Michigan Tuesday: The Andrew Sprague Mystery

Andrew Sprague name sound like a NYC Detective that fumbles through his cases but always arrests the killer and has a 100% close rate on all his cases.  

In actuality, Andrew is an NFL Offensive Tackle prospect on Michigan's O-Line.  He was a late scratch on Saturday morning for the UTEP game after practicing all week and going through walk throughs on Friday. 

Coach Whitt did not seem pleased after receiving the news for Jim Harding the offensive line coach.  I had assumed he was just out sick, but it now seems more serious then that. 

Coach Whitt on his radio show: 

“What happened between half hour ago and now," Whittingham said his response to Harding was. "It was just a weird thing, but hopefully we get Andrew back. That's the major concern right now. The primary concern is his health and making sure we can get him back to where he needs to be.”

Then at Monday's presser:

“Andrew Sprague, gosh, that's a tough question. I think it could be anywhere from this week to several weeks," Whittingham said. "And so we just don't know and we're trying to sort through that, not we but the medical staff and making sure that we get the exact diagnosis and treat this thing the right way.

So for right now, it looks like Andrew is out against Iowa and there isn't a good timeline for his return to the lineup.  

Michigan Monday: Too Early Look at Iowa

I would like to say, this is the week things get real for our Michigan Wolverine Football team, but that happened almost immediately during the Western Michigan game.   This week is the start of conference play and if Michigan is going to gain the respect of the league and CFP, it starts on Saturday. 

Iowa: 3-0 #17

Best Win: Iowa State 16-13

Worst Loss: None 

Pass: 209 yards (143rd)

Run: 268 yards (10th)

Score: 37 per (47th)

Give up: 4.3 (#1)

I haven't watched a lick of Iowa Football this season.  It seems they have gotten their offensive problems fixed.  I think the most interesting game to review would be the Iowa grudge match with Iowa State two weeks ago.  I still find it funny that Iowa's program got in trouble by the NCAA for contacting Cade while he was on Michigan's roster.  How did that work out?

There are always 3 things we know about Iowa Football.  #1 They play good defense, #2 they like to run the ball, and #3 they use their Tight Ends.  You could also throw in; they lately have had a good punt returner.  

With Michigan's struggles on offense and aggressive defense, the first one to 10 points might win this game.  The game opened with an O/U on 38.5 the lowest of any game this season.  Iowa giving up 4.3 points per game is just crazy! 

• Michigan is now #18 in the AP

• Hope to get an update on injuries at Coach Whitt's presser this morning

UTEP Post Game: Arnold Palmer

Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com

I drink Arnold Palmer's, if your not familiar it's half ice tea and half lemonade.  Other's call it half and half.  At a restaurant one time, I ordered a half and half and they brought me half sweet tea and half regular ice tea, which doesn't make sense to me.  

Today's game was 2 distinct different halves.  The first half had 2 turnovers and 2 lapes by the defense that led to two separate occasions where UTEP was leading the Wolverines 7-0 and 14-7.  Michigan's offense looked like a bad high school offense.  You can't run right at a box full of defenders, doesn't matter the quality of the defense, they can tackle the RB when they have a numbers advantage. 

Michigan limped to 3 point lead at half-time and felt lucky to be leading by that much.   Then the 2nd half became the dominating defense, Marsh, and Underwood show.  The defense decided to lead with aggression and limited the UTEP offense to negative yards for the 3rd quarter and Beck decided running into a loaded box was a fool's errand.  

Michigan dominated from that point on and it was game over.  I was worried about this staffs ability to adjust strategy at the half, but they did that and Coach Whitt got the team back to playing with energy and aggression. 

Cheers:

• Bryce was 19/25 for 223 Yards 
• Hiter had 2 TD's
• Marsh 105 yards 10 catches and 1 TD 
• JJ 7 for 92 and 1 TD 
• Chase Taylor led the D with 5 tackles, 1/2 sack, and 1 TFL 
• Bowles continued his good play 
• Lea'ea with the Big Man Pick 6 (Thick 6!)
• Trey Butkowski with a nice long FG 
• The 2nd Half 

Jeers:

• The 1st Half 
• 2 bad turnovers fumbles by Bryce and Savion 
• Marshall being banged up 
• The offensive line is still not great 
• Some early penalties were very costly

Hello, Nice to Meet You!

• Boney Toney! (Tariq Boney) 4 Tackles, 1 Sack, and 1.5 TFL 
• Cater Meadows 
• Travis Johnson 
• S. Moa with a TD catch 
• Tommy Carr with his first Michigan TD pass 

First half was full of WMU flashbacks for the fans, the players, and the coaches.  Good on the staff for re-focusing the team at the half.   Michigan can't have a half like that with conference play starting and a ranked Iowa team coming to the Big House next week. 

3-0 and we will take it. 

UTEP Preview

Paydirt Pete 

Time: 3:30 

Location: Big House 

Weather: 61/71% 🌧

TV: BTN

Line: Michigan -34.5

Michigan is playing the University of Texas the week after they played Ohio State.   Wait a second, its the University of Texas El Paso.  My bad.  Why doesn't Michigan other campuses have football teams?  U of M Flint or U of M Dearborn?  Flint is known for their basketball and Dearborn could be the football campus.  I like this idea lets run with it! 

UTEP as reported earlier this week likes 51 points.  They got beat in week 1 by Oklahoma 51-0 and scored 51 in week 2.  Will this trend continue in Week 3?  The rain might be an interesting factor.  

Dear Coach Whitt:

Not a big fan of swearing in these letters to you, but this is the best way for me to explain it.   The shit got real for you at Michigan really quick.  You win on conservaeral play in Game 1 and then play really well the next week and beat a ranked Oklahoma team.  The Big Ten season starts next week and by nothing short of a miracle your team is 2-0.  I asked you last week to win on defensive and that is exactly what you did. 

Now to this week.  Coach, we need some offense and we need it in a hurry.  The run game is poor to average, the offensive line has not been great, and our passing game is iffy at best.  Hat tip to Bryce, he was not well received after Week 1 but played much better Week 2.   We need to continue to see that weekly progression.  

The Big 10 Season is no joke, so we have to respect UTEP but get better and gain confidence this week.  Here is a quick priority list of things we need to see on Saturday. 

#1: Run the dang ball, Bert! 

#2: The offensive line needs to be road graters and open up some holes

#3: Move the ball through the Air, hit WR's, throw to a TE, get Bryce some confidence. 

#4: Score lots of points 

#5: Play dominating defensive like you have 

#6: No more penalties 

I would like to see Marshall and Hiter both have 100 yards.  I really like Hiter catching the ball out of the backfield and his total can be a combo between running and receiving yards.    Get Marsh a TD, would like to see Bryce complete a long pass.  

If the game starts to lean to a blow out, would love to see the young WR's in the game with Carr.  Don't take your foot off the gas, get them into open spaces and let them run.  

Now, let me be clear on something.  I'm not suggesting Michigan look past UTEP or not respect them.   We saw how that went for Oregon last week and your squad week 1.  Respect the opponent and play clean Michigan Football. 

Now that is out of the way, this week is about getting better, gaining confidence, and setting the table for a Big Ten Championship run. 

Michigan 51 UTEP 9