Michigan Wolverines 2010 Review

Michigan Wolverines
2010 Record: 7-6 (3-5), 7th Big Ten
2010 Bowl Game: Gator Bowl, Lost to Mississippi State 52-14

     The Rich Rodriguez experiment is officially a failure in Ann Arbor. Michigan die hards never gave Rodriguez a chance, and they were totally unreceptive to change. They finally had their way, but Rodriguez continually shot himself in the foot on the way out the door. His defense was the final nail in the coffin, and Greg Robinson never developed anything even resembling a D. It was the undoing, despite the magical season that Denard Robinson gave Rodriguez on his way out the door.
     Robinson was an enigma at QB. He ran more than he passed, and was a one man show, but you could never call him a true QB. He was a hybrid in nature. A RB taking direct snaps, but he was not built well enough to tka eht epunishment of being a full time RB. He was something new, and you just had to take the ride. Robinson passed for 2570 yards with 18 TDs. He did toss 11 picks, but hell, it could have been worse. Where Robinson was special was on the run, as he rushed for an amazing 1702 yards and 14 TDs. He averaged 197 yards passing per game, and another 130.92 yards rushing per game. It's truly amazing, and now it will be interesting to see how he adapts to a new system under new coach Brady Hoke, or how Hoke adapts to him.
     Robinson was by far the leading rusher, and nobody was remotely close. He was RB and QB all in one, and all others were a change of pace situation. Vincent Smith was the next best thing, as he rushed for 601 yards and 5 TDs, but he only averaged 46 yards per game.
     The Wolverines only had three receivers that caught at least 20 passes last fall. Roy Roundtree was very solid, and was the leader as he posted a line of 72-935-7. Roundtree stands to gain a great deal by the new system, as Hoke always seems to have a primary receiver that heads over 1000 yards, and Roundtree lines up perfectly for that opportunity as a junior next fall. Darryl Stonum had a solid run as well, posting 49-633-4, but off-field troubles have taken him out of the team environment, and he is unlikely to return. Junior Hemmingway was the third receiver, with a line of 32-593-4.
     There was nothing good about what the Wolverines did on defense. It was a disaster on every level. Michigan gave up 447.9 yards per game on the season. They gave up 260.3 yards per game through the air, and 187.7 yards per game on the ground. Luckily, that was countered by their 500 yards per game of total offense.
      Michigan had 5 players that averaged more than 5 tackles per game, but that was because of them trying to catch everyone from behind. Jonas Mouton was the leader, as the senior LB collected 117 tackles, and DB Jordan Kovacs just missed him, as he collected another 116 tackles. Mouton averaged 9.75 tackles per game, with Kovacs averaging 8.92. They were followed by Kenny Demens (82, 6.31), Cameron Gordon (77, 5.92), and JT Floyd (66, 7.33). Obi Ezeh went over 5 tackles with 58 on the season.
     Michigan actually did collect 70 TFLs as a team, which is quite good considering how bad they were as a unit. Ryan Van Bergen piled up 8.5 TFLs, as did Mouton and Kovacs. Michigan had a very pedestrian 18 sacks on the season, but only gave up 11. Van Bergen led the team with 4 sacks. Terrible.
     Nobody had at least 5 passes defended in the secondary. The Wolverines only defended 31 passes on the entire season, and they were shredded. Cameron Gordon and James Rogers tied for the team lead with 3 picks per person.
     The kicking game was a freaking disaster as well. Seth Broekhuizen was actually terrible, as he only connected on 3 of his 9 FG attempts, and Brendan Gibbons only hit on 1 of 5. It's time to hit the reset on that position altogether. Will Hagerup was actually solid, as he averaged 43.64 yards per punt on the season as a freshman. He is a building block on special teams. Jeremy Gallon and Darryl Stonum were decent on kick returns, but Gallon will hae the weight on his shoulders now. He averaged 21.81 yards per return last fall, which is highly average. Gallon was not good at all on punt returns, averaging just 4.3 yards per return.
Final Notes
     Ok...start over. Everthing that has happened over the last three years has been a mess, and so now Brady Hoke comes in with a new staff and a new attitude, and an understanding of the Michigan way. He will likely hybrid what Rodriguez did on offense with the old style Michigan mentality, but he has spread pieces to play with, so a conventional offense is not the answer just now. Al Borges is a genius when it comes to creating offenses around special pieces, so Michigan could improve immediately. Stay tuned.