jeremy gallon

[Bryan Fuller]

HTTV Note: The books are done and we're going to have copies in hand by the end of the week. If you backed the kickstarter and want to skip waiting for the mail (which is going to take longer than usual this year), we have socially distanced pickup options at Cultivate in Ypsilanti this Saturday, at Five Shores Brewing in Beulah next Saturday, and after I drive a few boxes out there, at Bryan Fuller's wife's Cheese Lady franchise in Kalamazoo. If you want to get your books there email me and let me know. If your address has changed email me and let me know.

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Are we starting to get desperate for content? Sure. But also I noticed we talk a lot about 3-stars versus 5-stars, when Michigan's classes have historically been filled primarily with standard 4-stars. And by that I mean "just" 4-stars—not top-150 players, and not high 3-stars either. They're the kind of players who would headline a Michigan State class, whom Ohio State would take but not fight too hard for, the constant subjects of Notre Dame-Michigan-Penn State battles with a hometown favorite thrown in.

Previously: Pro Offense/Pro Defense, 1879-Before Bo, 5-Stars, 3-Stars, Extracurriculars, Position-Switchers, Highlights, Numbers Offense/Numbers Defense, In-State, Names, Small Guys, Big Guys, Freshmen

Rules: Lower bound: must be a four-star to at least one major ranker of his era, and average over 4.0 stars on the Seth scale. Upper bound: cannot be ranked top-100 by anybody or higher than a 4.3 on the Seth scale. Since 1990 because data go back that far. College performance considered only.

The Mike Hart Thing: Hart was the equivalent of a solid four-star to places that didn't create a lasting online database of the 2004 class, and a high 3-star to Rivals and Scout, who did, forever after immortalizing him as a "3-star" (this is a well-known malfunction of the human brain). Just giving you fair warning that your brain is going to rebel. Also "bucket list" wasn't in the lexicon until the 2007 film.

Quarterback: Tom Brady (1995)

Rankings:

Nat Rec Advisor Lemming BlueChip Illustrated Superprep ☆s Rkg
5.7 (#10 PRO) #6 PRO, #26 West (AA) #6 QB West, All American #65 Far West 3.84 #27 QB

(Ranking is among Michigan recruits at his position, which has a sample roughly as large as an annual national class so I've included it. National Recruiting Advisor was proto-Rivals.)

This seems like an obvious answer but Brady really only narrowly won a competitive three-way competition with longtime starters who preceded him and proceeded him. That's a good summary of Tom Brady's Michigan career, which has been poured over by so many better journalists there's not a lot I can add to it.

The just-a-four-star rating is also representative of his recruitment. Brady had a few top schools after him as a #2 option behind some monster 5-star or close to it. He might have gone to USC if they didn't get their first two guys on the board, and Cade McNown committing to UCLA removed Michigan's main competition. Michigan waited until Florida won the battle for 5-star Bobby Sablehaus then pulled the trigger on Tom.

2nd Team: Todd Collins (1990)

The only data point I have on Todd is he was Tom Lemming's #8 Pro-Style QB. Well that and pick two guys out of these three:

Player Att Comp TD Int Cp% Yds Lng YPA Rtg
Player A 1366 765 72 31 56% 9254 77 6.77 125.8
Player B 711 443 35 19 62% 5351 76 7.53 136.4
Player C 711 457 37 20 64% 5858 90 8.24 145.0

Player B is Tom Brady. The guy with nearly identical college stats and vastly higher yards per attempt is the longtime starter who also had an extremely long NFL career. You also have to know that the two years of Collins starting were even more frustrating offensively than the Borges and DeBord offenses, and the Number 1 frustration was they weren't uncorking the passing game. Amani Toomer and Mecury Hayes were the Nico Collins and Ronnie Bell of the era, except when Michigan did deign to send them a pass Collins almost always put it on the money. Watching the semi-heralded Collins outperform Notre Dame golden boy Ron Powlus was one of the highlights of my young fandom.

The Field: Collins (4.24, 199), Scot Loeffler (4.20, 1993), Cade McNamara (4.12, 2019), Joe Milton (4.11, 2018), Nate Holdren (4.07, 1990), Alex Malzone (4.06, 2015), Spencer Brinton (4.05, 2001), John Navarre, who's Player A above (4.04, 1999)

[After THE JUMP: Guys who were dudes]

Go on, argue. [Eric Upchurch]

A series covering Michigan's 2010s. Previously: TEs, FBs, and OL, best blocks, the aughts.

Methodology: The staff decided these together and split the writeups. Considering individual years but a player can only be nominated once.

QUARTERBACK

DENARD ROBINSON (2010)

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one shining moment [Bryan Fuller]

A decade after the 2010 season, Denard Robinson is still the NCAA Football cover guy. This is in part because the NCAA would rather have no money than share some of it with its players, but it also speaks to the hold Robinson had on college football's imagination. Robinson's career started with a near-literal bang and blossomed into a minor national obsession; it ended with Robinson playing running back in the Outback Bowl because his elbow didn't work anymore.

With some exceptions* NCAA Football cover guys were coming off either legendary team successes (Tim Tebow), legendary individual seasons (Charles Woodson), or both. Denard is the only guy on the cover who ended his final season injury-riddled in a bowl that is so barely New Year's Day that Northwestern's played in it. And when it was announced everyone went "obviously."

That's because Robinson was a video game quarterback brought to life. If you don't know what you're doing you pick the team with the fastest quarterback. You might mistake the snap button for the pitch button on the first snap. Might put the ball on the ground. And then it might not matter at all.

That was Robinson in 2009. In 2010 he won the starting job from Tate Forcier, nuked UConn, and then had one of the greatest individual games in Michigan history against Notre Dame: 24/40 passing, 244 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs, and 258 yards rushing at 9.2 yards a pop. I am pretty sure the happiest I've ever been after a football game was sitting in the Notre Dame Stadium stands longer than I'd ever sat in the stands before:

When the band marched out, we thought that was our cue. I grabbed one of the souvenir mugs as we exited. When I got home I crudely carved "28-24" on it with a steak knife. It's in the closet. Our walk back was half-accompanied by the band. We met a goodly chunk of my family walking the other way, exchanged excited greetings, and then went about the business of getting out of town. We got to the Chili's just as the adrenaline wore off and the stomach reasserted itself.

A few minutes before everyone filed out Denard Robinson zinged a skinny post to Roy Roundtree on third down and finished the job himself. In the first half Robinson had snuck through a crease in the line, found Patrick Omameh turning Manti Te'o into a safety-destroying weapon, and ran directly at me until he ran out of yards.

He knelt down to give thanks, and that felt inverted.

He broke the NCAA record for rushing yards by a quarterback with 1702 yards at 6.6 YPC(!!!) and completed 63% of his passes for 8.8 YPA, 18 TDs and 11 interceptions. He didn't tie his shoes and he smiled all the time. He showed up to basketball games with Roy Roundtree like he was any other student.

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standing in the back next to Roy, Kenny Demens, and JB Fitzgerald [Eric Upchurch]

It didn't last—couldn't last. Rich Rodriguez managed to parlay the #2 S&P offense into a mostly deserved firing, Brady Hoke and Al Borges had no idea what to do with him, and Robinson's ulnar nerve started its slow decline. The "what if Rich Rodriguez didn't have the worst defense in Michigan history at the same time he had Denard Robinson" question is the decade's greatest counterfactual.

There are no other real contenders for this spot. The only other Michigan QB to get drafted this decade was Jake Rudock, who went in the sixth round after a one-year grad-transfer cameo. Shea Patterson does not look set to join them. And there's your decade in a nutshell: the best QB season was the first one, and then pro-style ruined everything.

-Brian

*[There was a two year period where EA had a different cover for every platform they made the game for, which led to guys like Utah QB Brian Johnson and WVU fullback Owen Schmitt on the cover. Most ignominiously of all, the 2009 wii version of the game had Sparty on the cover. The mascot. Also one year they put Boise State QB Jared Zabransky on the cover, presumably for the same reason Gameday occasionally visits Colgate or wherever.]

[After THE JUMP: Okay, we're not writing up this much again. Except maybe for the 4th place receiver as payback for not making him 1st string]

Hi it's a Norfleet. [Bryan Fuller]

[Site notice: It happened.]

You know those “make your all-time” lists that circulate in the offseason. That inspired me to make some themed versions, sort of like how Ace made his all-Beilein teams last year. Previously: The 5-stars. This week: Extracurricular Entertainment!

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Rule: This team is for those who made their contributions off the field. I don’t mean being a quiet model citizen; I mean doing things that we found entertaining, insane, or otherwise meme-worthy.

Cutoff Point: Had to exist in the Michigan consciousness during the Time of Blog (2005-present)

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Quarterback: David Cone

Please still exist please still exist please still exist DAMMIT.

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Why you gotta use MySpace, Notorious C.O.N.E.? Since stone age social media no longer hosts, former WR Toney Clemons filmed roommate/former QB David Cone in their apartment laying some sick rhymes (free mgoshirt to whoever can track down a copy of the album for us).

mrdave

Mr. Dave

Fortunately MVictors still has the audio, if the vid is gone for all time. But that video was so good.

Honorable Mention: Denard. How do you separate Brian’s kid’s name, Shoelace, the smile, Whaaaaat?!?, the cover of the last NCAA edition for a decade, and a crumpled up mailbox from the actual dilithium? You can’t, and the purpose of this list is to honor the Coners because these lists otherwise exist just for an excuse to put Denard at QB when you wouldn’t otherwise.

[after THE JUMP: bang bang]