Tag: Drew Dileo

Receivers Preview: Michigan vs. South Carolina

South Carolina wide receiver Bruce Ellington (image via Independent Mail)

MICHIGAN
Starters: Fifth year senior Roy Roundtree (6’0″, 180 lbs.) has really stepped up his game since Devin Gardner stepped in at quarterback, and now has 28 receptions for 553 yards (19.8 yards/reception) and 3 touchdowns; 15 of those receptions, 378 of those yards, and 2 of those touchdowns have come from Gardner in just four games together.  Redshirt junior Jeremy Gallon (5’8″, 187 lbs.) has also increased his production, with 22 of his 40 receptions and 366 of his 684 yards coming from Gardner.  Fifth year senior Mike Kwiatkowski (6’5″, 262 lbs.) has become the starter at tight end, but he’s more blocker than receiver; he has just 4 catches for 37 yards on the year.
Backups: Junior Drew Dileo (5’10”, 180 lbs.) is the most dangerous of the backup wide receivers with 17 receptions for 309 yards (18.2 yards/reception) and 1 touchdown; he’s sure-handed and reliable, but he’s not very fast.  The same descriptors could be used for junior Jeremy Jackson (6’3″, 204 lbs.), who has just 4 receptions for 31 yards on the year but plays quite a bit.  Redshirt junior walk-on Joe Reynolds (6’1″, 196 lbs.) has usurped some playing time from the aforementioned players and notched 3 receptions for 22 yards against Iowa; he’s also a reliable blocker, although he has incurred a couple penalties.  Freshman tight end Devin Funchess (6’5″, 229 lbs.) was a revelation toward the beginning of the year, but he seems to have been forgotten a little bit down the stretch; he has not caught more than one pass in a game since the September 22 contest against Notre Dame.  His last two receptions have gone for touchdowns, though, and altogether he has 14 receptions for 230 yards (16 yards/reception) and 5 touchdowns on the year.

SOUTH CAROLINA
Starters: After the humongous Alshon Jeffery left for the NFL last season, the Gamecocks have turned to a trio of diminutive wideouts.  Sophomore Bruce Ellington (5’9″, 197 lbs.) leads the team with 38 receptions for 564 yards (14.8 yards/reception) and has notched 6 touchdowns.  Junior Ace Sanders (5’8″, 175 lbs.) is just behind him with 36 receptions, but he leads the team with 7 touchdown receptions; however, he has just 439 yards and isn’t as much of a big play threat.  Redshirt sophomore Nick Jones (5’7″, 184 lbs.) is also a starter, but he has just 9 receptions for 119 yards (13.2 yards/reception) and 0 touchdowns on the year.  Senior tight end Justice Cunningham (6’4″, 264 lbs.) has 22 catches for 287 yards (13.0 yards/reception) and 0 touchdowns on the year.  The receivers are small and slippery, but this isn’t the same kind of passing offense that Steve Spurrier had when he was coaching the Florida Gators.
Backups: Sophomore Damiere Byrd (5’9″, 168 lbs.) has made some big plays with 12 catches for 303 yards (25.4 yards/reception) and 2 touchdowns.  Freshman Shaq Roland (6’1″, 173 lbs.) has 5 catches for 80 yards (16 yards/reception) and 1 touchdown, but he could see his role increase now that key backup D.L. Moore has been suspended for the bowl game.  Freshman tight end Rory Anderson (6’5″, 218 lbs.) is still very thin, but he has been a big-play receiver with 13 catches for 264 yards (20.2 yards/reception) and 5 touchdowns, the South Carolina version of Funchess.

THE TAKEAWAY
Extrapolated over an entire twelve-game season with Gardner at quarterback, Roundtree would have 45 receptions for 1,066 yards and 6 touchdowns, and Gallon would have 66 receptions for 1,098 yards and 3 touchdowns.  That would give Michigan the Big Ten’s top two receivers (Penn State’s Allen Robinson leads the conference with 1,018 yards).  Meanwhile, the Gamecocks receivers are solid and could give Michigan fits now that starting cornerback J.T. Floyd will miss the game.  South Carolina’s starters might have a better game, but the better receiving corps is Michigan’s.
Advantage: Michigan

Michigan 35, Minnesota 13

Devin Gardner was solid in replacing injured starter Denard Robinson (image via Bleacher Report)

Thanks goodness for Devin Gardner.  I am fairly confident that Russell Bellomy could not have duplicated Gardner’s performance from yesterday.  The junior wide receiver/quarterback finished 12/18 for 234 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception; he also ran 10 times for 21 yards and 1 touchdown.  Gardner obviously isn’t the same type of electrifying runner that Denard Robinson is, but that passing performance was pretty much on par with anything Robinson has done this year.  Gardner had three passes of 45-plus yards and did a great job of keeping plays alive with his feet.  There are still things to improve (the one INT was a poor decision, he holds onto the ball too long sometimes, etc.), but he looked much more ready to play QB than Bellomy has at any point.  This should give Michigan fans hope.  And I know I beat this drum a lot, but how much more excited would you be if Gardner were a redshirt sophomore instead of a true junior?  That burned redshirt in 2010 really irks me . . .

Michigan’s receivers stepped up when needed.  This was something we haven’t seen in the past few weeks, but I don’t remember a single drop in this game.  The receivers pulled in some nice receptions, including Jerald Robinson’s sliding 22-yarder and a couple balls caught in traffic by Jeremy Gallon, Drew Dileo, and Roy Roundtree.  Gardner has a stronger arm than Bellomy, and I think the receivers are probably a little more comfortable catching Gardner’s darts than Bellomy’s soft tosses.

Here is where I grumble about cornerbacks.  Teams have been picking on J.T. Floyd for the past few weeks, and once again he was beaten several times.  Minnesota freshman quarterback Philip Nelson missed on several, but sometimes it didn’t matter because Floyd bailed him out by getting called for pass interference two or three times.  Raymon Taylor didn’t have a great game, either, and picked up a pass interference call himself.  I am looking forward to a time when Michigan can put two solid corners on the field at the same time.  Taylor has a chance to be one, but it’s been a while since the Wolverines had two.

Don’t say Michigan never gets the benefit of refs’ poor calls.  Jeremy Gallon’s 10-yard touchdown catch wasn’t a catch; the ball was moving in his hands the entire time.  Roy Roundtree’s 47-yard catch probably wasn’t a catch; the ball was moving the entire time.  However, both of them were called completions on the field, and they were difficult to overturn.  In both cases, if they had been called incomplete on the field, I think they would have been upheld as being incomplete.

Jake Ryan wheee!  Ryan struggled a little bit early in the game, but he turned it on afterward.  He finished the game with 9 tackles and 3 tackles for loss.  The speed at which he plays for a guy who’s 6’3″, 242 lbs. is pretty ridiculous.  He now has 65 tackles and 12 tackles for loss, both numbers surpassing what he did in 2011 (37 tackles, 11 tackles for loss).

The future of the defensive line is bright.  I was very concerned about Michigan’s defensive line coming into 2012 after Mike Martin and Ryan Van Bergen graduated, and those two have certainly been missed.  The drop-off at strongside end hasn’t been very noticeable with Craig Roh playing fairly well, but Martin has certainly been missed at nose tackle.  However, Michigan has several guys starting or in the rotation who should return next season, so they should be able to maintain this level of play.  Weakside ends Brennen Beyer and Frank Clark, defensive tackles Quinton Washington and Ondre Pipkins, and strongside end Keith Heitzman all look solid, and that’s not to mention the incoming freshmen or the redshirting freshmen (Chris Wormley, Tom Strobel, Matt Godin, Willie Henry).

Working on Saturdays is lame.  There’s just not the same level of excitement when you know you could just fast forward the DVR and see the final score.  On the plus side, I could fast forward during timeouts and between plays so I didn’t have to listen to the Big Ten Network’s terrible announcers.  Sometimes Chris Martin talks just to hear himself, and he says very little of substance.  He does a good job of discussing defensive back play, but anytime the discussion wanders into the other 18 positions on the field, he’s mute-worthy.

Michigan vs. Michigan State Awards

Drew Dileo

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Drew Dileo.  He’s not a big-play threat in the sense that he’ll run a long way after the catch or break open deep, but he’s a very clutch receiver who just finds ways to get open.  And when the ball gets thrown to him, he catches it.  Knock on wood.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Jeremy Jackson.  Denard Robinson targeted Jackson deep a couple times, and it was uneventful.  Jackson is a slow possession receiver.  If you want to run someone deep, send Gardner, Roundtree, or Gallon.  Heck, even Amara Darboh runs better than Jackson, though the former is just a freshman.  Jackson isn’t even that great of a blocker, so I’m not sure why he’s seeing so much time.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Raymon Taylor.  I’m not Taylor’s biggest fan, but I’m starting to get concerned about the cornerback depth once again.  With starter Blake Countess out for the season and his replacement Taylor knocked out of the game on Sunday, Michigan was nearing the bottom of the barrel.  The only scholarship corners left are sophomore Delonte Hollowell and freshman Terry Richardson, both of whom are tiny and inexperienced.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . nobody.  The defense is playing very well.

Play of the game . . . in a tight game like this, there were lots of key plays.  One was Thomas Gordon raking the ball out of the tight end’s hands on the goal line.  Another was Robinson’s late throw to Dileo to set up the field goal.  But I have to give this one to Brendan Gibbons for hitting the 38-yard, game-winning field goal.

MVP of the game . . . Drew Dileo.  Yeah, somebody had to throw the passes, but Michigan’s receivers were struggling to get open and struggling to hold onto the ball.  But Dileo didn’t really have those issues.  He was also the holder on all four field goals.

Video: Hoke, players’ postgame press conferences

Michigan 12, Michigan State 10

Drew Dileo (image via AnnArbor.com)

Well, that was terrifying.  That was way too much of a heart attack game for my liking.  I mean, I still liked the end result and everything, but that game was frustrating.  Neither team could do anything consistently on offense, and I’m not convinced that it’s because both defenses are great.  Both defenses are very good, but the offenses are just so-so.

That being said, yay!  Good golly, I hate Mark Dantonio.  I hate William Gholston, too, but Dantonio is the biggest tool of a coach in the Big Ten, even more so than Bret Bielema.  It would have felt great to see Dantonio lose, even if Michigan wasn’t the opponent.  It just makes the win that much sweeter that seniors Denard Robinson, Elliott Mealer, Patrick Omameh, Jordan Kovacs, Craig Roh, etc. succeed in their last chance to beat the Spartans.  Congratulations to those guys.

Thank you, Drew Dileo.  Wide receiver Drew Dileo played a great game.  He’s never going to be the fastest player in the field, and he certainly isn’t the biggest.  But he’s the type of do-it-all player and possession receiver that finds all kinds of ways to win a football game.  He came up huge in the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech, and he had another standout performance on Saturday with 4 catches for 92 yards . . . and as the holder on all four of Michigan’s scoring plays.

Brendan Gibbons and Matt Wile were great.  I was extremely impressed with the solid kicking from these two guys.  Gibbons was 3/3 kicking, including the 38-yard game-winner.  Wile was 1/1 in his first career chance to kick a field goal, and that one was a long attempt from 48 yards.  Obviously, each of the four kicks was huge.

Jeremy Jackson is slow.  At a couple points in the game, I couldn’t help harking back to the days when wide receiver Jeremy Jackson was recruited.  I said then that he didn’t have the athleticism to be an impact player at Michigan, and I still question why he’s on the field so much.  Denard Robinson targeted him a couple times deep, and while the throws could have been more accurate, Jackson looked like he was running in quicksand.  If the play call is for someone to go deep, then Jackson should be replaced by someone with a little giddyup.

The defense was pretty darn good.  There wasn’t much of a pass rush, and the coverage on the outside was mediocre.  But the Wolverines only allowed 68 yards to Le’Veon Bell (on 26 carries) and 86 total rushing yards to the offense (punter Mike Sadler ran 26 yards on a fake punt, which I won’t pin on the defense).  Desmond Morgan (11 tackles) is playing very well, and Jake Ryan (10 tackles, 1 sack) was all over the place once again, and Bell’s longest run was 8 yards.

Cornerbacks are a concern.  J.T. Floyd made a couple nice plays on short passes and supporting the run, which is an improvement for him; however, he was beaten deep a couple times by receivers who were unable to hook up with MSU quarterback Andrew Maxwell.  Meanwhile, Raymon Taylor left with an elbow injury, leaving the opposite side to slot corner Courtney Avery.  I’m hoping that Taylor can return soon, because the Wolverines are running out of healthy corners.  The only other guys left on the roster are backup slot corner Delonte Hollowell and tiny freshman Terry Richardson.

Michigan has 900 wins.  That’s more wins than any other football program in the history of the whole wide universe.  By comparison, Michigan State has 643 all-time victories.  The Wolverines are now 68-32-5 against the Spartans.