Dennis Norfleet To Safety Bothers Me

This is an epic over reaction to nothing.

You guys are dumb. Obviously Borges traded Norfleet for Furman and and a running back to be hyperbolized later. Expect Furman to be starting tailback in Bowl game.

Someone had to take the place of Ray.

How did you guys miss this?

There is no way in hell Hoke is burning Drake Johnson's redshirt for the bowl game. He only opined that it would be nice if players could play in bowl games without burning their redshirt and that Drake might play if that were the case.

Hm, let's see.  We've got a redshirt freshman in Justice Hayes, who is considered to be a third down-type back with speed to the outside and not much ability to break tackles.  And we've got true freshman Dennis Norfleet, who is considered to be a third down-type back with speed to the outside and not much ability to break tackles.

Two guys with the same general skill set in the same class.

I've got an idea: Let's keep them at the same position so one can always be blocking the other from playing time, and then they'll both graduate together and *POOF* be gone forever.

I'm not saying this is what the coaches are thinking, but there is a reason that some people were like "WTF?" when we signed Dennis Norfleet and Fred Jackson immediately said he didn't think Norfleet would ever be a feature back.

As long as the kid can still return kicks and punts while playing safety, I don't really care whether he plays offense or defense.  There are numerous guys who never made much of an impact on one side of the ball (Mel Gray, Dante Hall, Eddie Drummond, etc.) but were very valuable as returners.  It's quite possible that Norfleet could be one of those types of players.

Could this just be for certain packages? Doesn't SC have a bunch of fast midgets? Maybe Mattison isn't convinced our current guys are quick enough to hang with them in space.

This is not really a direct rebuttal of Brian's post, but here are my thoughts on why this doesn't bother me:

1.  Dennis Norfleet may not be very good at running back. 

I like fleet, and I think that he has potential, based upon his speed, but being fast does not necessarily equate to being a good college running back.  Oftentimes, neither does being a good HS running back.  I think that we can all agree that our stable of RBs this past year is very week.  What does it tell us if Fleet could barely earn any carries this year, when we were desparate for a productive RB?  Perhaps he fumbles because of smaller hands.  Perhaps he has poor vision (which may be the case, as he does not appear to always make the correct move on returns).  Perhaps he goes down easily on first contact. 

Whatever the reason, the coaches who watch him day in and day out may not believe that he is a capable college RB.  Note: this is not really a "trust the coaches on everything" argument.  Sure, coaches can and should be second guessed, and often make mistakes.  But when numerous coaches - Borges, Hoke, Jackson and Mattison, to name a few, all conclude that he doesn't offer an upgrade over V. Smith or Rawls eeking out 1.5 yards, perhaps there is a reason.

2.  Norfleet may be a good RB, but he does not fit the system that the coaches desire to run.

Borges and company have stated repeatedly that we are going to a pro-style, manball attack starting next season.  They also clearly have a desire for a big, thumping Chris Perry, A-Train type of back.  This is not Fleet.  Does that mean that he cannot be successful?  No, but if he is going to only see 1-3 plays per game as a change of pace back, perhaps his skill set is better used elsewhere where he may see the field.  He is already a special teams regular contributor.

Before someone says that the coaches should adopt the scheme to the talent, keep in mind that we are talking about a 4th string RB.  You adopt your scheme to Denard or Devin.  you don't adopt your scheme just for Norfleet.

3. 

2 seconds of film and an offhand comment. Considering we had a different center playing most of spring and fall ball, this could mean next to nothing (you do try guys out at different positions to see how they'd do without intentions of moving them...that's what extra practice is for). But FREAK OUT is the default mode around here.  Sometimes I don't think football fans read this site; it's more like a gossip fueled circle like this:

Given that we knew Devin's foot and/or ankle got a little banged-up during the Ohio game, did anyone else think he looked fairly uncomfortable running at about 1:00 in the video? Here's hoping that he feels a lot better by Jan 1.

Maybe Brian, South Carolina, etc. are just being punk'd by Hoke & Co.  Seriously, when does Hoke ever give honest information about who is hurt, who's going to start, who's going to play what position, etc. until about 3 seconds before the game starts?

I have no idea what is going on, if anything is going on.  I think that is true of everyone.  If moving Norfleet to safety doesn't make sense, maybe it won't happen.  Kovacs' comments are intriguing, but I think we are jumping the gun on this a bit.

is it next football season yet?

"We're really going to make this move before even trying the guy as a change of pace/third down back?"

Does this mean that we're not going to get to see Dennis in the I-formation on 3rd and short and try to run between the tackles??

Could we move either Hayres or Norfleet to slot receiver?

I'd be willing to bet this is a motivational ploy to the DB's (minus Kovacs and Gordon) and nothing more.

I hope this means Borges and Mattison are working together on evaluating players, needs, and especially game planning.  I know the main reason Bob Stoops brought on Mike Leach as his OC when he took the job at Oklahoma was because Leach's offense was the one that gave him the biggest headache when he was DC at Florida. I would think Mattison could offer tips on what would frighten a DC planning against Michigan, and vice versa.

Lamarcus Joyner has had success too, but him and Sanders are 195-205. Would Norfleet be the same return man with 40 extra pounds? No way.

I don't know how I would have felt 4 years ago if someone would have told me our best option at Safety is a walk on.  The deck is deffinetly stacked against him at Safety, but 5' 6" does not mean hes in incapable of tackling.  I'm not sure what his vertical is but you would have to guess based off his speed that his leg muscles would allow him to jump higher than most people 4 or 5 inches taller than him.  Im 5' 6" tall and at 18 I could easily jump as high or higher than guys who were 5' 9" or 5' 10".  I also don't recall Jordan ever knocking the ball out of a recievers hands at the highest point.

I mostly agree with Brian's reasoning about why this is disappointing, but what I've seen from Norfleet hasn't been impressive to me.

I mean, he's a very small guy who accelerates quickly, but who never seems to juke anybody. If the KR is just going to run full speed ahead into people, we might as well get somebody bigger and faster back there.

I imagine that this problem would be the same if he were playing RB. If he's not big, not super fast, and not willing to use his quickness to juke folks, then he's not going to be successful.

When Norfleet becomes an all Big Ten safety I'm gonna post the link to this in all of Brian's stuff.

And then I'll probably get banned.

Man, I was really hoping Norfleet would fill the Vincent Smith plunging hopelessly into the line in short distance situations position  thats open for the first time in years

Can he do that AND play safety?

I'm not a relationship therapist so I can't really comment on 90% of the users posts in this thread, but maybe, just maybe, Norfleet (currently used on returns and jet sweeps and does not have a large offense role to prepare for, who played some DB in high school) is helping Gardner and the Offense prepare for Essssssssss Eeeeeeeeeeee Ceeeeeeeeeeeeee speed in the secondary.

People are getting too worked up about a possible position switch in December.  The 2013 season is nine months away.  The coaches will have 15 bowl practices and 15 spring practices to decide whether or not this move will succeed. 

So...time to offer Berkley Edwards?

*ducks*

Hoke needs to step in and stop these shenanigans.  He should make Borges and Mattison go back to playing for matchsticks and stop letting them throw players into the pot.

I think the answer here is obvious.  This is to set Norfleet up to win the heisman!  

Starting DB, kick returner, dabbles on offense....sound familiar guys?????

/s

It seems a little premature to freak out about the possiblity of Norfleet moving to Safety based on the "evidence" of one bowl game practice, doesn't it? If he is still practicing at Safety in the spring I might start to notice it. If he is still practicing at Safety in fall of 2013, I might get a little worried, until then...meh.