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— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) April 16, 2017
I watched the spring game, but with Easter weekend festivities, I haven’t had time to write up my takeaways.
What were your top three players, players, moments, etc.?
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Still need to rewatch but I’d say Khaleke Hudson, specifically in pass coverage. Devin Bush Jr.’s ability to blitz from the LB position. Lastly, I’ll go with Tarik Black’s ability to get open and reel in the football.
One negative (other than Speight which I’m sure others will elaborate on) – Nate Johnson is going to have to protect the football if he wants any shot at returning duties or even playing a lot at slot. Is there a chance Oliver Martin comes in and jumps him from day 1?
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The one thing I noticed above all else, our O-Line needs to gel together in pass protection in hurry. I know our defensive line is superior in talent. But I’m hoping Filiaga or Stueber are at least a serviceable 6th man in for rotation.
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1) Hudson looked great!
2) Bush did too!
3) speight looked like Iowa/FlSt speight, even worse than last year’s spring game. Peters looked better than expected…
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-Players who were surprisingly very good are Nick Eubanks and Tarik Black
– Speight was not good, Peters is developing nicely, O’Korn still has happy feet
– The OL did a little better than I thought, but the RT was a massive problem especially when playing against Winovich
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If Eubanks cleans up the dropped passes he could be really good. I love the receiving ability of our TE’s (Bunting, Wheatley, Gentry, McKeon, Eubanks) but they will need to improve on run and pass blocking. Asiasi will be missed in that regard.
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Speaking of walk-ons.
Damn, Nate Schoenle looked exactly as advertised.
I’ve only watched this game once and still haven’t figured out who was doing what to whom, but because i’m invested in Vastardis, I was looking for him. He did a nice job on one blitz pickup that I noticed, MGoBlog thinks he did it multiple times, I didn’t see that.
We have just a raft of receiving talent.
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That’s the name that wouldn’t come to mind when I was reading Night_ King’s comments on Nate. I’m sure we have quite a few possible for those duties, ranging from extremely fast to sure handed. We were spoiled last two years with one guy who could do both. Have yet to see another returner who could call the fair catch some 15 yds away and time it perfectly to sprint and catch the ball without dropping one. Damn, in addition to everything else he did, he almost guaranteed us a short field all day on returns.
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Walker will be very good, maybe better than anyone but Evans.
Speight looked shaky, but he had terrible pass protection. An uninspiring performance on one day does not necessarily outweigh the whole rest of spring practice, during which he was the clear #1 at QB. Lots of time before the Florida game, and no reason that Peters COULDN’T overtake Speight, but I wouldn’t assume that he has or is getting close just based on yesterday. Having said that, I also don’t think that Speight is good enough to forestall a QB controversy.
Lots of raw talent on D (not a big surprise there). We may give up some points early on because of an inexperienced back 7, but this D could be killer by the end of the year.
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With our OL in flux, Speight may be trying to throw a lot under pressure. I thought that his throws and his decision making were both very questionable. Peters looked like the better quarterback by a long shot.
Tarik Black was amazing. His ability to beat the coverage and make tough catches was impressive.
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Yes, he won’t be free of that problem during the regular season, but at least he’ll have our best 5 guys in front of him (such as they are), which he didn’t yesterday, even though it was basically our starting Dline on the other side.
As to why he looked significantly worse that he apparently has in spring practice up until now, who knows? Maybe just an off day for him, maybe he didn’t take the spring game as seriously as most guys. But if he’s not the best QB by the time everyone has worked through fall practice, the coaches (hopefully) will not feel obliged to start him in spite of that.
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They did Speight a disservice by pairing him with that #20 walk-on RB for a lot of snaps. That guy missed like four or five blitz pick-ups while he was in there, including at a couple of Bush’s pressures.
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Yeah, Tru Wilson did a good job running the ball, but he got overpowered on a couple blitzes. In his defense, he was matched up against Devin Bush, Jr. once or twice, and he’s going to lose that battle when Bush has a full head of steam.
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There was also a play or too where #20 did not see the extra rusher and bailed to the flat, allowing the free pass to the QB. Bush does look like a talented blitzer, but that RB made him look like Lawrence Taylor.
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Hudson was making plays in the backfield and in coverage. Bush might be our best blitzing LBer since Jake Ryan. Peters showed mobility, touch on his passes and pushed the ball downfield.
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I agree with all of this. And the nice thing about Bush is that he has the acceleration to blitz from depth.
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1) More will be made of Speight’s performance and the OL than should be considering the nature of an intra squad scrimmage
2) The increased focus on the walk on program under Harbaugh is a really good thing. Even if they don’t become star players, guys like Vastardis, Schoenle, and Wroblewski will have a very positive impact on the team. And some like Glasgow could be really important in case of an injury or just on special teams.
3) I’m really interested in what the actually TE depth chart looks like because I didn’t see too much of Bunting or Wheatley. Eubanks, Gentry and McKeon all looked solid but combined with the number of WRs, it may limit how much we see those three this year.
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It is Bunting then Wheatley as in-line TE, with the other three you mention getting looks at flex TE. I think McKeon has a shot to make an impact. His blocking appears to be coming along based on the scrimmage. Have heard here or elsewhere that Gentry and Eubanks have a long way to go with blocking.
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From my eyes it looked like UM had much more speed across the field. The defense looks quicker than even last year and UM looks quicker at the tailback position.
I do think the Oline is going to be the weak link of this team and it will take some time to gel.
Peters clearly has a bigger upside than Speight who is going to be looking over his shoulder throughout the season. Speight came across to me as someone who has lost some confidence.
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Agreed on that speed thing … pretty much everywhere.
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Yes, we have looked slow in some recent spring games, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday. There’s speed at every position, including LB and RB, which has been lacking in recent years.
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I was pleasantly surprised by Keith Washington. Last year during the spring game many of Issacs big runs were due to him losing contain and taking horrible angles. He was deflecting passes and kept DPJ in check throughout the spring game.
I loved how much chaos Bush was able to cause by blitzing up the middle. Having both him and McCray as blitz experts will be huge.
I was disappointed by speights results. He looked really poor. I hope it was just a bad practice. Though Peters looked like he could handle himself if needed.
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I thought Ruiz, Black, and Jeter all looked pretty darn good for EE’s. All three will be studs IMO. I see Black as Funchess Jr. Jeter is skinny, but shows the natural skills. Ruiz looks the part.
Was struck by how skilled the back seven looks. UM’s defensive coaching is excellent. Depth at Viper and corner is good.
Nice to see Evans looking the part of a #1 RB. He is clearly bigger. Will be UM’s most explosive RB in a while.
Love the direction of the DL. Lots of existing talent plus incoming studs. Kemp was clearly improved.
Did not learn much about the OL with so many injuries. JBB was out, but no one else looked respectable at RT. Guessing that Steuber or Filiaga earns that spot in fall camp.
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Gentry is a “nightmare” match up. It look’s like he has put in lot’s of work in the weight room throughout the winter. He’s got some “guns” on him now.
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