As Michigan football enters its bye week, it's time to hand out some awards.
With a perfect 7-0 record & everything in front of them, the Wolverines are performing at or above expectations, and there's a handful of options for each midseason award.
Is the MVP obvious? Who's improved the most?
Those questions and more are answered below in our Michigan Football Midseason Awards.
Honorable Mentions: Strong 2nd half?
These players didn't take home a midseason award, but are they primed for a strong final stretch before the season's conclusion?
- QB J.J. McCarthy: If the offense ever needs McCarthy, he's waiting.
- WR Roman Wilson: If McCarthy could take a yard off of three different throws, Wilson would have gaudy numbers, including more three touchdowns.
- DE Eyabi Okie: At this point, his impact is no longer in question. You see it weekly.
- S Makari Paige: Is the odd man out from the offseason, Paige, rising as the best safety on the team after all? It sure seems that way.
Most Improved Player: TE Luke Schoonmaker & CB Mike Sainristil
Defensively, is this the most obvious answer?
Sainristil, who played defensive back in high school, played wideout for the Wolverines for three seasons before switching over to the defensive side of the ball this offseason, where he's risen as Michigan's starting nickel.
In 171 slot coverage snaps, Sainristil has defended 22 targets, allowing 13 completions for 126 yards. Sainristil has the 27th-best Run Defense Grade, according to PFF, and the highest-graded (84.7) pass rusher among qualifying cornerbacks.
Luke Schoonmaker was one-half of what many inside Schembechler Hall believed to be the best tight end duo in college football.
Once his partner in crime, Erick All, went down, Schoonmaker did more than step up.
The senior has 23 catches on 28 targets (82.1%) for 229 yards and two touchdowns after totaling four targets in the first three games.
Schoonmaker's nine catches on 10 targets at Indiana shattered his previous highs. After following it up with a zero catch, one-target performance against Penn State, expect one of McCarthy's favorite targets to get back in the groove he's been in since All went down in Week 4.
Blue Collar Award: RB Blake Corum & DT Mazi Smith
More on Blake Corum later. As for his blue-collar qualifications, his 146 carries are the fifth-most in college football.
Even in games where his running mate, Donovan Edwards, scores twice and totaled more yards than him, Corum carried the rock 28 times.
He's willing to take on as many as Matt Weiss & Sherrone Moore will give him.
If you're going to do it, you got to love it, right?
Then there's Mazi Smith, who was named the #1 freak in college football by The Athletic before the season.
How good is Smith? You'll have to watch the film and see teams triple-team him to understand.
He's eaten blocks and opened the door for others, like Eyabi Okie, Mike Morris, and Kris Jenkins, to feast en route to another dominant start to a season for a U-M defensive line.
Smith leads the unit with exactly 300 snaps, which is 55 more than the second-most, Jenkins.
Comeback Player of the Year: Ronnie Bell & Gemon Green
Bell is an easy choice, right?
After an ACL injury last season, the two-time captain has an enormous 29% target share among U-M wideouts, with at least four targets, who are active in the rotation.
Bell's 45 targets are 17 more than Schoonmaker's 28, second-best on the team, and 22 more than Roman Wilson.
He only has one touchdown, but his team-leading 35 catches for 429 yards speak for themselves.
Ronnie Bell is back.
Gemon Green watched DJ Turner steal his job at the tail end of the 2022 season.
A year later, Green is showing some serious CB1 stuff on tape.
He leads the cornerback room with a 77.9 coverage grade & teams are beginning to throw less and less his way. Against Penn State last week, Green was targeted four times compared to Turner's nine.
Green allowed 17 yards on two catches against one of the better receiving groups in the Big Ten.
Who is Michigan's best cornerback?
That question had a different answer in August because, so far, it's Green.
Rookie of the Year: Will Johnson & Mason Graham
Mason Graham flew in from California and quickly, he's 13th on the team in snaps.
Graham remains a starting defensive tackle in a base set. Against Iowa in Week 5, he registered the first sack of his career.
Will Johnson's story is different as a local product out of Grosse Pointe South in Metro Detroit, about a half-hour down the road from Ann Arbor.
He's made himself at home in Schembechler Hall quickly, too, with a thunderous hit on Sean Clifford last week, which knocked the Penn State QB out of the game.
Johnson has the second-best coverage grade (74.0) & defensive grade (75.2) in the cornerback room.
As a former five-star who was Rivals' top-ranked corner in the country, the GP product is living up to the hype.
Defensive MVP: Mike Morris
Morris is next in line in Michigan's lengthy scroll of defensive end success under Jim Harbaugh.
"What will Michigan do without Aidan Hutchinson?"
*Morris awkwardly waves, confused as if we've all forgotten who he is*
The senior captain's 83.4 defensive grade leads the team. His 84.4 pass-rush grade is the highest among U-M linemen.
He has seven more pressures, three more QB hurries, two more sacks, and one more QB hit than anyone on the team.
MVP.
Offensive MVP: Blake Corum & offensive line
Oh, hello.
Jim Harbaugh finally did it.
Somewhere along the line, U-M's offense found an unhitched rhythm last season that only a historically good Georgia offense could defend.
Once again, they're on a roll, in large part thanks to Corum, who refuses to take compliments without first recognizing his offensive linemen.
So, we'll do the same.
Coming off the Joe Moore Award while battling several injuries, including starting right tackle Trente Jones, Sherrone Moore's o-line is playing tremendously. PFF grades be damned!
Against Penn State, they paved the way for over 400 rushing yards against a top-10 team and the fifth-best defense against the run -- allegedly.
Meanwhile, Corum is a robot made in a lab who's the creation of an evil scientist's even blend of Barry Sanders-like moves with Christian McCaffrey-like vision with Brian Westbrook's frame.
We already mentioned his usage amount, but how about 13 touchdowns, a 92.6 offensive grade & a 92.9 rushing grade to lead the country?
Corum's 901 yards are second only to Illinois' Chase Brown, who eclipsed 1,000 on a nation-leading 193 carries.
He might not hold a Heisman, but Corum should be in the same room as it if his production continues
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