Tag: Notre Dame

Video: Devin Gardner vs. Notre Dame

Michigan vs. Notre Dame Awards

Jeremy Gallon

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Jehu Chesson. Still without a catch on the year, Chesson has been carving his niche as a destructive blocker so far. After a couple highlight-worthy blocks against Central Michigan, he had a knockdown block against the Fighting Irish on Jeremy Gallon’s 61-yard touchdown reception that sealed the score. He also shows some nice speed and looks like he really belongs on the field, despite still being a little skinny.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . the trainer. Amara Darboh’s out for the year, and within a short span on Saturday night, three guys walked off the field: Taylor Lewan, Devin Funchess, and A.J. Williams. Michigan doesn’t have the depth to weather many injuries. While all three of those guys returned in short order (Lewan didn’t miss a play because the whistle was blown for Funchess’s injury), it was nerve wracking.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . nobody. I thought Michigan did a good job of playing the best guys on Saturday night.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Dymonte Thomas. Okay, we actually haven’t seen much of Thomas at safety up to this point, but there’s a reason I don’t like freshman safeties. Thomas’s 15-yard late-hit penalty was really frustrating, and it was just a sign of immaturity. Safety is the last position on defense where a team can afford immaturity, so I’m glad he’s a backup nickel corner right now. He’ll be good eventually.

Play of the game . . . Devin Gardner’s 61-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Gallon. Gardner play-faked to the left before rolling out to find Gallon settling into the deep middle of the field. Gallon caught the ball, made a couple guys miss, spun out of a tackle, and was helped out by Chesson’s knockdown block on his way to a touchdown.

MVP of the game . . . Jeremy Gallon. This was a tough choice between Gallon and Gardner, but I’m choosing the guy who didn’t make a disgusting, potentially disastrous turnover. Gallon had 8 catches for 184 yards and 3 touchdowns on the night, including a few catches in traffic and some nifty running after the catch.

Michigan 41, Notre Dame 30

Devin Gardner wears cliched quarterback #98 (image via Times Union)

Hail to the Victors. I thought the team showed a lot of toughness and grit in beating the Irish. For a while in the second half, Michigan really had to fight through some adversity – a horrible interception for a touchdown, a barrage of penalties, and a bunch of injuries (A.J. Williams, Devin Funchess, Taylor Lewan, and Jeremy Gallon all had injury scares). After the way the first half went, I knew Michigan was going to have some struggles in the second half, but it got really ugly there for a bit.

Ugliest interception ever? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Michigan quarterback throw a more ill advised, damaging interception than the one Gardner threw. Late in the game he retreated into his own endzone, got wrapped up by blitzing safety Austin Collinsworth, twisted around uncomfortably, and tried to heave the ball (to no one in particular?) as he was being flung to the ground. Mammoth defensive end Stephon Tuitt made a diving interception as the duck floated to the ground in the endzone, and suddenly Notre Dame was within four points.

Jeremy Gallon for the #1. The #21 jersey is nice and everything, but Gallon is everything you would want in a #1 receiver – speed, good hands, leaping ability, game-changing plays, blocking, toughness, etc. He won’t be a first round pick, but 8 catches for 184 yards and 3 touchdowns against Notre Dame – on top of what he has already achieved – is worthy of that jersey. The problem with the #1, apparently, is that players have to prove their worth at least one season before their final year in Ann Arbor, and it’s greatly dependent on the quarterback throwing him the ball. If Gardner had been the quarterback for the entirety of 2012, Gallon might be wearing the hallowed jersey of Anthony Carter, David Terrell, and Braylon Edwards instead of Desmond Howard’s.

Here comes Blake Countess. Countess finished the game with 6 tackles and 2 interceptions. The second interception, which bounced off Raymon Taylor’s knee and popped up into the air, was a right-place-right-time kind of play that sealed the game for Michigan. The first one involved Countess coming off his flat receiver to jump into the throwing lane of Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees; he followed that up with a 30-yard return that showed good speed, vision, and cutback ability. The last Michigan player to make 2 picks in one game was cornerback James Rogers against Purdue in 2010.

The offensive line struggled as expected. Notre Dame blitzed often, and they put pressure and hits on Gardner repeatedly; Michigan also struggled to run the ball. The running backs combined for just 24 carries and 71 yards, which is almost 3.0 yards/carry. I thought the guards were the weakest links. Both had problems with picking up linebackers in Notre Dame’s 3-4 defense. Fighting Irish nose tackle Louis Nix was his dominant self (4 tackles, 1 tackle for loss) and got penetration consistently, and left tackle Taylor Lewan had his hands full with Tuitt, although Tuitt’s only entry into the box score was that interception for a touchdown. I would say Notre Dame won the battle up front, but Gardner scrambled and ran the option well enough to get the edge frequently (13 carries, 82 yards, 1 touchdown). Michigan has to improve along the front five, but that’s probably the best defensive front they’ll face all season.

Gardner and the #98. Before the game, Gardner was announced as the recipient of the #98 Legends jersey, previously worn by Heisman winner Tom Harmon. It bugs me a little bit that Gardner’s #12 jersey won’t have a chance of joining Michigan’s pantheon of Legends jersey numbers, but there’s no better representative on the current team than Gardner. He was 21/33 for 294 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 1 interception, to go along with those rushing yards above. Aside from two balls thrown into the dirt and that terrible interception, Gardner was on point throughout.

Michigan needs to blitz. Rees mostly did a good job of seeing the blitz, audibling appropriately, and getting rid of the ball. Michigan notched just 1 sack (by Brennen Beyer) and got little pressure on him throughout the night. Through two games, I just don’t think Michigan’s defensive linemen can get to the quarterback consistently enough without sending at least one additional blitzer. Zone blitzes are probably the way to go, because while Michigan’s corners can cover well enough, the safeties and linebackers leave a little to be desired in man coverage. The pass defense, which allowed 314 yards, was not stellar. And while Rees’s 29/51 effort wasn’t great, running back George Atkinson dropped about three balls, and wide receiver T.J. Jones missed another one or two, perhaps because he appeared to injure both shoulders in the span of about three plays.

The weapon that is Devin Gardner. Good ol’ sandbaggin’ Al Borges rolled out the pistol formation, which had been rumored to be Michigan’s new wrinkle this year with Colin Kaepernick Devin Gardner taking over the quarterback position. Michigan ran the veer option and the zone read better than Denard Robinson could have done, and they tossed in a little inverted veer as well (one of Robinson’s best plays). And obviously, Gardner has the capability of making any throw. His chemistry with Gallon is as excellent as was advertised in the off-season. Gardner is the new breed of quarterback.

Eminem’s halftime interview. I like some of Eminem’s music, but I’m halfway embarrassed that the two biggest modern “pop culture” representatives of the state of Michigan, Detroit, etc. are Eminem and Kid Rock. Marshall Mathers’s interview with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit was one of the more awkward television interviews you’ll see, because . . . well . . . that’s Eminem. He likes the attention.

What does this mean for the season? Michigan just beat a national championship game participant from last season, so that’s cool. I thought Notre Dame sort of lucked into that game, but that’s neither here nor there. Michigan has shown they can play with just about anyone on their schedule. They should be favored in every contest except perhaps Ohio State.

Mini Preview: Alabama vs. Notre Dame

This is just a mini-preview of the national championship game, since I don’t really have a dog in the fight.  However, Michigan is in the unique position of having played both national championship contenders during the regular season; the Wolverines lost to Alabama by a score of 41-14 and followed that up three weeks later with a 13-6 loss to Notre Dame.

Roster notes

• Michigan recruited DT Chris Bonds, S Ha’Sean Clinton-Dix, LB Trey DePriest, CB John Fulton, RB Dee Hart, CB Cyrus Jones, OL Ryan Kelly, OL Arie Kouandjio, OL Cyrus Kouandjio, LB Dillon Lee, CB Dee Milliner, LB Tana Patrick, RB Blake Sims, CB Geno Smith, DE Dalvin Tomlinson, and CB Jabriel Washington
• RB Dee Hart was once committed to Michigan prior to the firing of Rich Rodriguez
• Head coach Nick Saban and TE/ST coach Bobby Williams both used to be head coaches at Michigan State

Roster Notes

• Michigan recruited K Kyle Brindza, WR Chris Brown, WR DaVaris Daniels, DT Sheldon Day, LB Dan Fox, QB Everett Golson, OT Mark Harrell, DE Jarron Jones, QB Gunner Kiel, OT Christian Lombard, OT Zack Martin, WR Davonte Neal, DT Louis Nix III, S Elijah Shumate, OG Chris Watt, TE Alex Welch, RB Cierre Wood, and CB Lo Wood.

2012 AP All-America Team

Taylor Lewan went from Under Armour All-American to AP All-American

The AP All-America Team was released last week, so this isn’t exactly a timely post, but I figured I would gather together the names of players that are pertinent to Michigan fans.

FIRST TEAM
Montee Ball – RB – Wisconsin
Ka’Deem Carey – RB – Arizona
Taylor Lewan – OT – Michigan
Chance Warmack – OG – Alabama
Barrett Jones – C – Alabama
Jadeveon Clowney – DE – South Carolina
Manti Te’o – LB – Notre Dame
C.J. Mosley – LB – Alabama
Dee Milliner – CB – Alabama

SECOND TEAM
D.J. Fluker – OT – Alabama
Spencer Long – OG – Nebraska
Tyler Eifert – TE – Notre Dame
Stephon Tuitt – DE – Notre Dame
Johnathan Hankins – DT – Ohio State
Kawann Short – DT – Purdue
Bradley Roby – CB – Ohio State

THIRD TEAM
A.J. McCarron – QB – Alabama
Braxston Cave – C – Notre Dame
John Simon – DE – Ohio State

Of the 75 total players listed on the first, second, and third teams, Michigan played (or will play) against 17 of them, or 23%.  This just reinforces how difficult Michigan’s schedule was, as the Wolverines lost a close game to the #1 team (4 players), lost in a blowout to the #2 team (6 players), lost a close game to a 12-0 team in Ohio State (3 players), and then lost by two scores to Nebraska (1 player).

I threw in Arizona RB Ka’Deem Carey simply because he plays for former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez and leads the country with 1,929 rushing yards (and will end the bowl season that way unless someone else busts out with a couple hundred yards in a bowl game, which is possible).