And They're Off Comment Count

Brian

Note: MGoBlog did not manage to get on the right lists in time to be notified what was going down with the first practice and presser and whatnot and thus missed it. We should be set now and better able to act as a primary source on these things. For now we round up what other people saw.

I can haz secondary? Three items of personnel interest:

  • Jason Forcier has a locker but didn't practice. Michigan kind of thinks he might be eligible, then. He's not on the roster, though.
  • Marell Evans did practice. There were rumors he was briefly off the roster and may be flirting with a departure
  • Justin Turner and Adrian Witty did not practice, but remain on the roster and have lockers. Rodriguez thinks both will get cleared:
  • Still, Rodriguez remains hopeful both will be cleared to practice soon. He kept spots open for both on Michigan’s 105-man reporting roster, and both have stalls waiting in Michigan’s new locker room.

    “I’m pretty optimistic and hopefully (Turner’s) will be quicker,” Rodriguez said. “But wait and see.”

Speaking of said lockers, the Daily has a photoset from the day featuring Michigan's swanky new digs. But, uh, what doesn't belong in this picture?

University of Michigan's new practice facility was unveiled on August, 10th 2009. Among the new facilities was a new field and locker room August, 10th 2009. (SAM WOLSON/Daily)

Flat screen TV… beautiful wood paneling… futuristic labels… chairs you wouldn't seat your grandmother on even if you didn't like her, you cad. Someone get some Aeron in there.

Throwin'. AnnArbor.com got some footage of the QBs throwing, though it was apparently taken by Michael J Fox:

Forcier's throws, unsurprisingly, look the sharpest. Despite that, uh, this was written by the Daily's Ryan Kartje:

-Nick Sheridan probably looked the most comfortable and well-refined on the field, compared to Denard and Tate. But no one is matching Tate's enthusiasm which had him jumping up and down for a good portion of the drills.

Dude, man, even if that's true I want you to lie to me. This is what I want to hear:

I won’t make any bold predictions one practice into fall camp, but after watching Michigan work out for about an hour Monday without pads, I’d give Tate Forcier the easy edge in the battle to become the Wolverines starting quarterback.

The media was allowed to watch five periods of individual work Monday, and Forcier was much crisper in passing drills than fellow freshman Denard Robinson.

Kartje also reports that Robinson is fast but rusty and tends to throw screens way too high; Birkett says the quarterbacks are small, which uh yeah they are.

Eeeeeeee. Will Campbell at the Army game…

will-campbell-army 

…Will Campbell in spring…

Will_Campbell_and_Tate_Forcier

…and Will Campbell minus an average-sized fifth grader at practice:

will-campbell-skinny

Campbell has taken step one away from Gabe Watson-style disappointment*.

*(Not that Watson was exactly a disappointment: two-time All Conference and a solid NFL player. But he could have been All-American.)

Er? Is there a name in the wrong spot on this list?

The rough Day 1 depth chart at receiver: Greg Matthews went ahead of Junior Hemmingway in drills at one outside spot, and LaTerryal Savoy drilled ahead of James Rogers and Darryl Stonum at the other. At the slot, Martavious Odoms was first up in drills followed by Roy Roundtree and Terrence Robinson.

"Laterryal Savoy drilled ahead of Darryl Stonum" is only explicable if they did the order by numbers of Rs, Ys, and Ls in your first name. Other reports had Stonum dropping a lot of balls, which is not good if Michigan is going to have a deep threat this year.

They're going down in a blaze of glory. Michael Rothstein's come over to AnnArbor.com from his beat covering Notre Dame football at the Fort Wayne Gazette, so his viewpoint of the two programs will be an interesting one. Like for instance here:

At Notre Dame, the only music I ever remember hearing was on Thursdays, and that was a Charlie Weis-inspired playlist of Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen with a little bit of Crank Me Up worked in last year. At Michigan, music was going throughout a bunch of the practice that the media observed, everything from Soulja Boy to some old school rock. Definitely a variety for both the players and coaches.

No wonder ND can't run the ball.

Comments

mgovictors23

August 11th, 2009 at 4:31 PM ^

This guy needs to get it together man. He has alot of talent but he just can't seem to hold onto the football. If he keeps the drops up we won't have a wide receiver that can stretch the field.

tomhagan

August 11th, 2009 at 5:53 PM ^

I was reading somewhere yesterday on the net that those crappy metal chairs in the new locker room are temporary and that they have much nicer chairs which have an embossed block M on them on order. Nick Sheridan's arm looks a bit stronger and sharper this year. (please dont neg me for saying that)

Yostal

August 11th, 2009 at 7:25 PM ^

I do not like them, but I am not going to get all in a tizzy about them, mostly because well, a). it's a practice jersey, and b). at least Michigan has three stripes in its football uniform motif. Also, I really like the locker nameplates. They really did a good job on the details.

Yinka Double Dare

August 12th, 2009 at 1:21 AM ^

I have no shame in admitting that I'm going to +1 your posts that I see until you have full posting rights. With all the jokers around here who have those rights, I'll be damned if you're stuck without said rights. But +1 also because on this post you're right about the stripes already being in the motif.

beantownwolve

August 11th, 2009 at 7:32 PM ^

Of course he plays music that none of his players were alive when it was released. This is just a little microcosm of why ND sucks. It's about Charlie. It's all about Charlie and what we wants, right down to playing Bon Jovi for a bunch of kids that thing Eminem is the golden oldies. Schematic advantage this.

hathachips

August 11th, 2009 at 7:48 PM ^

If Michael J. Jonathan Fox was hired by MICH to be video taping these drills he better take a Barwis workout for himself. That kid can't even hold the camera steady for more than 10 seconds. Also, I don't know why you all think Tate WJ was the best on film. I saw one David Jonathan Cone Bone put one on a ROPE to his reciever, it may have been3 seconds late, but it was still a ROPE!!!

wiscwood

August 11th, 2009 at 10:22 PM ^

I was a kid in Ann Arbor during the 60's. I have seen many changes in A2 over the years. I now live in Wisconsin (Yuck!). The Glick is the bomb facility!! Future recruits will love Michigan even more now.

Spread_Offense

August 12th, 2009 at 8:22 AM ^

A bunch of people at mlive had a similar reaction to Ryan's comment which lead to his later post. http://blog.mlive.com/thediag/2009/08/first_impressions_and_elaborat.ht…
I'll start this out by noting that, although I said Nick Sheridan looked a little better than Forcier in some drills, in no way do I think he'll be the starter on Sept. 5th. In fact, I can't think of any reason why Tate Forcier isn't the starter against the Broncos.
So for all those thinking "wtf god no Sheridan!", that's not what he was saying.

DCBlue

August 12th, 2009 at 9:51 AM ^

I actually like the carpet design -- very Michiganesque. Probably going to be horribly out of style in about 2 years, but then again I'd hope the Athletic Department will be replacing it every other year due to stankiness factors. I can't believe I just made a post about the carpeting in the Michigan lockeroom.