Rarely does an entire state experience four hours of sustained stress, but such was the frazzled existence of most Michiganders (and Michiganders at heart) last Saturday. At arguably the apex of the jaw clenching and hand wringing redshirt sophomore quarterback Cade McNamara stood in the shotgun with 1:15 left on the clock, took the snap, looked right, and let the ball fly to his tight end. He had done so regularly throughout the game; junior tight end Erick All finished the day with 10 catches for 98 yards, both career highs. Despite the breakthrough day, All wasn’t the target. He had limped off the field earlier in the game and did not return.

Will All return this weekend? “I think he will (practice this week). We’ll see,” tight ends coach Jay Harbaugh said. “Monday was the walkthrough. Yesterday he was out there but he didn’t do everything, but I do think he’ll be back at some point in the week.”

If All is unable to play against Indiana it won’t be for lack of effort. “He’s such a hard worker,” Harbaugh said. “He’s the kind of guy if you observe him really his whole career here you’d say ‘That guy’s going to be really good’ because of his habits are so good in terms of the way that he runs routes, the speed at which he practices, the extra work that he puts in, his desire to be really good, so it’s really just with guys like that a matter of time because their habits are such that you just know that they’re going to break through when the opportunity arises.”

All’s emergence as a downfield threat for McNamara proved useful on a day where the running game had difficulty finding its footing. “I think everyone was excited to see him have those balls come his way, which doesn’t always happen at the tight end position, especially not in that volume,” Harbaugh said. “It was cool to see both the balls come that way and him to be ready for it and to make some of the plays he did. It was an outstanding game for him. It was very cool to see. He deserves to have that kind of success.”

That’s not to discount All’s continued importance to the run game, though. Michigan has been utilizing its tight ends this year as lead blockers with great frequency, and All has been a primary contributor to Michigan averaging 239.5 yards per game on the ground for an average of 5.4 per carry. It’s the little things he’s done this season in his blocking that have made the biggest difference in his importance to the run game, but Harbaugh had difficulty finding one particular area where All has made the biggest stride. Instead, it seems to be a situation in which a rising tide has lifted all boats, and that tide is powered by All’s work ethic.

“Not as a cop-out answer but the way that he approaches things, because of his intensity he gets better at everything incrementally. When you see the way that he’s catching the ball that obviously jumps out because he is catching it really well. He’s sustaining blocks better than he ever has before,” Harbaugh said. “He’s a guy who produces such great force on contact because he bends so well, he gets great leverage and he strikes people like a hammer. Then sometimes he falls off the contact or doesn’t necessarily finish through the whistle on the same guy. When you watch him closely you’ll notice this year he’s done a lot better job in terms of making great initial contact, knocking the guy back, and finishing on the man as the play finishes. That’s been cool to see, but really it’s hard to pinpoint any one area just because the growth has been pretty well rounded.”

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