Michigan football: In Depth Review of Fresno State and Looking Ahead to Texas

Football is finally back! It is once again the glorious time of year when we can settle age-old debates about which academic institutions are superior by having 18-to 22-year-old kids compete in athletic events on our behalf. We can also once again lie that our mental health isn't unhealthily tied to the success of our teams in those academic events.

Okay, all jokes aside there is a lot to get into from Michigan's game against Fresno State on Saturday. After months of agonizing and speculating over how this team would look once we finally had the chance to see them in action, they looked... kind of exactly how we would expect. A lot of new players, particularly on the offense line and at quarterback, figuring it out. Like any rational Michigan football fan, I rewatched Saturday's game and took some notes. Here are my thoughts.

Offensive Line and Run Game

The most noticeable aspect of the offense was the inability to consistently run the ball. It certainly didn't help that Fresno State was playing extremely aggressive run defenses all night. On nearly every play the Bulldogs stacked the box, adding more players near the line of scrimmage than Michigan football had blockers. Most teams can't run the ball against this type of defense. Michigan was able to the last few years due to extraordinary offensive line play. This year's offensive line still features a lot of talent, just a lot of inexperience as well.

The biggest problem in the run game really comes down to technique that needs to be cleaned up over the course of the season. The assignments and players knowing who to block in the run game actually looked pretty good without a lot of mistakes. I'm not sure if it was first game jitters, but all night the offensive line struggled to work off of double team blocks and get up to the second level of the defense. As a result, Michigan's running backs didn't really have any room to get up field and gain yardage. This finally changed on Michigan's final drive of the game and we saw Michigan rip off runs of 6, 6, 21, and 15 yards to set up a play action pass for a touchdown.

In pass protection the offensive line actually looked really good aside from a few missed assignment errors early on. Overall, what we saw is what you'd expect from an offensive line with five new starters. We should see a lot of improvement over the course of the season.

Michigan football clearly has the ability to execute better, it's just a question of consistency and how much they can improve in a week as they prepare for Texas.