Michigan 51, UCF 14 Comment Count

Ace


Tyree Kinnel got his hand on not one, but two punts. [Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog]

I can't sum it up any better than this guy did:

Tyree Kinnel deflected two UCF punts, Chris Wormley blocked two field goals, and Khaleke Hudson demolished a kick returner who appeared to be going out for a light jog. The Knights took an illegal block penalty on a kickoff touchback, sent out 12 players for a punt return, and muffed a short kickoff for a Jordan Glasgow recovery.

So that covers the special teams.

Wilton Speight took advantage of a UCF defense intent on loading the box against the run with several pinpoint throws downfield, finishing 25-for-37 for 312 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. The usual suspects led the way among the receivers; Jake Butt had two touchdowns among his seven catches, Amara Darboh cross the goal line twice and broke the hundred-yard mark, and Jehu Chesson needed only four receptions to tally 84 yards. That more than made up for the running game, which couldn't get much going agianst eight- and nine-man boxes; even with sacks and a punt gone wrong removed, Michigan averaged only 3.7 yards per carry. Fullback Khalid Hill plunged in for two touchdowns, at least, so it wasn't all bad on the ground.


Upchurch

The defense, meanwhile, limited quarterbacks Justin Holman—who exited the game in the first half with an apparent injury—and Nick Patti to a combined 6-for-22, 56-yard performance. A few errors—one of which may have been on the officials—led to an 87-yard touchdown run for Adrian Killins, and the Knights were able to rack up 275 yards on the ground, with a healthy chunk of that coming when the QBs broke contain.

While many fans were concerned about the line play, one Jim Harbaugh didn't share that worry.

"I thought the lines really took care of business today," said Harbaugh. "Both the offensive and defensive lines did a very good job."

Quarterback contain, he admitted, was an issue, but one that he believed Don Brown made the proper adjustments for in the second half.

Rashan Gary had his first big game as a Wolverine, tearing off the edge for his first career half-sack (Ben Gedeon arrived simultaneously) and had two more tackles for loss. Seven different Michigan defenders tallied tackles in the backfield, and Jabrill Peppers was everywhere—he led the team with eight tackles (two for loss), had two QB hurries, and returned a line-drive punt 35 yards deep into UCF territory to set up Butt's second score.

If there's any indication that Michigan has returned to form, it's that the crowd didn't seem satisfied with a 37-point win. Against an overmatched opponent that couldn't even reliably get a kick in the air untouched, the coaches had no need to utilize much of the playbook, which led to some ugly plays but won't reveal anything to Colorado, next week's opponent and Michigan's first that appears to have a pulse.

Comments

TrueBlue2003

September 10th, 2016 at 11:06 PM ^

never played two worse teams twice in a row.  Hawaii was 122nd last year, UCF was 128th (last in FBS). The defense did not look great against a bad team that runs an offense that we need to be able to stop.  Not too worried about it given the new scheme and injuries, but glad we get a couple of bad opponents that run this offense to work on it.

Hail Harbo

September 11th, 2016 at 8:30 PM ^

And last year doesn't count for this year.  If the previous year counted for the current year, then explain how Michigan won 10 games last year after going 5-7 the previous year?

But anyway, I'm guessing Case, Albion, Beloit, and Ohio Northern, would challenge for worst in a row.  If you want just two, perhaps Kalamazoo and Physicians & Surgeons?  Or maybe American Medical and West Virginia (Michigan put up more than 200 points against those two).

MGoLaw16

September 10th, 2016 at 4:20 PM ^

I think this week's UFRs will be particularly interesting. I'm anxious to see just how much the run game woes were due to stubborness by UCF (stacking the box and ignoring the pass even after Speight proved he could torch them), and how much was due to an off day for the offensive line. I also think the defense played better than people thought, but we will see soon I guess.

 

ijohnb

September 10th, 2016 at 5:43 PM ^

don't think it is that simple. We look the part of a fifth ranked team, but we are seriously getting no push from the line at the LOS. We have been going to sweeps to generate a run game, even early. Yeah, they were daring us to throw, but that is a pretty lightweight d-line. I am not pushing any panic buttons, we dominated the game. However, there was nowhere to run in a conventional run game at all. I think we can all afford to collectively be a little concerned about the O-line. They look fine in pass protect, but not on the ground so far.

In reply to by ijohnb

RockinLoud

September 10th, 2016 at 7:24 PM ^

No push? Idk man, they definitely had some bad plays where backs were getting pressure in the backfield, but I recall seeing quite a few plays where they just destroyed them off the line and no one even came close to the back until 3 yards past the line of scrimmage. Not sure what the ratio of good to bad was, but it wasn't like they got dominated 95% of the time like everyone is making it out to be.

In reply to by ijohnb

Hail Harbo

September 11th, 2016 at 8:35 PM ^

The first Q their front four were pushing our front five into the backfield.  Maybe they had seven in the box, but many times they were using just four to disrupt the run.  Jim might be happy, but it was ugly, and three years ago Funk and Hoke were this close from being crucified for an offensive line that looked little worse than did Michigan's yesterday.

In reply to by ijohnb

myislanduniverse

September 12th, 2016 at 10:42 AM ^

...the Offensive Line pretty well. That same line was protecting Speight pretty handily against that same 8-9 man stack.  It was still UCF, and I'd still like to see them run the ball between the tackles to spite them, but why not take the wide open field they gave? There was similarly little reason to open the playbook to get the run-game moving on the outside.

 

https://www.profootballfocus.com/college-ucf-michigan-grades/

RobM_24

September 10th, 2016 at 5:09 PM ^

It seemed like UCF was intent on bringing pressure and hoping to stop the run and get to the QB. Obviously we took advantage by finding wide open receivers downfield, but I felt like the OL didn't do a good job of blocking inside out. Too many guys rushed through the middle without getting identified until it was too late.

reshp1

September 11th, 2016 at 12:39 AM ^

I gave it a rewatch. I thought the OL was fine. Most run issues were either UCF aggressively shooting LBs and safeties into gaps or TEs and FBs, amd sometimes WRs biffing blocks. Sacks and pressures were mostly also either jailhouse blitzs, or very well timed blitzs the backs couldn't react to fast enough. I'm anxious to see what the UFR says, but I bet OL grades out fine except for LG (Braden and Bredeson

elm

September 11th, 2016 at 11:27 AM ^

It seemed from first viewing that they were consistently getting run pressure against the left guard. I saw Bredeson get beat a few times and I wondered how much Braden was playing. If he was also getting beat as bad as Bredeson, that's not good. The rest of the line, though, looked fine.

Big Boutros

September 10th, 2016 at 4:24 PM ^

We covered the spread on a day where many (most?) top teams are looking like hot ass. Just a weird day. Run blocking and QB contain the only real concerns, Harbaugh says no new injuries...pretty nice afternoon

AFWolverine

September 10th, 2016 at 4:26 PM ^

I think this was a great way for Harbaugh to show what he can do against spread teams, much like he did against Oregon. I was a little annoyed with the run game, but like the recap says, 8 and 9 man boxes will do that.



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TrueBlue2003

September 11th, 2016 at 10:45 AM ^

The comment "see what Harbaugh can do" against spread teams along with the specific comment about offense implied a discussion about the offense, since that's what Harbaugh coaches.  I was similarly eager to see what Don Brown can do against spread teams since he's the one running the defense and comes in with proven results.  Jury certainly out a bit but I'm sure we'll be ready to go for the teams at the end of the schedule.

Amaznbluedoc

September 10th, 2016 at 4:26 PM ^

Harbaugh will never put his players down - an admirable quality - but he was wrong about the line play and they have a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball  if they expect to perform against whiskey, MSU, Iowa, and Ohio.

myislanduniverse

September 12th, 2016 at 11:09 AM ^

...About the O-Line. With the exception of Braden, the line was moving bodies 3-4 yards off the line of scrimmage nearly every play. With 9 guys in the box, though, you need the backs or receivers to pick up a block, and they were whiffing. 

 

UCF stuck with their defensive plan all day, knowing full well that it would give up big pass numbers in blowout fashion, because they had no illusion of winning, and wanted to have a moral victory to point to, to build confidence off of.

Reader71

September 10th, 2016 at 10:04 PM ^

Yep. He turned a 20-25 yard gain into 86 yards and 7 points. We're gonna give up a few of those. Live by the pressure, die by the pressure. We had quite a few blitzes that got picked up and left our backfield wide open. But we only have 11 players. This is the new normal. Lots of TFLs, more than the occasional big play against.

TrueBlue2003

September 11th, 2016 at 12:20 AM ^

this had nothing to do with pressure.  Thomas was in position and took a horrendous angle. With his speed and Peppers and Lewis on the field, I'd be disappointed if we give up any more plays of 80+ yards, which are rare.

Don Brown's defense at BC last year was #2 in the country in FOs IsoPPP metric which is a defenses ability to prevent explosive plays.  This was better than Michigan's ranking last year (#18) so he's right that his is not a defense that is "high risk".  Their aggressiveness is controlled and smart so the scheme isn't going to be responsible for a lot of big plays.  Missed tackles and blown assignments will be to blame so gotta clean that up. 

reshp1

September 11th, 2016 at 10:44 AM ^

I think his point is with the safeties and DBs getting run off by routes and the entire front seven blitzing, if someone misses a tackle or assignment or takes a bad angle, which is fairly inevitable from time to time, the consequences are bigger in Brown's system. Even if Dymonte makes the tackle it's still a 25 yard gain.

mgoblue98

September 11th, 2016 at 12:12 AM ^

holding call was not the only holding call that was missed that went in Michigan's favor.  There were at least three or four other egregious holding calls on Michigan that didn't get called. 

I don't think the "block" on McCray was holding.  Lawrence Marshall lost edge contain from the DE position.  Then McCray failed to get off of the block and Thomas took a terrible angle and that was it.

-NTB-

September 10th, 2016 at 4:27 PM ^

You can only play who's on the schedule. When was the last time Michigan covered 40+ and 30+ point spreads in a season? There were, and are, going to be mistakes moving to a new defensive system but at least Don Brown has some teaching material this week. Contain will get better. Also, when was the last time we had such high expectations for freshmen and back ups? Eaay win and no major injuries...I for one will take it.

Blue Sharpie

September 10th, 2016 at 4:29 PM ^

Loved the game, but the defense showed a weakness when selling out on the blitz and leaving the middle or strong side wide open. I hope this is a ploy to make future teams key on this and then show them a different look. Great result overall on a better opponent than Hawaii.