Michigan Football: Rumblings from Wolverines spring game

Michigan football played its spring game on Saturday at the Big House and here are some early rumblings about what took place. 

The Michigan football spring game was closed to the public and the media, but we are getting some word about what happened.

The two teams did display some new uniforms as the team led by Cade McNamara wore the all blue uniforms, while J.J. McCarthy’s team sported all maize.

In the end, the blues won out, taking home the scrimmage by a score of 22-10.

From the sounds of it, Cade McNamara had a pretty solid day throwing the football, although both quarterbacks had issues with passes getting batted down.

According to Aaron McCann of MLive, McNamara was named the MVP of the game.

Another theme that came out of the spring was that freshman wideout Andrel Anthony had a really strong outing. At least that was according to one observer, Nate Lewis, who was at the game and posted this on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/NateLewis77/status/1380930569215868932

Lewis posted some other notes about the game, which you can see in this thread.

https://twitter.com/NateLewis77/status/1380976589970800644

Obviously, the game wasn’t open to the media and it wasn’t televised so we have to go off what people in attendance saw.

But there are multiple people talking about Andrel Anthony, including Chris Balas of The Wolverine who offered up this report on the spring game (subscription required).

It sounds like J.J. McCarthy had some ups and downs. He did throw an interception and had some trouble getting balls batted down. Yet, the takeaway about McCarthy is generally universal in that the talent is absolutely there, it’s just about development now.

At some point this season, I feel like he will get on the field but my money right now would be on McNamara to start the season unless Alan Bowman plays out of his mind in fall camp.

Here’s another quote from Balas that’s free offering this about the game:

"“We spoke of some of the QB issues with batted balls in Part I, but another of the sources we trust most says, “give the defensive line some credit.” There were times they weren’t getting pressure but coached to put their arms up and eliminate a passing lane … that’s something Aidan Hutchinson has always done well, and he wasn’t out there Saturday. Other guys have stepped up.”"

It sounds like the defensive line was able to get some pressure on the quarterback, which is a good sign, especially with Aidan Hutchinson, the team’s best pass rusher not playing.

Balas mentioned other guys stepping up and one of them is Mike Morris. That’s a good sign because the Wolverines are going to need others to step up alongside Hutchinson if the defense is going to be any good.

But as far as the spring, that’s a wrap and we won’t see the Wolverines back on the field until the fall.