Tag: Joey Burzynski

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.

Penn State 43, Michigan 40 in four overtimes

(image via Penn Live)

Michigan deserved to lose. You win when you deserve to win, and Michigan didn’t deserve to win. From the offensive play calling to the offensive line’s incompetence to the quarterback’s decision making to the defense’s inability to get pressure and cover short passes to the special teams’ inconsistency, Michigan didn’t deserve a victory. Penn State didn’t play their best football, either, but they looked less incompetent.

The coaches have lost confidence in Devin Gardner as a passer. There was a time when Brady Hoke and Al Borges would have let quarterback Devin Gardner air it out in a game like this, but instead, they chose to curl up into the fetal position – almost literally – and try to luck their way into a victory. Despite averaging just 2.8 yards/carry on fifty-four  rushing attempts, Michigan turned overtime into mostly an unproductive rushing effort. Michigan ran for 1, 1, 0, 3, -3, 8, 0, 0, and 7 yards in overtime, with that last 7-yarder coming on a Gardner scramble. The biggest offense came in the first overtime, when the play call/execution resulted in Gardner running from the 23-yard line on the left hash to the 23-yard line on the right hash on 3rd-and-8, presumably in an effort to “center” the ball for kicker Brendan Gibbons. Gibbons’s subsequent 40-yard field goal was blocked by defensive tackle Kyle Baublitz.

The offensive line is/was a mess. All-American left tackle Taylor Lewan left the game in the second quarter with what looked like an injury to his left side, perhaps a hip or a rib. He was replaced by right tackle Michael Schofield. Left guard Chris Bryant was presumably replaced for poor performance after some poor blocking; in came walk-on guard Joey Burzynski. Redshirt sophomore Graham Glasgow was playing left guard two weeks ago and has had several mental mistakes in his two games at center. Right guard Kyle Kalis took a senseless 15-yard penalty and was replaced for a short time by Burzynski before returning. The right tackle for the second half was redshirt freshman Erik Magnuson. Another walk-on, Erik Gunderson, also saw significant playing time in certain packages. Overall, by the end of the game, the only guy in the same spot as two weeks ago was Kalis. Meanwhile, running backs Fitzgerald Toussaint and Derrick Green were swarmed in the backfield the entire game, totaling 30 carries for 28 yards.

Offensively, the lone bright spot was Devin Funchess. Tight end Devin Funchess had his second consecutive 100-yard game with 4 catches for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also had a couple key drops, but a tight end with 263 yards and 3 touchdowns in two games is pretty impressive.

Damn freshmen. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but a huge chunk of this loss falls on the shoulders of freshman cornerback Channing Stribling and whichever defensive coach was responsible for putting him in there. At the end of regulation, Stribling entered the game and was beaten on two long passes by the average Brandon Felder and Penn State standout receiver Allen Robinson. On both occasions, Stribling had chances to knock down or intercept the passes, but he mistimed his jumps and/or misjudged the ball, failing to get even a finger on either pass. The game was just moving too fast for him, which is why I hate having to play so many young players. In a year or two, those will be picks or knockdowns for Stribling. The same thing goes for Jake Butt’s failure to catch a back shoulder fade from Gardner in overtime; Butt showed his hands too early and failed to plant and go up for the ball. Instead, he settled for trying to catch it with his momentum going away from the ball and into the sideline. Both of things contributed to linebacker Mike Hull being able to bat the pass away at the last second despite not turning around for the ball.

Michigan can’t run the ball, and that’s not going to change. At this point in the season, I feel pretty confident in saying that nobody but Gardner will be able to run the ball effectively. Gardner even carried the ball 24 times, and he’s not going to hold up with that type of responsibility on his shoulders. I hate to say this, but Michigan needs to ditch the runs from under center and become a team that throws the ball 40-45 times a game. They need to get creative with their screen game, including bubbles and slip screens; they also need to find a way to get Dennis Norfleet on the field in regular packages and incorporate him into the offense, both as a scatback third-down replacement for Toussaint and as a slot receiver.

Despite the 43 points, I thought the defense played pretty well overall. Nine of those 43 points came in overtime. Additionally, two of Penn State’s touchdowns came after Gardner interceptions, which gave the Nittany Lions the ball on the 14- and 20-yard lines, respectively. They ran the ball 44 times for 85 yards (1.9 yards/carry) and 2 touchdowns, from the 1- and 2-yard lines, respectively. Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg completed 23/44 passes for 305 yards and 3 touchdowns, but he was also sacked 4 times and intercepted twice, while a large chunk of that yardage (79) came on the final drive in regulation when they beat Stribling.

Frank Clark is coming on. Clark had 3 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 1 pass breakup, and 2 fumble recoveries, one of which he picked up and ran 24 yards for a touchdown. He’s had a little bit of a fire lit under him after the first couple games of the season, and hopefully that fire stays lit. After barely showing up on the stat sheet early, he’s now sitting at 15 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, 1 pass breakup, 5 quarterback hurries, 2 fumble recoveries, and the aforementioned touchdown return.

What does this all mean? Well, I don’t think Michigan has a shot at winning the Big Ten this year. They’ve been playing with fire all year in close games with Akron and UConn, not to mention Notre Dame or the closer-than-it-should-have-been game against Minnesota last week. It finally bit them in the butt. The closest thing remaining to a team Michigan should  beat easily is Iowa, but they always seem to play Michigan tough, especially in Iowa City. Michigan also has Indiana’s number over the years, but the Hoosiers can put some points up on the board (41.7 points/game). Michigan State is going to feast on Michigan’s running game, Nebraska’s tough, Northwestern is good when healthy, and Ohio State is probably going to crush us. This is probably going to be ugly down the stretch.

Poll results: Which three linemen should be starting on the interior?

Taylor Lewan and Kyle Kalis

I posted a poll asking Michigan fans which three linemen should be starting on the interior of the offensive line, and it looks like fans want a change. Voters could pick multiple answers, and here are the responses.

STARTERS
OG Kyle Kalis: 95%
OG Chris Bryant: 82%
OG/C Graham Glasgow: 59%

BACKUPS
OG/OT Ben Braden: 22%
C Jack Miller: 17%
OG/C Joey Burzynski: 9%
Other: 4%

At this point, I would be in support of center Jack Miller being sent to the sideline if Graham Glasgow can handle snapping duties. I think sometimes people underestimate the importance of getting good snaps, so that’s a big “if.” But Miller struggles with stout nose tackles, and he just flat-out misses some obvious blocks at times.

If redshirt sophomore Chris Bryant is healthy after suffering various leg injuries over the past couple seasons, I think he should get a shot. However, Michigan has to realize the strengths of each of these players. My guess is that Bryant excels at blocking plays like power and iso, but he probably struggles with zone blocking, which requires more agility and lateral movement. If Michigan wants to continue running zone stretches to the left behind Taylor Lewan, then perhaps Kyle Kalis should flip to left guard to make that play more viable. Then the Wolverines could run outside zone, iso, and power to the left, while running power and iso to the right.

2013 Season Countdown: #53 Joey Burzynski

Joe Burzynski (#56)

Name: Joey Burzynski
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 291 lbs.
High school: Carlsbad (CA) Carlsbad
Position: Offensive guard
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #56
Last year: I ranked Burzynski #31 and said he would be a backup left guard. He played in eight games as a backup offensive guard.

Burzynski started in the 2012 spring game and caused some people to get excited/upset because a walk-on was starting on the offensive line. But when the season began, Burzynski was back to watching from the sideline while Ricky Barnum and Patrick Omameh started. The walk-on was a primary backup offensive guard, but luckily, the offensive line remained mostly injury-free last year and Burzynski wasn’t needed in crunch time.

He will always be a little bit short, and he’s a little bit light at 291 lbs. He seems to have fallen behind some younger scholarship guys, and redshirt sophomore Graham Glasgow has been getting mentioned as a possible player at center, but not Burzynski. He has snapped the ball in the past and could be an emergency option there. He could still see some playing time as a backup or if there are injuries at the interior positions, but he’s not a viable option for a team that hopes to compete for the Big Ten championship.

Prediction: Backup offensive guard

Offensive Line Preview: Michigan vs. South Carolina

Taylor Lewan will be the best lineman in the Outback Bowl

MICHIGAN
Starters: From left to right, the Wolverines start redshirt junior Taylor Lewan (6’8″, 309 lbs.), fifth year senior Ricky Barnum (6’3″, 296 lbs.), fifth year senior Elliott Mealer (6’5″, 308 lbs.), fifth year senior Patrick Omameh (6’4″, 305 lbs.), and redshirt junior Michael Schofield (6’7″, 300 lbs.).  Omameh has started 41 games, Lewan has 27 starts, Schofield has 22, Barnum has 15, and Mealer has 12.  Altogether, they have 117 starts among them and average a shade over 6’5″ and 303.6 lbs.  The Wolverines are #25 in the country in sacks allowed (1.25 per game) and have the #40 rushing offense (187 yards/game).
Backups: The Wolverines are very thin on the offensive line, but they’ve tried to preserve the redshirts of some highly touted freshmen.  Other than redshirt freshman center Jack Miller (6’4″, 288 lbs.), the rest of the subs have been walk-ons.  Redshirt sophomore guard Joey Burzynski (6’1″, 295 lbs.) has made the biggest push for playing time of the entire backup crew; redshirt sophomore Erik Gunderson (6’8″, 303 lbs.) and redshirt junior Kristian Mateus (6’7″, 309 lbs.) have both played in blowouts, but both would be severely overmatched against the Gamecocks.

SOUTH CAROLINA
Starters: Michigan recruited redshirt freshman right tackle Brandon Shell (6’6″, 331 lbs.) and redshirt sophomore left guard A.J. Cann (6’4″, 309 lbs.) coming out of high school.  The line is completed with redshirt sophomore left tackle Corey Robinson (6’8″, 337 lbs.), fifth year senior center T.J. Johnson (6’6″, 319 lbs.), and junior right guard Ronald Patrick (6’2″, 305 lbs.).  Johnson has started 52 games in his career, Cann has 25, Patrick has 12, Shell has 9, and Robinson has 8.  Altogether, the squad has 106 starts under their belts, but the tackles have less than a season of experience, and Robinson was a defensive tackle prior to this year.  They average a bit over 6’5″ and 320.2 pounds.  The Gamecocks are #105 in the country in sacks allowed (2.92 per game) and have the #84 rushing offense (143 yards/game).
Backups: Redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Cody Gibson (6’7″, 278 lbs.) started a couple games early in the season.  The other backups haven’t been used much, including senior offensive guard Kaleb Broome (6’6″, 332 lbs.), redshirt junior center Travis Ford (6’3″, 278 lbs.), and redshirt freshman offensive guard Will Sport (6’5″, 291 lbs.).

THE TAKEAWAY
Having watched Michigan’s offensive line struggle to create a push all year long, it’s a little tough to believe, but the Wolverines have the edge here.  Despite being outweighed by an average of almost 17 pounds, Michigan gains more yards on the ground and allows fewer sacks.  They also average a couple more starts each.  Individually, the only South Carolina offensive lineman to garner consideration for All-SEC is Johnson (Second Team), whereas Michigan’s Lewan is an All-American and Omameh was selected by the coaches as First Team All-Big Ten.  Except for heft, Michigan is ahead everywhere.
Advantage: Michigan