Todd McShay did another mock draft, and he has the Lions taking Rashan Gary at #8 (LINK). Poor Rashan Gary.
Bruce Feldman of The Athletic ranks the top 25 college football coaches (LINK). Spoiler alert: Jim Harbaugh is at #11.
Donovan Peoples-Jones (image via The Michigan Daily)
Thoughts on the pre-game scuffle. A brief recap of the events that took place prior to the game: Supposedly, Michigan State was 10 minutes late for their warmup, which they begin with an arm-in-arm walk down the field; their lateness meant that some Michigan players were already stretching on the field, so they walked right through the Michigan players (Lawrence Marshall, Lavert Hill, and others), resulting in a physical altercation. Without that context, it looked pretty unsportsmanlike for Devin Bush, Jr. to tear up the Spartan in the middle of the field with his cleats, digging an “L” into the grass. Provided that context . . . I shrug my shoulders. Tradition or not, MSU’s team doesn’t need to walk arm-in-arm the entire length of the field and make physical contact with the opposing team’s players. The rule in football is that each team stays on its own side of the 50-yard line in pre-game warmups. If you need to get to the other end of the field, you use the sidelines.
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Shea Patterson (image via Maize ‘n’ Brew)
Same old, same old. From the very first offensive series, I started thinking, “Nothing has changed.” Michigan’s offense didn’t evolve over the off-season with a new offensive line coach, a new wide receivers coach, and a new quarterback. The formations are the same. The alignments are the same. The personnel is mostly the same. The lack of tempo is the same. The confusion and lack of urgency late in games is the same.
Hit the jump for a bunch of other depressing takeaways.
Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. It’s hard after that game not to be very frustrated with the state of Michigan football, but I’ll say the same thing I said toward the end of the regular season: This was not going to be a great season from the beginning. Michigan lost almost everyone on defense from 2016, lost a bunch of production on offense, and lost three offensive line starters. They also didn’t get back their starting LT who got injured from last year, got their best WR hurt, and lost their starting four games into the year. If you’re an objective observer, you can probably admit that those are some huge, huge hurdles to overcome.
Hit the jump for the rest of the game discussion.
That was a great game plan by Michigan. I’ve complained about the play calling earlier this year – and so have plenty of others – but I have to give credit where credit is due, too. This was the best effort by the offensive coaching staff all season. They showed new formations and broke tendencies left and right. We saw Khalid Hill and Ben Mason lined up at tailback, we saw fullback sweeps, we saw a fake double-screen pop open a tight end, we saw Michigan play with down and distance a bit, etc. I had an issue with a couple play calls, but fewer than most tight games (and there are always going to be questionable play calls). The creativity kept Michigan in the game longer than I expected them to be in it. After all, I predicted a 38-10 loss for the Wolverines, so the gap was 17 points tighter than I thought.
Hit the jump for the rest of the recap.