Michigan football winners and losers: Sherrone Moore and QB play continue to doom

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Free Press sports writer Tony Garcia breaks down winners and losers for Michigan football after its 21-7 road loss Saturday to Illinois in Week 8 at Memorial Stadium:

Michigan football winners vs. Illinois

TE Colston Loveland

At this point, the names on the positive side of the ledger are not a surprise. It feels like Loveland is essentially the entire passing attack. The projected 2025 NFL draft first-round selection caught a team-high seven passes for 83 yards on Saturday and picked up four of Michigan’s eight first downs through the air. Jack Tuttle’s first two attempts toward Loveland fell incomplete, but seven of the final eight connected, which included a 29-yard downfield strike up the right sideline on fourth down to temporarily keep hope alive in the final quarter. Loveland also had consecutive catches for 16 and 10 yards on U-M’s lone scoring drive, and Pro Football Focus had him graded as U-M’s top rated offensive player with more than 15 snaps (75 grade).

RB Kalel Mullings

The next highest graded player with more than 15 snaps? Of course it was Mullings. Michigan’s standout running back was once again impressive, running 19 times for 87 yards and the team’s only touchdown. Mullings picked up Michigan’s only two first downs through the first four drives, and accounted for nine of the team’s 11 first downs on the ground throughout the day.

Michigan’s best drive came in the second quarter when it went 12 plays and 72 yards which ended with a Mullings’ 1-yard dive into the end zone on fourth down. It’s no coincidence he carried the ball on eight of the 12 plays, including the first four which helped set up a play-action pass. Even when factoring in the amount of short-yardage carries he got — seven came when U-M had two yards or fewer to gain for a first down — he still averaged nearly five yards per carry and 3.21 after contact.

DT Mason Graham

The box score never does justice to just how much of a game-wrecker Mason Graham is. He likes to tell reporters to “turn on the film,” and he backed it up vs. Illinois. U-M’s star junior interior lineman and projected first-rounder graded out as U-M’s top defender (86.2) in the game. He was third on the team with six tackles, which included a 5-yard tackle for loss on quarterback Luke Altmyer in the fourth. On the six plays where Graham made a tackle, Illinois amassed 4 total yards. He also made a big play on an early fourth-and-1, when he submarined the interior of the Illini front, which allowed Josiah Stewart and Jaishawn Barham to come around the edge, wrap up the tackle for loss and create a turnover on downs. Graham was also credited with four quarterback pressures, three hurries and one hit on 46 snaps.

Michigan football losers vs. Illinois

Head coach Sherrone Moore

Moore’s Wolverines (4-3, 2-2) are off to their worst seven-game start in a season since Brady Hoke’s 5-7 campaign in his final year in 2014. Yes, this was never going to look like 2023, not after losing 18 players to the NFL.

But to look like that after a bye week, feels like malpractice. Michigan lost the turnover battle to Illinois, 3-0, committed six penalties for 61 yards, got burned by a fake punt and missed a field goal for the first time all year among many issues.

U-M is back at a quarterback crossroads, something Moore must answer headed into a rivalry game against Michigan State. Moore says a lot of the right things. His players told athletic director Warde Manuel “you know who we want” when Jim Harbaugh ventured to the NFL, and Moore has seemingly worked well with players, coaches, donors, alumni and NIL collectives in the new era of college sports.

But the on-field product hasn’t worked. Before the games began, Moore implied there would be little-to-no falloff moving into this next chapter of Wolverines football. Clearly, that has not been the case.

REQUIRED READING: Sherrone Moore has a lot to prove in final 5 weeks of Michigan football’s season

QB Jack Tuttle

Tuttle’s No. 1 job was to protect the football. Instead, he has turned it over four times in the past five quarters, which included a fumble in the second quarter which led to an Illini field goal, and then a red-zone interception in the fourth which sealed the defeat. For the second time in as many appearances, Tuttle was the lowest graded Michigan player according to Pro Football Focus (28.7 overall), which included the worst passing grade for any U-M quarterback on the season (30.1).

The seventh-year signal caller completed 20 of 32 passes for 208 yards, but was 9 of 14 for 73 yards entering the final quarter down two touchdowns. It didn’t help he was under a lot of pressure and got sacked five times which lost 37 yards. Still, Tuttle took ownership for what happened postgame — namely an early attempt in the first quarter where he overthrew an open Loveland on a corner route.

“Can’t happen,” Tuttle said. “Terrible, it’s embarrassing … that changes the game, that’s one that gets you in your sleep at night.”

Michigan has started three quarterbacks through seven games, and looks no closer to the answer.

P Tommy Doman

In a game where 14 Illinois points came off a turnover or via a special teams trick play, every yard mattered and Doman didn’t help Michigan flip the field nearly enough. He punted three times, with a net average of 32.7 yards per attempt. His first, after an opening three-and-out, traveled 33 yards and Illinois began on its 40. His next, a shank, went 29 yards before his final attempt traveled 36 yards as Illinois began at its own 45. Its average field position was its own 36. For comparison, Illinois’ punter Hugh Robertson had four punts which averaged 46.2 yards per attempt, and three times U-M had to begin a possession inside the 20.