Michigan Football vs Hawaii: Game Balls for the Wolverines

The Michigan football team took it to Hawaii Saturday afternoon at the Big House, beating the Rainbow Warriors 63-3. Here are three games given out to key players for the Wolverines.

Michigan football dispatched a bad Hawaii team that had been literally globetrotting for the past two weeks 63-3 Saturday in Ann Arbor.

Related Story: Michigan rolls over Hawaii 63-3

The Rainbow Warriors only moved the ball successfully on a couple of drives and didn’t notch their first first down until late in the second quarter. Accounting for the level of competition, Michigan football’s new starting quarterback, Wilton Speight and the offense performed pretty well.

The Wolverines were efficient and ruthless, as all Jim Harbaugh coached teams are and should be, but there are still some cracks that can be exposed once the schedule gets tougher.

That being said, there were a lot of encouraging performances from guys new and old, but the freshmen looked particularly impressive.

Chris Evans and Eddie McDoom didn’t look like first year players on offense while Rashan Gary already looks like a stud and Devin Bush held his own in the fairly large chunk of game time he saw.

There was some shakiness as the team was trying to shake off the cobwebs, but overall this game was a huge positive, so here are the game balls.

Chris Evans

To be honest, I really didn’t see Evans as the backup to De’Veon Smith this year, much less in the opener. One game against a ragged Hawai’i team isn’t much to go on, so we shouldn’t anoint him quite yet, but he was really impressive.

De’Veon Smith is the incumbent starter and he looked like his usual battering ram self until he tweaked a rib and exited the game. We don’t know the extent of the injury yet but it doesn’t seem like it was serious. The team just didn’t need him at less than 100% given how well Evans was running.

Evans showed surprisingly good vision for a freshman–something this running back corps struggles woefully with–hitting holes with authority and recognizing where his lead blockers were consistently. The offensive line got downfield effectively and Evans was willing to stutter step and wait for his blocks to line up before making cuts or trying to split defenders.

The thing that was most refreshing/encouraging/generally filled me with joy is he’s fast and really quick. It seems like forever since Michigan has had a back that is genuinely fast and can get into space. Between De’Veon Smith, Ty Isaac, Kareem Walker, Drake Johnson (who didn’t dress today), Harbaugh and Drevno have a lot of guys they can throw out there, and honeslty Evans wasn’t really on my radar.

Thankfully Mike Patrick only had about three things he said all day and one of them was that Harbaugh called Evans a “shining star,” so apparently he was on the staff’s radar. Either way, his performance was a hell of a pleasant surprise. He finished the game with 112 yards on 8 (!) carries and two touchdowns. He’s a freshman running back, so expect ups and downs this season, but he looked really good today.

Freshman Linemen

The offensive line got a bit of a shakeup over the offseason. Mason Cole moved to center and there would be either one or two first year players at guard or tackle. Those two first year players looked pretty good today. Ben Bredeson showed nimble feet and brute strength at guard, opening up lanes for the backs and leading them downfield at times.

I somehow didn’t notice this, but fellow freshman apparently Michael Onwenu played on both sides of the line. Don’t expect him to spend too much time on defense after everyone on that side of the balls gets healthy, though. Onwenu looked every bit the monster he’s been advertised as when he was on the offensive line though. He’s a little raw, but basically just being able to move an opposing lineman back two yards whenever you want makes life easier.

Michigan fans should be excited about these two; big, nimble, aggressive linemen will always be welcome in Ann Arbor.

Mike McCray

First off, McCray is enormous. Never noticed that before today. He stands 6’4 and weighs 250 pounds. Second, McCray seems to fit much better in Don Brown’s system than he did in any of the previous one’s in which he’s played. Brown showed a lot of different looks, but most involved moving McCray and Jabrill Peppers around incessantly around the line of scrimmage and further back in the box.

There were a lot of plays where McCray would show blitz and then drop into coverage on a tight end, running back, or slot receiver. He just quick enough to handle that responsibility, it seems; he didn’t get burned and generally stayed with his assignments. He was also a frequent A gap blitz companion for Jabrill Peppers. Brown would bring Peppers on the edge or the C gap while McCray attacked up the middle.

Hell, he even stunted with interior linemen a couple times. A smaller linebacker couldn’t do that. He showed himself to be much more versatile than expected today, and hopefully that continues against better competition. He and Peppers could be an absolutely devastating blitz combination. They exist at the poles of the hybrid player spectrum: Peppers is just a freak, but he’ll spend most of his time on the edges and occasionally stunt inside after showing blitz. McCray can blitz, put a hand on the ground or stunt with interior linemen, and can cover guys in space decently. This game was full of pleasant surprises.

Next: Top 10 Michigan Running Backs of All Time

Game Ball Count

Mike Evans, Mike McCray, Ben Bredeson, Michael Onwenu.