Thoughts on U.S. Army All-American Bowl

David Long, Jr.

QUARTERBACK
I think the best passer in the game was Shea Patterson (Ole Miss), who looked the smoothest throwing the ball and the most in command of the offense; he can also run pretty well. Jacob Eason (Georgia) made some nice throws and has a cannon for an arm, but he’s a little bit wild and doesn’t know when to take something off of his throws. As for Michigan commit Brandon Peters, he looked okay. His release is too long, so he’s going to take some extra hits until he gets rid of the ball quicker. He did make some nice throws, including a seam route to Donnie Corley and a short screen pass under pressure; however, both of the deep balls he threw sailed a little bit, and one was almost intercepted because of it. If I’m being objective, I don’t see Peters competing for the starting job next year. He needs a lot of work, and his footwork is basically non-existent. He finished the game 4/16 for 74 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. K.J. Costello (Stanford) did a good job overall, too, and I can’t for the life of me understand why Brady Hoke took Messiah DeWeaver’s commitment when Michigan had a good shot at Costello.

Hit the jump for thoughts on the rest of the position groups.

RUNNING BACK
Michigan wasn’t heavily involved with any of the running backs on either squad, but I thought the best two players were Demario McCall (no offer, Ohio State) and Vavae Malepeai (Oregon). I wanted Michigan to go after McCall, and I wouldn’t have any issue if Michigan had been able to swap out any of their running backs for Malepeai.

WIDE RECEIVER
I thought Simi Fehoko (Stanf0rd) looked faster than I expected him to, and he caught a nice TD pass over Trayvon Mullen. The two really elusive, speedy guys at receiver were on the East squad, even though the team itself couldn’t generate a ton of offense. Demetris Robertson (undecided) and Mecole Hardman (undecided) can be big-play guys, and you could tell that Hardman stood out even among elite recruits by how the East coaches and quarterbacks tried to get him the ball. Still, Hardman looked pretty raw at receiver, and I think he might make a better corner/returner than wideout. Dylan Crawford (Michigan) ran a nice route to get himself open deep across the middle, although he did let the ball get into his body, which is one of the things he needs to work on. He also caught a bubble screen and threw a nice stiff-arm; it didn’t result in much yardage, but he’s tough to bring down after the catch.

TIGHT END
This isn’t a knock on Isaac Nauta (Georgia), but he didn’t get a chance to show his skills in this one. Meanwhile, Devin Asiasi (undecided) caught a wide open touchdown pass and also dropped what would have been a tough, leaping TD in the first quarter. Asiasi has a body that reminds me of former Patriots tight end Brandon Manumaleuna; he’s got a fair amount of extra weight around his middle that he could probably afford to trim.

OFFENSIVE LINE
The only guy I’ll comment on here is Michigan commit Michael Onwenu. I somewhat expected this, but he looks very raw in the passing game, gets his feet crossed up, and gets overextended. He also needs to get quicker with his initial punch. However, he looked stout in the run game and even looked good pulling a couple of times, which is impressive for a 367-pounder. Speaking of that, the kid has a lot of extra weight, but he doesn’t exactly look that heavy if you look at his belly; a lot of that weight is in his thighs and hindquarters, and he’s going to be tough to move with that low center of gravity. (P.S. I loved seeing big lineman John Raridon (no offer, Nebraska) trying to chase down Tyler Byrd, a cornerback who was returning a blocked extra point for a score.)

DEFENSIVE LINE
Michigan wasn’t really involved with many of these defensive linemen, so I didn’t pay a ton of attention. However, I did like the looks of Josh Brown (Florida State), Erick Fowler (LSU), and Josh King (Michigan State); Fowler and Brown were used as pass rushers and did a good job getting pressure on the QB. Jordan Elliott (Michigan) did not stand out. He played, but it was reported that he pulled a hamstring early in the week of practices. He wasn’t getting off the ball well or showing a great deal of effort, but if you’re into giving people the benefit of the doubt, maybe the hamstring had something to do with it.

LINEBACKER
Michigan could use an inside linebacker like Shaq Quarterman (Miami) or Camilo Eifler (Washington). I didn’t see Caleb Kelly (undecided) make a lot of plays, but he did show some good speed.

DEFENSIVE BACK
David Long (undecided) looked very solid in man coverage, and he came up with an interception on a poorly thrown poor decision; Long returned the ball from the endzone to the 27-yard line. I would be very happy if Michigan could reel him in. I also like the speed of Jack Jones (undecided), who was high on Michigan early on, too. If Lavert Hill (undecided) made any plays, I didn’t see them.

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