Michigan 35, UNLV 7: Thank you, football gods
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As if being a Michigan fan isn’t time consuming enough as a hobby, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh added some new wrinkles to the mix last offseason.
In the summer of 2022, Harbaugh left some bread crumbs to members of the media and sent fans on an Internet sleuthing mission when he told reporters that a member of his most recently signed recruiting class was an “absolute gift from the football gods.” In a year where Michigan had double-digit incoming four stars in a heralded class, the list of possibilities was not a short one.
But by Week 2 last fall, when true freshmen DT Mason Graham was playing 34 snaps in just his second game on campus and fellow true frosh DT Kenneth Grant wasn’t far behind with 28 of his own, that mystery started unraveling. These are two very large humans who move like they’re 50 pounds lighter, but hit like they’re 50 pounds heavier.
The only real twist in the mystery came when it was revealed that it was actually two players and not a single member of the team. I believe that qualifies as a #FirstWorldProblem.
While it wasn’t exactly a closely guarded secret to anyone with working eyes, Harbaugh formally revealed the identities of his mystery gifts from the football gods to reporters a year later.
“Mason came in as a true freshman and started for us. I called him and Kenneth Grant two ‘gifts from the football gods,’ because they play the defensive tackle position, and extremely athletic and about 330 pounds. In my humble opinion, God is not quite filling his quota on athletic 330-pound guys that can play defensive tackle.”
Now, could Harbaugh have been thinking of just one guy in particular in the summer of 2022 when he initially made his “gift from the football gods” comment and then decided to just make an audible and say it was both of them? Sure. But to that I ask: Can you freaking blame him? Would you want to anger either of those players by leaving one out? I sure wouldn’t…
On Saturday, those gifts from the football gods were on full display yet again. And now that it’s Year 2 for both, we’re no longer keeping an eye on them as prime breakout candidates. The breakout has happened. They’re broken out. And a terrifying Michigan defense has somehow gotten even more scary.
It’s hard to write about defenders in this space. They’re (usually) not the ones making the highlight plays that show up on Sportscenter, or scoring the touchdowns that directly lead to changes on the scoreboard. Within the defense, it’s even more difficult to write about interior defensive linemen, whose impacts usually translate the least to measureable stats in the box.
I say usually, because there are exceptions. And Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant are very much exceptions to the rule, and I mean that specifically when it comes to the box score, but also in life. These two are football unicorns. And it’s becoming more and more apparent that Harbaugh’s “gift from the football gods” comment wasn’t as hyperbolic as it may have seemed at the time.
Michigan’s first unit on defense not only hasn’t given up a touchdown in two games. It hasn’t given up a single point. And while the reserves at the end of games need to clean things up for the sake of style points and national pundits who make their votes and form their opinions just based on what they see on the score bug, I’d put Michigan’s top 18 or so defenders up against anyone else’s top unit and a half across the entire country.
Kenneth Grant only played 19 snaps on Saturday. In those 19 snaps, the true sophomore:
picked up 4 tackles
had 2.5 tackles for loss
collected 1.5 sacks
broke up a pass
Keep in mind, this is coming from the interior defensive line, where his primary responsibility is typically to eat blocks and make life easier for those alongside and behind him on the Michigan defense. Grant earned a 79.4 grade from PFF, the second best mark for a Wolverine defender regardless of position. The only person to grade out higher than Grant? Fellow gift from the football gods Mason Graham, whose 94.0 grade is one of the best individual game grades I’ve ever seen a Wolverine defender get in multiple years of tracking PFF grades.
As for Graham, his Saturday consisted of five tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1 QB hurry, 0.5 sacks and a forced fumble in 25 total snaps of action. His overall defensive grade was aided by a 95.5 run defense grade, which was certainly another one of those “wow, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a grade that high” moment for me.
The scariest thing here (along with the fact that both defenders are true sophomores and guaranteed to still be playing college football this time next year — alongside other very promising true sophomores like Will Johnson, Derrick Moore, Jimmy Rolder, Keon Sabb and Zeke Berry) is that they’re both complementary players along the defensive line. The line is still anchored by team captain Kris Jenkins, giving opposing offensive lines a near-impossible task of accounting for three 1st-team All-Big Ten caliber players in the middle. And they’re flanked by a rotation of four DE/EDGE players — Braiden McGregor, Derrick Moore, Jaylen Harrell and Josaiah Stewart — that will stay fresh and give opposing offensive lines even more things to worry about.
At one point on Saturday, UNLV had gotten six pass attempts off and had been sacked four different times. One short week after fans were concerned over the lack of stats against a quick-release passing offense in ECU, Michigan’s defense was pretty damn close to making it a coinflip proposition whether UNLV’s Doug Brumfield would get a pass off or take a sack every time he dropped back to pass. That seems like a pretty good answer.
Through two games, Graham is now No. 2 nationally and No. 1 in the B1G among defensive linemen in PFF grading with a 90.6 mark. Behind Graham, Iowa’s Aaron Graves and fellow Hawkeye Logan Lee, Grant comes in at No. 4 amongst Big Ten interior defensive lineman with an 81.3 PFF grade.
Two absolute gifts from the football gods. Two guys looking like locks to play on Sundays. And two guys with plenty of company when it comes to hot starts to 2023.
Plenty of superlatives to go around
The interior defensive line isn't the only spot where Michigan players appear to be the class of the conference. In some cases, they’re the class of the entire nation. Here are some Wolverines who find themselves in strong spots on PFF grade rankings: