With the Michigan football spring game complete, we have our first idea of what to expect from the Wolverines this upcoming season, albeit quite an incomplete visage.
The maize and blue are operating in a familiar yet completely different sphere. With a new head coach in Kyle Whittingham, there are new schemes being installed. And though we got a glimpse of them, they won’t be fully quickened until the September 5 season opener against Western Michigan.
Yet, perception has been set. And with that, expectations.
ESPN went to the trouble to estimate the strengths and weaknesses of each of the projected top 25 teams, and for Michigan, the strength and weakness looks awfully familiar.
While we are more than inclined to agree with the listed strength, especially after the spring game, we demur from ESPN’s expectation that the pass catchers will be the weakness. While Marsh and Buchanan are the top two, as Jake Butt noted on the latest Locked On Wolverines podcast, the staff is looking for more trust for the players beyond that pair. Still, we saw from Ffrench and true freshman Salesi Moa that they can be reliable options, while others — Jacob Washington, Jamar Browder, or true freshman Travis Johnson — may prove inexperienced, yet could emerge. That’s not even counting the tight ends, which will factor in heavily.
If we were to choose the weakness, it would be one that Whittingham himself mentioned: the linebackers. While we didn’t get to see much of the likely starters in the spring game, particularly Chase Taylor, he, Troy Bowles, and Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng have little experience, but a lot of potential. Nathaniel Staehling has been precluded from spring with injury, but will be the most experienced linebacker of the bunch.
