The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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OCTOBER 2023 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 33 Moore made it clear that wasn't the case, but that his QB could have made a better decision on at least one of them He's still 56-for-68 (82.4 percent) for 719 yards and 7 touchdowns, so panic is neither advisable, nor sane. McCarthy and his receivers will work to get the bugs out. Meanwhile, top backup Jack Tuttle, a grad transfer from Indiana, banged up his shoulder getting cheap-shotted into the brick wall at Michigan by a UNLV de- fender and has yet to throw a pass, while junior Davis Warren (0-for-3 with an in- terception) got off to a slow start. OFFENSIVE LINE The following combination has seen the most action together: grad Karsen Barn- hart at left tackle, grad Trevor Keegan at left guard, grad Drake Nugent at center, senior Zak Zinter at right guard and se- nior Myles Hinton at right tackle. They and others, such as grad tackle LaDarius Henderson, have limited foes to a single sack while paving the way for an average of 156.7 yards rushing per game through three contests. Prior to the Rutgers game, Harbaugh said he liked how the line looked with Henderson at left tackle and Barnhart on the right side, so that will bear watching. Michigan's ground game showed some improvement against Bowling Green, se- nior tailback Blake Corum's 101 yards and 2 TDs on a dozen carries pacing the Wol- verines' effort of 169 rushing yards. "I thought we ran the ball better," Moore said afterward. "I thought we as- serted ourselves at the line of scrimmage better today. Backs ran extremely hard, extremely physical, so we've got to con- tinue to build on that." They need to do so, after Harbaugh's observations a week earlier. "Run game, the inefficient plays are outnumbering the efficient runs," he noted. "The efficient runs, to me, are 4 to 9 [yards]. Explosives are 10-plus and non-efficient runs are 0 to 3. We have far too many of those. It's a combination of everybody. We've got to block better on the perimeter. We've got to get the safe- ties blocked better by our receivers. The tight ends are really blocking well. Offen- sive line — yeah, we're missing a guy here, it's one guy on a play. Guys are coming off the second level and making plays." RUNNING BACKS Corum's effort against Bowling Green — including a 54-yard run on Michigan's first play from scrimmage — showed off a little more life in the run game. He totaled 254 yards on 37 carries (6.9 average) and 6 touchdowns in three games. Junior tail- back Donovan Edwards found the sled- ding a little tougher, with 96 yards on 27 tries (3.6 average) and no scores. That's a far cry from leaving Buckeyes in his wake in the biggest game of the year. Then again, it's a long way from November. From Harbaugh and Moore on down, they're anticipating an improved combi- nation of offensive line, wideout blocking and backs getting up to speed making a discernible difference down the line. WIDE RECEIVERS, TIGHT ENDS The worry early last year involved Michigan running the ball almost to a fault, and not being able to throw as well, or throw deep effectively. Those concerns were largely erased later in the year, and they didn't exist out of the gate this sea- son. Whereas the Wolverines were look- ing for a roughly 50-50 split between rushing and passing, after three games, they'd run for 470 and passed for 736. Grad wideout Cornelius Johnson (13 catches, 239 yards, 1 touchdown) and se- nior receiver Roman Wilson (12 grabs, 209 yards, 6 TDs) led that charge. Michigan's third-leading wideout was sophomore tight end Colston Loveland, with 9 recep- tions for 93 yards. Sophomore wideout Tyler Morris (3 receptions, 40 yards) has overcome injury to become the third re- ceiver, while tight ends AJ Barner, a senior transfer, and junior Max Bredeson had 1 catch apiece. Harbaugh has been largely pleased with the blocking of the tight ends. He did is- sue a challenge to the wideouts after two games, insisting they pick up the pace in that area. "We had some instances where we didn't get the safety blocked," Harbaugh said. "We want to do a better job there. Coach [Ron] Bellamy relayed if you don't get the block, you don't get the rock. That's been around Michigan since he was playing receiver. I have full confidence that Coach Bellamy is going to get our receivers blocking." Harbaugh would no doubt say he has full confidence that the Wolverines will get things cleaned up in general, the deeper they get into the season. The Bowling Green stretch of mid-game "uh- oh" could work as the reminder Michigan needs. Harbaugh himself hits the side- lines again when Michigan opens the con- ference campaign against Rutgers Sept. 23, and there could be no better time for everyone to take it up a notch. ❏ Senior receiver Roman Wilson had an explosive start to the season, hauling in a team-high 6 touchdown receptions on 12 catches for 209 yards. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL