Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from the annual spring game

Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan football team wrapped up spring practices with a rare meaningful display of full-contact action in the Big House.

It was a clear day for weather purposes in Michigan Stadium on Saturday afternoon as the Big Ten champs conducted their yearly spring contest. Most of the backups had their time to shine as the starters played sparingly throughout the day. The blue team got the better of the maize squad at the conclusion of the festivities by a score of 20-12.

Here are the three takeaways from Michigan football’s spring game.

1. The punters had themselves a busy day

Brad Robbins is Michigan’s main returning punter on the roster. He wasn’t used at all today, and neither was Jake Moody, as Harbaugh let the seldom-used reserves get a crack at it. Tommy Doman and Charlie Mentzer handled the daily duties for Robbins and they got most of the work with both sides punting it a lot. Rhett Andersen was the only other guy who saw time kicking for the maize crew.

The offensive calls were pretty bland as expected for a spring game. There were a couple of flea-flickers used and a handful of deep shots called on some circumstances. All three quarterbacks who saw the most action, besides Cade McNamara, played reasonably well as each of them had their moments throughout the April event.

McNamara didn’t lead either offense to the endzone in his brief time out there. It was also a major bummer that we could not see J.J. McCarthy take the next step in his development.

However, it is far more important to have him ready for Colorado State and beyond, than a meaningless exhibition, at least from his momentary standpoint of things.