It’s impossible to ignore at this point. When asked a question earlier this week about maintaining the same starting five along the offensive…
It’s impossible to ignore at this point.
When asked a question earlier this week about maintaining the same starting five along the offensive line, Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh immediately went to the bench.
And started gushing.
“It was good to see Jalen Mayfield get in the game. Good to see James Hudson get in the game,” Harbaugh said before going into a detailed explanation of why U-M’s so excited about the two young offensive tackles. “We’ve got good hopes for both those tackles.”
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Two days later, Michigan offensive line coach Ed Warinner cranked it up again.
He said Mayfield, a true freshman left tackle from Grand Rapids, is ahead of the curve both mentally and physically. He added that Hudson has fully committed himself after a switch from defensive line to offensive line, now at right tackle.
Mayfield is getting a quarter of the starting reps in practice on the left side. Hudson’s getting more than that on the right side.
So, now, as Michigan prepares for its final non-conference game of the regular season, Saturday against SMU (3:30 p.m., BTN), the questions bubble: Will Michigan start rotating Mayfield and Hudson into games before garbage time, how close behind are these two to starting veterans Jon Runyan Jr. and Juwann Bushell-Beatty and is U-M’s plan to, at some point this season, make a switch up front?
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What Michigan did against Western Michigan up front last week was fine. It was a clean game against a weaker foe, the group rushed for more than 300 yards. Fine. Michigan will be expected to do something similar again Saturday. But even if that’s the case, this season won’t be judged on what this group can do against lower competition.
The offensive line, the tackle positions specifically, did not play well on the road at Notre Dame in week one. Huge games against Wisconsin, Michigan State (away), Penn State and Ohio State (away) all remain. And with Shea Patterson trending upward, the offensive line’s performance in big games is still the one thing standing between U-M and a Big Ten title run.
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It’s certainly possible that Michigan’s veteran tackles hold off the youngsters. But at the same time, it’s clear that competition is far from settled. Nor should it be. Throwing first-time players into the fire at Notre Dame in Week 1 may have been a big ask. But they’ve both played now.
And where things go from here should be very interesting.
SMU is going to put Michigan in space and try to spread the ball around through the air Saturday. Sonny Dykes still runs a version of the Air Raid offense, which is basically a modern Run and Shoot.
U-M has three corners playing really well right now in junior starters Lavert Hill and David Long, along with senior Brandon Watson. The Wolverines have used Noah Furbush some on third down in obvious pass situations. It paid off last week as Furbush recorded a pick. Against Notre Dame, though, he was beaten on a conversion.
It’ll be interesting to see how much Michigan puts three corners on the field against SMU, with someone like Hill moving inside to cover slot receivers. This can take pressure off Michigan’s safeties in terms of man-to-man coverage and could be a sign of how things might be played moving forward.
U-M’s continued attempt to diversify its run game saw some different wrinkles a week ago that proved pretty effective. The Wolverines continue to work both inside zone and split zone run plays and, a week ago, drew big yardage with G-block concepts.
Last season, Michigan could run power and counter and not much else. It seemed difficult for the group to move quickly in space, which is absolutely necessary if a team wants to be able to block zone concepts. And, of course, if U-M wants to be diverse offensively it’ll have to be able to accomplish both.
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The movement up front, through two weeks, does seem quicker than it did last season. Even against Notre Dame, there were some rush lanes created through zone calls.
Quinn Nordin spoke about how important “the next kick” was for him this offseason. Meaning, if he missed one or didn’t hit one right, his entire focus was on making sure the next one was perfect.
Nordin pushed one last week against Western Michigan. He struggled with consistency last season.
He’ll get the next opportunity at some point.
Michigan looked like an older football team last week against a team it was supposed to run over. Last season, with youth everywhere, U-M routinely self-sabotaged itself with mistakes and errors that kept even weak teams in games.
It’s time for this group to start putting together a rhythm in terms of preparation and execution on Saturdays.
Once is good. Two in a row is better. Three or more is best.
Contact Nick Baumgardner: nbaumgardn@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickBaumgardner. Download our Wolverines Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!
