It’s early in the second quarter and Michigan is up 14-0 in the Big House, already having rushed 22 times for 178 yards and 2 TD’s on the ground, one each by Senior RB’s Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards. Meanwhile the Trojans are languishing with their run defense looking a lot like last year’s right now—but not as dire once I got back and looked into the details. Actually more worried about the offensive line—that’s a problem. Miller Moss had connected on just 3-of-6 for 18 yards with their ground game recording a minus 4 yards on just 7 rushing attempts. I couldn’t watch, made sure the recorder was working, hooked up the dog, put him in the truck and took off for our favorite walking trails.
By the time we’re done and heading back home I turn on the radio to discover that USC is up 24-20 with just four minutes to play. But, in a game in which Michigan felt they had to win after being humiliated at home by Texas in Week-2, they came out of the gate desperate and determined. So even though USC had the lead and the ball with five minutes to play against a Michigan team that in their last six plays had punted five times and fumbled once, they get held to a three-and-out and the Wolverines go on a 10 play 89 yard drive that includes a 63 yard run by Kalel Mullings to take a 27-24 lead with 37 seconds left to play. Starting from their own 35 yard line, and in spite of a couple of connections, a false start and three incompletions had USC turning the ball back over to Michigan with just eight seconds left—game over.
After spending the entire last year as back-up QB to J. J. McCarthy who led Michigan to a national championship starting QB, Junior Alex Orji, had lost the starting job in the final week of preseason to Davis Warren. But after six interceptions in three weeks the Wolverines decided to switch horses and go with Orji in their conference opener against USC. Orji is a multi-talented athlete who in high school was Mr. Everything Athletic—a track star, a basketball player, a football player more versatile than even Colorado’s Travis Hunter–able to play five different positions. After taking over at QB as a Junior and throwing for 2,000 yards and rushing for another 1,000 he was recruited by everyone including Saban, Coach Prime, Lincoln Riley, Harbaugh and others. At 6’ 3” and 235, most everyone wanted him to play a different position but Harbaugh told him that if he had his heart set on being a QB they would give him a chance at Michigan—and this was it, his first start. The rub, he had only thrown seven passes his entire college career. With that in mind Michigan decided to run the ball as much as possible and thus keep a QB with such limited experience from having to try and win the game in the air—and as it turned out hardly ever having to throw the ball at all. He was 7-of-12 for 32 yards and that’s it. Strangest stat line for a QB I’ve ever seen. It’s even lower than the rushing yards for any teams that ever ran a Mike Leach Air Raid offense.
But on the ground they cooked. Michigan Senior RB Kalel Mullings rushed 17 times for 159 yards and 2 TD’s while his partner in crime Donovan Edwards rushed 14 times for 74 yards and another score. Once you add Orji’s numbers on the ground and one 15 yard scamper by WR Frederick Moore (I mean they weren’t throwing the ball so what the hell else are the WR’s gonna do?) they collectively rushed 45 times for 291 yards and 3 TD’s—an average of 6.5 yards per carry. Maybe I’m a homer here but looking at the second half I do think Trojan Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn can fix this. After the half, except for one huge back breaking run, the defense held Michigan to well under 3 yards a carry. Even in the first half, up until the Kalel Mullings 53 yard breakaway near the end of the 1st Qtr that put Michigan up 7-0 they were holding them to just 2 yards a carry. That aside, there were other issues as USC’s QB Miller Moss was pretty much running for his life the whole game. He got sacked four times, was hurried 10 times and when they ran the ball instead, those 8 Michigan tackles for loss kept them in check—rushing a minus 16 yards in the first half. They did have a couple guys on their OL injured in the game and needing to sit down as well as WR Makai Lemon who was taken to a local hospital in an ambulance. In spite of that they got it going a bit after the half on the ground but the line hasn’t been as good since 2022 when they had 6 6” 320 Andrew Vorhees, a healthy 6” 2” 295 Brett Neilon, and 6’ 7” 295 Bobby Haskins. It’s going to be up to Offensive Coordinator and Line Coach Josh Henson to get it fixed and get it fixed fast.
Coming in with a season completion percentage of 70%+, Miller Moss was lucky to crack over 50% in this one connecting on 28-of-51 for 3 TD’s and 1 interception while rushing 5 times for minus 27 yards. Eight Trojan receivers collected multiple passes with Sophomore WR Zachariah Branch the recipient of most of the yards on six receptions with fellow Sophomore WR’s Ja’kobi Lane and Duce Robinson, along with Junior WR Jay Fair, collecting a TD each. On the ground, it was Senior RB Woody Marks who did the most damage rushing 13 times for 100 yards. Moving forward, I think the Trojans come home and beat Wisconsin and then Minnesota on the road. After that they’ll have to face a really good Penn State team who I’m sure will have watched this game. We’ll know if the damn’s been plugged then.