Texas
The PFF grades are not kind for Michigan this week
The Michigan Wolverines dropped their first game of the season on Saturday, losing to Texas, 31-12. It was a tough game to watch if you’re a Michigan fan, and the advanced stats from Pro Football Focus (PFF) agree with the eye test.
Let’s get into this week’s player grades and snap counts.
Offense
OL Evan Link – 57 snaps / 27.2 overall player grade
OL Dominick Giudice – 57 / 59.3
OL Myles Hinton – 57 / 55.6
OL Giovanni El-Hadi – 57 / 66.0
OL Josh Priebe – 57 / 65.6
QB Davis Warren – 54 / 76.5
TE Colston Loveland – 44 / 55.7
WR Tyler Morris – 40 / 58.1
WR Kendrick Bell – 39 / 53.1
RB Donovan Edwards – 32 / 71.9
WR Semaj Morgan – 31 / 68.1
WR CJ Charleston – 19 / 62.3
TE Marlin Klein – 17 / 57.8
WR Peyton O’Leary – 15 / 72.9
RB Ben Hall – 14 / 62.8
TE/FB Max Bredeson – 13 / 73.0
RB Kalel Mulings – 13 / 64.5
WR Fred Moore – 7 / 52.3
QB Alex Orji – 3 / 56.6
WR Amorion Walker – 1 / 59.0
Takeaways: After rotating in Greg Crippen with Dominick Giudice last week against Fresno State, Crippen didn’t see the field at all against Texas. It appears that position battle is over, as Giudice played every snap along the offensive line on Saturday.
Additionally, it’s interesting to see Kendrick Bell’s snap counts increase from Week 1 (30) to Week 2 (39). He was a guy that kind of flew under the radar this offseason, with guys like Fred Moore, Amorion Walker and CJ Charleston garnering more attention at the position. The coaching staff seems to trust him the most as the team’s WR3 at this point.
Surprises: It’s a shock that Kalel Mullings and Max Bredeson only got 13 snaps each on Saturday. For a ground and pound team like Michigan is, it’s stunning that these two hardly played at all. But I guess that’s what happens when you give up 24 points in the first half and only put a field goal on the board to counter that. Being down by three touchdowns to start the second half likely had a role with that, but to have two of your better offensive players on the bench more often than not is … not great.
Defense
CB Jyaire Hill – 65 / 57.2
LB Ernest Hausmann – 65 / 43.9
LB Jaishawn Barham – 64 / 43.7
S Makari Paige – 61 / 56.2
DT Kenneth Grant – 60 / 61.7
CB Will Johnson – 58 / 70.3
DT Mason Graham – 58 / 67.9
S Quinten Johnson – 57 / 58.3
CB Zeke Berry – 50 / 63.0
Edge Derrick Moore – 46 / 64.3
Edge Josaiah Stewart – 45 / 75.9
DT Rayshaun Benny – 28 / 74.4
Edge TJ Guy – 26 / 64.6
Edge Cameron Brandt – 25 / 52.3
S Wesley Walker – 21 / 55.8
CB Aamir Hall – 17 / 59.9
LB Jimmy Rolder – 13 / 55.3
DT Trey Pierce – 7 / 60.8
DT Ike Iwunnah – 6 / 82.3
DT Enow Etta – 4 / 62.4
CB Kody Jones – 3 / 60.0
CB Myles Pollard – 2 / 60.0
Takeaways: Kenneth Grant playing 60 snaps and Mason Graham playing 58 snaps could be detrimental for them as the season goes on. They are two of the best defensive tackles in the country, but if you’re playing that many snaps per game, even the best of the best are going to get gassed.
A season ago, Graham played 442 total snaps while Grant played 403 snaps. Through two games, Graham is already up to 104 snaps while Grant is at 101. For them to already be a quarter of the way to what they played all of last year is insane.
Additionally, the linebackers were graded pretty harshly by PFF, with Ernest Hausmann and Jaishawn Barham both grading out below 50. They gave Barham a very good tackling grade of 80.4, but nothing else was graded higher than 52.6. PFF also dinged Hausmann for three missed tackles, and for giving up five catches on five targets in coverage. It was a really rough day for the linebackers.
Surprises: Where in the world was Ja’Den McBurrows? The player to relieve Zeke Berry in the slot was redshirt sophomore Kody Jones, who only had 59 snaps in his entire career until yesterday. Perhaps McBurrows had a last second injury pop up, but that was an interesting thing to see on the player report.
Texas
Michigan Forced to Make Major Coaching Change Ahead of Citrus Bowl vs. Texas
As the offseason of college football approaches, coaches across the country are leaving their current programs for new ones. One of these coaches is Michigan offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, who has left the Wolverines for the Mizzou Tigers. With his departure, Michigan will look to a new coach to assume Lindsey’s duties in the upcoming Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.
Taking over play-calling duties for Michigan will likely be Wolverines tight ends coach and co-offensive coordinator Steve Casula.
Steve Casula Takes Over As Offensive Coordinator
According to ESPN, Lindsey signed a three-year deal with the Tigers to take over as the team’s offensive coordinator. After spending only a single season with the Wolverines, he left in the aftermath of the recent Sherrone Moore scandal, which led to the firing of the former Michigan head coach.
Casula is in his second season with the Wolverines as an assistant coach, but previously worked with Michigan from 2019 to 2021 as an offensive analyst. Nearly eclipsing 20 years of coaching experience, this will not be Casula’s first time taking on a team’s offensive playcalling.
Casula previously held stints as the offensive coordinator at Davenport, Ferris State and, most recently, UMASS. While with Massachusetts, the Minutemen offense averaged 22.5 points per game, 163.5 rushing yards per game, 181.8 passing yards per game and 345.2 total yards per game.
Now he takes on perhaps his toughest challenge yet as an offensive playcaller, taking on the Texas Longhorns in the Citrus Bowl.
Texas has undergone some coaching changes as well, on the opposite side of the ball, recently firing defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski and hiring Will Muschamp in his stead.
While the Texas defense didn’t perform to expectations this season and has had various players opt out of the Citrus Bowl, they still boast some of the best young talent in the nation. Defensive players set not to play in the Longhorns’ upcoming contest include linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., safety Michael Taaffe, defensive lineman Ethan Burke, cornerback Malik Muhammad and linebacker Trey Moore.
This will mean the Longhorns will get an early look at perhaps some of the players that will be the core of next season’s defense. Some young names like Jonah Williams and Bo Barnes likely be given a chance to play significant minutes, and will hope to put a stop to Casula and the Michigan offense.
With the turmoil that Michigan has undergone over the past few weeks, perhaps Casula can bring some stability to the offense after Lindsey’s exit.
Texas
How to watch Kentucky vs. Texas A&M volleyball in NCAA championship
Texas A&M, Kentucky face off in NCAA volleyball championship game
We now know the two teams heading to the national championship. Meg Hall explains how Texas A&M and Kentucky made it to the title game.
The 2025 NCAA volleyball season comes down to Kentucky vs. Texas A&M. The conference rivals will meet in the first all-SEC national championship game on Sunday, Dec. 21 (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
Texas A&M is vying for its first championship after upsetting No. 1 overall seed Nebraska and Pitt in the Elite Eight and Final Four, respectively. Meanwhile, Kentucky is looking to win its second title and first since 2020 after beating Wisconsin in a five-set semifinal thriller.
It will be the 28th all-time meeting between the teams. The Wildcats hold a 17-10 advantage in the series, but the Aggies are 2-0 when the team’s meet on a neutral court.
Kentucky beat Texas A&M on Oct. 8 in College Station. The Aggies won the first set, but Wildcats rallied to win the last three for the victory.
When is Kentucky vs. Texas A&M volleyball?
No. 1 Kentucky (29-2) faces No. 3 Texas A&M (28-4) on Sunday, Dec. 21 at 3:30 p.m. ET at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kentucky vs. Texas A&M volleyball: Channel, streaming
- Date: Sunday, Dec. 21
- Time: 3:30 p.m ET (2:30 p.m. CT)
- Location: T-Mobile Center (Kansas City, Missouri)
- Channel: ABC
- Stream: ESPN+, Fubo
Stream to NCAA volleyball championship
MORE: The 11 best NCAA volleyball players in transfer portal
Kentucky Wildcats starting lineup
Head coach: Craig Skinner
- 6 Kassie O’Brien | S 6-1 – Freshman
- 7 Eva Hudson | OH 6-1 – Senior
- 10 Kennedy Washington | MB 6-0 – Sophomore
- 11 Molly Berezowitz | DS 5-5 – Junior
- 12 Molly Tuozzo | L 5-7 – Junior
- 15 Lizzie Carr | MB 6-6 – Redshirt Junior
- 17 Brooklyn DeLeye | OH 6-2 – Junior
Texas A&M Aggies starting lineup
Head coach: Jamie Morrison
- 37 Kyndal Stowers | OH 5-11 – Sophomore
- 1 Ifenna Cos-Okpalla | MB 6-2 – Senior
- 2 Addi Applegate | L/DS 5-5 – Freshman
- 9 Logan Lednicky | OPP 6-3 – Senior
- 12 Ava Underwood | L/DS 5-7 – Senior
- 16 Maddie Waak | S 5-10 – Senior
Texas
The Good, Bad and Ugly of Texas A&M’s Loss to Miami
No matter the accomplishments and accolades collected through the year, all seasons must come to end in some form or fashion. Unfortunately for Texas A&M football, the form of its first defeat in the College Football Playoff was in a tight 10-3 matchup with the Miami Hurricanes.
Despite of their best defensive outing of the 2025 campaign, the Aggies inability to get the offense churning until the very end of the game was among the factors that doomed their chances of advancing deeper into the national title race.
All things considered, it was a terrific season for the Maroon and White, who rattled off 11 straight wins to start the season as well as reaching the CFP for the first time in school history, which is a huge leap seeing that it was only head coach Mike Elko’s second season at the helm of the program. With that said, let’s take a look at the good, bad and ugly of the final A&M game of the year.
The Good: A precedent was set
Though the sting of a loss, especially a season-ending one, is a hard feeling to turn the page over with, an 11-2 run in Elko’s second year is a quite the feat. A&M, which hadn’t achieved 10 wins in a season in over a decade, is poised to build a long-standing prescence in the national title race.
Though a small sample size, Elko has progressed his time in each of the last two years, which can lead folks to assume that next year will have a similar outcome as far as overall success. While difficult to grasp in the moment, championship programs are not so quickly built in today’s Southeastern Conference.
The Bad: Offensive struggles spoil courageous defensive effort
In most normal circumstances, holding a team to just 10 points typically results in a victory. But that was not the case for the Aggies on Saturday. Through the better part of a three-and-a-half quarters, the A&M defense held Miami to just three points until in the final two minutes when a touchdown was conceded.
The Aggies had no answer to their defense’s heroics and came up short in the final seconds of the game when there was a chance in the end zone to tie the ballgame. A new offensive coordinator in Holmon Wiggins is due up next season, so the jury is still out on how next year will pan out.
The Ugly: Kicking the ball
Sometimes, things can be so bad that they are simply comical. That would certainly be the case in College Station on Saturday afternoon, where a windy day helped a total of four field goal attempts to be missed across both squads.
However, the Aggie faithful would be the first to say that even without wind, field goal kicking seemed virtually impossible this season. Kicker Jared Zirkel seemingly kicked the ball straight in the Hurricanes line within the 30-yard line and the Aggies only scored off a short boot from kicker Randy Bond.
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