion looked sudden and odd, even by Speight’s standard for an odd motion.
Crawford hits people downfield and O’Korn was completely stuck on him, to his detriment, unless maybe Crawford’s route was the play call coming in ….. even then, O’Korn barely even took a peek elsewhere.
Harris looks to me like an outside guy.
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I really like McCray, he really brings it with him heading downhill. I also think that were he to be deadly in space he’d be a Butkus candidate and lets be honest with ourselves here, they/we can’t all be Butkus candidates as much as some of us would like it. I do think he’s having physical difficulties turning and then getting out of the ground. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a hip, but obviously …..
Bush seems like a young missile and targeting or not, I loved the hit he put on Frey. I thought that hit caved Sparty’s psyche and led to their casting about for their dignity. I believe it was Margaret Thatcher who famously said, “Power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” I believe dignity falls into that same category.
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Just sayin’.
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Perry is for us the receiver I pictured him to be from looking at his high school vids, dependable. Speight has exceeded what we could have reasonably asked from a first year starter. Please keep it up!
On the other hand the kid in me wants to see more Evans or Peppers and hopefully McDoom utilized in the short passing game. There are only so many plays to go around, make em all count Wilton.
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I was actually excited to see Drake Harris out there and think he has gotten good separation. Would love to see him break out next year.
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“Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Drake Harris”
Gotta disagree with his one. In two games, he was wide open against party, but overthrown; against the terms, he made a nice grab but received a BSC penalty. While I like Perry’s reliability, Harris proved to be a deep threat in two plays that Perry has not in two years
Still, he hasn’t gotten it done yet… I’m more hopeful though than I was a couple weeks ago
As always, great write up; we all appreciate it
GO BLUE!
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*sparty
*terps
*BS
autocorrect
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Same. I like Perry, but if Harris can be an effective deep threat (with his speed and size it would seem he can) then I think there is a lot of value in that. Chesson and Darboh can both operate out of the slot effectively also.
I do expect Perry back in the lineup and suspect he’s the 3rd best WR on the team right now, but for certain plays Harris would seem to be better. The fact he’s pushing for snaps and getting in on plays right now is fantastic news for next year.
Perry-Harris-Crawford-McDoom… we’re good to go at WR even without factoring in any potential 5-star freshman. Ways is a fine backup and Johnson looks like a good slot WR at worst, so depth is probably good too.
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