Now that Michigan has had time to digest all that medicine, it’s time to regroup. The season marches on, and given how much of it remains it’ll be important for the Wolverines to have short memories about Week 2. Facing the Arkansas State ought to help quite a bit.
No disrespect intended to the Red Wolves – Butch Jones has taken them from 2-10 to 3-9 to 6-6 in his three-plus years at the helm. They’ve started 2-0 this year and may get back to six-plus wins again this season. Nevertheless, they’re currently projected to lose by four scores in Ann Arbor. This tends to be the case in a Big Ten-Sun Belt matchup.
So, what must Sherrone Moore & Co. do to rebound resoundingly and assure fans that last week was growing pains?
Simplify On Defense
That’s not necessarily to say ‘be more basic,’ but rather, ‘do the simple things effectively.’ Tackle, communicate, and be gap-sound at the line. Some of this stems from coaching, as it seems like Don Martindale has thrown a lot at these players early on in the season.
Predecessors Jesse Minter and Mike Macdonald tended to start the season with fundamental packages. As the year progressed, they’d add wrinkles, counters, and disguises to throw offenses off of what they’d seen on film. Martindale, conversely, has put the pedal to the metal early and will need to adjust now that he’s working with college kids rather than NFL veterans. It’s a fact of the game that players will make mistakes, even more so at the college level. Good coaching means giving them fewer opportunities for those mistakes to be back-breakers.
That’s the schematic side. In terms of execution, one of the most obvious culprits against Texas was poor tackling. Jyaire Hill and the linebackers in particular were giving out free yards with poor tackle attempts. Some of this looks foreign to Michigan fans who watched Mike Sainristil, Junior Colson, and Michael Barrett. When those players made contact, those hits stuck. There would always be a drop when replacing many productive, technically sound starters, but this has been precipitous. If Martindale and his coaches can get the basics right, they can inspire some hope for season-long improvement on this side of the ball.
Commit To Your Best Players On Offense
Namely, Colston Loveland, Kalel Mullings, Donovan Edwards, and Semaj Morgan. Outside of routine breathers, these four should be ubiquitous throughout the game. Getting the ball in their hands offers the best chance for this offense to be successful. It gives Davis Warren (or whoever is distributing the ball) a clear hierarchy to prioritize. It will also take some pressure off the rest of the wide receivers, who have shrunken from the spotlight early on this season, giving them time to come into their own.
How do you do that with two running backs in the mix? In chess terms, utilize your queen: Edwards. Put him in the backfield, split him out wide, motion him between the two – whatever it takes. Those pre-snap movements help reveal the defense’s intentions and set up mismatches. They also give Edwards more chances to make plays through the air, which at this point feels like a better idea than forcing him to be a between-the-tackles runner. He does not seem to have Mullings’ impeccable vision for finding open lanes and churning out yardage. Rather than try to shove a square peg into a round hole, embrace Edwards in a more Percy Harvin-like role as the offense’s Swiss Army Knife.
Honing in on that versatility will force defenses to cover all three of Loveland, Edwards, and Morgan. Most will not have the personnel to do so. Get Edwards and Morgan matched up with linebackers and let their speed win out. Get the 6-foot-5 Loveland on a cornerback and throw him a ‘go-up-and-get-it’ ball. Split all three out wide and open up the floodgates for Mullings to moose his way through a lightbox. Lean into your playmakers, especially as you’re breaking in a new line and quarterback.
Don’t Sleep On The Red Wolves
Michigan has not earned a chance to treat this like just another early season game against an inferior opponent. Arkansas State has an experienced quarterback-wide receiver tandem in Jaylen Raynor and Corey Rucker. They have a veteran offensive line with multiple All-Sun Belt performers in Jacob Bayer and Makilan Thomas. Running backs Ja’Quez Cross and Zak Wallace are a solid 1-2 punch in the backfield.
On defense, Charles Willekes is a problem at outside linebacker, and the secondary is led by playmakers Trevian Thomas and UMass transfer Jordan Mahoney. The Red Wolves’ bigger problems are on this side of the ball, however, as the front seven was inconsistent at best against the run last year.
This is the get-right part of the matchup for Michigan, who found out the hard way how difficult it is to establish the run without Blake Corum and six NFL linemen (give-or-take a Trente Jones). As the defense should go back to basics and focus on doing the little things correctly, the offense has a chance to do the same here. Help the new guys – Evan Link and Dominic Giudice in particular – settle into a rhythm with simple run concepts, handing the ball off to (hopefully) Mullings and letting everyone find a groove together. This is their last chance to find some baseline offensive cohesion before the meat of the Big Ten schedule starts up with USC (still bizarre to say ‘Big Ten’ and ‘USC’ together like that, by the way).
Shake It Off
It’s one loss. Not a particularly good or competitive loss, but it’s just the one. It may also wind up being a loss to a playoff-bound opponent, which should help ease the sting. It was also a very revealing loss, one that shines a light on some basic truths about this season that, in retrospect, feel obvious.
This is a team with a first-year head coach, an almost entirely new starting lineup, a bench that needs time to develop its depth, and an NFL defensive coordinator making the downshift to college. Add in an uncertain future under center and the rose-tinted glasses of the offseason are knocked clean off.
There’s still room for hope and upward trending, but it centers around a fairly large ‘if.’ If Moore and his staff can rally around the setback, show they can take a punch, and keep on trucking, it bodes well for the team’s future both this season and beyond. If they fail to bounce back and instead start to fold under the pressure of following up a national championship, this could turn into a .500 season or worse. For now, focus on Arkansas State and let’s see what they have after the dust settles on Saturday.
