instant replay

[Bryan Fuller]

12/3/2022 – Michigan 43, Purdue 22 – 13-0, 9-0 Big Ten, Big Ten Champions

After Will Johnson's second interception my twitter feed had consecutive tweets that were literally "Will Johnson has arrived."

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One was in all caps.

It may have been last week when Will Johnson arrived since he started against Ohio State and your Will Johnson-related memories of that game do not exist. Johnson took 70 snaps against the Buckeyes and he did not get dunked on once. But there's arriving quietly, like an offensive lineman who refines his assignments, and then there's going Fury Road on a version of Aidan O'Connell with glowing eyes and electricity coruscating down his forearms. Johnson has now arrived, loudly. He has a hype man. It is the internet.

It is a late-season cliché to say that freshmen are no longer freshmen. Sometimes this is not true because the freshman in question is completely the wrong size or just doesn't have it yet. You cannot assert that CJ Stokes is no longer a freshman. But you can for Will Johnson. You can for Colston Loveland. You can for Mason Graham.

Meanwhile in the realm of no longer sophomores: Donovan Edwards seems fully leveled up from last year's pad-seeker into this year's slashing missile, and we have answers about what happens when you put a game on JJ McCarthy's arm. McCarthy made one very bad mistake in this game, because he is not a 35-year-old All Pro yet. He also threw enough dead on downfield balls that everyone looking at the box score this morning can't believe he only had 17 pass attempts.

Going into the Ohio State game Michigan had questions. A wonky passing game, an injured star, a looming matchup against a real quarterback. In each case they had a player step up. The questions are no longer whether Michigan can. It is now merely whether they will.

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[Patrick Barron]

Mix in the rapidly-arriving youth with Ronnie Bell, Mazi Smith, Jake Moody, Brad Robbins, and Luke Schoonmaker--guys who took the long way around to get here—and you stand here, atop the Big Ten for the second straight year. This feels different, though. Last year the OSU win was shocking but a clear example of OSU dysfunction catching up to them. This year it eventually became clear they were trying to catch up to Michigan.

Last year Michigan entered a game against Georgia's generational defense more in hope than expectation that success would follow. It didn't take long to cast Michigan as a team not on UGA's level, one just hoping to stay in contact with a series of breaks. Upset minded. This year they'll enter the semifinal touchdown favorites against a feisty, insane TCU team that will enter hoping that they can keep up with Michigan's pounding ground game. Maybe they will; maybe they'll find that they're in the same position Michigan was a year ago: not quit there.

Michigan is there, or at least as there as they're ever likely to be. They have their five star QB locked in with a five star running back. They've got a defense that doesn't have Aidan Hutchinson on it but maybe just got a star. There's no time like the present to recalibrate from "just happy to be here" to a team with expectations even at the playoff level.

Some got here fast, some took their time. But they're here, individually and collectively. Michigan has arrived.

AWARDS

Known Friends and Trusted Agents Of The Week

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[Barron]

you're the man now, dog-2535ac8789d1b499[1]

#1 Will Johnson. Two interceptions, but that's not the whole story. Both were superior coverage on which Johnson had the route dominated and picked the ball off without any assistance. Since he's a corner the fact that he had just two tackles, one a third-down stop a yard downfield and one a screen TFL, is excellent. Johnson did get hit with a deserved PI and missed a tackle on a third down catch and run but two turnovers versus two instances of 15 yards is a massive win.

#2 Donovan Edwards. 25 carries, 185 yards, 7.4 yards a pop, two exclamation-point runs. On the first he dusted a cornerback and burst for 60 yards that could have been 70 but he ran out of bounds curiously early. The second was a ridiculous slalom through six Purdue defenders for a 27 yard touchdown. Project "quit running directly into guys" is a success. Imagine if he had two hands and was the receiving threat he was earlier in the year.

#3 JJ McCarthy. Just seventeen attempts, and did throw a turrible interception on one of those. Still managed almost ten yards an attempt; broke the pocket and created second chances on many of those. When he stood in the pocket he delivered at least three DOs, one on a rocket TD to Bell, the others on perfect arcing balls between levels in the Purdue zone. Elite business not that far away.

Honorable mention: Eyabi Okie had a couple of impressive QB pressures. Junior Colson was everywhere and didn't seem to have much blame for the early hiccups. The Offensive Line had some pass protection hiccups but my early take on their run blocking is that they were dominant and the only thing holding the run game down was free hitters. Mazi Smith consistently pressed the pocket, forcing a sack that Jaylen Harrell picked up; Harrell also had a solo sack of his own as he spun past the right tackle.

KFaTAotW Standings.

(points: #1: 8, #2: 5, #3: 3, HMs one each. Ties result in somewhat arbitrary assignments.)

51: Blake Corum (#2 CSU, #2 Hawaii, HM UConn, #1 Maryland, #2 Iowa. HM Indiana, T2 PSU, #1 MSU, T1 Rutgers, #3 Nebraska, #1 Illinois)

32: JJ McCarthy (#1 Hawaii, #2 UConn, HM Maryland, HM Iowa, #3 Indiana, HM PSU, HM MSU. HM Rutgers, #2 OSU, #3 Purdue)

24: The Offensive Line (#3 Iowa, #1 PSU, HM MSU, #3 Rutgers, #1 Nebraska, HM Purdue)

22: Donovan Edwards (HM Hawaii, T2 PSU, T1 Rutgers, #4 OSU, #2 Purdue)

18: Ronnie Bell (HM CSU, HM Hawaii, #1 UConn, #2 Indiana, HM PSU, HM Nebraska, HM Illinois)

17: Mike Morris (T3 Hawaii, HM Maryland, #1 Iowa, T1 Indiana, #3 PSU, HM Rutgers),

15:  Kris Jenkins (#3 UConn, T3 Hawaii, HM Iowa, T1 Indiana, #2 MSU, HM Rutgers, HM Nebraska), Mazi Smith (#1 CSU, T3 Hawaii, HM Maryland, HM Iowa, HM MSU, HM Nebraska, HM Purdue)

13: Mason Graham (HM Hawaii, HM Iowa, HM Indiana, #2 Nebraska, #2 Illinois)

12: Rod Moore(HM CSU, HM Indiana, HM MSU, T1 Ohio State)

11: Mike Sainristil (HM Maryland, HM Indiana, T1 Ohio State)

9: Cornelius Johnson (HM Hawaii, #3 Ohio State), Will Johnson (HM Rutgers, #1 Purdue)

7: Gemon Green (HM UConn, T2 Maryland, HM PSU), Jake Moody (HM PSU, #3 MSU, #3 Illinois).

6: Junior Colson (#3 CSU, HM UConn, HM PSU, HM Purdue)

5: DJ Turner (T2 Maryland), Luke Schoonmaker (T3 Maryland, HM Iowa, HM Indiana, HM MSU), Michael Barrett (#2 Rutgers), Eyabi Okie (HM CSU, HM Iowa, T1 Indiana, HM Purdue).

4: Jaylen Harrell (HM CSU, T1 Indiana, HM Purdue)

3: Derrick Moore (HM CSU, T1 Indiana)

2: Roman Wilson (HM CSU, HM Hawaii), Max Bredeson (T3 Maryland), Joel Honigford (T3 Maryland),

1: Braiden McGregor (HM CSU), Makari Paige (HM Hawaii), Rayshaun Benny (HM Hawaii), AJ Henning (HM UConn), Caden Kolesar (HM UConn), RJ Moten (HM Maryland), CJ Stokes (HM Nebraska), Andrel Anthony (HM Nebraska), Colston Loveland (HM Illinois)

Who's Got It Better Than Us(?) Of The Week

Johnson's second interception sets up a short-field touchdown and Michigan clinches a second consecutive Big Ten championship.

Honorable mention: Johnson's first interception. McCarthy's laser TD to Bell. Edwards's slaloming TD run. Edwards busts outside for 60.

image?MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

Purdue's second drive is a mess of missed assignments and tackles, setting them up with a touchdown and announcing this was not going to be an Iowa 2021 walkover.

Honorable mention: Any of several different O'Connell throws that were eyepopping, or any of several Chuck Sizzle moments that were similarly eyepopping.

[After THE JUMP: unstoppable throw-god ahoy]
the dread pirate monitor [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

It happened in the national title game. It actually happened twice: a screen of ref butts huddled over a monitor, poring over frame-by-frame replays of a routine, uncontroversial basketball play. Once they let the routine, uncontroversial basketball play stand. Once they said this was not Texas Tech basketball:

Michigan fans everywhere exclaimed I KNEW IT to normies around them, descending into paranoid spittle-flecked rants met with either polite incomprehension or, in certain cases, the nearest human saying "blarp" and falling over because they are drunk and/or an infant.

[After THE JUMP: blarp *falls over*]

don't fade unless you have Jeremy Gallon [Eric Upchurch]

Sponsor note. If you've got a business that needs creating or safeguarding or shepherding, Richard Hoeg will make you contracts and get you registered and generally set you on the path to being the world's first atomic sled tycoon. What's an atomic sled? I don't know! It's your idea. Need to work on your elevator speech, because I got nothin'.

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Hoeg Law: when you figure out what an atomic sled is. We are good at ads.

The goal line fade! Don't do it. Data from NFL two-point conversions:

Also intriguing that every color commentator's favorite option—the rollout pass—is the second-worst decision. Probably because everyone in the world thinks it's a good decision.

Slot corner. The Athletic engages Mike Renner of PFF to detail Michigan's 2019 NFL draft prospects. Many of the same stats you've seen on PFF's tweets—David Long's silly numbers, Chase Winovich's general relentlessness—feature but the most interesting new bit is a negative one on Tyree Kinnel. Not a surprising one, really:

Kinnel was a full-time safety for Michigan who also covered the slot at times. In the NFL and in college, he projects much better to the former. On 91 snaps covering the slot, he allowed 208 yards and a passer rating of 110.7. As a deep safety, he looked much more comfortable.

It is my contention that opposition WRs caught more than their fair share of heavily contested balls against Kinnel a year ago and that even if he's the same player that should be less of an issue this year. But if they've got three really good corners they should probably put one on the slot whenever the opposition has a passing down.

Some good news from the article is that PFF doesn't think Hudson has an NFL position right now and Lavert Hill isn't a slam dunk early entry guy, so Michigan could get them back next year.

[After the JUMP: lies, damned lies, and rosters.]