Monday, October 3, 2022

Ex-Wolverine Updates: Week 5

 

Xavier Worthy (image via SI)

FORMER PLAYERS

C Zach Carpenter (Indiana): Carpenter is Indiana's starting center.

RB Zach Charbonnet (UCLA): Charbonnet ran 22 times for 124 yards and 1 touchdown, adding 3 catches for 56 yards, in a 40-32 win over Washington. That's his third 100+ yard rushing game in four games played this season.

S Sammy Faustin (UMass): Faustin did not play in a 20-13 loss to Eastern Michigan.

OG Chuck Filiaga (Minnesota): Filiaga is a sixth year senior who starts at right guard for the Gophers.

CB Darion Green-Warren (Nevada): Nevada (2-3) had a bye. Green-Warren has recorded 4 tackles and 1 pass breakup this season.

Hit the jump for more.


QB Ren Hefley (Northwest Mississippi Community College): Hefley completed 20/31 passes for 210 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions while also running 6 times for 36 yards in a 38-21 win over East Mississippi Community College.

K Cole Hussung (Louisville): The former walk-on kicker transferred to Louisville.

WR Giles Jackson (Washington): Jackson made 2 catches for 10 yards and 2 kickoff returns for 32 yards in a 40-32 loss to UCLA.

CB George Johnson III (UMass): Johnson had 4 catches for 66 yards in a 20-13 loss to Eastern Michigan.

S Jaylen Kelly-Powell (Akron): Kelly-Powell made 4 tackles in a 31-28 loss to Bowling Green.

DE Aaron Lewis (Rutgers): Lewis made 1 tackle and 1 quarterback hurry in a 49-10 loss to Ohio State.

WR Oliver Martin (Nebraska): Martin made 3 catches for 65 yards and 1 touchdown in a 35-21 win over Indiana. That's the fourth receiving touchdown of Martin's six-year college career.

QB Dylan McCaffrey (Northern Colorado): McCaffrey completed 17/26 passes for 264 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions in a 55-35 loss to Idaho.

QB Joe Milton (Tennessee): Tennessee (4-0) had a bye. So far this season, Milton is 12/14 for 225 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions as Hendon Hooker's backup. He has just 1 carry for 21 yards.

LB William Mohan (Tennessee): Mohan was recently arrested and is currently suspended from the program.

S Jordan Morant (Mississippi State): Morant made 1 tackle in a 42-24 win over Texas A&M.

DT Phillip Paea (Utah State): Paea did not play in a 38-26 loss to BYU.

S Hunter Reynolds (Utah State): Reynolds made 9 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and 1 pass breakup in a 38-26 loss to BYU.

OG Nolan Rumler (Kent State): Rumler is a backup offensive guard for the Golden Flashes.

RB O'Maury Samuels (New Mexico State): Samuels did not play in a 21-7 loss to FIU.

CB Andre Seldon (New Mexico State): Seldon made 1 tackle in a 21-7 loss to FIU.

CB Myles Sims (Georgia Tech): Sims made 4 tackles in a 26-21 win over Pitt.

LB Anthony Solomon (Arizona): Solomon did not play in a 43-20 win over Colorado.

OT Jack Stewart (UConn): Stewart is a backup offensive lineman for UConn.

RB Christian Turner (Wake Forest): Turner had 20 carries for 64 yards and 1 touchdown in a 31-21 win over Florida State. He also caught 1 pass for 17 yards.

LB Ben VanSumeren (Michigan State): VanSumeren made 14 tackles in a 27-13 loss to Maryland.

QB Dan Villari (Syracuse): Villari did not record any stats in a 59-0 win over Wagner.

LB Cornell Wheeler (Kansas): Wheeler did not play in a 14-11 win over Iowa State.

FORMER COMMITS

RB Tim Baldwin, Jr. (UMass): Baldwin did not play in a 20-13 loss to Eastern Michigan.

CB Te'Cory Couch (Miami): Miami (2-0) had a bye. Couch has 9 tackles and 2 pass breakups on the season.

C Emil Ekiyor, Jr. (Alabama): Ekiyor is the starting right guard for Alabama.

RB Eric Gray (Oklahoma): Gray had 13 carries for 60 yards and 1 touchdown, along with 1 catch for 4 yards, in a 55-24 pounding at the hands of TCU.

OLB Stephen Herron, Jr. (Stanford): Herron did not record any stats in a 45-27 loss to Oregon.

C Jalil Irvin (Auburn): Irvin is a backup center as a fifth year senior for the Tigers.

LB Branden Jennings (UCF): UCF (3-1) had its game moved to this coming Wednesday because of the hurricane.

LB Chase Lasater (Eastern Kentucky): Lasater made 8 tackles and 1 tackle for loss in a 35-28 win over Southern Utah.

RB Amauri Pesek-Hickson (Northern Iowa): Pesek-Hickson did not play in a 20-14 win over Indiana State.

S Otis Reese (Ole Miss): Reese made 4 tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss, and 1 pass breakup in a 22-19 win over Kentucky.

S Antwaine Richardson (Kent State): Richardson made 4 tackles in a 31-24 win over Ohio.

TE Leonard Taylor (Cincinnati): Taylor made 3 catches for 24 yards in a 31-21 win over Tulsa.

DT Alex VanSumeren (Michigan State): VanSumeren did not play in a 27-13 loss to Maryland.

WR Xavier Worthy (Texas): Worthy made 7 catches for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he completed 1 pass for a 33-yard touchdown in a 38-20 win over West Virginia.

FORMER COACHES

Don Brown (Head Coach, UMass): UMass lost to Eastern Michigan by a score of 20-13 and fell to 1-4.

Jedd Fisch (Head Coach, Arizona): Arizona beat Colorado by a score of 43-20 to move to 3-2.

Brady Hoke (Head Coach, San Diego State): SDSU fell to 2-3 after a 35-13 loss to Boise State.

Scot Loeffler (Head Coach, Bowling Green State): BGSU bumped to 2-3 with a 31-28 win over Akron.

Rich Rodriguez (Head Coach, Jacksonville State): Jacksonville State improved to 5-1 after a 35-28 overtime win against Kennesaw State.

10 comments:

  1. What's up with Brady Hoke and SDSU? I read they changed offensive coordinators, and that they rank near-last in passing in the Mountain West. Normally Hoke fields a good team. Just a down year, or perhaps a key injury? Or is something more going on there?

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  2. Xavier Worthy is the biggest loss on the list. Dude just jumps off the screen ea Saturday

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    1. Totally agree. While I love Bell & co, I think Worthy wd hv started and made a positive contribution. Carbonnet was the other player I wished were still on Michigan roster. As much as many allude that RB does not matter, one could look at the Maryland game and conclude that we will not win the game if we replace Corum with Stokes/Gash.

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    2. We'll never know. My gut says yes - Corum is exceptional. We would not be as good if we lost him. The final TD drive was 5 straight Corum runs! Corum matters.

      BUT

      We lost Corum for 2 games last year and he didn't seem to. The first (against PSU) another RB ran for 150 yards at 5 ypc. The main effect there seemed to be that Edwards had to play, perhaps before he was all the way healthy, and Haskins had to work a bit harder than usual. Then the next week against Maryland - the two other RBs combined for 250 yards in a blowout against Maryland. They shifted to more passing than usual - either because of the matchup or because of personnel - but it didn't affect the outcomes negatively there either. Corum went down and the position continued to produce at a very high level in both games.

      So again, we don't know what would have happened if Corum was missing against Maryland a few weeks. All we can do is speculate. My speculation - I agree it would have made a difference in this case, but how much? Perhaps without Corum Stokes is given a second chance after his fumble, gets 30 carries and produce 1.7 yards per carry less than Corum (their season averages are 4.9 and 6.6 ypc). That's about 190 yards instead of 240 in total if you carry out the math in this theoretical exercise.*

      Does 50 yards make a difference? - it absolutely can! It's a game of inches and 50 yards is 600 of them. Could the 50 yards have been made up for with different play calling (i.e., more passing)? Very likely so - JJ was averaging 8.5 ypa, so even if his efficiency drops without Corum to say 8 ypa, there's still a net gain to passing more often. Perhaps the difference is more like 20 total yards than 50.

      Does 20 yards matter? Sometimes yes -- THAT can still be enough to affect an outcome in a close game. But would it have against Maryland? I'm not so sure. Maybe!

      You can do the math differently and assume Gash/Stokes would have ran for 1ypc and we would have lost 200 yards and the game as a result. But in most cases - RBs tend to run for similar YPCs in the long run when they play in similar contexts (e.g., Charbonnet, Haskins, and Wilson all were within .1 ypc in 2019, Higdon and Evans were within .1 ypc in 2018) and RBs tend to produce far less than 1 ypc differences relative to the opportunities the OL produce (you can see this in some fancy stats that show yards vs expected yards). In other words, even the 1.7 ypc difference between Stokes and Corum may not hold up over 30 carries.

      *Gash has a higher YPC on the season than either Corum or Stokes but I'm ignoring that for the purposes of this exercise. It's a tiny sample size and not relevant.

      Again - my gut says Corum does matter - and Stokes wouldn't have been able to replace him with equivalent performance, but the offense, as a whole would have kept chugging along.

      We can always invent problems and say it would be a big deal if say Karan Higdon went down in 2018 -- but his backups were Chris Evans and Tru Wilson. And we can say it would have a been a big problem if Haskins went down last year - but his backups were Corum and Edwards. And on and on. At some point if the guy you are worried about replacing is the same guy you were worried about as a replacement you have to ask yourself if that really makes sense or it's just an imaginary problem.

      In this specific case - Stokes may be a dang good RB who would have stepped up when called upon. We don't know.

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    3. I think Corum is exceptional. He matters a whole lot. But I agree he mattered a bit less last year because Michigan had Haskins who could carry the load.

      What I am trying to say is Michigan is very thin at RB right now. We are down to 4 scholarship backs. To have to rely on walk-ons would significantly derail Michigan Big Ten title hopes.

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    4. Michigan doesn't have to rely on walk-ons. It has 4 scholarship guys at this one position.

      Michigan is more reliant on walk-ons at QB, TE, Safety right now than RB. In recent years they were reliant on walk-on's at DT and LB. Last year they were about as reliant on walk-ons at CB as they are at RB now (i.e., assume they can soak up garbage time snaps when the rotation guys aren't needed) - same thing a few years ago at WR. It's not actually a problem. And no one ever said let's pull scholarships away from RB to solve the issue (except, it seems, the coaches).

      The last time Michigan was relying on a walk-on at RB it was Tru Wilson - after experiencing once-in-a-generation turnover after the 2018 season, he was expected to be a starter. This was supposed to be a PRETTY BIG PROBLEM - except it wasn't. Wilson had already proven himself as capable enough. But they needed depth so they threw a freshman and a converted LB into the mix with the walk-on and.... the RBs still averaged more than Hart/Minor/Brown produced in Carr and Hart's last year 2007. Again, it wasn't actually a problem.

      Nor was it a problem when Drake Johnson - not technically a walk-on but functionally one (local 2 star whose only offer was from EMU) - stepped up and led the rushing attack against OSU.

      There's always a guy who will step into the void. Especially because Michigan is getting excellent athletes at the RB spot via the walk-on program pretty regular. A lot of track kids with speed.

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    5. Acknowledged here, because Corum is so good, that the void is likely bigger than usual. Bigger than when it was Hart/Minor/Toussaint/Smith/Higdon/Haskins left.

      Next year, when Corum is gone, we'll just have to cry our tears into our #7 jerseys. Donovan Edwards - 5 star freshman record-breaker - will step into big shoes but also has big feet. And after that, he will leave it to CJ Stokes (or whoever else we add). It'll be OK, unless Harbaugh moves on and we mess up the rehire.

      Corum is special. But it's not going to be a catastrophe because we have other RBs and a killer OL with TEs and WRs who excel at run-blocking.

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    6. Michigan has good depth at RB. They are thin only relative to tradition - historical over-allocation of scholarships to the position.

      Consider who is available -- a Heisman candidate at starter, a 5 star backup who would be starting at 90 other schools, and a promising freshman 3rd stringer. Isn't that better than most other positions?

      3 safeties play starter-level snaps and the 4th is a walk-on. There's freshman - but freshman are rarely ready at safety.

      CB relies on a promising freshman to backup both outside spots. One of the starters is a position flip from WR. Who starts next year is perhaps the biggest concern on the '23 roster and will likely rely on position-switches.

      LB is burning Rolder's red-shirt because they are desperate for answers if another starter is hurt. He clearly isn't ready but there he is in the mix.

      TE relies on a walk-on to take 3rd TE snaps as a result of an injury. Michigan plays 3 TEs at a time. Next guy up after that appears to be a freshman.

      QB's top backup right now is a walk-on.

      I know this is an unpopular opinion, but RB depth isn't an issue. Only OL, WR, and DL are clearly deeper. In my opinion those positions SHOULD be deeper because they are more important.

      We've lost starters or top backups at QB, RB, WR, TE, and LB. When that happens depth gets wobbly fast - that's college football. But only one of these gets the message board sirens and calls for more scholarships - RB.

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  3. The Lamk book club .Man how do you have time like this?

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    1. Nothing here is a new idea and I type fast.

      RBs don't matter because all RBs are good.

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