Oh woops. I misread it. I thought 15 sacks + 15 TDs. My bad.
Iām hoping your number is right!
The one āknockā on Peppers is that he doesnāt always finish the big defensive play, but only disrupts the plays and then his teammates can come accrue the stats.
I donāt know how many sacks/TFLs/INTs he will end up with, but I have a feeling he will be the lead contributor to a lot of those big plays throughout the season.
He doesnāt finish the big defensive play? The guy shuts down all bubble screens by himself because blocking wide receivers cannot stay in front of him. He tackles RBs, rushes the QB, heās just so versatile. The only criticism I can really fathom is that his coverage skills are probably only average/above average, at least in terms of WRs, but he also had several PBUs last year as well.
I read ChipJonezās comment as a tongue in cheek gesture towards the analysts who need to nitpick about something and say that on some plays he āonlyā stops the guyās progress while the rest of the defense swarms him.
Probably weird coming from me, but with UM football Iām definitely a glass half full sort of guy under Harbaugh. I still consider myself a hard critic and very objective though. That said, just find it pretty difficult to knock Jabril Peppers for much of anything. The guy is likely a top 10 player in college football that can probably play 10 positions at an elite level. Hard to think of many players in history with that talent level and versatility
Yes, by no means were those my critiquesā¦the impact Jabrill makes on the field is second to none in my opinion. The only thing I was semi-serious about was that I refuse to care about his stats and whether they are eye-popping or not. They (stats) wonāt tell the story of just how much he scares opposing coaches and their respective gameplans
Now as a college student Iām obviously young, but I can say with complete certainty that I have not been this excited for a Michigan season in my entire life. So much frustration from previous years that we need to let out on a season long rampage to the big ten title. Finally being able to shut the sparties up. A ridiculous amount of returning taken. This is the year.
Go irish! 
Whatās going on with the 2018 class? Obviously too early to worry, but 3 decommitments in such close succession is weird.
A few of them have been purposeful on the staffās part. Whenever you hear players say that they havenāt heard from the coaches in a few months, it means that the staff is trying to get them to decommit.
As you mentioned, too early to worry. This one was somewhat unexpected, but the other 2 werenāt. From the sounds of it, our coaches pretty much stopped communicating with the OG from Georgia. And the DE from Ohio was always going to be a tough pull from OSU. Iām not quite sure why he committed to us in the first place.
The optics arenāt great, but this staff will bring in a great class and maximize the talent. Itās very difficult recruiting in the South and Ohio (especially when OSU is so dominant).
Honestly, who cares? With Harbaugh, you know heās going to replace these kids with prospects that are equal or better.
2 Likes
This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I said practically the same thing on mgoblog: āI have no doubt that we will end up with several linebackers at his level or better than him by the end of this cycle.ā
While it sucks to have a 4 star decommit itās hard to be too upset when we can be so confident that his replacement will likely be even better.
Agreed with both comments above. The only possible exception being the 2 DTs weāve lost in the last two classesāthe kid from TX and The kid from GA (although he could possibly still end up at Michigan, even though itās unlikely). Those losses could sting a bit next year, depending on which side of the ball Onwenu ends up.
Two wordsā¦Rashan Gary.
Heās obviously an incredible talent, but heās currently playing anchor (SDE). Maybe heāll move inside next year, but weāll still need depth. We lose Wormley, Glasgow, and Godin. Hurst could also potentially go pro if he has a great year. Dwumfour might end up really good, but it probably wonāt be next year.
We saw what happened last year after Glasgow went down. I was loving the dominant D-line we had prior to that injury. I donāt want to lose that.
Gary obviously has the positional versatility to play inside, and thrive in that role. I do agree that depth could be an issue though. LB play will be much better next year though. However, I truly believe the offense may be improved next year with a more experienced Speight in conjunction with the type of athletes we are seeing in the 2016 class. Namely Evans, McDoom, Crawford. Oline is the concern next year moreso than anything else in my opinion.
Yeah the other guys we lost Iād tend to put in the ākids have no clue what the word ācommitmentā meansā whereas I feel like this guy had full intentions of playing here when he committed but let the people around him sway him. His loss IMO.
Any time you have a chance to play for Jim Harbaugh, and you decline to accept, it is certainly your loss in my opinion.