All hail Davis Warren! I’m not going to pretend that Davis Warren is on track to be J.J. McCarthy, but Warren played his best game of the year in going 13/19 for 123 yards, 1 touchdown, and 0 interceptions. He did not take any sacks and scrambled once for 7 yards. I mentioned on Twitter (before I knew Jack Tuttle would miss the game) that if I were Michigan’s coaching staff, I would start Warren and mix in Alex Orji on every third series. Warren got a bad rap early in the year when he made mistakes while other people (Donovan Edwards, Evan Link, Colston Loveland, etc.) were screwing up; Warren took the blame for the team being bad. Now that the offensive line has improved some and other players have adjusted, Warren looks okay. He’s not a world-beater, but the kid can play a little bit. I’m happy for him that he got a little bit of redemption. Nobody will ever be able to take away the fact that he quarterbacked Michigan to a rivalry victory over Michigan State.
Michigan State WR Nick Marsh (image via Yahoo! Sports)
RUSH OFFENSE vs. MSU RUSH DEFENSE Michigan is a disappointing 45th in rushing offense (180.3 yards/game) despite being unable to do the whole passing thing well. They average 4.76 yards/carry, which ties them for 54th nationally. Kalel Mullings (110 carries, 676 yards, 7 TD) is the leader in the backfield, while backup Donovan Edwards (80 carries, 391 yards, 3 TD) gave up his second fumble of the season last Saturday. It might be worth mentioning QB Alex Orji, too, who has not played for the majority of the past two games (he played three series against Washington) but who has 35 carries for 124 yards this year. With the turnovers given up by QB Jack Tuttle over the past couple weeks, the staff may work in Orji a little more. Michigan had three new starters on the offensive line last week with Jeff Persi at LT, Greg Crippen at C, and Andrew Gentry at RT, but starting LT Myles Hinton – Michigan’s best lineman – may return on Saturday. Defensively, Michigan State is #53 in rushing defense (131.1 yards/game) and #46 in yards allowed per carry (3.78). The last three teams MSU has played have averaged over 5.2 yards/carry, but two of those are top-five teams in Ohio State and Oregon, and the third was Iowa, which has a pretty solid running back in Kaleb Johnson; Johnson had 14 carries for 98 yards and 1 score, but one of those carries was a 75-yard touchdown, so his other 13 attempts went for 23 yards. The leading tackler is senior Wisconsin transfer Jordan Turner, a Farmington High School product, who is a 6’1″, 231 lb. middle linebacker with 43 stops. Next is fifth year senior LB Cal Haladay (6’1″, 233) with 34 tackles and then junior UCF transfer strong safety Nikai Martinez (5’11”, 191) with 31. Former Michigan DT commit Alex Van Sumeren (6’3″, 300) and fifth year senior D’Quan Douse (6’2″, 300) start at defensive tackle, but the Spartans rotate a lot of players in the front seven to keep them fresh. I do think Michigan can have success on the ground . . . if they use Kalel Mullings and Alex Orji appropriately, which is unfortunately a question mark. Advantage: Michigan
Jaden Mangham (image via Michigan State Athletics)
Former Michigan State safety Jaden Mangham announced his commitment to Michigan.
As a transfer portal player, Mangham is a 3-star, the #70 safety, and #718 overall. It’s somewhat mind-boggling to me that an Honorable Mention All-Big Ten safety can be the 70th best player at his position and #718 overall, but I guess that tells you the ridiculous number of transfers that have taken place this off-season.
Anyway, Mangham was a 4-star, the #13 athlete, and #311 overall coming out of Franklin (MI) Groves in the class of 2022. He spent two years in East Lansing, making 12 starts and totaling 73 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 4 interceptions, 3 pass breakups, and 1 fumble recovery. Michigan had recruited him out of high school, but the interest was tepid in both directions; that was the same class where Michigan landed Zeke Berry, Keon Sabb, and Will Johnson, so even with some so-so guys mixed in – like Damani Dent, Kody Jones, and Myles Pollard – it was still an outstanding defensive back recruiting haul for the Wolverines.
Mangham is one of four transfer portal defensive backs to pick Michigan in this 2024 cycle, all within the last week; he joins Louisville safety Wesley Walker, Albany cornerback Aamir Hall, and UNLV cornerback Ricky Johnson. With Michigan having lost Sabb to Alabama and Rod Moore to injury, the need at safety was significant. Now there’s some great competition to be had between Quinten Johnson, Walker, and Mangham for the safety spot not held by Makari Paige, and Berry might even factor in, though it seems like he’ll be playing the nickel corner spot.
Mangham has two years of eligibility remaining and the plan is for him to finish his undergraduate education prior to fall camp, making him a grad transfer who won’t have to worry about losing credits in the school switch. Once Paige moves on after 2024, Mangham could be a clear-cut starter going into 2025.
The last Michigan-to-Michigan State transfer was just a few years ago when linebacker Ben Van Sumeren became a Spartan, and a somewhat recent case saw Michigan State linebacker Edward Warinner join the Wolverines as a walk-on for one season in 2020 while his dad Ed Warinner was Michigan’s offensive line coach. Warinner the Younger played special teams in just three games during the COVID season.
2024 CLASS RANKING #61 nationally, #17 in Big Ten. The Spartans have 13 commits (two 4-stars, eleven 3-stars).
CREAM OF THE 2024 CROP The top-ranked high school recruit for the Spartans is River Rouge (MI) River Rouge wide receiver Nick Marsh (4-star, #20 WR, #122 overall). Michigan State has so far fended off other teams’ advances, even though Marsh decommitted for a while, but he now seems solid with the Spartans after they hired former Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith. The other star of the class is another former Beaver in quarterback transfer Aidan Chiles, who is the #1 quarterback in the transfer portal and the #2 player overall. He sat behind D.J. Uiagalelei last season but is a potential star at 6’3″ and 200 lbs. He was the #58 overall player in the class of 2023.
Michigan 49, Michigan State 0 (image via AP/Al Goldis)
Emotional edge FTW. Going into this game, I felt like Michigan had more of a reason to win this game. I mean, aside from the fact that Michigan State sucks and surely really wanted to win because sucking isn’t fun, Michigan should have had more of a reason. This stems mostly from the fact that Gemon Green and Ja’den McBurrows were viciously attacked in the tunnel last year. But this past week’s cheating allegations probably cheesed off the Wolverines quite a bit since their accomplishments were considered to be tainted by some. But it seems like emotion sometimes forces players and/or coaches to press. So in my game preview, I predicted a 34-10 victory. I thought Michigan might come out a little slow, might get caught by a trick play, etc. But it turns out Michigan didn’t have any trick plays up their sleeve. They didn’t really have much of anything up their sleeve.
