Michigan Football: Grading Wolverines win vs Western Michigan

Special teams: A

The special teams were crisp and they were productive. Obviously, losing Ronnie Bell to an injury on a 31-yard punt return was a killer.

It created points and Blake Corum also got Michigan football into scoring position with a kickoff return which was twice that special teams put the offense in a position to score.

Additionally, kicker Jake Moody made both of his field-goal attempts and was 5-for-5 on extra points. There wasn’t a glaring mistake and that’s what you want Week 1.

Coaching: A

A bunch of people has questioned Jim Harbaugh for playing Bell on special teams but I think that’s tough to do. Returning punts isn’t all that easy. You want someone who will catch the ball and Bell does that as well as anyone.

It’s easy to say that someone else should have done it. But say that player fumbled early, which allowed Western to score, get early momentum and hang around.

Then people would be saying: “Why wasn’t Ronnie Bell back there?”

You can’t foresee injuries and you can’t coach scared. You play your best players and hope for that best. The coaching staff did a nice job in all three phases.

The defense actually mixed up coverages and pressures. The offense was pretty vanilla but if you can control the line of scrimmage, you get that luxury.

Most importantly, Michigan football played a clean game. There weren’t any turnovers or blown coverages leading to 60-yard touchdowns. The penalties were in check. And the team was motivated, so give credit where credit is due.

We’ll see what happens next Saturday night.