The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/362774
MICHIGAN FOOTBALL "The one thing about it, and he's not differ- ent than other quarterbacks, but the more you hit him, the worse they get. "They don't stand in the pocket to make the reads anymore. They throw the ball into cov- erage because their patience is gone. They take off running. They're rattled. I think we rattled him but it took a really long time to get to him. Fourth quarter. Late. But we got to him. "His offensive line didn't help at all, though." On the offensive line: "The crazy thing is we expected them to be bad because of the film we watched and then in our game, they were really good. We couldn't believe it. We saw some of the numbers — the sacks against, the tackles for loss against — but they were a different team against us. "Sometimes it takes awhile to click in, but if they play the way they did against us all season this year, they're going to be one of the best lines in the league." On junior wide receiver Devin Funchess: "He's a stud. I can't believe he's that big and that fast. He made us look silly. You can't get around him. He's just such a big body that he's going to block you from making a play on the football. You can get physical with him because he doesn't play physical for his size, but when the ball is in the air, he knows how to go get it. "He could be like [Detroit Lions All-Pro receiver] Calvin Johnson in the red zone. Just throw it up and let him go get it. I bet we see a lot more of that this year." On sophomore tight end Jake Butt: "He's going to be good. He can block and catch. [Funchess] could catch but didn't block, and their other tight end [junior A.J. Williams] is just an OK blocker but we never had to worry about him as a receiver. "We played them late in the year, and [Butt] was someone that was really tough to defend. He's incredibly athletic. He made a catch against us that not that many receivers even make, so he has great hands. There weren't a lot of great tight ends in our league last year, so he could be the best this season." On Michigan's prospects this year: "I'm really curious. Their line has to play better, and their running backs, but they have one of the best quarterbacks, maybe the best wide receiver, one of the best tight ends. "They have a lot of skill players so if they can put it together, and play as a team, they could be that surprise team." Opponents were impressed by soph- omore tight end Jake Butt 's pass catching and blocking last year. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL