3 Players on the Michigan Football offense to watch vs MSU

The battle between Michigan’s offense and Michigan State’s defense will be interesting to watch. It’s effectively strength-on-strength, as Michigan is one of the best running teams in the country, and the Spartans’ run defense is light years ahead of their pass defense.

Michigan football can be multidimensional when needed though, which they may look to do on Saturday. With that comes a wide variety of players who could make an impact. Here are three of those that you should be on the lookout for.

Karsen Barnhart and Ryan Hayes

This really comes down to who’s lined up against Michigan State DE/LB Jacoby Windmon. The UNLV transfer has proven to be a problem from the start, putting the world on notice with a four-sack performance in week 1 against Western Michigan.

While that type of production hasn’t fully carried over, he’s been the Spartan’s best player and tallied 11 tackles, two of which as TFLs, last week against Wisconsin. On the season, Windmon has 37 tackles, five and a half sacks, six forced fumbles, and an interception. For reference, he’d lead Michigan in every category except for tackles, where he’d be second. Not bad.

Barnhart and Hayes have been critical pieces of an elite offensive line, but this will be a big test for them. If they can win this matchup and keep Windmon under control, the defensive presence in the backfield will be minimal.

Andrel Anthony

Andrel Anthony has had one game in his Michigan career with more than two receptions. That came last year against Michigan State, where he had six catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns. The Lansing native was able to torch the Spartans last year, and not much has changed in their secondary. While Michigan State is no longer dead last in the conference, let alone the country, in passing defense, they’ve only moved up to #111th nationally, which… isn’t great.

Anthony was able to exploit the weak Spartan air space last year. He has more competition for targets this year, with the re-addition of Ronnie Bell and the emergence of Roman Wilson, however, he also has a quarterback more capable of airing it out in J.J. McCarthy. It will be interesting to watch if Anthony can crack the Spartan’s code in the same way he did a year ago.

J.J. McCarthy

Cade McNamara is a solid quarterback that fits well into Jim Harbaugh’s system. However, he’s not a guy that’s typically airing it out. Aside from the Michigan State game last year, he threw for over 250 yards twice, and neither was over that mark by much.

Then there’s Michigan State, where McNamara threw for nearly 400 yards. That says a lot about Michigan State’s pass defense and how Michigan football looked to exploit it.

Fast forward to this year. Again, not much has changed in the Spartan secondary. J.J. McCarthy, though, is a very different quarterback from McNamara. Fully capable of cutting loose and stretching the field with his arm, the Wolverines could have a field day in the passing game if they want to.

Add in the likely yearning for revenge after a costly fumble a year ago, and McCarthy should be as ready and eager as he’ll ever be for a game. If Michigan football decides that the game plan on offense revolves around passing the football, McCarthy could light up Michigan State.