brandent englemon
One of these is Jamar Adams, the other Jarrod Wilson (by Fuller)
Here's a little tradition from around these parts that you're not happy to bring back: who's going to be the new safety starter? Yeah, remember that conversation? Remember how it went around picking up all the we-hope-he's-at-least-an-Englemons out of Gibson'ed secondaries?
The best of all that. This last bout of hand wringing finally ended with the best safety tandem we've had in the Cover-2 era. In their two years together Kovacs and Gordon were the first capable pair since Brandent and Jamar, easily the best since Marlin and Ernest, and probably ranked higher than any since Marcus and Tommy or earlier. We can actually chart the stuff since '07, thanks to Brian's Upon Further Review charts (which total up the plusses and minuses accrued in each game into a rough net contribution stat). I've got my UFR database now updated that far (any further and the knowledge isn't really there to make it relevant or comparable). Remember this is a game-by-game exercise that wasn't meant to remain standard across the ages; that said the Chart?-Chart! chart totals for Michigan safeties in these six seasons very much fit your recollections:
| Player | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | Career |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brandent Englemon | 12 | +12 | |||||
| Jamar Adams | 9 | +9 | |||||
| Charles Stewart | -15 | -15 | |||||
| Brandon Harrison | 1.5 | +1.5 | |||||
| Artis Chambers | -1 | -1 | |||||
| Stevie Brown | -9 | -7 | -16 | ||||
| Michael Williams | 2.5 | -26.5 | -24 | ||||
| Troy Woolfolk | -10.5 | 0 | -10.5 | ||||
| Jared Van Slyke | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Brandon Smith | -3.5 | -3.5 | |||||
| Jordan Kovacs | -7 | -4.5 | 37 | 11 | +36.5 | ||
| Vladimir Emilien | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Cam Gordon | -26.5 | -26.5 | |||||
| Thomas Gordon | 17.5 | 24 | +41.5 | ||||
| Carvin Johnson | -7.5 | -7.5 | |||||
| Josh Furman | -2 | -2 | |||||
| Ray Vinopal | -3.5 | -3.5 | |||||
| Marvin Robinson | 0 | -9 | 0.5 | -8.5 | |||
| Jarrod Wilson | -2 | -2 | |||||
| Total | 12 | -19 | -47.5 | -34.5 | 38 | 31.5 | -19.5 |
Chart notes: maize is positive, blue negative so that can stand out more. Time spent at the Spur in the 3-3-5 years was counted as linebacker, likewise Brandon Harrison's 2007 at nickel, which was a starting position on the English defenses. I tried to separate Woolfolk's corner games from his safety games; for the record here's the breakdown for 2009:
| Position | Gm | + | - | Tot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safety | 5 | 3.5 | 14 | -10.5 |
| Cornerback | 5 | 4 | 8.5 | -4.5 |
…when he was obviously a better corner than a safety but as you can see from above, was needed more at the latter.
Still the totals at the bottom tell a story of a moderately positive '07 (Stevie Brown—0/-8/-8 in The Horror) did most of his damage in one game, which itself did plenty of damage to that season), three years of atrociousness, and dramatic improvement under the new staff. If you remember 2010 as worse than '09 that's because the cornerbacks were just as bad. The disparity between Kovacs 2011 and 2012 is easy enough to explain by there being far fewer opportunities for him to make those Kovacsian stops after 7 yards as Michigan faced either Alabama or teams who either didn't test or schemed against him (Air Force, Nebraska).
Also I had to chart The Horror myself because Brian didn't at the time. Thanks Brian.* Anyway the charting says Thomas Gordon (!) was the best safety at Michigan in the last six seasons. Should we be talking about all-conference stuff for ol' Prison Abs in addition to the leadership stuff? Gee, maybe. He had a spectacular spring game, which I don't think many people noticed.
As for what's opposite him Michigan has to find something out of the blues above plus another year of progression.
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*Had this been done under modern UFR standards it would have doubled any record for RPS debacles. Just to know I tried doing that, handing out the remainder of expected points for any play that weren't on the players as Brian does in UFR-ing and came out with this staggering figure of +23/-46/-23. RPS is never that much of a variable, except in this game it was the alignment of linebackers, stunts (!), not stacking the box, and not responding to the QB draw even though they only ever ran one play out of that alignment.
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[After the jump: Candidates]
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