Open-ish Practice Recap
when in doubt, picture of Peppers [Upchurch]
Maybe 500 students gathered for an open-ish practice on Saturday. Approximately all of them were dragooned by local media. We got an inside report from MGoUser Crisler Spidey; the thread on the board has maybe a dozen different takes as well. Blockquotes without links in the rest of this post are snippets from Spidey*. He would like you to follow him on twitter.
If Jim Harbaugh's goal is to spawn the next generation of Michigan sports journalists, he's off to a good start.
*[Sometimes the combination of the internet, paranoid coaches, and football is just terrific.]
Ding dings and boo boos
Amara Darboh had his left pinky in a splint. Freddy Canteen had his right arm in a sling. Patrick Kugler was on crutches.
— Jake Lourim (@jakelourim) August 23, 2015
In order of concern: minor, middling, a bit worried. A finger issue should clear up by the Utah game and wouldn't prevent Darboh from playing in any case; a shoulder/arm thing could be something that heals quickly or not; crutches are generally not good.
In addition:
- Jourdan Lewis was dressed but did not participate. With various dudes in injury-indicating red shirts I would assume that means Lewis is obviously a starter they'd rather try to find their second corner with live-fire reps.
- Tyrone Wheatley Jr was on crutches, but we knew that he had hurt himself already.
- Spidey* caught this subtle thing: "Brian Cole, Karan Higdon, and DaMario Jones were all in uniform, but wearing running shoes instead of cleats. They participated in some drills, but not the scrimmage."
- He also said Jarrod Wilson and Mike McCray were both in red no-contact jerseys but dressed.
- Drake Johnson didn't play.
I wouldn't freak about the rather long list of names here; this is the point in camp where they've just come off weeks of punishing two-a-days and are trying to get everyone in reasonable shape before Utah.
Quarterback
Literally every report I have seen coming out of the scrimmage says it's Rudock, and it's not close. Here's Spidey's version:
Rudock looked far and away the better player, hitting his receivers with consistency and even getting a good scramble from time to time. Morris looked like Morris, consistently bombing it over his receivers' heads.
Also:
Let me reiterate how much better Rudock was than Morris. This does not appear to be a very close race at all. Rudock was connecting with all of his receivers, especially Harris and Butt.
Rudock got the great majority of the snaps with the first unit. Described as more athletic than what might have been thought coming in.. "A guy who may not win the game but certainly won't lose it." Performed much better than Morris, especially when evaluated with regard to poise, delivery of ball to the right spots and working through progressions.
The difference must have leapt off the field to those in attendance, because many of these takes are emphatic. Most of the passing was quick rhythm WCO stuff, which plays into Rudock's strengths—he's very accurate.
Morris still has a rocket for an arm, and he overthrew senior wide receiver Jehu Chesson past the end zone and into the crowd.
"Same old stuff" was another take. Reports from camp have been more positive than those originating from Saturday's scrimmage, so it's possible the students just caught him on an off day.
Wilton Speight got time with the third team late.
Also, Zach Gentry is enormous. That is all.
Running back
[Patrick Barron]
De'Veon Smith was your tentative #1 with Ty Isaac rotating in behind him and Derrick Green getting time with the second unit. Ross Taylor-Douglas made a few appearances with the second team as well, so 1) that's what position he's playing today and 2) Drake Johnson does not seem full go yet.
Kerridge was the fullback; Chase Winovich was the second option there. Winovich lined up as an H-back in the spring game and would likely reprise that role; he's not going to be as effective as Kerridge is as a linebacker deterrent.
Wide receiver & tight end
With Darboh out Jehu Chesson and Drake Harris were the first team guys, which is an indicator that Harris is for real unless his hamstring betrays him again. It does not give us much insight into exactly how much hype we should buy into—if Darboh was playing and Harris was out there in front of Chesson that would be time to (gingerly, oh so gingerly) ring the cathedral bells.
The scrimmage also gave further confirmation that Grant Perry is the starting slot receiver and that Jake Butt is going to be relied upon heavily in the passing game. Moe Ways seems like the #4 guy at the moment.
Tight ends:
Jake Butt and Ian Bunting were first team tight ends, and Khalid Hill and Henry Poggi were actually the second team tight ends.
No AJ Williams is notable since there weren't any reports he was injured. Also notable is that Bunting got a number of snaps in 2TE sets with the starters. If his ability as a receiver is enough to offset what I imagine is still some pretty iffy blocking at 245-ish, that is encouraging.
Offensive line
Asking anyone to interpret OL performance without the benefit of replay from field level is folly. Nobody tried. The one note of interest is that the OL was as expected (Cole-Braden-Glasgow-Kalis-Magnuson) the whole time until late, when Dawson replaced Braden for a bit. With Kugler out Dawson is likely your sixth OL no matter what… and Braden's the guy most under threat.
Spidey caught the second team OL, one with some switches from earlier:
2nd team O-Line was LTT-Dawson-Bars-Pliska-JBB.
Kugler was out, remember. Previously Bars had been repping at RT and Bushell-Beatty at RG.
Defensive Line
Spidey:
1st team tackles were Ryan Glasgow and Matt Godin, with Mo Hurst coming in as well. Hurst played second team with Tom Strobel it appeared.
Interesting thing: seems to be that Willie Henry has moved to defensive end. He was playing opposite Mario Ojemudia. Chris Wormley also took snaps with the first team defensive ends. Second team was RJS and Taco Charlton.
That would be bonkers if that's long term. Godin received a reasonable amount of time and did pretty well with it in spots (he was disruptive against Northwestern), but moving guys away from defensive tackle after the Mone injury would be odd. Especially since that would boot Wormley to the second team. As experiments go this one doesn't seem likely to skip.
FWIW, it doesn't seem like the Henry move is indicative of an actual 3-4:
All even fronts on defense
— Zach Shaw (@_ZachShaw) August 23, 2015
We'll see how it shakes out. I do think Godin is a legit player. Strobel's presence on the two deep as a DT is a bit alarming since he's listed at 6'6", 270 and was recently bounced to tight end, which didn't take. For whatever reason he's played mostly DT at Michigan despite a build that strongly suggests SDE in an under, which is a spot at which Michigan could use some depth. Instead he's playing inside and they're goofing with Henry outside. I dunno man.
Linebacker
As expected: Ross, Morgan, Bolden. There were occasional dime packages on which Morgan was the only LB. Gedeon rotated in with the first team frequently.
Secondary
With Lewis held out the starting corners were Channing Stribling and Jeremy Clark—possibly a reason that the passing game was much more effective than the run game. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'. Max Bultman paid attention to Clark and thought he was all right:
Clark covered Chesson most of the night and looked solid. He was never beat deep, but with Darboh out, he wasn't covering a true No. 1 outside.
Disposition of Peppers was the same as it was in spring:
Jarrod Wilson and Jabrill Peppers were the safeties, and on nickel packages, they pushed Peppers to nickelback, with Delano Hill coming in as another safety.
Second team:
Second team secondary saw Keith Washington and Brandon Watson at corner, Wayne Lyons playing safety with Dymonte Thomas, and Terry Richardson at nickel.
Losing Blake Countess is going to rankle if Lyons isn't even playing cornerback. No idea what that says about anything. If things aren't going well they do have the option of moving Peppers to boundary and using Hill as a full-time starter. They clearly do not want to do that.
Special Teams
Reports on the kicking game varied. (As per the spring game, there were no punts.) Freshman scholarship kicker Andrew David did not make an appearance; walk-ons Kyle Seychel and Kenny Allen were either wobbly or fine. Bultman:
Senior Kenny Allen and sophomore Kyle Seychel both took field goals, but neither was very consistent. Seychel appeared to have the bigger leg, but his misses were also by a wider distance than Allen's.
That last sentence is a miserable way to measure kicker competency, but reports on the board were relatively sanguine about field goals, with one guy saying 6/8 were made.
General
Sounds like the Harbaughffense:
Formations were mostly under center with singleback or I-form, shifting the fullbacks and tight ends all over the place. Slot receivers were usually just tight ends who motioned out the slot.
That might be a reason Bunting got significant time. He is a threat split out.
August 24th, 2015 at 6:30 PM ^
While there is no doubt of his high school ability, Harris has yet to run a route against a D1 opponent. The courious thing is we've never heard it once from staff or players that he was dominating.
WR is going to be an issue.
August 25th, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^
This is true, but have we heard the coaches say ANYONE on this team is dominating at their position at this point? Im not saying we should all ride the hype train for Harris, but from what we have seen from the open practice, as well as other reports, its not ridiculous to hope for a decent season from him, or any other receiver.
August 24th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^
A lot of the time all the wr needs to do with a db is keep them occupied. It's not like an olineman or fullback where you want them to engage and often times move the defender. As long as Harris is staying square and engaged with the db and not getting pushed backwards, he's doing his job. It's great if the wr can drive the db backwards but it isn't neceassarily a requirement.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:23 PM ^
The Harris news is very exciting. He could be a game changer for us. I'm reluctant to drink the Kool-Aid but the news is very encouraging.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:26 PM ^
Maybe Harbaugh is trolling everyone by holding a practice just for students to attend, knowing that the internet would be buzzing about it down to every detail, and switching things up just to confuse and terrify people 2 weeks prior to kick-off? #Trollbaugh
August 24th, 2015 at 12:40 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:49 PM ^
or whatever the submarine equivalent is ...
I like it.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:55 PM ^
While there's something to be said for Harbaugh not showing every wrinkle in his playbook, I seriously doubt he would waste practice time as a trick and do a complete 180 from what they were working on. That doesn't make sense to me. Besides, without photos of formations, a lot of what could be gleaned is general stuff that Utah would already know (ie, a lot of Butt).
August 24th, 2015 at 1:09 PM ^
"A lot of Butt" needs to be made into a t-shirt somehow.
Secondly, I didn;t mean to imply that Harbaugh wasted a practice to put on a dog and pony show. I'm re-reading "Bo's Lasting Lessons" and Bo makes the point multiple times that athletes can and should be moved around to help the team.
Harbaugh is a product of that system and maybe he used this practice to shift guys around to see potential for future years. A lot can change in 365 days with recruiting, injuries, etc. I was thinking maybe he used that particular practice to legitimately see how his athletes did at various positions, because they may be needed there one day.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:09 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^
You can still have an open practice and get a lot accomplished. You're going to work your fundamentals and pound your bread and butter. You're working on your trick plays or surprise formations but with the limited amount of time they have to practice, Harbaugh isn't going to scratch the open practice off as a wasted one.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:27 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^
No mention of injury and not on the two-deep?
August 24th, 2015 at 12:40 PM ^
Yeah, this is the thing that concerns me the most from the practice (other than the pretty clear evidence that Kugler, who might be our 6th-best OL and is almost certainly one of the best 7, won't be available for a while). He's kind of the great hope for a pass rusher this season. But maybe Charlton can finally put it all together.
August 24th, 2015 at 10:11 PM ^
Marshall is 3rd string behind Mario and RJS.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:45 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:20 PM ^
Yeah?
Well my best friend's mom can kick your best friend's mom's ass.
Only Buckeyes & Spartans fall for that. Go enlighten them.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 1:48 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:52 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 9:33 PM ^
Starts with the letter "c" and rhymes with "rock"!
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August 24th, 2015 at 12:51 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 12:58 PM ^
The good news about Harris and Perry alleviates my biggest concerns: a deep threat on the edge and a "guy who just gets open" in the slot. When you add in Butt and Bunting, plus Isaac out of the backfield, that's a good number of targets for a passer like Rudock. Plus Darboh, Chesson, and Cole. Will Chesson be able to run by defenders and be another deep threat?
The O-line was good by the end of last year, and will be better this fall with stability, time, and Drevno. I feel good about Isaac and Smith running behind those guys.
I expect to see a good running game, good short passing game, and a couple of long pass completions. I like Rudock's ability to work among those options and move the chains without turning it over. Seems like we'll see a balanced attack that can adapt on the fly to what the defense offers and attack in multiple ways.
August 24th, 2015 at 4:33 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^
10 more days, 10 more days.....
August 24th, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^
10 more days, 10 more days.....
August 24th, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^
Still, if it clicks, he could form a nice complement to Drake Harris if Harris continues to make strides
August 24th, 2015 at 2:35 PM ^
i know, I mean he's only a freshman. I don't expect freshman to come in play like Mike Hart. I just hope if he truly isn't ready to be a contributor that he at least gets a RS and isn't thrust into ST like Hoke did to many of our guys.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:15 PM ^
I know he should be a redshirt jr, but still.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:16 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 1:17 PM ^
but I'm sure Harbaugh is still holding his cards close to his vest. I expect there will be some surprises when the team takes the field on Sept. 3. Bo did the same thing. No need to help your opponent prepare, especially for the first game when you've got a chance to spring a big surprise.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:24 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^
Bummer to hear about with Morris, but its not surprising. Rudock's got the experience, and he played considerably well under the most vanilla of offenses at Iowa. I really do wonder if Morris has played his last meaningful down at Michigan.
Great to hear about Drake Harris, though. Really, really hope his hamstring can hold up. He'd be a great deep threat that Michigan has not had in quite some time.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:25 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:26 PM ^
The news on Drake Harris is really uplifting. Also, Perry has been noted being a route running technician. All of the recruiting sites noted that from him. Great guy to have in the slot.
Also, take the depth chart on this practice with a grain of salt. Harbaugh knew everyone would be watching this under a microscope. You saw what he wanted you to see, but the submarine mentality is still very much there. Maybe guys got more reps to determine their place versus that being their actual place on the depth chart. Who knows.
I'm hoping Taco will win a spot before the Utah game. He has shown such flashes of having the ability to be a great DE.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:28 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:35 PM ^
Here claimed over the weekend that Wyatt Shallman has suffered a tear of his calf muscle. True or just submarine bubbles?
August 24th, 2015 at 1:41 PM ^
I'm a little bothered by the fact that Wayne Lyons is apparently not able to hold down a cornerback position considering the fact there doesn't appear to be much direct competition. I guess Clark can run and keep up with #2/#3 receivers, but you figure a guy who started for long stretches on an elite pass defense would be able to jump into Michigan's defensive backfield. I guess what could be happening is that Harbaugh wants more flexibility in his group of safeties and he's willing to bring Lyons in there with the idea he can slot over to coverage if necessary, but that puts a lot of pressure on Lewis to stay healthy and be a shut-down corner on the other side.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:50 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 2:04 PM ^
He lost his starting job last year too. And that was with a better defense that prob hid his issues better than the guys in our secondary. Not sure why a guy who was displaced by a younger player at Stanford not able to win the job here is a surprise. Some guys just reach a ceiling.
August 24th, 2015 at 2:50 PM ^
To a lesser extent Lyons falls into the Norfleet/Canteen hype. Once the transfer was finalized, most people just immediately assumed Lyons would waltz in and be a starter. There's a lot of bodies competing for one cornerback spot (as long as Lewis is healthy he's got one spot locked down).
August 24th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:44 PM ^
How much of the position switches are for depth and how many are to be able to learn various responsibilities? Henry sliding down to end makes sense in the case of a DE dropping back to a two-point after some offensive motion/shift, for example. Winovich at H-back doesn't to me, especially with the lack of LBs.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:48 PM ^
"He [Morris] overthrew senior wide receiver Jehu Chesson past the end zone and into the crowd"
Please tell me he was being pressured...
August 24th, 2015 at 1:50 PM ^
That seems like a lot of key guys sitting out. I know it is a physical sport but it seems since Carr left this team has lots of injuries almost every year (2011 was an exception). Still bummed the S&C coach from Stanford who reduced their injury rate by something ridiculous like 60% didn't flip to Harbaugh.
Please Lewis dont be seriously hurt.
August 24th, 2015 at 2:37 PM ^
What was possibly going on in AA better than this Saturday Night?
August 24th, 2015 at 5:13 PM ^
Fall term hasn't started yet, summer term was over.
August 24th, 2015 at 2:39 PM ^
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