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Preview: Michigan vs. Florida

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RUSH OFFENSE vs. FLORIDA RUSH DEFENSE

Michigan finished #33 overall with 213 rushing yards/game in 2016, but leading rusher De’Veon Smith graduated. The depth chart is probably a little thinner this season, with Chris Evans, Karan Higdon, and Ty Isaac likely to share crunch-time carries. They all put up excellent yards per carry last season, with Evans leading the way. Michigan’s offensive line was #64 in Adjusted Line Yards, and they’ll be starting four guys at positions they weren’t starting at last season. Ben Bredeson returns at left guard, Mason Cole moves from center to left tackle, and there are brand new starters at center, right guard, and right tackle. It’s a concerning unit. Florida was #37 in rushing defense, giving up a little over 144 yards/game, and that’s consistent with their #36 Adjusted Line Yards ranking. Florida’s top tackler, safety Marcell Harris, is out due to injury, and the #2 guy (Jarrad Davis) was a 1st round draft pick. The top available, returning tackler is sophomore middle linebacker David Reese II (49 tackles), a one-time Michigan commit. The Gators have some talent on the starting defensive line in tackle Taven Bryan and end CeCe Jefferson, but the #2 guys at both DT spots are freshmen, and the #2 DE is suspended.
Advantage: Michigan

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2017 Season Predictions

Tarik Black (image via MLive)

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LEADING RUSHER
There has been talk over the past few months that there’s a race for the #1 running back spot, but so far I have yet to see evidence of that. Chris Evans and Karan Higdon are thought to be the top two by most, and some have said that Ty Isaac looks to be in the mix for #2, as well. Until I see otherwise, I’m going with the front-runner.
Prediction: Chris Evans, 900 yards

LEADING RECEIVER
This one is really a crapshoot with no returning yardage producers to speak of and a bunch of freshmen in the running to play. The top returning receiver is Grant Perry, who had some off-the-field troubles and lost jersey #9 to freshman Donovan Peoples-Jones. Peoples-Jones, Kekoa Crawford, and Tarik Black also seem likely to play a bunch. I’m going with the guy who looked best in the spring, and that was Black.
Prediction: Tarik Black, 830 yards

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2017 Season Countdown List

Nolan Ulizio is my nomination for “most underrated” in the 2017 Countdown

First of all, thanks for reading. I can’t tell you how monumental of a task it was to write approximately 100 posts about the upcoming football season. This year was more of a Herculean task than others, and I thought about cutting it off numerous times. There were several times where I was up at 4:00 a.m. or staying up until midnight to get posts ready. It brings a literal sigh of relief to have this thing finished.

Below is the countdown from beginning to end. Due to a couple stupid omissions and counting errors, I have rearranged the following list to hold true to a numerical countdown, rather than keeping the 3A, 3B, 5A, 5B, etc. This should give you a truer sense of the ranking, even if the actual posts themselves might have slightly different numbers.

1. Wilton Speight
2. Rashan Gary
3. Maurice Hurst, Jr.
4. Mason Cole
5. Tyree Kinnel
6. Bryan Mone
7. Mike McCray II
8. Chase Winovich
9. Patrick Kugler
10. Khaleke Hudson
11. Devin Bush Jr.
12. Ben Bredeson
13. Quinn Nordin
14. Chris Evans
15. Josh Metellus
16. Kekoa Crawford
17. Khalid Hill
18. Ian Bunting
19. Michael Onwenu
20. Lavert Hill
21. Tyrone Wheatley, Jr.
22. Carlo Kemp
23. Keith Washington
24. Brandon Peters
25. David Long, Jr.
26. Michael Dwumfour
27. Cesar Ruiz
28. Jordan Glasgow
29. Aubrey Solomon
30. Tarik Black
31. Henry Poggi
32. Brad Robbins
33. Luiji Vilain
34. Jon Runyan, Jr.
35. Andrew Robinson
36. Michael Wroblewski
37. Donovan Peoples-Jones
38. Brandon Watson
39. Karan Higdon
40. Noah Furbush
41. Eddie McDoom
42. Juwann Bushell-Beatty
43. Ty Isaac
44. Ambry Thomas
45. Grant Perry
46. Nate Johnson
47. Stephen Spanellis
48. Garrett Moores
49. Kareem Walker
50. John O’Korn
51. Nate Schoenle
52. Drake Harris
53. Zach Gentry
54. Josh Uche
55. Sean McKeon
56. Nolan Ulizio
57. J’Marick Woods
58. Nick Eubanks
59. Maurice Ways, Jr.
60. Reuben Jones
61. Jordan Anthony
62. Joshua Ross
63. Carl Myers
64. Lawrence Marshall
65. Oliver Martin
66. James Hudson III
67. Andrew Vastardis
68. Benjamin St-Juste
69. Jaylen Kelly-Powell
70. Andrew Stueber
71. Nico Collins
72. Elysee Mbem-Bosse
73. Chuck Filiaga
74. Ron Johnson
75. O’Maury Samuels
76. Devin Gil
77. Ryan Tice
78. Jared Wangler
79. Brad Hawkins, Jr.
80. Donovan Jeter
81. Ben Mason
82. Drew Singleton
83. Kurt Taylor
84. Will Hart
85. Ja’Raymond Hall
86. Kwity Paye
87. Corey Malone-Hatcher
88. Tru Wilson
89. Camaron Cheeseman
90. Conner Edmonds
91. Joe Hewlett
92. Phillip Paea
93. Dylan McCaffrey
94. Deron Irving-Bey
95. Simeon Smith
96. Joel Honigford
97. Jack Wangler
98. Michael Sessa
99. Grant Newsome

2017 Season Countdown: #1 Wilton Speight

Wilton Speight (image via SI)

Name: Wilton Speight
Height: 6’6″
Weight: 243 lbs.
High school: Richmond (VA) Collegiate
Position: Quarterback
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #3
Last year: I ranked Speight #9 and said he would be the starting quarterback. He completed 204/331 passes (61.6%) for 2,538 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions.
TTB Rating: 77

Speight probably wasn’t the fan favorite to win the job going into 2016. That honor probably went to John O’Korn, who had starting experience at Houston and supposedly looked even better than Jake Rudock during his 2015 redshirt season. But Speight did indeed win the gig. He started off great. From Hawaii through Maryland, he threw 15 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions, leading the team to a 9-0 record. In the final three games of the season, he threw 3 touchdowns and 4 picks while falling to 0-3 down the stretch. (He missed the Indiana game, a narrow win for O’Korn.) Speight’s ability to evade and shake off pass rushers led people to call him a Baby Roethlisberger, but that comparison didn’t stop fans from calling for the most popular guy on the team: the backup quarterback.

That continued into this off-season. The spring game pitted Speight against rising redshirt freshman Brandon Peters, and Peters looked better by far. It probably helped that Peters had a better supporting cast, but still, Speight threw some ugly passes and made some dumb decisions. He didn’t perform under pressure and dump off the ball like one would hope for a veteran quarterback, and that’s what he has to be. He’s going to face pressure behind an unproven offensive line, and he wont’ have a crew of veteran receivers to throw the ball to this fall. Hopefully, Michigan can find some offensive playmakers and carry on with their superior defensive effort from last fall, because they’re going to be playing some tigher games. Speight has reportedly improved his deep ball from last year, when he struggled to consistently hit guys deep. Now Michigan has more speed and playmaking ability at receiver, even though many of them are young. This is going to be a trying season for Speight.

I have Speight up here at #1 because Michigan needs his experience, calm, and leadership. O’Korn is 1-0 as a starter, but that was an ugly win against Indiana. He has reportedly improved, but that one starting performance left more doubt in my mind than I had before I ever saw him play in crunch time. Meanwhile, Peters has supposedly fallen off during fall practices, perhaps because he realized he wouldn’t surpass Speight. I believe Michigan has a backup or two whom Harbaugh can game plan to use well enough to prevent the season from totally tanking if Speight gets hurt, but it will be difficult to win games down the stretch if QB1 isn’t available.

Prediction: Starting quarterback; 2,800 yards, 20 touchdowns, 9 interceptions

2017 Season Countdown: #2 Rashan Gary

Rashan Gary (image via Rivals)

Name: Rashan Gary
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 287 lbs.
High school: Paramus (NJ) Catholic
Position: Defensive end
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #3
Last year: I ranked Gary #23 and said he would be the starting strongside end with 35 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, and 5 sacks. He made 27 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, and 1 sack.
TTB Rating: 100

Gary was one of the most well known recruits in the 2016 class, especially when considering that he doesn’t throw the ball, run a 4.3 forty, catch touchdown passes, or return kickoffs for touchdowns. He was just a big, lithe defensive lineman whom many thought of as a future first round pick. Prior to the season, word started to filter out of insiders that Michigan planned to start Gary at Anchor (a.k.a. strongside defensive end) with Chris Wormley at defensive tackle. That turned out not to be true, and probably for good reason: Wormley was a 3rd round pick. Still, Gary played well and probably would have been just fine as a starter.

This year there’s a lot riding on Gary. Not only does he have immense talent, but Michigan lost all four defensive line starters. With an even more unproven secondary, the Wolverines need the defensive line to be outstanding, make plays in the backfield, and pressure quarterbacks into quick or bad decisions. Because of that, Gary is a very important player. Michigan can’t afford to take injuries on the defensive line, and the backups are totally unproven. Carlo Kemp has been earning rave practice reviews, and he’s Gary’s primary backup. Beyond him is Ron Johnson and air. If Gary or Kemp were to get injured, there would probably have to be some reshuffling of personnel. Practice observers have been salivating about Gary, and I hope the hype comes true this year, but I’m trying to reserve outlandish excitement until we see him putting things together on game day.

Prediction: Starting Anchor