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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In just over a week, Michigan will take the field for the first time in 2020 since the VRBO Citrus Bowl against Alabama, and it will do so against a potentially daunting Minnesota team.
Though the Golden Gophers lose six starters on defense and five on offense, it still has a lot of playmakers returning — potentially on the offensive side of the ball. Gone are WR Tyler Johnson and RB Rodney Smith, but Minnesota returns all five starting offensive linemen from 2019, and most importantly, QB Tanner Morgan, who is the most prolific passer in Golden Gophers history, having set a single-season passing record last year with 3,253 yards and 30 TD passes — both records.
But the O-line is naturally the chief concern for Michigan defensive line coach Shaun Nua.
They’re big, he notes, which is certainly true. Per Minnesota, they’re listed as follows:
- Blaise Andries – 6-foot-6, 325-pounds
- Connor Olson – 6-foot-5, 305-pounds
- Sam Schlueter – 6-foot-6, 325-pounds
- Daniel Faalele – 6-foot-9, 400-pounds
- Curtis Dunlap, Jr. – 6-foot-5, 345-pounds
By contrast, the Michigan defensive line averages a weight of 282-pounds, meaning, they’ll be giving up some heft, and will have to rely heavily on speed and technique to disrupt Morgan’s passing rhythm — easier said than done. Morgan had his best passing grades (per PFF) in some of Minnesota’s biggest games, with his best overall coming in the tilt against Penn State last year (94.0). In Minnesota’s other big games, he was a mixed back, with lower grades against Auburn (59.6) and Wisconsin (65.2), but really good in the loss to Iowa (90.7).
Still, despite the size and skill of the O-line, it was No. 94 in sacks allowed, giving up 30 total and 2.31 per game. They were middling, at No. 61, in tackles for loss allowed, with 5.62 per game.
Running back Mohamed Ibrahim — who had a team-leading 1,160 yards in 2018 and 604 yards in 2019 — takes up the mantle again as the starter, so even with Smith gone, it’s not like there isn’t experienced production at the position.
For Nua, though the defensive front has been identified as Michigan’s team strength, he recognizes that this is the biggest good-on-good matchup in the game. And for Michigan to have success, it’ll have to penetrate early and often.
“Very big O-line, veteran O-line coming back,” Nua said. “Still need to know, finalize who it is. I decided that, probably tomorrow, I’m completely committing myself to Minnesota. Right now we’re still focusing on us and trying to get us better.
“They have a very, very good scheme to help their O-line. The quarterback gets rid of the ball fast, good receivers, the running backs run hard. Huge offensive linemen and they bring in extra linemen sometimes to help out with their run game and protection of their quarterback. But it’s gonna be a very, very fun challenge for us, you know?”
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Thus far in college football, it appears that offenses have gotten the better of defenses — which is an odd occurrence given that defenses usually have the early advantage. While the numbers don’t necessarily bear much of a difference from year-to-year, as prolific offenses tend to show out, regardless, in what’s usually a non-confernece warmup slate, Nua wants to ensure that the defense gets out to a quick start and doesn’t allow Minnesota to get into any sort of rhythm.
Still, he’s watched the games and has seen all of the early offensive success. He’s just determined to see that Michigan doesn’t become one of those teams that struggles getting home like we’ve seen from some over the past month and a half.
“Why do I think that is? Just the fact that you missed spring ball, you missed fall camp, you missed the summer workouts,” Nua noted of defensive struggles in the early going. “I personally think that has a big reason for defensive struggling. But you also gotta ask then how are the offenses being successful? They missed the same amount of time, so is it easier to catch a snap and throw it or run it than defending it? So all of that comes in, but there was another interesting thing that came out – it’s harder to build a team, and defense is all team. If you don’t have all 11 guys bought in, that’s hard to do. It’s hard to play sound, aggressive defense if you don’t have all 11 guys bought into it. You may see the physical stuff that they missed from practice, but the camaraderie and morale of these defenses – where is it at? You make sure you answer that.
“Does it benefit us for a late start? Yes, because we get to see them struggle and then we’ve gotta try to address all of those issues. All the way from tackling to defense or team chemistry – all of that stuff. Whatever it is we’re trying to find out – why the heck are they struggling? We can’t always blame it on, ‘Oh, they missed spring ball or fall camp,’ because the defense isn’t doing good. Hopefully we can figure out and not follow that path.”
“Don’t know if you ever figure it out – you can’t answer that question until after the game, that first game,” “But we definitely are addressing it. Why are there high scores? We’re definitely addressing it to make sure we’re not following that same trend that’s going on.
“I’ll answer that after the first game or first two games.”
Michigan kicks off the 2020 season in Minneapolis on Oct. 24 at TCF Bank Stadium. The game will be nationally broadcast on ABC at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
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