College football is back! And that begs the question: What did Mike Valenti think of Michigan and Michigan State's performance in the opening week?
Here's the breakdown.
MICHIGAN
Valenti liked the Michigan offensive line this weekend, though he says he's not going to get carried away. "You can see them highlighting their weapons," he said, summing it up.
He wants to see more Zach Charbonnet, a 4-star running back. "The game is on, he's interesting." More interesting than True Wilson, he added.
On the other side, he didn't like the defensive line. "You didn't get any pressure on Middle Tennessee State without blitzing," he said, adding it wasn't a good performance this early and the schedule demands only more as the season progresses.
He didn't like Shea Patterson's fumbles. "You gotta clean that stuff up," he said. "You start screwing around and bumbling around the field ... bad recipe."
MICHIGAN STATE
On the positive side, Valenti liked the defense.
He added it was nice to see quarterback Brian Lewerke running.
Valenti liked special teams, and coverage units. "Special teams was really good," he added, saying, "If you combine special teams with a great defense, they're going to win some games."
What didn't he like? Everything else.
"The offensive line is a disaster ... It's like Michigan, I'm not going to rule out improvement ... But guess what, we don't have Michigan's depth on the D-line... The amount of running plays where all five guy sactually won their match-up, I'm not sure it happened." He added "they're not kids, we've got to stop with that."
Jordan Reid might be the worst offensive tackle in school history, Valenti said.
The running game was a disaster, a collection of one and two-yard gains.
"They've got to get better, week two, they've got to get better week three," he added.
There were too many drops, he said, adding if the team doesn't get better he's going to have to "crucify them."
