Michigan is getting a lift on defense and a warning sign up front as it heads into its rivalry matchup with Michigan State.
After sitting out Saturday’s 28-21 win over Rutgers, starting edge rushers John Henry Daley and Dom Nichols are expected back this week, along with Rod Moore. Kyle Whittingham said on “Inside Michigan Football” that all three should be available against the Spartans.
The Wolverines managed without them against Rutgers, but it took some shuffling. Moore was out even though he wasn’t listed on the availability report, and Mason Curtis filled in for him.
On the edge, Tariq Boney and Benny Patterson handled most of the snaps, while Nate Marshall saw limited action. Patterson and Boney were effective enough that Michigan didn’t need to rotate as heavily.
Whittingham was upbeat about what he saw from that group, especially Patterson.
“Benny has gotten better and better as the year has gone on,” Whittingham said. “He’s a second-year player, so he’s still very young in the program, and him and Tariq Boney - a first-year player - took the lion’s share of the reps at the Edge position, and they really held down the fort.
They weren’t perfect, but did really good things. And in Dom’s and John Henry’s absences, they really showed up like we needed them to.
“We didn’t have Rod, as well. Rod was unable to play in this game, so missing some of the stalwarts, but who isn’t in college football at this stage of the season? You’re two thirds of the way through, and you’re going to be down some of your top guys.
“But good news is they played well in the absence of those guys, and those guys should be back this week, John Henry, Dom and Rod.”
The concern now shifts to the offensive line, where the injuries keep piling up. Michigan has already been juggling pieces all season, and starting right tackle Andrew Sprague has been out since Week 2 with an unknown injury.
Against Rutgers, Brady Norton went down and Avery Gach stepped in at right guard. If Norton is the player Whittingham was referring to, it sounds like he may miss the Michigan State game, which would likely push Gach into the starting lineup again.
“We might have another injury this week with the offensive line, so another configuration,” Whittingham said. “That has made it a little bit more challenging, is not having the same five guys week in and week out, and that’s something that we’ve dealt with. But we just hope to not take a step backward - keep taking steps forward these last four weeks.”
One name Michigan can’t really afford to lose is center Jake Guarnera, who has been dealing with a nagging injury for several weeks. Whittingham didn’t sound like he was talking about Guarnera, though, and made it clear the center is playing through pain rather than being sidelined by a more serious issue.
“Yeah, he's tough as nails, I can tell you that," said Whittingham. "And there's a lot of players that would not have been out there these last couple of weeks. But Jake is truly a throwback and a guy that can play when he's hurt.
"And there's a difference, we always talk about the difference between hurt and being injured. And if you're a guy that’s injured, you're gonna make things worse and do more damage and create long-term problems. We do not put, our medical staff won’t put a guy in that situation, but if it’s just a pain tolerance thing, then which is what Jake’s dealing with right now, they say, you can go as long as you can tolerate it.
"And he apparently has a very high threshold of pain because he's out there and battling from start to finish every week.”
Michigan’s first availability report for the Michigan State game is due out Wednesday night.
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