ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines had just about everything go well this week in a 50-6 win over the Northwestern Wildcats, but the first-half injury to junior tight end Colston Loveland looms large heading into next week’s game against Ohio State.
Loveland appeared to injure his shoulder on his touchdown catch at the end of the first half, which extended its lead over Northwestern to 17-6 heading into the locker room. The Michigan radio broadcast said at halftime he did not come out of the locker room and would not play the rest of the game.
Head coach Sherrone Moore briefly touched on the injury after the win, deferring to his medical staff.
“Yeah, just working through something,” Moore said. “We’ll see what they say when we go see the doctors.”
Loveland is considered a potential NFL Draft pick next spring and is one of the best tight ends in college football. Saturday was the first time this season that Loveland did not lead the team in receiving in a game he played in. He missed the Week 4 win over USC with a shoulder ailment.
“He’s unbelievable,” Moore said. “You talk about a guy that just works from Gooding, Idaho. Very unknown. He’s come in here and been a name in college football that everybody knows. He’s just outstanding in every way. It’s a blessing to be around. It’s a pleasure to be around in every way. I’m just glad we got him.”
He finished the day with 3 catches for 22 yards and the score right before the half, setting a new single-season record for receptions by a Michigan tight end with 56 catches for 588 yards and five touchdowns, supplanting Bennie Joppru’s 53 catches in 2002. Loveland is also second all-time in career tight end touchdowns at U-M with 11, tied with Jake Butt.
Michigan’s run game finds itself in the second half
Coming into this game, Michigan’s run game had tapered off in a big way over the last several weeks, and the first half was more of the same. The Wolverines had 12 carries for 14 yards in the first half, and then busted out in a big way out of the locker room.
Michigan pounded the Wildcats on the ground on a 5-play, 75-yard drive – all runs – to take a commanding 24-6 lead. Graduate running back Kalel Mullings had 4 of those carries for 73 yards and the touchdown. It woke up everyone, running 23 times for 187 yards and 8.1 yards per carry in the final two quarters.
Mullings finished the day with 12 carries for 92 yards and 3 scores, while senior Donovan Edwards chipped in with 10 carries for 52 yards and a 20-yard touchdown run. Even senior Tavierre Dunlap found his way into the endzone for a 20-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.
Michigan adjusted, and it paid off.
“I thought we did a good job formationally adjusting and helping the box fronts,” Moore said after the game. “Sometimes you get a lot of people in the box and it’s hard to run. Some formations dictate that they can. Some formations dictate that they can’t. I also thought the guys just moved their guys more. And we did a really good job fundamentally playing with lower hats, better hands. And Kalel obviously got it going really early with a huge run. So I think that momentum was great.
Mullings had struggled in recent weeks due in part to inconsistent usage and poor run blocking up front. His bread and butter this season had been breaking tackles and making people miss. Saturday afternoon was a return to form.
“The biggest thing for us was, you have to make the safeties miss, as backs,” Mullings said. “In the first half we had a couple of big opportunities, but the safeties were able to get us down. We knew, early in the play, get our eyes on the safety. These guys were coming down pretty fast, pretty hard, and we had to have a move ready, have a move in your head to make that safety miss and get to the end zone.
“It felt amazing. It’s my last game in The Big House. Me and Dono were talking about it. Both of our last plays were touchdowns. There’s nothing more you could ask for. It felt amazing to help the team win, help get the run game going, and be able to make plays. It feels like bliss, honestly.”
Davis Warren on first half ending drive, relationship with Jared Goff
Senior quarterback Davis Warren made his 7th start of the season – and 4th in a row – in Saturday’s win, finishing the game 26-for-35 for 195 yards with a touchdown and interception. It was far from a flawless performance, and one of the highlights of his season thus far came on an 11-play, 65-yard drive at the end of the first half that ended in a three-yard score to Loveland.
“It was awesome. It was great to see,” Warren said after the game. “It was great for our defense to get a stop, hold, and then for our offense to go down and score. So it was a huge part and great momentum shifting into the second half.”
Between the first half drive to close things out and the Mullings drive to start the second half, U-M won the “middle eight” and put its foot on the gas the rest of the way, something that had eluded them all year.
“It was huge, just setting the tempo going into halftime,” Warren said. “We talk about that middle eight all the time. We want to win that middle eight. Being able to do that was huge. The receivers did a great job, and Dono was a great option in the pass game. If they’re keying Colston, or whoever, I can dump it down to him and he can make a play. I’m just proud of the way we executed in that drive and it really gave us some momentum going into the half, to really take it to them.”
In recent weeks, it came out that Warren had developed a relationship with Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, another California guy who made his way to the state of Michigan. The two have bonded over their journeys and become friends dating back to when Warren was a prep star working through cancer treatments in high school.
“He texted me last week, after the Texans game,” Warren said. “Then they beat the Jaguars by 50, that next week. Maybe he should text me every week. That might help him out a little bit.
“That relationship is huge for me. He was there for me when I needed someone when I was going through my treatment, and that relationship just grew. Working with the same trainers, and we both go from Southern California to the Detroit area. It’s been so cool seeing him and watching him. When I was thrown back into the lineup, it was watching a lot of his throws, checking down to the running back, and him talking about it, how you’ve got to be a point guard.”
Warren and Goff now have dueling 50-point performances between the two of them. Nobody is expecting that to happen next week against Ohio State, but Moore knows it can serve as a springboard.
“Yeah, great momentum,” Moore said. “Great momentum, but we all know what that game means. It’s a reset. It doesn’t really matter what your record is. It doesn’t really matter what you’ve done before. That game’s different. So we’ve got to go prepare.”
Miscellaneous offensive notes
• Freshmen Jadyn Davis (QB) and Micah Ka’apana (RB) made their Michigan debuts on Saturday.
• The offense had a season-high 25 total first downs.
• Mullings’ 47-yard run in the third quarter was the third longest of his career (53 and 63 yards, both this season).
• His three-touchdown game was the first for U-M since Blake Corum’s game against Purdue last season.
• Michigan threw the ball 24 times in the first half and 35 on the night. Coming into this game, the Wolverines had attempted 24.2 passes per game.
• Junior WR Tyler Morris led the team with a career-high 7 catches for 64 yards on Saturday.
• Edwards had four catches on Saturday, moving into third-place all-time for receptions for a U-M running back with 84 career catches, passing B.J. Askew (83, 1999-02).
• Freshman running back Jordan Marshall received his first carries of the season, finishing with 7 for 17 yards. He also had a 63-yard kick return.
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