Michigan Wolverines vs UMass Minutemen Football Recap

That was a close call for the Wolverines on Saturday against the UMass Minutemen. Michigan struggled defensively against the FCS football team greatly, especially in stopping the run. The Minutemen almost had two running backs go for over 100 yards each, as Craig Roh, Mike Martin and Ryan Van Bergen could not contain the run. Massachusetts pounded the ball repeatedly and then worked a lot of roll out pass plays to make a mockery of the Michigan defense. Michigan clearly needs to practice their defensive schemes more if they plan to improve their game once they have to dogfight with other top 25 teams in Big Ten conference play.

Luckily, the Wolverines defensive woes were covered up by another less spectacular, but still brilliant performance by the talk of the nation quarterback, Denard Robinson. Robinson had the 10 th most total yardage by a Michigan player in a game (not quite his first and second record setting performances, but still very impressive). Denard racked up 241 passing yards on 10 of 14 attempts including a couple of beautiful touchdown passes to wide out Darryl Stonum. As usual, Denard Robinson also left his mark on the ground by gaining 104 yards rushing and a touchdown run.

In the wake of the close game and defensive lapses, the Wolverines had one other bright spot to be thankful for. Finally! Finally someone other than Denard ran the football effectively and gained yardage and touchdowns. Thank you Michael Shaw for taking some of the pressure off of Denard and establishing a more balanced rushing attack for Michigan. Shaw had 126 yards rushing with 3 touchdowns including a 50 yarder. He averaged an astonishing 10.6 yards per carry and hopefully he can continue to run at a high level because it will make Denard Robinson’s job a whole lot easier. Michigan has the ability to create a very balanced rushing attack between Robinson, Shaw, and Vincent Smith, but just needed a running back to finally start pushing the ball downfield with efficiency.

Michigan now sits at #21 with a 3-0 record and waits upon what should be an easy victory over the Bowling Green Falcons, but after the performance against UMass, who knows what will happen. We all know Michigan can put up the points, but if they allowed 37 points to an FCS team, then how many points will they allow to Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, and Wisconsin? Let’s hope defensive coordinator Greg Robinson can pull things together quickly and Denard can keep putting up Heisman trophy numbers, because only then will Michigan truly rise as a top tier team.

Go Blue!

By: Lee Schechter
Big Ten Fans Michigan Wolverines Correspondent