Most years, Michigan has benefited from two to three weeks of what one would call a soft out-of-conference schedule. But, most years, Michigan is not the reigning national champions.
And next week, they get to deal with Texas.
Opening up their title defense at home against Fresno State, the Wolverines’ new-look offense left one with more questions than answers despite the 30-10 victory.
Right before kickoff, Sherrone Moore revealed that Davis Warren would get the start at quarterback. The true senior started the game with a short field on his opening possession after Zeke Berry hauled in an interception on the third play of the night. But after a couple of nifty plays to Colston Loveland and Semaj Morgan, Warren was subbed out on a play from the Bulldogs’ 3-yard line in favor of Alex Orji, whose ability to escape the pocket caused a defender to play the run instead of covering an open Donovan Edwards — who Orji connected with for the easy touchdown.
First half woes
Sadly, the rest of the first half for the Michigan offense wasn’t as pretty.
But first, let’s address the defense, which set the tone early with the Zeke pick and held the Bulldogs offense at bay for most of the evening. In addition to the frequent rotations at quarterback throughout the night, defensive back also saw its share of strange substitutions. Most notably, Will Johnson was pulled on multiple plays in the first half, despite showing his characteristic talents as a ball hawk (twice in the first quarter, he came within less than a foot of an interception). And when he came back from these bizarre absences, it looked very clear that he wasn’t in rhythm.
On Fresno State’s only scoring drive of the first half, Johnson got burned by Mac Dalena — who came just shy of hauling in a would-be touchdown throw from Mikey Keene on 3rd-and-8 (the Bulldogs settled for a 41-yard field goal).
Second half hiccups
Receiving the ball coming out of halftime, Michigan found themselves up a touchdown, but with less than 100 yards of offense to their name.
Early in the drive, Warren found Loveland for an intermediate pass that the big-bodied tight end extended for a 20 yard gain. But after a holding penalty at the line negated a 10-yard run by Edwards, the most glaring weakness for Warren went from ‘a concern’ to ‘a pattern.’ Earlier in the game, Warren elected to throw a deep pass (+40 yards downfield) intended for Fredrick Moore, who had an inside route heading to the endzone, but he threw it into double coverage and short of his man, resulting in an interception by Cam Lockridge.
This time, Warren once again elected to look deep on a 2nd-and-17. And while this play didn’t result in a turnover, it made it hard to overlook that Warren has a long way to go with his read progressions and throwing with anticipation. The former poses the more pressing worry, because if this game is to be taken as our only evidence, you might ask yourself, “What read progression?”
And yes, guys with limited experience as a starter will have these issues, but Warren’s first/only read would often be 25+ yards down the field. And, to put it kindly, he wasn’t hitting enough singles and doubles to be pointing to the bleachers with any frequency.
After a series of big time catches by the Bulldogs’ receiving corp, Fresno State found the endzone early in the fourth quarter off a 19-yard touchdown catch by Raylen Sharpe, who left Jo’Ziah Edmond in the dust after the freshman DB gave him too much leverage on the inside.
With ten minutes left to play, it’s 16-10 Michigan. Enter the keeper of the faith: Kalel Mullings.
Facing a 3rd-and-1 at the beginning of the drive, Mullings recorded consecutive runs of 21, 15, and six yards to set the Wolverines up inside the redzone, where Warren connected with Loveland between the hashes for an 18 yard touchdown.
Michigan’s Will Johnson (2) runs to the house for a pick six Saturday against Fresno State. (Tony Patroske/The Pit Media)
What was this?
The ensuing drive for Fresno State — I don’t even know where to start.
It started with back-to-back interceptions that both got called back, was extended by multiple penalties called against the Michigan defense — and finally ended with a Johnson pick-six from 86 yards out that put the game on ice.
As far as first outings of a season go, Wolverine fans have seen far worse. In addition to the big play of guys like Loveland and Mullings on offense and Johnson & Berry in the secondary, the interior of the defense, led by Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham, held the Bulldogs offense to less than 10 yards rushing for the evening.
But this season isn’t like most, and Michigan won’t get much time to find their rhythm like they’ve been afforded in previous years.
Asked at the postgame presser if the performance of his squad, a unit that looks different from last year’s in several areas, met his expectations in their first outing, Moore voiced that the program would never stop reaching for improvement.
“I mean, we’re always gonna strive to be perfect. Defense played really good, but there’s things that they want to get better at. Offense, we had our ups and downs – we’re gonna try to do better. So there’s not really a time where I’m ever gonna think we’ve reached the pinnacle. So for us, in all the phases – we’re going to just continue to try to be better.”
