Bad game plans are the norm. After Saturday’s 21-7 loss to Illinois, Sherrone Moore said he needs to re-evaluate himself as a head coach. I’m not ready to throw Moore out after half a season with no functional quarterback, but I am very disappointed in him and offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell. There are all kinds of glaring issues with this offense:
- If ground-and-pound is your identity, stick with it. Michigan needs to be a run-first team. That’s the only way they’re going to win. Everybody has known that the entire off-season, even when we had higher hopes for Alex Orji or Jack Tuttle or Davis Warren or whoever. Early in the game, Michigan was using the passing game and Donovan Edwards. How are you going to wear down a team down the stretch by throwing the ball with a weak passing game and running Donovan Edwards? The bulls in the backfield are Kalel Mullings, Benjamin Hall, and Alex Orji. Pound the ball!
- Speaking of Alex Orji, he should be on the field. Probably the most frustrating thing about Michigan’s offensive personnel decisions is that Alex Orji – who played last year while J.J. McCarthy was here and who was deemed “one of the best 11″ by Campbell in the off-season – has disappeared from the offense for the past two games. How do you go from one of the best 11 to a guy who doesn’t see the field at all? I was not a fan of Orji as a starting quarterback who played the entire game, but he can be used as a mooseback runner. Hell, Michigan used Hassan Haskins in a wildcat role. You can put a 6’3”, 235 lb. guy back there with Mullings and/or Hall and/or Edwards and still do some things. Orji just can’t be playing an entire game as the only option.
- Donovan Edwards is both underused and frustrating. How did Michigan take one of the better receiving backs in the country and turn him into a guy who has 9 catches for 46 yards through seven games? He also had zero receptions in this game. Michigan needs to figure out ways to get him the ball. And then, of course, he had a very frustrating fumble on Michigan’s longest run of the day, a 19-yarder where the ball was punched out. He had 7 carries for 38 yards, but with the 19-yarder ending in a fumble, that’s basically 6 carries for 19 yards . . . which is nothing special.
- Plan for Jack Tuttle. Tuttle isn’t a guy who can do straight dropback stuff to win the game. He’s a game manager type who needs to be a complement to the run game. The offensive line can’t pass block – although I feel like they did slightly better in this game – and the receivers can’t get open with regularity. Michigan’s coaching staff should be using for Tuttle the game plan they used with Alex Orji, while occasionally mixing in a downfield/intermediate shot, maybe once a quarter.
Hit the jump for more.
The defense was fine. There were some glitches here or there, but I thought the defense overall played okay. Illinois’ starting quarterback, Luke Altmyer, went 9/18 for 80 yards and 1 touchdown. They gave up 267 total yards of offense, and 36 of those yards were on a fake punt run by Illinois TE Tanner Arkin. The major difference was probably the penalties, which seemed to come at more inopportune times for Michigan. While both teams had 6 penalties called against them, Illinois had 50 yards in penalties and Michigan had 61. But the Wolverines were called for several pass interference fouls. Giving up 21 points to a decent offensive team that was given solid field position isn’t a shameful performance. The offense put them in bad positions.
Michigan needs to hit the portal hard this off-season. This isn’t a novel statement, but there needs to be a major upgrade at the quarterback and receiver positions. And the Wolverines are also going to need to replace defensive ends, defensive tackles, and defensive backs. There’s a ton of work that needs to be done. Unfortunately, I’m not seeing the young, upcoming talent to make me excited about what’s to come. Michigan has a decent recruiting class for 2025, but that group is going to take until 2026 or 2027 to be ready to be major contributors. Sherrone Moore isn’t going to last that long if he doesn’t start to right the ship in 2025.
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