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Michigan Wolverine Football: Spring Game Review — Part II

By Eroc Wolverine

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GBMWolverine Michigan Football TidbitsPosted at 12:00pm — 4/7/2015

Michigan Wolverine Football: Spring Game Review — Part II

Factor Five:
The receiving corps is still unproven and in a state of flux, there is much work needed in acquiring and implementing talent. Elements thought to be useful for an upgrade are currently unavailable or remain undeveloped. Michigan had some near misses on top recruits at the receiver spot like Lavon Treadwell, and the one prized recruit (at least by recruiting sites) has never been healthy.

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Michigan is in a situation where one medium quality receiver, Amara Darboh, had some moments of flash and some highly visible missed opportunities: drops, being off -balance, and not adjusting to the ball were impediments for Darboh and others as well. Michigan has one tight end, Jake Butt, who can be described as being top tier.

Dennis Norfleet, may return as a running back (doubtful), or a slot man (only somewhat doubtful), but yesterday he was a defensive back that demonstrated smallness and newness in the role of college edge defender.

There is an ongoing, and hopefully successful, venture to distill more tight ends from the Contextual approach of finding talent from other pools. A Spring Game is really an evaluative tool, dressed up for the purpose of fan entertainment.

Michigan Wolverines
Michigan Wolverines /

Michigan Wolverines

Chase Winovich and others have precious little time to improve. But, in a disappointing manner, this group collectively had several drops or mishaps. Ian Bunting, Mo Ways, Jaron Dukes, and Winovich all had an opportunity to shine in a first attempt to obtain more playing time and show good hands by making routine to somewhat difficult catches.

The results simply indicate that Coaches Jedd Fisch, Jay Harbaugh, and this entire collective receiving group have a daunting task ahead; gaining enough proficiency to keep the opposition from again cheating up to stop the already challenged Michigan running game.

Coach Harbaugh’s offensive strategy of using tight ends and an H-back to outnumber the opposition or cause them to change alignment relies on strong tight end blocking and the ability to catch the occasional needed pass. This necessity is currently not present.

Brian Cole is a real possibility for the future, a dimension once assigned to the often-injured Drake Harris. But, again, Jim Harbaugh’s offensive vision is hindered by a lack of good blocking tight ends and at least one prime time receiver to take the stress off of he running game.

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    • Factor Six:

    The primary running backs, Derrick Green and De’Veon Smith continue to have some good and many not so good moments. Hitting the hole quickly and cutting back has been emphasized by Coach Tyrone Wheatley and is still a skill in need of large improvement.

    Ty Isaac remains an unknown, although his physical assets are noteworthy, and Drake Johnson’s leg problems always will be a concern. If Johnson were to become 100 percent healthy, he could ascend back up the depth chart quickly as nothing special was noted in yesterday’s game.

    Freeze the video from the initial hit of the linemen after the snap and a typical view is the offensive linemen being straight up, that is, neutralized, and the backs already hesitating to look for a side hole.

    It did look as if Smith immediately hit some planned cutback moves that had the effect of gaining an extra yard or two. It is no mystery that for the Michigan running game to improve, the backs, the line, and the tight ends must all dramatically improve.

    Come back later today to keep reading the Spring Game Review.

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    Written by GBMWolverine Staff — Doc4Blu

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