Where is Devin Gardner
I am trying to figure out why we didnt see Gardner until he got some meaningless snaps at the end of the game. I thought after the 3rd quarter when we had the game in hand we would see Gardner for the 4th quarter or Denard would stop running the ball and go under center and the actual running backs would try to get going. We didnt see any of that. Any suggestions?
Edit: Thanks to those of you with insightful answers to the question and didnt neg vote me for asking a serious question. The snarks on here just cant resist a neg vote I guess. The whole voting by people who think they know everything is why I hardly read this blog anymore. It ruins it for the rest of us who want to have a serious conversation. Thanks
September 19th, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^
Well, he sneaks around the world from Kiev to Carolina
He's a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize
He'll take you for a ride on a slow boat to China
Tell me, where in the world is Devin Gardner?
September 19th, 2011 at 12:13 PM ^
This offense needs reps and as much real time experience as it can get. Getting Devin Gardner reps is NOT a priority.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^
I would hate to see the 1 quarter of football he played last year to prevent him a productive college career. The kid has too much potential for that to happen. I really think RR showed very little concern for Gardner's future in how he handled that situation last year. Shame.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:20 PM ^
Gardner can redshirt any year he wants to. If it was such a big deal or the staff was concerned he wouldn't get the medical from last year, they could have held him out on Saturday (when he didn't even throw a pass).
September 19th, 2011 at 12:57 PM ^
Last year Tate was clearly a viable option (at leat til the bowl). This year, if Denard goes down, I think there is little doubt Gardner is the backup
September 19th, 2011 at 2:10 PM ^
September 19th, 2011 at 12:18 PM ^
Could Borges be coming to the conclusion that the Denard/Smith combination is the one that works best? Maybe it wasn't just about getting Denard more reps, but getting that combination more reps?
September 19th, 2011 at 12:23 PM ^
September 19th, 2011 at 12:24 PM ^
Gardner's nonappearance either means they are worried about his redshirt, or have no confidence in him. I hope it is the former. But even if that is the case...wouldn't be nice to have Bellomy play a play or two? Does anyone believe Denard will last every snap this year?
As for Vincent Smith, I think he may be the answer, and time to let him try this weekend.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:31 PM ^
September 19th, 2011 at 12:32 PM ^
I agree with this reasoning. He had so few reps in game one that coaches must have felt like getting him a few more. He does need more throwing reps to work on the timing and accuracy.
On a side note: HOW ABOUT BEING 1-0 FOR FIELD GOALS!!!!!!!!
September 19th, 2011 at 2:11 PM ^
You mean 1-1 on FGs. 1 made on 0 attempts just seems silly.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:33 PM ^
Threads like these make MGoBlog hard to read during the season. We're 3-0, enjoy it, harder times are ahead this season. Stop finding stuff to bitch about, there will be enough legitimate stuff to bitch about shortly.
September 19th, 2011 at 2:00 PM ^
However, we knew what this post was about, and yet we chose to click anyway.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^
If we couldn't get him on the field during Eastern, when is he going to get reps this season? This was the game to give him a half to play. I can't say I agree with Hoke/Borges on this.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:42 PM ^
Why is the backup quarterback often the most popular player on the roster?
September 19th, 2011 at 12:50 PM ^
A really good backup quarterback is perfect when he does absolutely nothing. As long as he doesn't actually play he's doing exactly what he's supposed to do.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:49 PM ^
I wanted him in to start the 4th. I thought it was pretty stupid not too. If they were going to work on passing situations with denard under center it would have been one thing, but they ran him, which does not seem like a good decision.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:58 PM ^
Seemed to have agreed with you. I think Hoke answered this in his press conf.
September 19th, 2011 at 1:03 PM ^
will be needed well before the end of the B10 schedule. Bank on it. I hope he's ready!
September 19th, 2011 at 1:12 PM ^
I didn't quite buy Hoke's reasoning. M was up 4 TDs in the 4th quarter versus an overmatched team that doesn't pass. And Denard didn't do much passing in the 4th. So it wasn't as if he was working out any kinks. It would have been a great time to give the backup a little real experience, especially since we're gonna need him at some point this season.
September 19th, 2011 at 1:27 PM ^
Last year Denard completed 62.5 percent of his passes. We were told he completed 70 percent of his passes over the summer. Now his passing is so far out of sync it is hard to believe. Just let us run the O we had last year and hope that Denard figures it out.
September 19th, 2011 at 1:45 PM ^
the WARRant
...
September 19th, 2011 at 2:43 PM ^
Some people here are blowing this issue way out of proportion much like the BTN announcing crew was. Questionable decision? Sure. Something to dwell on past 5 seconds thought? No.
Michigan got a below-average amount of offensive drives against WMU, and that's without considering that they didn't play a whole quarter. Against ND, the offense was nowhere near resembling anything that it should, though the obvious miracle comeback was nice.
Maybe, just maybe, Denard being in late is simply the oaching staff wanting him to get more in-game experience and reps? Even if the plays he ran were largely similar to last year's offense...does anyone think Michigan was perfect last year offensively? This offense still needs to work on consistency issues that plagued them all of last year.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:16 PM ^
September 19th, 2011 at 3:55 PM ^
I think he's in Ann Arbor.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:45 PM ^
Many people have mentioned that if Denard was to stay in the game, they should have practiced the Power/MANball/WestCoast/etc because that is what Denard needs to work on, and that he should not run the ball shotgun like because HE knows how to do that. Perhaps the he here is not Denard but Borges. I know that Borges has lots of experience with zone plays and the like, but perhaps he realizes this is his best bet and wanted more practice running those plays with Denard/Smith and co.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:46 PM ^
DG is in Ann Arbor.
September 19th, 2011 at 6:00 PM ^
Reading people complain about the "snarks" reminds me a lot of Dick Fuld going on and on about the shorts.
September 19th, 2011 at 6:48 PM ^
They didn't want to show any more of the offense than people have seen to date. Why give opponents any idea of what we may still have in store. We have practice to.... well practice. I understand that game situations present different tests blah blah but why show more than we have to? Denard ran because they were reads and running is what he knows how to do. Even if Gardner came in, I would want him to hand the ball off over and over because we already won and have a team to prepare for next week. Why show all that we have? We have barely shown our offense at all as of yet! I think this gives us some advantages.
September 20th, 2011 at 1:29 AM ^
After the WMU game, the following exchange occurred with Borges at the press conference:
"Would Devin Gardner have gotten some snaps? “I don’t know. We’ll see. I couldn’t tell you. That’s up to Brady.”
If DG is our backup he should get some reps. Denard's transition shows that players need some experience with the new scheme if they are going to execute it properly.