Andrel Anthony: What took Michigan football coaches so long?

We’ve been hearing since week one that Andrel Anthony had been making big plays in just about practice for Michigan football. So … what took Jim Harbaugh and Co. so long to finally go with the frosh who lived up to the hype in his first significant taste of action at Michigan State last Saturday?

Not only did he look the part of a Big Ten receiver, but Anthony looked like one of the better ones in the conference. Granted, it was one game, but 155 yards is 155 yards, and his six receptions didn’t tell the whole story.

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The way he adjusted his body, stuck his routes, high-pointed the ball — all of it screamed ‘No. 1 receiver,’ both depth-chart wise and living up to the hallowed jersey number. 

“We’ve talked about this for weeks. He’s been ascending every single week,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said. “More would be added to his playlist, and he’s responded each and every time.”

And in a huge way Saturday, starting with his 93-yard touchdown on the first reception at Michigan State, in his hometown. Everyone in the stands was aware of his history, flipping from MSU to Michigan, and it didn’t sit well. He heard it in the pregame and throughout, but he silenced the crowd several times with his play. 

Former Wolverine Braylon Edwards, a former No. 1 jersey wearer, tweeted ‘There’s a new No. 1 in town’ during the game. That blew Anthony away. 

“That meant the world to me,” he told host Jon Jansen on his latest In The Trenches podcast. “That was crazy …

“The emotions were endless for me. Throughout the whole week I was saying, ‘this is my homecoming, my homecoming,’ telling myself that. I knew I was going to get a lot of hate … when I was warming up I was hearing, ‘Andrel … you’re the comparison to [the NBA’s] Kevin Durant.'”

He was numb, he admitted, when he reached the end zone on his first play. 

“Start with running the route. At first, I kind of had messed up the coverage,” he admitted. “I thought they were in a zone, but they were in a man … then when I realized man, I was trying to get over on the wrong guy, so it was kind of funny. The first guy was like five yards off, whatever, but he’s actually guarding the inside slot, not the point even though he was aligned in front of me.”

The ball was perfect, on top of him just as he turned around. 

“I couldn’t picture a better ball than that,” he said. “I looked, and the ball is right here. I just caught it and turned and I was just like, ‘nobody’s running here … so run. Just run.’

“It was kind of funny. I was looking at the jumbotron when I was running to see how close behind me they were and stuff like that. Then I realized, ‘yeah, they’re not going to catch me — and if they catch me, I probably shouldn’t be on the field right now.’

“I remember A.J. [Henning] had told me after his first touchdown, he couldn’t feel his body. I knew exactly what he was talking about in the moment.  I couldn’t feel anything, but realized I was moving. When I got in the end zone I was like, ‘whoa — did that just happen?’ It all happened so fast.”

Where has this kid been?

He’d have several more plays, too, before the game ended with another tough loss for Michigan football, which begged the question — where’s he been? U-M receivers had been average through seven games with big plays here and there, and it appears they had the Cadillac in the garage the whole time. 

But very few freshmen receivers have been ready to impact in the first half of their first years, and Anthony was no different. He was still learning during the first several games, admitting he wasn’t close to ready even when he expected to be in game one. 

“Most definitely [not ready],” he said. “I’d say not even just from a physical perspective, but mentally. It’s just like I know so much more now.

“I felt like I was ready week one, but when the game happened it was like, ‘oh, this is different.’  What really helped me, as well, was last week against Northwestern, being able to go in the second half and play the whole thing.”

He got used to the speed of the game, he said, and decided to ‘just have fun out there.’ He did, right up until the bitter end. 

“Just watching them with the Paul Bunyan [Trophy] it was, ‘damn — that should be us,” he said. “It’s just, remember the bad feeling after the game. We’re just walking off the field, everybody is going crazy. We’ve just got to remember the bad times like that and use them for motivation and move forward.”

It helped him, too, that he got his shot at Michigan State, the perfect time to unleash the beast. He’ll get several more opportunities, having made it clear he might have been the missing piece to an offense that found its groove in the passing game at just the right time.