Preview: Spring Game

Essentials

Overview

It's the spring game, an annual exhibition in which Michigan plays itself. Under Jim Harbaugh it's been an actual game instead of a barely-tolerated punting exhibition, which has been nice. Offensive line depth issues may make this year's outing rather incomprehensible.

In lieu of the usual preview format, here's a number of storylines to track.

Brandon Peters unveiled

[Bryan Fuller]

Wilton Speight is the expected starter and will probably see a minimal number of snaps, leaving most of them for backup John O'Korn and redshirt freshman Brandon Peters. Fifth-year senior O'Korn kind of is what he is at this point, and after the Indiana game it's safe to say expectations are modest.

Peters, on the other hand, is the first of what promises to be a long line of Harbaugh-recruited and groomed quarterbacks who are somewhere between Andrew Luck and Andrew Luck (except fast!). While he was on campus last spring he was a wet-behind-the-ears freshman in a five-way quarterback melee; this will be a much longer look at him, and one more indicative of the kind of quarterback he'll become.

BEST CASE: Internet legions clamor for Peters after every Speight incompletion because he goes 18/22 with a couple of pretty fade routes.

WORST CASE: Internet legions clamor for Peters after every Speight incompletion despite Peters looking like a shell-shocked youth in the jaws of Rashan Gary for the duration of the spring game.

Also unveiled: next-gen skill position players

[Patrick Barron]

Michigan lost four of their five skill-position starters to graduation. They're also missing Grant Perry due to a court issue and lost Devin Asiasi to a transfer. Questions abound.

They're least severe at tailback, where three of the four guys in last year's rotation are back. Ty Isaac, Karan Higdon, and Chris Evans have all demonstrated who they are over the course of the season and only minor tweaks are likely. Evans is the most likely to make a leap forward since he is going from a freshman to not that; he's also got two ways to impress. One is by adding a little De'Veon Smith to his game and breaking some arm tackles. The second is by adding a bunch of slot receiver snaps. Evans played slot a ton in high school, and was not just a screen threat. He was capable downfield as well. Getting that back on the college level would give Michigan's offense a ton of flexibility.

Isaac and Higdon are probably going to look like Isaac and Higdon, so the next-most intriguing guy is redshirt freshman Kareem Walker. Walker nearly transferred after some academic issues but stuck it out and started delivering on his recruiting hype during "Christmas Camp"; scattered reports have him continuing to impress. He figures to get extended run as Michigan sits veterans.

At wide receiver, the storyline is obvious: Donovan Peoples-Jones. The five-star has arrived to find an opportunity, and when the pads went on he immediately started people a-rumblin' about his freaky athleticism and relatively advanced knowledge of the playbook. He's very much a work in progress since Cass Tech had him run about three routes, one of which was "run faster than everyone"; maybe that still works though?

I'll also be interested to see how Michigan's sophomore WRs look. Kekoa Crawford got a fair amount of run last year and is assumed to be one of the starters. In those limited snaps he was a Darboh/Chesson-level blocker, had one bad drop, and one spectacular catch:

He's been gathering whatever buzz is left over after people stop talking about DPJ and is a good bet to emerge. Meanwhile, Eddie McDoom and Nate Johnson are both flashy slot types who will have an opportunity to demonstrate their skills as the enter year two. That's often a critical breakpoint for WRs.

At tight end it's really really time for Ian Bunting to emerge what with Jake Butt and Asiasi gone, and Ty Wheatley is another guy at a critical breakpoint: his blocking was half great, half terrible last year and he needs to start moving 10-20% of his terrible blocks into the other category.

BEST CASE: DPJ is Christian Kirk and Chris Evans is Captain Kirk.

WORST CASE: There's really no "worst case" for the tailbacks, who are more or less proven plus players as a unit. DPJ looking too raw to play and the tight ends having crappy blocking days would be bummers.

Can the tackles be salvaged?

It seems like Mason Cole returning to left tackle is a foregone conclusion at this point, and that makes him more interesting than an established starter usually is. Cole was an elite run-blocker as a sophomore but struggled against top-shelf pass rushers. Has that changed at all? Can he check Chase Winovich, who was extremely productive in limited snaps last year? Can he fend off Rashan Gary? Survey says maybe and probably not.

Everyone else playing tackle will be auditioning for a job. Juwann Bushell-Beatty is your tentative starter, and that's a worry. After Newsome went out JBB got some time at left tackle. Things went poorly, against, like, Rutgers.

Bushell-Beatty gave up pressure on 17% of his opportunities?

More or less. That protection number is alarming and Bushell-Beatty's performance was most of it. Other starting OL gave up one hurry-type substance when Braden had some difficulty with a blitzer. Bushell-Beatty was beat clean twice. One time he managed to hold a bit and get away with it on a pass that Speight missed on. The second time he did get hit with the hold.

That's two ole blocks on just 15 pass protection snaps against Rutgers. I am really skeptical he can put it together and strongly prefer a move back to Cole at LT with Kugler coming in. Cole did struggle against top end rushers last year. He did not struggle against Rutgers.

Rutgers is Rutgers and Rashan Gary is Rashan Gary. I'll be pleasantly surprised if JBB doesn't get overrun. I'm surprised that Michigan hasn't tried Ben Bredeson on the outside yet, because of all the guys on the roster he's the best combination of plausibility and experience; you could interpret that as JBB optimism but I'll have to see it to believe it.

Meanwhile all pursuers look to be well behind the curve. Nolan Ulizio might be your best bet amongst folks already on campus if only because he is tackle sized and was hit with mono a year ago, so he could have a major bounce.

BEST CASE: Cole looks very good and JBB is functional.

WORST CASE: Cole is still the sophomore version of himself in pass pro—which isn't the worst—and it's extremely obvious that Michigan is plugging in a true freshman at RT this fall.

MEAAAAAAAAAT

meeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

meat

meatmeatmeat

BEST CASE: MEAT

WORST CASE: meat

An explanation of the previous section

You author is slightly unhinged about the possibility of a Ruiz/Onwenu pairing on the offensive line, which promises to deliver almost 700 pounds of meeaaaaaaaaat meatmeatmeat into the face of opposition defenders.

Omar comin'

It's time for Rashan Gary to move into the starting lineup, which is good for Michigan and bad for opponents. Gary performed well enough in limited time last year that even if he remained totally static Michigan would have an honorable mention All Big Ten kind of player; he will not remain static. I'm at the point where I assume he'll be a beast and am hoping Cole can check him a bit, because that's more of an unknown.

BEST CASE: additional MEAT

WORST CASE: NFL draft eligibility suddenly changes

Anyone else on the defensive line?

y'all got any more of those Glasgows?

A starting lineup of Gary-Hurst-Mone-Winovich is going to be amongst the best in the nation, with two guys all but guaranteed to be performing at first-round-pick levels and Winovich, who had 5.5 sacks a year ago on maybe 20% of Michigan's snaps. Mone's still a bit of a mystery because of his injury issues but his floor is "all right, nothing special" and surrounded by these guys that'll be enough.

It's the dudes beyond the starters that cause some concern. There's been a little positive chatter about Carlo Kemp and early-enrolled freshman Donovan Jeter, and not much else. There's an APB out for Lawrence Marshall and Mike Dwumfour has missed much of the spring with some minor injuries. Projected WDE Ron Johnson playing on the interior this spring should give you an indication of what the depth looks like there.

A horde of guys arrive in the fall. Right now this looks like an opportunity for a Heininger or a Glasgow to emerge. If Michigan's renewed emphasis on their walk-on program could pay off here that would be real nice.

BEST CASE: Kemp looks like a legit SDE option. That wouldn't give Gary more rest, it would allow him to take snaps on the interior instead of "I dunno." Also a walk-on steps up?

WORST CASE: I mean maybe Michigan won't have to play backup DL because the starters get an infinite series of three-and-outs.

Is Wrobocop a real thing?

Linebacker is two spots and pretty simple: Mike McCray is one starter and the other will be either Devin Bush or walk-on Mike Wroblewski. Expect no clarity on this point coming out of the game because Bush and Robo—I'm done typing that whole thing out, sir—appear to be linebackers for different offenses. Bush can get sideline to sideline and cover downfield; Robo is the hard-nosed A-gap plugger that will come in handy against Wisconsin and MSU.

BEST CASE: We've got a new Glasgow/Kovacs.

WORST CASE: Robo is athletically limited and his prominence is a worrying thing about the LB corps.

Basically Peppers?

Hudson(#7) blocked two punts last year

The best news coming out of spring practice from the perspective of bloggers who have been relentlessly hyping up one 3.5* LB/S for a year and a half is the configuration of the new secondary. This features Khaleke Hudson as your VIPER(!!!) and it's time to go get that quote from his recruiting profile again:

"He is the best combination of strength, speed and burst I've seen in a long time," said Ruane. "Every tackle, run and block is violent with him. He will be playing on Sundays someday. And I'm happy he's graduating."

I don't necessarily want Hudson to demonstrate that in an intrasquad scrimmage... but if there's a walk-on who wants to take a very large one for the team we will remember you.

Hudson is the exact same size as Peppers and showed similar burst as a high school player. He's not Peppers, but...

BEST CASE: ...he's basically Peppers.

WORST CASE: oh honey no, shhh, he's basically Peppers

CBU

Michigan is sending three CBs to the NFL this year if someone gets wise about Jeremy Clark, and into their shoes step three more—maybe four. David Long, Levert Hill, Ambry Thomas, and Benjamin St-Juste are all contending for that vacated playing time, and there's considerable hype for all four. Long and Hill are sophomores and the presumed starters. How sticky are they? How reliable? Survey says pretty damn sticky and ask again later.

BEST CASE: They're basically Lewis.

WORST CASE: Hill is still liable to bite too hard on double moves and ends up giving up a couple long ones; St-Juste and Thomas aren't ready; Long still pretty good.

Special teams?

Did not exist in last year's spring game. God bless Jim Harbaugh.