Interesting Notes From Michigan's 31-7 Win Over Rutgers

On Saturday, in Jim Harbaugh's 2023 debut, Michigan handled Rutgers with relative ease, winning 31-7 in the Big Ten opener. Since it was Harbaugh's first game on the sidelines this year, it makes sense that there were some noticeable changes to the lineups and the personnel.

1. Semaj Morgan's day

The entire stadium lit up when freshman wide receiver Semaj Morgan caught his first career touchdown pass and with good reason. Jim Harbaugh talked about how special that moment is for a young player and expects it to push Morgan even harder as he continues to develop as a rookie. What's interesting about Morgan's day, is that he played just three snaps. He also made a catch on one of his other plays meaning that he saw "action" on 66% of his snaps. He finished the day with two grabs for 26 yards and that first career touchdown from 18 yards out. I'm sure Morgan would like to play more than three plays, but that's how you take advantage of your opportunity.

2. Will Johnson is all the way back

Through the first three games of the season, Johnson only played a total of eight snaps, all against UNLV. On Saturday, he played more than any other defensive player, logging a total of 43 plays out of a possible 46. That tells me, that Johnson was probably fine to play from the jump, but that the coaching staff didn't see a need to rush him back as he worked to get as close to 100% as possible. However it played out for the first three weeks, Michigan's best cover corner is back in the lineup and likely to stay. Don't expect Johnson to be off the field very much in 2023.

3. AJ Barner continues to play more than Colston Loveland

This isn't necessarily a problem in any way, but I do think it's surprising. I just feel like if someone had said that Indiana transfer tight end AJ Barner would play more than Colston Loveland week after week, I would've said they were crazy. Barner isn't outpacing Loveland by much, but he is seeing the field more than the star sophomore.

Opponent	AJ Barner - snaps	Colston Loveland - snaps
East Carolina	38	26
UNLV	33	31
Bowling Green	28	24
Rutgers	49	40

So far, it hasn't hindered either player. Barner is clearly viewed as a valuable piece of Michigan's run game, while Loveland is doing his thing as a pass catcher with 14 catches for 168 yards. It's just a trend that is playing out in a way that most probably didn't see coming.

4. Only 3 true freshmen played

This number is much, much smaller than it was during the first three weeks, which happens to coincide with Jim Harbaugh's absence. It's probably more about the opponents and expected outcomes, but still, only three rookies playing in a pretty one-sided contest is very different from weeks one through three. Against Rutgers, Semaj Morgan, Fredrick Moore and DJ Waller Jr. were the only freshmen to see the field. They played three, nine and three snaps respectively.