Two wide receivers shine as Michigan’s top standouts in bye week practices

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines wrapped up their bye week and have turned the page to the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday at the Big House. However, the bye came with its share of top performers and under-the-radar guys who shone with more opportunities.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said on Monday that a major goal for the bye was to get the banged-up guys healthy, which allowed for some young players to flash at multiple position groups.

Nonetheless, the wide receiver position is where U-M is looking for solutions in its passing game, with 11 dropped passes so far this season.

Moore hyped up two young players who could be in line for more of a look there.

“There are two guys really in the receiver room, Andrew Marsh, Jamar Browder, those guys really stood out, made some plays,” Moore said on Monday of his two true freshman wideouts. “[Running back] Jasper Parker’s another guy. Obviously, he’s got Jordan [Marshall] and Justice [Haynes] in front of him, but he made some plays as well in that time.”

Will Marsh and Browder get some run this weekend? Moore was not ready to commit to that, but said that the competition would continue throughout this week.

“There’s always competition,” Moore said. “So we’re going to continue the competition through the week and see who the starters are by the end of the week.”

“… Everybody’s leash is the same. You’ve got to go practice well. You’ve got to go make plays in the passing game. You’ve got to run block. You’ve got to make plays in the passing game. You’ve got to do that equally as well. So we’ll just see by the end of the week who the best guys are. That’s Channing [Goodwin], that’s Fred [Moore], that’s Andrew Marsh, that’s Donaven McCulley, that’s Semaj [Morgan], that’s all those guys, Kendrick Bell. So we’re going to continue to see who has the best week and go from there.”

Moore and the Michigan staff prioritized fixing the drop issues during the bye, and he praised the work that was put in by the players. He said it goes further than just instructing the guys to “catch the ball.”

“Those kids have done a really good job,” Moore said. “They did a really good job in the bye week, and it’ll just continue to be a focus as we go through the week. You watch college football, and all the drops are usually that. It’s not something special. There’s no magic potion for it. And the worst coaching point you can tell a kid is to catch the ball. He knows he’s supposed to catch the ball. ‘Catch the ball, catch the ball.’ It irks me when I hear that. You’ve got to catch the ball. Well, duh. You think he wants to drop the ball? No, he doesn’t.

“So you have to tell him how to catch it. And there are different ways to do that. Whether that’s above your chest, thumb to thumb, below your navel, pinky to pinky, see the ball all the way to the tuck. So all those things are pieces of it that you have to coach and teach. And those guys have done a really good job this week.

Moore names Michigan defensive standouts

The Michigan linebacker room also got stronger during the bye thanks to freshman Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng, who was banged up this offseason while he acclimated to the program.

“On defense, it’s a bevy of guys because a lot of those guys have played, but like [defensive back] Elijah Dotson, he’s played, he made some plays,” Moore said. “The guy that stood out on defense probably the most is Nate Owusu, and he’s back and he’s feeling good. He was just in the backfield half the days, and it was good to see him moving around and pushing around, and that just adds to that linebacker room, which I already think is the best one in the country.

“So you have got Jaishawn [Barham], who’s moving around. You got Ernest [Hausmann]. You got Jimmy Rolder. You’ve got Cole Sullivan. You’ve got Chase Taylor. And now you’ve got Nate Owusu. So you got a group of guys that can play and move around and put in different positions, and I’ll let the wizard up there, Wink, just figure out where to put the puzzle pieces every week. So it’s fun to watch.”