Michigan 41, Florida 7

Who saw that coming? Okay, maybe 8% of you saw that coming. But even a good chunk of that 8% probably didn’t think that Michigan would beat the Gators by 34 points. I don’t think most of us even believed that Michigan could score 41 points against Florida’s defense, especially given that special teams and Michigan’s defense didn’t factor into any scores or even any extremely short fields. The two turnovers Michigan forced were an interception by Channing Stribling on a fake field goal and then an interception by Jarrod Wilson in the endzone for a touchback. Michigan moved the ball methodically and in chunks, didn’t turn over the ball, and only punted once. That’s an impressive showing.

Hit the jump for the rest of the game recap.

Let’s talk about those running backs. I think there’s a reason that the offense didn’t bog down, and it had to do with the running back play. Michigan used two or three running backs (depending on how you view Sione Houma), and the two true tailbacks looked the best they have all year. De’Veon Smith (25 carries, 109 yards) was back to his bruising self, high-stepping through tackles and dragging tacklers with him. The thing that really caught my eye, though, was his vision. Especially early in the game, there were cutbacks to be found, and he actually found them. This is a new development for Smith, who runs harder than anyone else on the team but also tended to plow into his offensive linemen and 300 lb. opponents during the regular season. Meanwhile, Drake Johnson (6 carries, 58 yards) showed a little burst that seemed to be lacking during the regular season. After the game, he said that his surgically repaired knee felt better in the heat than it had in the dreary Big Ten weather. Whatever the reason, he looked good against an opponent with “SEC speed” that allowed the 14th-fewest yards per carry in the country this year.

While we’re at it, let’s see us some Sione Houma in the NFL. There’s not a bit of insincerity in me stating that I think Houma should get a chance to play somewhere in the NFL next year. I had been looking for him to take over Michigan’s fullback job for the past couple years, and for whatever reason, it didn’t happen. Joe Kerridge – a multi-year starter – was marginalized throughout the year and ceded way to the more athletic Houma. There aren’t many teams growing fullbacks these days. This one in particular had 9 carries for 32 yards and 1 touchdown on the day, which gave him 5 scores for this year. Give this man a job.

Florida took one on the chin. Maybe this has always been an issue in college football, but the rumors leading up to the game suggested that a lot of Gators didn’t want to play in the game and were looking toward the NFL. One of those NFL-bound players, Alex McCallister, got himself suspended for the game and saved himself the trouble of having to play. Another one, Demarcus Robinson, had 1 catch for 17 yards (his first catch in the last four games). A third early entry, Vernon Hargreaves III, did not have a good day; he got beat on a double-move by Jehu Chesson for a long touchdown and on a post for another long completion. Chesson is better than we all thought he was back in September, but the double-move shouldn’t have burned Hargreaves to quite such a crispy texture. Maybe it’s a difference in team culture, or maybe it’s a difference in the players Florida recruited. But the Wolverines seemed dialed in, while the Gators obviously weren’t. There’s something to be said for having the right mix of players, and Michigan has it right now. That’s partly thanks to Jim Harbaugh, but also to Brady Hoke.

Florida’s lone touchdown shouldn’t have counted. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw me complaining about this. If you don’t, you should be (LINK). Anyway, the rule is that any player in motion must be set for 1 full second before an additional player goes into motion. On the trick play that resulted in a score, QB Treon Harris put RB Kelvin Taylor in motion; while Taylor was in motion, Harris started walking around like he was calling an audible and communicating. The ball was snapped to Taylor, who ran left and lateraled the ball to Demarcus Robinson, who underhanded the ball to Harris in the endzone. It was a neat play design, except it was executed poorly. Unfortunately for Michigan, the referees also executed poorly. It was an obvious call and multiple officials should have identified it, but it never appeared to cross their minds.

While I’m rehashing Twitter bits. First of all, karma came around to bite Florida linebacker Jarrad Davis in the hindquarters. Early in the game, he hit Jake Rudock after a throw, but it was a fairly clean hit timed pretty well. The only issue was that while they were lying on the ground, Davis threw a forearm into the back of Rudock’s head. (There was no call, despite the fact that the head referee clearly saw the funny business and sprinted over to watch the two players get up.) Later in the game, Davis lowered his head to tackle Jake Butt. At the conclusion of the play, it almost looked as if Davis had knocked himself unconscious, or at least made himself groggy. Now, I don’t wish brain injury on anyone, but it seems that the universe had a little something special in store for Davis after his shady actions against Rudock. There’s no excuse for throwing a forearm to the back of the head of a player who’s lying face down on the ground.

More Twitter bits? In the game preview, I predicted Graham Glasgow would get called for his weekly snap infraction. He didn’t. Instead, he double-pumped on a snap (and probably should have been penalized), which resulted in a fumbled exchange that Rudock luckily fell on. I mentioned it on Twitter, and after the game, Graham Glasgow liked/favorited the Tweet. Maybe he thought it was funny. But he’s probably just adding me to his hate list. I will find a flaming bag of dog poo on my porch, and when I step outside to stomp it out, he’ll step out from the shadows and shotgun snap a bowling ball into my face.

Florida’s early defensive strategy had me scratching my head. I watched some film on Florida, but I will admit to not having watched them enough to pick out all their tendencies. However, some of their early defensive looks confused me. They seemed to have looked at some of Michigan’s tendencies and overreacted to them, leaving huge bubbles over the backside of the line. This resulted in some big gains for Smith and Johnson. I’m not sure if the formations confused the Gators or if Florida didn’t think Michigan’s running backs could crease the backside of the play, but it didn’t work out well for Florida. They did make adjustments to their fronts, and the linebackers did a better job of staying home instead of flowing too quickly over the top. But that little shot of confidence for Michigan’s runners might have given them a little extra pep in their step for the rest of the game.

Jake Rudock wasn’t the problem at Iowa. I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I always thought Rudock got a bad rap for what went down at Iowa. Some people said that he was holding Iowa’s offense back, and that C.J. Beathard was the better quarterback. What held Rudock back at Iowa was some poor play calling and a lack of talent around him. Rudock isn’t a great deal different right now than he was as a Hawkeye, but he has better coaching. He’s just the second QB in Michigan history to throw for over 3,000 yards in a season (John Navarre was the first), and that happened after he struggled for the first half of the year while adjusting to a wide receiver corps that isn’t very deep and wasn’t well established. It’s true that Beathard’s record at Iowa this year (12-2) is superior to Rudock’s at Michigan (10-3), but Rudock put up better numbers while facing tougher teams. With the idiotic way the Big Ten is set up, Iowa went undefeated in the regular season without playing three of the best teams (the three best teams?) in the conference: Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State. When Iowa finally faced good teams, they lost to MSU in the Big Ten Championship game and then got embarrassed by Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

What the hell happened with Jehu Chesson? Chesson went from a guy who couldn’t catch anything outside of his body to a guy who now seems to catch anything within his area code. He caught 5 passes for 118 yards and 1 touchdown in this game, and that was before he went out with an injury late in the third quarter. This game included a diving catch and one that he nearly hauled in on the sideline after leaping approximately 17 feet in the air. Maybe he just finally matured, but whether it’s coach Jedd Fisch, grad assistant Derron Montgomery, analyst/recruiting coordinator Erik Campbell, or good old-fashioned Elmer’s Glue, the development of Chesson has been astounding this year. If you take his last six games and project them over a twelve-game schedule (so not including a conference title game, bowl game, playoff game, etc.), here’s the stat line you would get: 66 catches, 1148 yards, and 18 touchdowns. That would be good for #50 in receptions, #20 in yardage, and #2 in touchdowns. Add in a couple rushing touchdowns and that kickoff return, and we’re talking about one of the most prolific scorers in the nation. (For some perspective, Boise State and Louisiana Tech each have a running back who is tied for the national lead with 26 total touchdowns.)

Harbaugh. Thank goodness he’s in Ann Arbor. This was a very good first year.

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