Michigan Football has a chance to get back on the right track Saturday vs. Penn State. If the Wolverines (3-2, 0-2) are to do so, head coach Kyle Whittingham believes turnovers will play a large role.
“And the one thing that is holding us back, and it sounds too simple and fans don’t want to hear it, but the turnover margin. We are awful in the turnover margin,” he said on the Inside Michigan Football radio show on Monday night. “We’re like 123 in the nation.”
The Wolverines are in fact 122nd in the
nation in turnover margin with a -4 differential — four interceptions thrown and five fumbles lost, compared to four interceptions and one fumble forced on defense.
Part of the fumbling concerns come from the punt return team. Andrew Marsh has been shaky back there, prompting Whittingham to make a change.
“Boy, just the fundamentals and the basics, and really, the biggest special teams woe we’ve had is putting the ball on the ground in the punt return game,” Whittingham said. “We’ve done that twice and the kickoff that we let out the gate for 99 yards.
“We’ll be changing punt returners this week.”
Whittingham said it was not a decision based solely on production, and he would not yet name the new starter.
Injuries have challenged Michigan, as is to be expected at this point in the fall. However, Whittingham described it as a “productive” bye week, recovering from injuries and improving depth.
“Giving the twos a lot of reps… to try to shrink that gap between the ones and the twos,” he said. “Got a chance to get a lot of guys healthy.”
Defensive tackles coach Larry Black resonated with the midseason physical tolls. But the message in his room was clear over the bye.
“I think the main thing that I got after those guys is, like, ‘Yeah, you’re banged up, but we got to get better. What are we doing to take steps to continue to get better vs. our double teams, vs. our reach blocks?’ Everything was how we’re getting better, so everything was foot on a pedal and we went,” Black said.
The defensive tackles are a strong bunch and far from the reason for Michigan’s shortcomings. Led by Trey Pierce, Enow Etta, Jonah Lea’ea and some potential young risers, Black believes the group is in good hands.
Lea’ea, who reflected on the campaign so far and spent time with his family over the bye week, expects a fight from the Nittany Lions (3-3, 0-3) this weekend.
“They’re coming off a loss to USC, kind of similar to us, like really hungry, trying to get that fourth win… I think it’ll be a good game,” Lea’ea said.
Do you see the Wolverines winning this battle between skidding Big Ten foes? Let us know below.
