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Visitors: Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee State

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2020

Maliq Carr – WR – Oak Park (MI) Oak Park: Carr is a 6’4″, 230-pounder with offers from Georgia, LSU, Michigan, and Purdue, among others. He’s a 4-star, the #5 tight end, and #193 overall. His crystal ball is 75% for Purdue, where he has also been given a chance to play basketball, and 25% for Michigan. Purdue also wants him as a wide receiver, and while Michigan has supposedly warmed up to that idea, they initially wanted him as a tight end-type substance.

Theo Johnson – TE – Windsor (Ontario) Holy Names: Johnson is a 6’6″, 240 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State, among others. He’s a 4-star, the #3 tight end, and #95 overall. His crystal balls are 50% for Penn State and 50% cloudy. UPDATE: Johnson is no longer visiting this week but will be in town for the MSU game.

Braiden McGregor – DE – Port Huron (MI) Northern: McGregor is committed to Michigan (LINK).

Makari Paige – S – West Bloomfield (MI) West Bloomfield: Paige is committed to Michigan (LINK).

Brenden Rice – WR – Chandler (AZ) Hamilton: Rice is a 6’2″, 204 lb. prospect with offers from Arizona State, Michigan, Oregon, and UCLA, among others. He’s a 3-star, the #69 wide receiver, and #396 overall. He’s the biological son of NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice. His crystal ball is 100% for Michigan.

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Ex-Wolverine Updates: Week 1

TRANSFERS

Brian Cole, S (Mississippi State): Cole made 3 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and 1 kickoff return for 18 yards in a 38-28 win over Louisiana-Lafayette.

Kekoa Crawford, WR (Cal): Crawford made 3 catches for 84 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 27-13 win over UC-Davis.

Ja’Raymond Hall, OT (Central Michigan): Hall did not play in the 38-21 win over South Dakota State.

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Michigan 40, Middle Tennessee 21

There’s a lot that we could get into with the new offense, so I think it might be best to just go position-by-position on that side of the ball.

The two-quarterback thing needs to be nixed. Jim Harbaugh and Josh Gattis are probably trying to make Dylan McCaffrey happy by putting him on the field with Shea Patterson, but it’s a bad move. The offense isn’t in sync when both are on the field. Whoever’s behind center is late getting the play off, and then they threw an inside screen to McCaffrey, who was immediately swarmed under by big guys. Why put your lanky backup QB in a situation where he catches a ball three yards away from 250+ pound defensive linemen and linebackers?

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Highlights: Michigan 40, Middle Tennessee 21

2019 Season Countdown: #1B Donovan Jeter

Name: Donovan Jeter
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 290 lbs.
High school: Beaver Falls (PA) Beaver Falls
Position: Defensive tackle
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #95
Last year: I ranked Jeter #50 and said he would be a backup defensive tackle (LINK). He made 3 tackles.
TTB Rating: 78

I know I will take a fair amount of criticism for this one, so let me jump right into my defense:

Michigan ain’t got no big guys.

That’s a bit of a lie, because there are some large human beings on the team. Michael Onwenu, Ben Bredeson, and others are large homo sapiens, but they play offense. And the Wolverines have a couple big freshmen interior defensive linemen (Mazi Smith, Chris Hinton), but they’ve never played college football before. Jeter is listed at 290 lbs. but he’s reportedly well above 300 now.

Michigan had an excellent run defense in 2015. They allowed fewer than 4.0 yards per carry in each of the first six games, fewer than 3.0 in five of those, and few than 2.0 in four of those. The rushing averages in the final four games of the season after Glasgow disappeared?

• 5.58 vs. Indiana
• 3.18 vs. Penn State
• 6.83 vs. Ohio State
• 4.37 vs. Florida

That big, fat “6.83” is one of the primary reasons redshirt sophomore Donovan Jeter, who has yet to do much in his college career, is all the way up here at 1B. When I look at the hype for Michigan – with discussions of winning the Big Ten, going to the College Football Playoff – I don’t see them being able to overcome big hurdles like Wisconsin and Ohio State without Jeter.

Can Michigan win some games without Jeter? Sure. They have some young, touted defensive linemen, and they have some defensive ends who are capable of stopping the run. But 6’2″, 282 lb. Michael Dwumfour isn’t going to become a run-stopper overnight, and the freshman combo of Mazi Smith and Chris Hinton aren’t going to turn into stars overnight. Otherwise, Michigan has blue-collar Carlo Kemp and a converted fullback in Ben Mason. If Michigan wants to avoid getting exposed up the middle by Paul Chryst and Ryan Day, Jeter needs to play and play well. He could be the difference between a 9- or 10-win season . . . and an 11- or 12-win season.

Prediction: Part-time starting defensive tackle; 20 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack