Tag: Michigan USC

Michigan hopes Texas beatdown creates lessons learned for USC battle

USC hopes to benefit from the LSU game when it plays Michigan. The Wolverines hope to benefit from their early-season test against Texas.

USC hopes the LSU game sharpened the Trojans for Michigan. The Wolverines hope their 31-12 loss to Texas will make them better and more disciplined against USC. Wolverines Wire has more details on this:

However, we saw similar issues, particularly in Week 2 against Texas. Martindale is pressuring much more than his predecessors and that has caused some issues, but there have also been execution issues, players not being in the right places, et cetera.

Junior defensive tackle Mason Graham is confident that Martindale is scheming things up correctly on a per-game basis and that the blitz rate is contingent upon the opponent.

“I feel like it changes every week, depending on who we’re playing, it’s kind of goes week to week,” Graham said. “If he feels like he wants to blitz and we’re going to blitz and feels like that’s what’s up best for us, then that’s what we’re going to do. So, we have trust in him, supporting him. All the defense guys rally around each other, whatever, we all play together. So it’s kind of just trying to get the job done at the end of the day.”

The blitz rate is up about 20% from what it was last year, at least through three games. But given that there are multiple things to clean up defensively, sophomore edge rusher Cameron Brandt says that the onus is on the defense being better in terms of execution and that there isn’t pressure to rise back up to the defense’s lofty expectations.

“No, I wouldn’t say really pressure,” Brandt said. “Just making sure we’re again, setting our standard, making sure that’s all good, making sure (we’re) maintaining our pillars throughout everything. Feel like, yeah, maintaining our pillars, keeping things the same.”

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USC knows it will need to have an answer for Michigan’s Mason Graham

If USC can contain Mason Graham when it has the ball on Saturday, the chances of the Trojans beating Michigan will rise considerably.

When the USC Trojans line up against the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, they know that when they have the ball, Michigan’s Mason Graham will try to cause chaos for the Trojans’ offense. Lincoln Riley discussed Graham heading into this game. Wolverines Wire passed along Riley’s quote on Graham:

Tremendous player was one of the guys that we attempted to get in on right when I got the job, really enjoyed him and his family. It was just one of those things. It was, it was too it was just too quick. There wasn’t enough of a relationship there, and he was far enough around down the road with those guys that, you know, it’s one of those things that things been earlier. Maybe it would have been different. Maybe it wouldn’t have but a ton of respect for him. I enjoyed the time I had with him here right when I got hired. And no surprise to me, to see the kind of player he’s become.

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Michigan has to play the first half to set up the second half vs USC

Instead of focusing on a full-game point total, Wolverines Wire’s editor told us the first-half point total is something to watch when Michigan faces USC.

We are talking to Wolverines Wire editor Isaiah Hole before Michigan takes on USC this coming Saturday at the Big House in Ann Arbor on CBS. We asked Isaiah how many points Michigan can afford to allow to USC. Isaiah told us it’s not just about the overall total, but how the first half sets up the second half and shapes the whole game.

“On the amount of points Michigan can/can’t afford to allow, I’d say 24 points, but it depends on when those points are scored,” Hole said. “Texas scored 31 but it got 24 of those in the first half. If the Wolverines had held the Longhorns to, say, 14 points in the first half, it would have been a much more manageable game considering U-M deferred to the second half (as usual). Michigan isn’t built to come back from big deficits, and that was even true with J.J. McCarthy at quarterback. The bigger thing for the Michigan defense is holding USC to 14 points or less in the first half, and keeping things within striking distance in the early going in hopes that the lines wear down for the Trojans and Michigan can hit some big runs late in the game.”

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Can Michigan beat USC if it can’t force Trojan turnovers?

A lot of experts would agree that Michigan has to force a few USC turnovers to win, but can UM find an alternate path to victory? We asked about this.

We are talking to Wolverines Wire editor Isaiah Hole before Michigan hosts USC this Saturday in Ann Arbor. A lot of people — not just us — think Michigan will need to force a few USC turnovers to have a chance to win this game. We asked Isaiah what Michigan can possibly do to win this game if it doesn’t force at least one Trojan turnover.

“Yes, Michigan can win without forcing turnovers, but it will mean that the offense has to be consistent and efficient,” Hole told us. “Michigan does want to be a boa constrictor in that it will try to play keep away by running the ball methodically as the defense hopes to look more like it did last year, forcing offenses to get off the field and then finding themselves in a hole. We haven’t seen things work quite like that this year because Davis Warren didn’t really threaten anyone downfield with his arm and defenses have been able to key in on Michigan’s run game. The run blocking wasn’t clicking with this new offensive line until about midway through the Texas game (too late to stick with the run given the deficit) and if Orji can hit a downfield shot or two, that should make Michigan’s job much easier – and more in-line with the identity of the team. It’s not the early turnovers that tend to get teams against the Wolverines as much as teams get desperate, start throwing downfield, and Michigan’s (mostly) elite secondary does the rest. And then the boa constrictor squeezes more. Michigan isn’t looking to run teams off the field early. But it has generally worn teams down (that was even the case in 2018 and 2019) and then mistakes compound. We haven’t yet seen a disciplined Michigan team, but it certainly isn’t fully reliant on getting turnovers. What it is reliant on is not turning the ball over, which has been the biggest issue through three games. No turnovers would have meant much different games in all three weeks thus far.”

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