Tag: Illinois

Illinois 21, Michigan 7

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.

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Preview: Michigan vs. Illinois

RUSH OFFENSE vs. ILLINOIS RUSH DEFENSE
Michigan is #39 in rushing offense (191.3 yards/game) and #44 in yards per carry (5.06). Kalel Mullings has emerged as the #1 back for the offense (589 yards, 6.5 yards/carry, 6 TD) because of his ability to break tackles and move the chains, but he and Donovan Edwards (353 yards, 4.8 yards/carry, 3 TD) split carries in the last game with 14 each. There may be a shakeup on the offensive line: injured LT Myles Hinton is expected to return, which could allow fill-in tackle Jeff Persi to get a shot at right tackle; and it sounds like Greg Crippen will get a start at center over Dominick Giudice. Defensively, Illinois is #77 against the run (149.2 yards allowed/game) and #96 in yards allowed per carry (4.54). The last two opponents, Penn State and Purdue, have both run for 239 yards. The leading tackler is redshirt sophomore safety Matthew Bailey (6’2″, 215) with 38 stops; following him are redshirt junior MLB Dylan Rosiek (6’1″, 235) with 35 and redshirt junior free safety Miles Scott (5’11”, 210) with 33. The Illini don’t have a ton of size up front – their biggest regulars are two 305 pound nose tackles – but they do have a 6’3″, 275-pounder at OLB in Gabe Jacas who leads the team with 5 tackles for loss. Michigan should have an advantage when running the ball, especially if Crippen and/or Persi can be improvements over Giudice and redshirt freshman RT Evan Link.
Advantage: Michigan

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Michigan’s 10 Longest Plays vs. Illinois

Here’s a look at the biggest plays in Michigan’s history against Illinois:

1. Todd Collins 90-yard TD pass to Derrick Alexander (1993)
2. Tate Forcier 76-yard pass to Roy Roundtree (2009)
3. Denard Robinson 75-yard TD pass to Roy Roundtree (2010)
4. Steve Breaston 74-yard punt return TD (2003)
5. Gil Chapman 73-yard kickoff return TD (1972)
6. Tony Boles 73-yard TD run (1989)
7. Amani Toomer 72-yard punt return TD (1994)
8. Scott Dreisbach 72-yard TD run (1995)
9. Denard Robinson 71-yard TD pass to Jeremy Gallon (2012)
10. Shea Patterson 71-yard pass to Ronnie Bell (2019)

Hit the jump for a highlight of Alexander’s 90-yard TD catch.

Preview: Michigan vs. Illinois

RUSH OFFENSE vs. ILLINOIS RUSH DEFENSE
Michigan is #4 in rushing offense (251.4 yards/game) and #7 in rushing average (5.62 yards/carry). Heisman contender Blake Corum has 227 carries for 1,349 yards and 17 touchdowns. Backup Donovan Edwards (70 carries, 471 yards, 4 TD) got banged up last week, so his availability is in question, but freshman C.J. Stokes had a good showing last week with 8 carries for 68 yards in relief of Edwards. Michigan’s offensive line has been beaten up a little bit with Jeffrey Persi, Giovanni El-Hadi, and Karsen Barnhart all logging big minutes last week in the absence of Ryan Hayes, Trevor Keegan, and Trente Jones, respectively. Illinois is #6 in rushing defense (85.9 yards allowed/game) and #5 in yards allowed per carry (3.02). The Fighting Illini are tied for #4 in rushing touchdowns allowed with just 5 so far this year. Senior LB Isaac Darkangelo (6’1″, 230), sophomore DE Jer’zhan Newton (6’2″, 295), and senior hybrid S/LB Jartavius Martin (6’0″, 195) lead the team with 50, 49, and 48 tackles, respectively. The team is #37 in tackles for loss per game (6.4), led by Newton with 12 and sophomore DE Keith Randolph, Jr. (6’5″, 305) with 11.
Advantage: Michigan

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Highlights: Illinois 37, Michigan State 34

One of the joys of being on one side of a rivalry is enjoying your opponent’s misery. Michigan State was up 28-3 on Illinois, and the Fighting Illini came back to win, 37-34. It was the largest comeback in Illinois history at the expense of guys wearing jerseys designed by a blindfolded 3-year-old.

Also, former Michigan QB Brandon Peters threw 3 touchdowns for the Illini.