Michigan Football Rolls To Win Over UCF: Parting Thoughts

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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It’s hard to know what to make of Michigan football’s win yesterday over Central Florida, but a win is a win, isn’t it? We should be happy, right?

The 63-3 win in Week 1 over Hawaii was convincing—and not just in hindsight. Michigan football knew that it could do pretty much everything it wanted to do all afternoon, even, remarkably enough, putting 16 freshman on the field.

After all of the preseason hype—Big Ten Championship! National Championship!—Michigan pretty much played up to its potential against Hawaii, and then some.

Week 2 was different. A 51-14 win is still impressive, don’t get me wrong. A few years ago Michigan would have welcomed a score like that against a non-conference opponent, but let’s be honest: there were a few areas of concern on Saturday as well. Maybe they were there in Week 1, too, and we missed them. It was hard to miss them this week.

The running game is still not very good, not dominating the way we expected, not the way we expect Michigan football to be played. Even Chris Evans, who looked superhuman at times against Hawaii, fell back to Earth. He looked more like the true freshman that he is. with nine carries for only 37 yards.

The thing is, no one else in the backfield did any better. De’Veon Smith was 10 for 38. Maybe the problem wasn’t the running backs, but the offensive line.

But head coach Jim Harbaugh at the post-game press conference made a point of saying how pleased he was with line play: “I thought our lines played extremely well today, the offensive and the defensive line.”

I don’t think we’re ever going to hear Harbaugh complain about a player or even a position at a press conference, but he couldn’t have been thrilled with either line. The sort of line play we saw yesterday is not going to win Michigan the big games that it still needs to win—against Michigan State and Ohio State—to prove that it is finally an elite program again.

Harbaugh’s comments about the running backs were also interesting: “Our backs were getting hit, big hits, really good form tackles by UCF. They held onto the ball. It was a hard hitting game all the way through.”

Really? They “held onto the ball”? Is that the new standard for the Michigan running game?

OK, there were some reasons to feel good about the game too. Wilton Speight played as well, or better, than he did in Week 1. That was reassuring not only to fans, but probably to coaches and teammates as well. They need him to be good. And he was better than good.

And then there was Jabrill Peppers, who seemed to be all over the place on defense, although “all over the place” is how defensive coordinator Don Brown seems to be playing him. He’s exciting to watch. And so is true freshman defensive lineman Rashan Gary. Given the chance to start, with Taco Charlton out, Gary made the most of it, recording half a sack and six tackles (three of them solo tackles). Gary is going to be good. Heck, he’s good right now.

And the wide receivers. What makes Speight so good—in addition to all of his natural ability—is that he has so many options downfield. There’s All-American tight end Jake Butt with 86 yards and two touchdowns. And there’s Amara Darboh with an even better afternoon: 111 yards on five receptions and two scores. For all of the talk about how important the running game is, I’m guessing we’re going to see a great deal of passing this season.

To sum it all up? This is going to be among the most interesting seasons in recent memory. Bring on Colorado.