Tag: Devin Funchess

Iowa 24, Michigan 21

Brennen Beyer returns an interception 7 yards for a touchdown (image via Times Union)

This happened because of three guys. In my opinion, this game came down to the absence – literally and figuratively – of three players. First of all, Michigan middle linebacker Desmond Morgan (0 tackles) left the game in the first quarter due to what was rumored to be a concussion, which would be at least his second in college. Then weakside linebacker James Ross (6 tackles) left the game in the second half, although it’s unclear what that injury was. And Devin Funchess (1 catch, 2 yards; 1 carry, 10 yards) might as well have been out due to injury, because he was completely useless. He dropped four passes by my count, and he can’t block. So the Wolverines were without their two leading tacklers, which suggests it wasn’t a coincidence that the Hawkeyes were able to turn on their running game in the second half. Michigan’s defensive line is solid but unspectacular, and what helped them rank #13 against the run going into this game was their technically sound linebackers. When you’re left with sophomore Joe Bolden (4 tackles) and freshman Ben Gedeon (3 tackles) as your two inside linebackers, that’s a recipe for struggles. Iowa running backs Damon Bullock (1 for 8), Jordan Canzeri (9 for 40), and Mark Weisman (10 for 45) had a total of 20 carries for 93 yards after halftime, helping Iowa to hold the ball for 18:23 of the second half.

Games are won in the trenches. I know this is an old adage, but it’s true. And it’s frustrating to watch Michigan get beaten so badly up front in every single game. I’ve said it over and over again, but Taylor Lewan and Michael Schofield aren’t dominating like they should, and the interior linemen can’t get any kind of push ever. They say that even the best linemen in the NFL win just over half their battles, and that’s what separates them from the other guys; well, Michigan’s guards and center aren’t close to winning half their battles in the run game. It’s an abomination. Michigan’s running backs combined for 17 carries and 35 yards in this one, with a long run of 9 yards. The offensive line allowed 11 tackles for loss. That sounds really bad, but that’s been the norm – the Wolverines are averaging 10.5 tackles for loss allowed this year. For comparison’s sake, Michigan has a pretty good defense and averages 5.7 TFL’s a game.

Devin Gardner might retire. Gardner had one of his least effective performances this year, going 13/28 for 98 yards, 2 touchdowns, and giving away the game-clinching fumble; he also ran 10 times for 12 yards, despite only getting sacked once. He’s lost a step, he’s running tentatively, and he just looks downright scared of taking more of a beating at times. After the game, he was reportedly favoring his right arm. Obviously, Michigan needs him if they have any hope of beating Ohio State next week, but with his diminishing health and the sorry state of the offensive line, I would not be surprised at all if Gardner doesn’t finish next week’s contest.

Graham Glasgow snapping mistake? Check. I swear I don’t think I’ve ever seen a college center with as many snapping issues as Glasgow. With the exception of the Northwestern game last week, Glasgow has had a snapping error every week. This week’s blunder was a snap infraction on a 1st-and-Goal from the 4-yard line in the fourth quarter that pushed the Wolverines back to the 9. After an incomplete pass and a nothing run, Gardner bailed him out with a touchdown pass to Gallon.

Good grief, Jeremy Jackson is terrible. Usually I try to stay objective, so this is an angry rant I’m allowing myself near the completion of a frustrating season. Senior Jeremy Jackson’s one late wide-open catch for a first down does not erase the fact that he should not be on the field. Like, at all. Ever. The final straw for this rant came yesterday when I saw him standing around not blocking anyone while Devin Gardner was getting tackled. He can’t run, he can’t jump, and he can’t block. The guy is a preferred walk-on at best, or maybe a Division II athlete. I never understood* why he was offered by Rich Rodriguez in the 2010 class, and his performance over the last four years has only solidified those feelings. Da’Mario Jones, Dennis Norfleet, and Joe Reynolds are all better athletes, and you could probably get a better blocking effort out of walk-ons Bo Dever or Blaise Stearns, just to name a couple. I actually have some respect and empathy for Rodriguez, but one look at that 2010 class makes me want to vomit. The guy took 27 players in that class, and after you list the top three (Jake Ryan, Devin Gardner, Jibreel Black), you start to get in the murky territory of trying to rank Jackson, your holder/fifth receiver (Drew Dileo), your journeyman defensive back (Courtney Avery), your journeyman tight end/defensive end/linebacker (Jordan Paskorz), or your weed-loving suspended punter (Will Hagerup). Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. Erm . . . uh . . . yeah, Jeremy Jackson. He’s bad.

Let’s end on a high note. (Not that kind of high note, Hagerup.) So how about Blake Countess, Raymon Taylor, and Brennen Beyer picking off those terrible throws from Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock? Let’s be honest – those picks were more about Rudock being bad than Michigan having great coverage, but these Michigan cornerbacks are better playmakers than we’ve had in a while. For a little while – the J.T. Floyd years, basically – Michigan struggled to make any plays at cornerback, and the notable plays from defensive backs had to come from the safeties. Taylor’s still afraid to tackle running backs, but overall, I like where Michigan’s headed in the defensive backfield. And kudos to Beyer, who has made some steps forward this year and tallied his first interception and first touchdown.

Just kidding. What does this mean for the Ohio State game? Probably doom.

*Of course, I know Jeremy Jackson was mainly offered because his dad is the running backs coach. Also, aliens.

Michigan vs. Nebraska Awards

Cameron Gordon (image via AP)

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . a fifth receiver. Assuming the top four guys are Jeremy Gallon, Devin Funchess, Jehu Chesson, and Drew Dileo, I don’t care who the fifth guy would be. It could be Fitzgerald Toussaint, Dennis Norfleet, Da’Mario Jones, Jake Butt, virtually anyone. Hell, put Blake Countess out there at receiver a little bit and see what he can do. Michigan needs to spread the field laterally instead of packing everything in tight. With receivers packed in tight, that makes it a lot easier for defenses to blitz, stop the run, etc. If you spread the field wider, you can see the blitzes coming and you prevent so many guys from coming and confusing your offensive line. Go five-wide a few times, give the offensive linemen one-on-one matchups, and see if something develops. Even if one of the young interior linemen gets beaten, Gardner is a good runner and can create some things on his own. Right now teams are green dogging against Fitzgerald Toussaint, so even if he stays in, it’s an extra protector against an extra blitzer. That doesn’t give Michigan a statistical advantage.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Graham Glasgow at center. Glasgow was a better guard than center, and I’m not sure that’s saying much. Bad snaps can destroy an offense, and Glasgow has been a poor snapper ever since he was inserted against Minnesota. He has been good for at least one fumbled snap per week and numerous other snaps that look slow, throwing off the timing of the offense. In the last two weeks, Glasgow has botched three shotgun snaps, all of which have resulted in big yardage losses, including a -20 yard play against Michigan State and a -10 yard play against Nebraska. Jack Miller was a poor blocker, but his snaps were spot on and more consistent. I have to wonder if Glasgow’s poor snaps (sometimes they’re low, sometimes they’re high, sometimes they’re right in the chest) are affecting Gardner’s thought process prior to the snap.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Cameron Gordon. Gordon was tied for the team lead in tackles with 8, forced a fumble that was recovered by Chris Wormley, and sacked Tommy Armstrong for 13 yards. It seemed like Gordon lost snaps once Jake Ryan returned from his torn ACL, but with the hand injury to Keith Heitzman, SAM linebacker Brennen Beyer has been moved back to defensive end. Gordon is one of the best athletes on the defense at 6’3″ and 237 lbs., and he’s a guy who can cover, rush the passer, and chase plays to the sideline.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . freshman defensive backs. I still see freshmen out there every week, and it seems like they’re always getting Michigan beaten. On a 26-yard catch and run by Nebraska wideout Kenny Bell, Channing Stribling missed a tackle, Dymonte Thomas missed a tackle, and then redshirt junior Josh Furman got blocked and blocked and blocked. Junior Delonte Hollowell started the spring game and now can barely get on the field. The freshmen are overmatched right now. I’ve never been a huge fan of Hollowell, but he is feisty and physical and probably would have been better prepared to tackle Bell on that play.

Play of the game . . . Devin Funchess’s screen catch and run. There aren’t many options, but Funchess took a high pass over the middle, tipped it to himself with one hand, stepped through a tackle, and ran 23 yards up the sideline before getting pulled down. He also ran an end around for 5 yards. Both plays were fairly impressive plays for a guy who’s a “tight end.”

MVP of the game . . . Cam Gordon. There’s no great choice here, but Gordon made 8 tackles, had Michigan’s only sack, and had the only forced turnover (the other turnover was a muffed punt).

Poll results: Who will be Michigan’s leading receiver?

This is a poll I took over the summer, prior to the season. Then things got busy and I didn’t have a chance to post the results.

Who do you think Michigan’s leading receiver will be in 2013? All statistics are through seven games.

Jeremy Gallon: 79%
Gallon took a pretty commanding lead with his 369-yard performance against Indiana, but as of now, he has 45 catches for 831 yards and 7 touchdowns.

Amara Darboh: 10%
Darboh suffered a foot injury shortly before the season began, has not played, and is expected to miss the rest of the year.

Devin Funchess: 3%
Funchess has 23 catches for 492 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was pushing Gallon for the lead, but now he’s 339 yards behind.

Drew Dileo: 1% (6 votes)
Dileo has 8 catches for 99 yards and 1 touchdown. I expect him to catch a few more passes down the stretch, but he’s obviously out of the running.

Jehu Chesson: 1% (5 votes)
Chesson’s 7 catches for 98 yards and 1 touchdown aren’t particularly impressive, but the physical skills are there to be a leading receiver someday. He needs to work on his hands and on adjusting to balls in the air.

Jeremy Jackson: 1% (4 votes)
Jackson has notched 5 catches for 53 yards.

Da’Mario Jones: 1% (4 votes)

Jones has yet to see time on offense, although he has played on special teams.

Joe Reynolds: 1% (4 votes)
Reynolds has 3 catches for 56 yards after being passed up for playing time by Chesson.

Csont’e York: 1% (4 votes)
York has played sparingly this season and has yet to make a catch.

Other: 0% (2 votes)
I don’t know who else might have received a vote. Maybe Dennis Norfleet’s parents stopped by to vote.

Jaron Dukes: 0% (0 votes)
Yeah, nobody voted for him.

Phil Steele’s Midseason All-Big Ten Team

Jeremy Gallon and Devin Funchess were named by Phil Steele as some of the conference’s best performers

Phil Steele released his Midseason All-Big Ten squad, and there are several Michigan performers on his list:

FIRST TEAM
TE Devin Funchess
OT Taylor Lewan
CB Blake Countess

SECOND TEAM
WR Jeremy Gallon

THIRD TEAM
OT Michael Schofield
LB Desmond Morgan

Michigan 63, Indiana 47

Tight end Devin Funchess was the embodiment of Michigan’s high-flying offense (image via MGoBlog)

Offense wins games. Defense is stupid. The total of 1,323 yards in this game was the most ever in a Michigan game. Michigan had a team record 751. Indiana only had 572, those slackers. Just imagine if Michigan were a hurry-up offense like Indiana instead of a team that huddles before every play.

Devin Gardner is the best Michigan quarterback ever! Gardner was 21/29 for 503 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also had 15 carries for 81 yards and 3 touchdowns. That total of 584 yards left him one yard short of the Big Ten record for total yardage, which is 585 and was set by Dave Wilson of Illinois back in 1980. Two of Gardner’s completions went for 70 yards (to Jeremy Gallon both times), and if not for a couple failures to throw away the ball, Gardner basically played as well as anyone could ask. He had zero interceptions, although there was a fumbled snap between center Graham Glasgow and himself (the third week in a row in which that has happened).

Jeremy Gallon is the best Michigan receiver ever! Gallon had 14 catches for 369 yards and 2 touchdowns (along with 1 carry for -5 yards). That set a new Big Ten record for receiving yardage and rests second all-time behind Louisiana Tech’s Troy Edwards and his 21 receptions for 405 yards and 3 touchdowns against Nebraska in 1998. The previous Big Ten yardage record (301) had been held by Purdue’s Chris Daniels since 1999, and the previous Michigan record (246) was Roy Roundtree’s since the triple-overtime game against Illinois in 2010. Former Michigan wide receiver Marquise Walker had 15 receptions twice (against Ohio State and Washington in 2001) to set the receptions record, so Gallon’s school receptions mark is one less than Walker’s; however, Walker had 160 and 159 yards in those games, respectively, so Gallon had a much more explosive day.

Kyle Bosch burned his redshirt and I don’t really care. The coaches decided to switch things up again this week and start Joe Burzynski at left guard and redshirt freshman Erik Magnuson at right guard. That didn’t last long, since Burzynski tweaked his knee early. But instead of calling redshirt freshman Kyle Kalis or redshirt sophomore Chris Bryant off the bench, Michigan went with true freshman Bosch. It was only Indiana – a smallish and bad defense – but I thought Bosch did pretty well. His size is college-ready, and I thought he was the most talented lineman in Michigan’s 2013 class. Michigan only allowed sacks when Gardner held onto the ball too long, and Fitzgerald Toussaint ran 32 times for 151 yards and 4 touchdowns. It doesn’t matter where the solution comes from, as long as the problem on the interior gets fixed. Some people were bothered about Bosch burning his redshirt halfway through the year, but if a true freshman plays half the year – especially when all other options have been exhausted – I don’t see how anyone can have a problem with it.

Channing Stribling got torched again. I really don’t care what Stribling does in practice. He’s a true freshman and the game is moving too fast for him. Last week he got beaten twice on jump balls he should have been able to intercept or knock down, once by Brandon Felder and once by Allen Robinson; that resulted in a loss. This week he used poor technique again and got beaten for a 67-yard touchdown by Kofi Hughes. Instead of going up for the ball, Stribling tried to cradle the ball into his chest, which allowed Hughes to come over the top. Add that to several missed tackles, and I think Stribling needs to be demoted. He has a good future, but the speed of the game is one reason why most freshmen redshirt.

Hello, Thomas Gordon. Gordon had a weird stat line. It consists of the following: 2 interceptions returned for 41 yards. That’s it. No tackles, no pass breakups. And those were his first two picks of the year. Opposing quarterbacks have been testing Michigan’s cornerbacks more than the safeties this year, but I’ve been a little surprised that Gordon hasn’t been more involved up to this point.

Good for Indiana. I have a soft spot for the underdog, and I somewhat hope that Indiana gets a few good years here. Obviously, I hope they lose to Michigan whenever the two meet. But as long as another team takes a dip to replace Indiana near the bottom of the conference, it would be nice to see the long-suffering Indiana fans have a little fun. They’re 3-4 right now, but I think head coach Kevin Wilson has them going in the right direction. They’ve also been doing a good job on the recruiting trail. By the way, Michigan starting cornerback Raymon Taylor was once an Indiana commit.

What does this mean for Michigan? Well, Michigan might have earned some confidence offensively, which would be nice. I also suggested prior to this game that Michigan would go to more of a spread offense with Bryant and Kalis benched, and that appears to have been the case. Al Borges’s play calling seemed to shy away from running power and zone stretch constantly and incorporated some more misdirection, draws, etc. out of the run game. Michigan can’t expect to blow people off the ball, so this is what Michigan’s offense should look like for the remainder of the year.