The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/130469
michigan football No other quarterback on the roster recorded any stats in a game last year, but the Zips do have plenty of bodies to up the competition: senior Curtis Watson and four sophomores — Dalton Easton, Steve Franco, Daniel Harding and Marcus Prather. There's also a freshman coming on board, Thomas Woodson, a two-star prospect who also boasted an offer from Arizona. Bowden is looking for competition at the position, but at this point Pohl is the odds-on favorite to win the job. Akron ranked No. 107 nationally in scoring defense (35.7 points allowed per game), No. 109 in rushing defense (211.1 yards yielded per game), No. 71 in passing defense (238.9 yards surrendered per game) and No. 101 nationally in total defense (450.0 yards allowed per game). Last year, the Zips started two freshmen along the defensive line: end Alfonso Horner and nose guard Cody Grice. At 272 pounds, Grice was undersized last year, but should be a little bulked up next year. Horner will continue to improve after posting 28 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 2012. The defensive line returns three of four starters, but defensive end J.D. Griggs, who graduated, is a big loss. He posted six of the team's 16 sacks last season. Akron also returns both starting safeties: junior Johnny Robinson and senior Anthony Holmes. Robinson added 61 tackles, an interception and three passes broken up last year. Holmes had 50 tackles and two passes broken up. — Andy Reid Connecticut Last year, UConn finished 118th in the nation, and last in the Big East, in scoring offense (17.8 points per game) and 110th in total offense (313.2 yards per game), also at the bottom of the conference. As a result, offensive coordinator George DeLeone was demoted to offensive line coach during the offseason and was replaced by former Cincinnati wide receivers coach T.J. Weist. Weist inherits an offense that found slight slivers of success in the passing game last season, most of the time out of necessity. Redshirt junior quarterback Chandler Whitmer, who threw for more than 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns at Butler (Kan.) Community College in 2011 before transferring to UConn, was effective at times last year. He threw for 2,664 yards with nine touchdowns on 208-of-361 passing (57.6 percent), but also consistently committed alarming lapses in judgment and tossed 16 interceptions — the fourth-most by a Football Bowl Subdivision signal-caller in 2012. "Chandler Whitmer threw a lot of interceptions last year, and I would call them youthful mistakes," UConnReport.com beat writer Thomas King said. "He has to be a better decision maker. It is tough because he was a junior college transfer, and it was his first year with this level of competition.