The No. 15 Michigan Wolverines are in the midst of a season that could wind up very promising — if they fix key issues.
While Michigan has room to improve in many areas, they must start catching quarterback
Bryce Underwood’s passes at a higher clip. Michigan receiving targets have dropped 14 passes through five games.
Semaj Morgan has five drops, which is one behind three players who lead the nation with six. Morgan has a 23.8%. Channing Goodwin has four drops and a 36.4% drop rate. Five other players on Michigan have a drop each.
The drops have stalled Michigan drives and hurt Underwood’s completion percentage in the process. Underwood has completed just 59.2% of his passes — however, Underwood leads all Power Four starting quarterbacks with a 15.4% drop rate from his receiving targets. Factoring in these drops, Underwood’s adjusted completion percentage is 73.4.
While some point to the velocity of Underwood’s throws being an underlying cause for some of these drops, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore doesn’t look at it that way. If the ball is accurate, it should be caught.
“We just know we got to make the plays when they’re there.And if it hits your hand, you should catch it,” Moore said. “Bryce will continue to get better and touch and all that, but seems pretty accurate to me. We’ll just continue to emphasize the accuracy of the football and us being consistent catchers.”
Underwood can improve by mixing in more throws with touch along with all the lasers he throws, but the main problem holding the receiving game back is the drops. Andrew Marsh received more playing time than Channing Goodwin for the first time this year last week against Wisconsin and had four receptions for 80 yards with no drops. Every wideout will need to start catching the ball consistently here forth, or other players will receive opportunities.
“You want to give them that chance because, you watch NFL games, guys drop balls and they’re right back in there. So you want to give them a chance. But if it’s a consistent thing that’s happening, then you have to make those changes,” Moore said. “You got to do what you got to do to help the team win. That’s really the ultimate goal, feelings aside.”
Despite drops from multiple players, it isn’t all dark clouds for Michigan’s receiving targets, WR1 Donaven McCulley has zero drops this year and has 19 receptions for 309 yards with one touchdown and TE 1 Marlin Klein has just one drop (8.3% drop rate) with 11 receptions for 137 yards and one touchdown. If Michigan can get more consistency from other receiving targets, the passing game could get a lot better in a hurry.
