Michigan Football: Grading the Wolverines against Maryland

Special teams: A-

The biggest downgrade was Jake Moody’s missed field goal. That rarely happens but it could have been costly and if the goal is winning a Big Ten title, Moody is going to have to make those and he will. Still this rare and kind of shocking miss hurt the grade.

However, it was hard to downgrade the special teams too much. The kickoff unit recovered a fumble on the opening play which led to a touchdown within seconds of the start of the game by the offense which was given a first and goal.

Maryland also had just two kickoffs returned for a total of 32 yards and one punt return for eight. Brad Robbins also had two of his three punts downed inside the 20.

Coaching: B

As our Cameron Stokes pointed out, there does seem to be some indecisiveness when it comes to the play-calling. I never liked when Pep Hamilton was around and the duties were shared between him and Harbaugh. We didn’t really know who called the plays and we don’t now.

Sometimes, the coach only has a few seconds to make a decision on a play call. There isn’t always time for a debate and you wonder how that’s going to work in some close games.

Maybe Harbaugh has it more defined than we realize. It’s just something to watch. I also wish the offense would be a touch more aggressive. I get teams are forcing J.J. to be patient, but the Wolverines need to scheme up some things for their best dudes and that doesn’t seem to be happening as much as it was last season, although I probably wouldn’t be saying that JJ’s throwing was a touch more accurate down the field. I also loved the run calls, especially the counters.