spring practice
1 hour and 47 minutes
We are at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, our gracious hosts and yours this fall if you act fast enough.
We Couldn’t Have One Without the Other
We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan there would be VERY long hiatuses between podcasts.
Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad,Human Element, Lantana Hummus and Ecotelligent Homes
---------------------------------
1. The Offense wsg Seth Fisher (that’s me!)
starts at 1:00
Peters is running with the ones, Shea is probably the guy, Milton in the future. Black and DPJ, Crawford moving to 41 is probably not a Lytle reference. We’re all for Gentry in the slot. Offensive line: Hudson is our rooting interest, Onwenu was fine last year, Ruiz is probably real, Runyan at RT isn’t ideal. Super max protect Gentry 500 FTW! I like the way Lewerke.
2. The Defense wsg Seth again (yes THAT me!)
starts at 29:53
The happy section, where we bring up the 2014 Rutgers game, the Cleveland Browns, Brady Hoke Punt Fest 2013, and several times the 2010 defense. Hype for Dwumfour started last year; we disagree somewhat on how ready the redshirt freshmen are. Zordich ornery after his corners were all injured but Ambry. Brian is against safeties. Lots of linebacker weapons. We pronounce Uche correctly.
3. Recruiting Football, Basketball, Hockey
starts at 57:55
Three sports, three football commits, a bazillion hockey commits, and lots of interest in the basketball program. Newburg is a wrastler. Herron is clearly waiting for Stanford admissions to decommit. Stewart committed from Connecticut, his school’s one to watch (2020 ND quarterback commit). Iggy finally jumped to the composite top 50. DeJulius and Castleton late jumps too. Could be better than the Fresh Five class. Girard? Balas thinks so. Hockey crootin.
4. Moritz and Matthews Draft Futures
starts at 1:31:15
This section became a 2018 hoops class segment. Expected Moe to go—unless his arms grew longer he wasn’t going to be a better NBA prospect. Find usage elsewhere, more pick and roll than pop, Teske D on the floor all game. Matthews is going to find out what he needs to work on—has NBA talent but probably won’t get a draft grade.
---------------------------------
MUSIC
- “No Diggity”—Blackstreet ft. Dr. Dre, Quenn Pen
- “While You Wait for the Others”—Grizzly Bear
- “Goggles”—Post Animal
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
Let’s try to make as many of them ineligible as possible.
Spring the 4th: a little different than Spring the 1st. [photo: Eric Upchurch]
As fans of Kansas, Villanova, and Loyola-Chicago have informed me, Michigan is the only Final Four team that fields an FBS football program, let alone a hockey program, putting us in the unique position of reading tea leaves and entrails from spring practice at the same time that two real life championships are a pair of actual real life games away.
--------THIS IS YOUR FRIENDLY MGOBLOG REMINDER THAT YOU DO IN FACT NEED TO BREATHE IN ORDER TO SURVIVE AND SHOULD PROBABLY DO SO NOW--------
The general form of this annual exercise is the fans go in hoping to hear certain things, and then pressers, videos and the odd practice insiders confirm, ignore, or dodge them with miniscule data. So I’m trying this in a new, more spring-reflective format.
New Harbaugh:
What we want to hear: Depends if you’re a Patton guy or an Eisenhower guy.
What we’ve heard: Harbaugh’s gone Eisenhower.
The players have noticed a change in their coach in large part because he sought input from them after the bowl game that capped an 8-5 season. He held a team meeting in January after the bowl game, and they shared their feelings.
“We had a sour taste in our mouth,” Higdon said. “I did, he did, everybody in this facility. He was open, (saying) ‘What do we need to do? What can I do?’ How often do you see that from a coach, asking his players? That’s stronger than anything.”
What it means: We’re picking through pabulum here. There was a sense coming from outside Schembechler Hall that Harbaugh was doing more face guy/program ambassador work, but he does all those things in the time that he’s literally not allowed to spend with his players. From the players’ responses though it does seem he’s been less aloof.
What it probably means is the coaching staff is taking last year’s failings seriously, and they’re trying to emphasize to the fans that they’re doing so.
Also Jim’s going to be a grandpa soon.
----------------------
[After THE JUMP: Stop me if you’ve heard this before but the defense sounds way more optimistic than the offense]
--------ALSO THIS IS ANOTHER FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT YOUR BLOOD DOES NEED OXYGEN AND YOU SHOULD PUT SOME OF THAT IN YOUR LUNGS RIGHT NOW--------
REMEMBER US?!?!? [Patrick Barron]
Apologies to everyone for interrupting your hoops and hockey tournament coverage but Michigan football’s spring practice got underway on Friday, and a few things have happened or were said to be happening with that other sport some of us still follow. If you’ve been kind of tuned out since the derpy bowl game I’ve tried to compile the most important bits we’ve learned since into this post.
By the way AZBlue wrote an excellent distillation of things Sam’s been putting out on the radio. I’ve bumped that to the diaries. Let’s go by position I guess:
Quarterbacks
Gone: Wilton Speight, John O’Korn, Alex Malzone.
Off redshirt: Dylan McCaffrey
New faces: Shea Patterson, Joe Milton.
North! North I say! [Bryan Fuller]
Shea Patterson’s eligibility is held up for the moment (scroll down about half-way) because Ole Miss is going to be petty. They have Patterson’s reportedly ironclad case to be freed of sitting out a transfer year, but they don’t have to respond until 10 days after the ??? days it takes the NCAA to send a hard copy to Oxford of the same thing Michigan sent.
Harbaugh said the coaches are still treating it like a three-way race between Patterson, Peters, and McCaffrey, with snaps split equally. Joe Milton is on campus and impressing in his preparation but a redshirt is most likely.
--------------------
Running Back
Gone: Ty Isaac
Off redshirt: Kurt Taylor
Arrive in fall: Christian Turner, Michael Barrett, Hassan Haskins
It’s more or less the same depth chart as it’s been since Isaac’s injury last year. That is your co-starters remain Karan Higdon and Chris Evans, with Kareem Walker and O’Maury Samuels in competition for two hundred-odd carries behind them. Sam spoke with RBs coach Jay Harbaugh who mentioned Karan Higdon’s growth at running the counter cutbacks that we wrote about last year. The incoming freshmen were mentioned with the walk-ons, so I’m reading that as a four-man stable for the moment.
[after THE JUMP: the rest]
13