Michigan football trounced Western Michigan in the season opener on Saturday on here are five things we learned about the Wolverines.
Saturday was a long time coming for Michigan football and after not winning a single game at home in 2020, the Wolverines quickly put that streak to bed.
That was thanks to a dominant effort against Western Michigan. Yes, the Wolverines are supposed to beat up on MAC teams by a score of 47-14. But would last year’s team have been able to do that?
The Wolverines have said they want to be a ground and pound team and they looked the part on Saturday. Michigan football went over 300 yards rushing and had three rushing touchdowns, all of which covered at least 22 yards.
Not everything was perfect mind you, and Ronnie Bell’s injury is awful. It’s a huge loss for the team and just terrible for Bell, who judging by his play in the first half, was going to break out for at least 1,000 yards this season.
Bell caught two bombs down the field. He got robbed on the one-hander but it was still an impressive play and all he did to respond was catch a 75-yard touchdown.
It’s hard to put into words how much someone like Bell will be missed.
At any rate, it was a stellar effort on both sides of the ball for Michigan football, and here are five things we learned about the Wolverines.
Michigan has something at quarterback
The quarterback play was always going to be judged closely and Cade McNamara played pretty well. He threw two touchdowns in the first half, didn’t turn the ball over, and completed 9-of-11 passes for 136 and an average of 12 yards attempt.
His two most impressive throws were the balls down the field to Bell. But he also drilled Erick All on his big play in the first quarter. As Jim Harbaugh said after the game when McNamara is in the game, the Wolverines score points and they did on Saturday.
Michigan football also scored with J.J. McCarthy in the game. And he wowed the fans with his 69-yard touchdown pass to Daylen Baldwin. It was a play very few college quarterbacks can make and also showed why J.J. will be the starter sooner rather than later.
Will that be this season? Only time will tell. But McNamara looked solid and steady, so I don’t think he’s giving up the job anytime soon, although next week is a much bigger test.
Michigan can create big plays
One thing Michigan football has needed more of is explosive plays on offense and the Wolverines delivered on Saturday.
Whether it was in the running game or in the passing game, the Wolverines dialed up a number of explosive plays. The two passes to Bell obviously counted, although one actually didn’t, but so did Baldwin’s catch.
And then there were a bunch of runs of at least 20 yards and four different guys had at least one including Blake Corum, A.J. Henning, Hassan Haskins, and Roman Wilson.
Both Henning and Wilson showed off their speed. Henning took an end around 74 yards for a score and showed why he was a top recruit back in 2020. He also has 10.7 speed in the 100. Wilson can also fly and ripped off a 43-yard run.
Obviously, the Wolverines will face a different animal in Washington, which despite its upset loss, has a really good defense. Creating explosive plays then will be the real test, but Saturday was a good sign as some of Michigan’s talent started to show out.
Corum has taken a leap
You always hear about the leap players take between their first season and the second. It’s a common thing. What’s important usually is how big is the leap?
For Blake Corum, it was huge. The guy racked up around 200 yards if you include his kickoff returns and on offense, he was responsible for over 130 yards and two touchdowns.
Hassan Haskins was solid. And his bruising style is going to be really helpful for this offense, plus he broke off a 22-yard touchdown run of his own.
But Corum is just a different back than Haskins. He showed that with his 14-yard touchdown catch on the opening drive. And to me, outside of Bell, he was easily the best player on the offense on Saturday, among the skill guys at least.
Corum totaled 111 rushing yards on 14 carries which surpassed his total from all of last season and if Saturday was any indication, Michigan football won’t have any issues with Corum not getting enough touches. He got 16 and he probably needs even more.
Defense passes the first test
Again, it was only Western Michigan but the defense was impressive. Not everything went smoothly and Western Michigan scored on its opening drive.
But the Broncos have one of the best quarterbacks in the country, certainly in the MAC in Kaleb Eleby and he went 20-for-37 for 191 yards and a touchdown. He wasn’t intercepted but the pass defense held up pretty well.
Certainly, we’re going to see some different things against Washington. I doubt that Mike Macdonald was showing everything to Western Michigan, however, there was still a lot to like.
For starters, having Daxton Hill playing in the nickel for most of the game was exactly the right thing to do and he blew up a slew of bubble screens. He’s one of the best tacklers on the team and it’s smart to have him around the box to shut down those kinds of plays.
Playing Daxton Hill on the outside is a waste, unless absolutely necessary. He’s going to have a huge year and his impact was much bigger than six tackles and one pass breakup.
The same can be said for Aidan Hutchinson who was all over the place. He notched a sack and was pressuring the quarterback all day. Nikahi Hill-Green also stood out to me in his first start and while the corners could have played better, they improved as the game went on.
It wasn’t a dominating performance but it was solid for the first game under a first-year defensive coordinator.
Areas of concern
Ronnie Bell’s injury is a huge concern and after he was seen in a wheelchair at the Big House on Saturday, it’s not looking good for a return.
That leaves a gigantic hole at the wide receiver. His leadership and mental toughness will be tough to replace, plus he was the man on third down. Henning has the potential to be that guy in the slot and Mike Sainristil can too.
This put the onus even more on Cornelius Johnson, All, Wilson, and Baldwin. All those guys will need to help fill in but someone needs to emerge and Henning could be the guy.
On defense, there are still question marks. Washington is a much better running team than Western Michigan and the Broncos averaged 3.9 per carry and got 126 total yards. Eleby was only sacked once and the defense didn’t create any turnovers.
Sacks and turnovers are the lifeblood of any good defense, so the Wolverines need more of those. The corners also showed some shaky ball skills, again, which could be costly against better teams, and also Josh Ross had issues in coverage.
There were a lot of positives but also questions that still need to be answered.