Michigan Player Chart Week 1

I thought it might be cool to track the progress of Michigan's best players throughout the season. Instead of the typical top 25 college football poll, I'll be doing a weekly top 25 Michigan player poll. My rankings won't be based as much on reputation and potential as they will be on actual game-performance. Carson Butler is probably one of the five most talented players on the team but if nobody throws to him, he'll have a hard time cracking the top ten. The rankings will be cumulative each week. By mid-season, player movement should be fairly limited. I expect substantial movement after week two. There were a lot of terrible performances. The defense dominates the list since the offense was putrid.

I was able to watch the Utah-game twice; once in person and once on DVR. I plan on viewing each game at least twice so I'm not saying stupid things like, "Marell Evans was phenomenal with 4 tackles and .5 TFLs." It obviously doesn't apply this week but I'll add a movement column to track player movement from week to week.

Quick side note: This is slightly off topic but I'm pretty fired up about it. Greg Mathews was injured because #11 on Utah was an idiot and dove onto Mathews's leg after the ball was dropped. That joker should've been given a late hit penalty. I noticed it at the game and it was just as ridiculous when I took another look at home. As a result, Mathews will likely be out this week. It's a shame because Mathews was Michigan's best player on offense.

Top 25 Michigan Player Chart

Rank	Player	Comments
1	Obi Ezeh, MLB	Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week.
2	Brandon Graham, DE	Heated up on the last drive of first half. Finished with 3.5 TFL, 1 sack, and 7 tackles.
3	Will Johnson, DT	Singled out by Rodriguez along with Ezeh. Finished with 1.5 sacks.
4	Morgan Trent, CB	Flawless with quite a few authoritative hits.
5	Tim Jamison, DE	Two tackles, two sacks.
6	Greg Mathews, WR	Made two fantastic defensive plays; one prevented an int., the other a possible TD. Also led ‘M’ with 54 total yards.
7	Terrance Taylor, DT	Rode the bench for a bit in the 2nd Half but chipped in with a blocked extra point, 3 tackles, and .5 sacks.
8	Junior Hemingway, WR	Nice grab on 3rd and 5 in traffic and, of course, the 33 yard TD grab.
9	Brandon Harrison, S	Surprisingly solid day. Two pretty good kick returns combined with good position all day made for a good effort.
10	Donovan Warren, CB	Two horrible plays; one led to a 55 yard pass completion and the other went for a TD. He was solid otherwise.
11	Sam McGuffie, RB	No room to run but ran for a TD and hauled in a 23 yard pass.
12	K.C. Lopata, K	Increased his career long by eight yards with a 50 yard field goal.
13	Michael Shaw, RB	Similar to McGuffie but had 20 fewer total yards. Hauled in a nice 8-yard TD grab.
14	Montavious Odoms, WR	Hauled in the nicest -3 yard reception you’ll ever see. Had little room to operate but showed great hands with five catches.
15	Carson Butler, TE	Quiet for most of the day. Made a fantastic one-handed catch on 3rd down drive that led to a TD. He should get 15 looks a game.
16	Zoltan Mesko, P	Nothing like Utah’s punter God. One bad punt overshadowed an otherwise solid effort. He was busy booting 7 punts for 264 yards.
17	Brandon Minor, RB	Had one carry for 21 yards and three other carries for zero yards. Should’ve had a TD grab but was badly overthrown.
18	Austin Panter, LB	He was involved in a lot of plays; good and bad. 4 tackles, .5 sacks and a fumble recovery is a decent tow even with a few misreads.
19	Mike Martin, DT	Spelled Taylor for parts of the second half and the defense didn’t miss a beat.
20	Ryan Van Bergen, DE	Before leaving with an injury, provided good pressure and forced an intentional grounding penalty.
21	Jonas Mouton, LB	Played better than Marell Evans.
22	Steven Threet, QB	Nice TD pass to Hemingway and did well at getting out of the pocket. Accuracy was pretty brutal.
23	Adam Patterson, DE	Not too many players worthy of mentioning left but Patterson had a tackle and a forced fumble that gave ‘M’ a chance to tie.
24	Mark Moundros, FB	Blocked punt was huge.
25	Darryl Stonum, WR	Not much to say. He was wide open on 4th down and could’ve kept Michigan’s hopes alive but…you know the rest.