Name: Ronnie Bell
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 190 lbs.
High school: Kansas City (MO) Park Hill
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Fifth year senior
Jersey number: #8
Last year: I ranked Bell # and said he would be a starting wide receiver with 43 catches for 670 yards and 4 touchdowns (LINK). He caught 1 pass for 76 yards and 1 touchdown and returned 1 punt for 31 yards.
TTB Rating: 71
Bell was Michigan's two-time defending champ when it comes to receiving going into 2021. Despite a lot of people thinking he wasn't fast enough or big enough, he just kept coming through. And despite higher ranked receivers also existing on the roster, he kept outperforming them. I only gave him a TTB Rating of 71 coming out of high school, but I hopped on the bandwagon after watching him bounce off of tacklers over and over again, just like he did in high school. He might have better balance after contact than any Michigan receiver I remember.
And 2021 was off to a great start.
He made a spectacular one-handed grab in the opener that was somehow ruled incomplete.
And he made a 76-yard touchdown catch.
And he made a 31-yard punt return . . .
. . . and at the end of it, he tore his ACL.
He averaged 76 yards per catch and 31 yards per punt return, the best season in Michigan history.
With the miracle of modern medicine, Bell should be back to full speed to start the season. He's already up to full speed in captain voting, being voted a captain for a second year in a row. I expect him to once again lead Michigan's team in receiving, but the presence of a solid crew of receivers keeps him here at #9, one spot below last year's rank. The team showed they could win without him, yes, but he's an emotional leader who can do a lot of different things - catch, run after the catch, block, return, etc. - as well as make plays on deep, intermediate, and short routes.
Prediction: Starting wide receiver; 45 catches for 650 yards, 5 touchdowns
Agree with giving Bell WR1. He's earned it. Always room on the bandwagon.
ReplyDeleteBig props to this young man. Wishing him nothing but the best this year
ReplyDeleteCornelius Johnson is more important to the team. I don't think the team changed when Bell went out. If he goes out again this year, everything will be ok.
ReplyDeleteBell is a winner. Even after he went down last year, he was an inspirational force on the sidelines. Top M receiver 2 years in a row alongside Peoples-Jones, Nico, and others. Wash your mouth out with soap!
ReplyDeleteSo he's better than Nico Collins?
Deletehttps://twitter.com/StephenToski/status/1566503520202883081
My dumb preseason predictions.
ReplyDelete9-3 (Ls @OSU, @Iowa, and a stumble along the way against an inferior team - someone like Nebraska).
The awful non-conference schedule ensures 3 wins but does not prepare the team for the tough games.
Maryland scores 40.
Iowa holds Michigan under 30.
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Offense
The OL is better but doesn't win the Joe Moore.
CJ Stokes impresses everyone and is 'next'.
Bell has a very good year but nobody worries much about the 2023 WR room.
The offense finishes in the top 10 with a higher YPC and YPA than in 2022.
Wilson and or Jones go to the NFL and people say "he's not ready".
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The defense is disappointing and doesn't finish in the top 20.
Michigan has to play a couple barnburners, including Maryland.
Sacks go up but so do big plays allowed.
The hopes for a lot of interior pass rush aren't realized against real competition.
Michigan's tempo struggles come up as a problem.
Moore and Moten play very well but they aren't seniors and make some costly mistakes. Asked to make up for LB limitations they struggle to hold up. They catch more fan ire than they deserve.
Sainristil is passed by MSU in attempt to resolve converage issues.
Smith and Turner are good but not first team all conference.
NHG and Colson still don't know what they are doing. Fans spend the offseason looking for LBs in the portal.
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Hopefully the above is still good enough to get us to a rose bowl. The Big Ten has a lot of high quality teams but only one great one.
9-3 would upset a lot of fans. JH has the best & deepest offense of his tenure (on paper), a good enough defense, and the weakest schedule we've seen in decades
DeletePerhaps a slip up, but when? Iowa's offense is somehow worse. Nebraska is awful. Maryland has a lot of speed, but they're small, and coming to the Big House. PennSt & Clifford did not look any better, and they too will be guests in a hostile Ann Arbor ... that leaves sparty - is this program going to lose three straight to Mel? At home???
I thought it our offense looked to have week 1 bugs, with Cade looking like he was up against Washington again. Can't learn anything from the highly thought of WR room when the QB is so bad that the coaches stop throwing it
Defense had as good as week 1 since 2016/2011 ... weak opponents, but much better than we had in previous G5 openers. Will they get better? Can they capitalize? To me, they looked good enough that - without injury - should be up to task against non-Stroud offenses
11-1 is a tall order, but we should be favorite in all games until cbus ( I'm going by the way, first time)
GO BLUE
Yes I agree it would disappoint many. I don't think it should but I'm in the minority.
DeleteI think the weak non-conference schedule will leave the team unprepared. Maryland's offense is going to be a huge step up for our D. It'll show us if any of the Edge development has substance to it. But Iowa's offense looked putrid so I feel a whole lot better about the Kinnick visit than I did a few days ago. If there's a game where the QB rotation could create a problem, it's that one. I think Nebraska will be solid again - they went toe to toe with us last year. Deserved to win more than MSU did. They had a mountain of turnover in the offseason and will be better in Nov than Sept. MSU/PSU are not cupcakes either. The schedule isn't THAT easy, only relative to years past.
Not throwing it against cupcakes worked just fine last year. I'm not really disappointed by anything we saw yesterday. Had some vague hopes of massive holes and 60 yard runs but it seemed like the O was more interested in showing off variety than dominance. Some vague hopes that the offseason would show us a new improved Cade but it looks like inconsistency is still there.
Agree on the D - that's about as good of a start as we could hope for.
I would still not bet on 11-1 but it looks more likely to me today than it did Friday (mostly because of Iowa's incompetence and Maryland looking pretty meh.)
https://twitter.com/StephenToski/status/1566503520202883081
ReplyDeleteCade was fine yesterday. Unfortunate part for him is the first impression was negative but he settled in and was OK. Looked like last year. Which is fine or disappointing depending on your expectations for QB in this offense.
DeleteThat said, for all the talk about his game management and risk aversion, he's just not a consistent passer. Nobody is on target 100% but Cade goes through waves and we saw that in this game. But also in the past - Sophomore year he had a good game against Rutgers and an awful game against PSU - that's no real sample size and can be explained by other factors (difficulty of opponent, gameplan, health, etc) but we saw the same stuff last year where he's excellent in the middle of the schedule and anemic at other times (2nd half vs Rutgers, Washington, Georgia). Last year our offense was at it's best when Cade had done just enough to force the D to respect passes and then let the ground game go to work down after down after down.
It's the nature of the backup spot to some degree, but JJ has played enough to show us he's good and we haven't seen too many mistakes - and perhaps more importantly - haven't seen tangible damage from those mistakes. If it's close for the two as passers (as Harbaugh says) and JJ brings such a huge advantage in the running game, the fan perspective is understandable. (In calling for the backup to get more time, not in acting like rotation is damaging the team.)
Cade has earned our respect but it is surprising that with JJ breathing down his neck he isn't taking more shots downfield. I can't tell if that's a bug or a feature anymore.