Mailbag! With Gold Lace! Comment Count

Brian

Brian,

Do you think there is any chance we would see either Terrence Robinson or Kelvin Grady at RB in the fall?

Thanks,
Rob

With five somewhat viable options at tailback, probably not. The best chance to see that move is if Vincent Smith is not fully recovered from his ACL injury since all three are tiny jitterbug receiving sorts.

HOWEVA, if Michigan goes to more four-wide looks this fall you a dollar says whichever slot receiver isn't Roy Roundtree spends a lot of time motioning into the backfield to give Michigan some two-back looks. Martavious Odoms hasn't proven himself anything more than an okay runner, so Robinson and Grady might get some reps as the slot/RB hybrid. Both were tailbacks in high school (Robinson was also a spread 'n' shred quarterback and occasional receiver) and put up crazy numbers. They've also displayed or (been rumored to have) a hands of a stone-like substance.

Whether that happens will depend on a lot of things, primarily Smith's health again. If you've got Smith in the game you've already got a slot receiver who can play running back and then the other guy will probably be a Cox or Hopkins capable of going directly upfield with bad intentions. With that possibility, three veteran tight ends hanging around sucking up playing time that this slot/RB hybrid might otherwise get, and the presence of Odoms and Roundtree chances for Grady and Robinson to

Brian
After reading the notes on RR presser, how concerned should we be about the LB unit heading into fall camp?  I was already concerned with this unit, but then I read this…

  • If Mark Moundros wins a linebacker position, he probably won't continue playing fullback. He's not just at linebacker as a gimmick, and there's a chance he'll get minutes there.  

    UM has 2 guys in Mouton and Ezeh who have 20+ starts each under their belt.  They've got a couple other guys, Demens and Leach, who both saw a decent amount of action last year.  Now granted, the performance of the LB's last year was not very good, but now a guy who I believe has played fullback his entire career at UM might actually get some minutes at LB (and I'm assuming RR wasn't referring to garbage time minutes)???

    Is Moundros blowing up at LB?  Are the returning LB's just not progressing like everyone had hoped they would?  A combination of the two?

    Keeping my fingers crossed that the 2011 recruiting class is stocked with some stud LB's.

    Scott

  • I'm also leery of the idea Moundros finding playing time signals anything but more DOOM this fall. I remember Fitzgerald Toussaint squirting through a weak tackle attempt in the spring game and being relieved that the guy who missed it was Moundros because the assumption was he wouldn't play. But I'm also skeptical of the veracity of press conference statements about team-favorite, hard-working walk-ons. Sometimes public comments are made less for their accuracy and more for their effect on the team—remember the Johnny Sears hype?—and the idea Moundros could play a lot this season falls squarely in that realm.

    Moundros obviously works like a dog if he's a team captain despite being a walk-on who hardly played last year; I'm guessing this gives him an advantage over his competition that the coaches would like to reward in an effort to get other people to work as hard as he does. If I had to bet I'd say Moundros is a consistent participant in the short-yardage and goal-line packages but doesn't get regular playing time in the base defense.

    On the other hand, it's not like he could be that much worse, right? Michigan football is fun!

    Hey Brian-

    I know you briefly mentioned WVU's sanctions and the effect they might have on Michigan in yesterday's Voracity and seemed to deem them minimal, but do you have any idea whether this could possibly result in us forced to get rid of Rodriguez because he is "blacklisted" in the NCAA compliance book? I am in the camp that believes another coaching change at this point would be disastrous, and really think we are starting to turn a corner. It would really suck to lose Coach Rod just when we might be able start something special.

    Thanks, Brian

    I'm not sure even the Bylaw Blog would be able to say much for certain about whether Rodriguez could be singled out for special sanction, since history would suggest it's not likely but the NCAA is in an era when they're attempting to change precedents. I don't think the WVU allegations are a major factor since they are essentially identical to the ones at Michigan. They may even help since the new regime apparently changed nothing. This isn't the equivalent of Kelvin Sampson because Sampson had already been sanctioned by the NCAA and immediately went back to the illegal-call well. Rodriguez can reasonably argue he was not knowingly flouting the regulations at either school. If he makes that case successfully he should be fine.

    Even if he doesn't, the NCAA generally imposes like-for-like sanctions. If you commit recruiting violations to get players they reduce the number of players you can have and put recruiting restrictions on the school. If you go over practice limits you give them back two for one. I'm not sure what a like-for-like penalty specifically directed at Rodriguez looks like—not being able to attend practice?—and in any case Michigan's bent over backwards to cooperate, Rodriguez has no track record, and the violations are so minor that I'd be surprised if the NCAA did anything except put a nasty letter in RR's file no matter how many newspapers call Michael Buckner.

    And consider this a follow-up to yesterday's post about bowls:

    Brian, There is an incredible reference that you might be interested as you rally the troops this year to start the season.  In Nathaniel Philbrick's new book 'The Last Stand" there is a reference to Custer leading a charge at Gettysburg with a Michigan contingent that might have won the war (pre SEC).  From page 48:

    As it turned out, all Stuart(Jeb) had to do was punch his way through a vastly outnumbered regiment from Michigan and victory was his,  but as the Confederates bore down on the northern counterparts (who were outnumbered by four to one), an event occurred that changed the course of the battle and, arguably the war.

    Custer, dressed in an almost comical black velvet uniform of his own design that featured gaudy coils of gold lace, galloped to the head of the First Michigan and assumed command.  Well ahead of his troops, with his sword raised, he turned toward his men and shouted, "Come on, you Wolverines!"  With Custer in the lead, The Michigander's started out at a trot but were soon galloping, "every man yelling like a demon."

    A union leader mentioned later that this "was the most gallant charge of the war."

    -Anon

    We should start a campaign to have Rodriguez sport velvet and gold lace. It is in this way our ascendance will be assured.

    Comments

    toomer18

    August 13th, 2010 at 12:22 PM ^

    Linebackers could be scary.  I hope to see some improvement in that group or it could be a tough year on the defensive side of the ball. 

     

    I think T-Rob is going to be a playmaker this year.  Saw him this spring and he looked great (and fast).

    jamiemac

    August 13th, 2010 at 12:24 PM ^

    I could not be more happy that Moundros was elected team captain by his peers.

    Like all those O-linemen who walked away with eligibility left, Clemons, Chambers and most of those guys.......you might not be 8-16, but you aint captain at Michigan either, bitches.

    I want this team to go 9-3 more for guys like Moundros than I do for Rodriguez.

    I think trying to figure out meaning as to why his teammates elected him is kind of silly. He works his ass off and they want him to be their leader, whether he's on the field or not. As for him being on the field, we've been bitching about Ezeh and the overall LB play for a couple of years now. Here's a thought: Maybe he makes the LB unit better from top to bottom

    Seth

    August 13th, 2010 at 12:32 PM ^

    There's some famous story told by Southerners to each other, perhaps apocryphal, when trying to find reasons for being regionally prideful, where a Japanese general or admiral or something, upon surrendering to the U.S., said something along the lines of "When we met your California and Hawaii boys we thought the U.S. was weak, but had we known about you Southern boys, we never would have attacked you."

    To which, whenever I hear this story, I like to respond "No shit: the only people who can beat America's Southern boys in a war is American's Midwestern boys."

    My understanding of the Civil War in short is the Northeast regiments packed with off-the-boat immigrants were largely ineffective and led to slaughters by ineffective leaders, while the Michigan and Ohio and other Midwestern regiments, filled with volunteers who had grown up in a more frontier environment, were the most feared and successful battle groups for either side.

    snowcrash

    August 13th, 2010 at 1:45 PM ^

    The average midwestern regiment may have been slightly better than the average northeastern unit, but there wasn't that much difference between them. Do a Google search on the Irish brigade. They got sent into hopeless situations by ineffective leaders, which turned into slaughters because they were so stubborn that they refused to retreat until most of them had been shot. 

    HailGoBlue86

    August 13th, 2010 at 12:34 PM ^

    I wouldn't mind him playing running back at all this fall. Since he has problems with the dropsies putting him at running back would let him get in space without having to catch the ball, and we can finally see his open field ability that has been raved about ever since he signed with us.

    03 Blue 07

    August 13th, 2010 at 1:32 PM ^

    Only if he agrees to pronounce it "Sob-ray" when asked about it, Office-style. And it would also be funny because he pronounces some words differently. And also because it would be BADASS. "That's right, 2nd Amendment; I'm Rich Rodriguez, and I bear arms. All the fucking time."

    w2j2

    August 13th, 2010 at 2:28 PM ^

    And learned that The Michigan troops stood strong and saved the day on Seminary Ridge (day 1) and Little Round Top (day 2).

    Sadly, their monuments are small because these heroes were mostly killed, and there was no one left to tell their story.

    jbibiza

    August 13th, 2010 at 2:31 PM ^

    I first saw the "C'mon you Wolverines!" charge in one of those wonderful 30's/40's adventure flicks starring Errol Flynn.  It was about the life of General Custer and our glorious charge was near the beginning of both the film and the Custer legend/myth.  Great stuff.  RR should show that clip just before they charge through the tunnel on U Conn Destruction Day.

    GO BLUE!

    BaggyPantsDevil

    August 13th, 2010 at 3:15 PM ^

    Even without his later, uh, failures, Custer makes a questionable choice for a Michigan connection to the Civil War (his casualty rate--which was for the sporadically engaged cavalry--was horrendous and was a foreshadowing of the recklessness at Little Bighorn.

    For some serious Michigan inspiration, look no further than the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment which was part of the legendary Iron Brigade. They, as much as any other unit, were responsible for the victory at Gettysburg. Custer was a sideshow.

    Roanman

    August 13th, 2010 at 5:05 PM ^

    "Come on you Wolverines" means something

    If Custer and the 7th Regiment Michigan Volunteer Cavalry (Grand Rapids) and then the 1st Michigan Cavalry (Detroit) don't stop Stuart on the East Cavalry Field, the fishhook collapses on itself, and the Union forces that ground up Pickett unmolested would have had Stuart on their backs while Pickett attacked from the front.

    You can make the argument that the Union army would have been destroyed, and Lee could have taken Washington.

    Custer  was indeed reckless in the extreme and dangerous to work for, but he was the hero that third day at Gettysburg.

    Among those describing the events of that day was a Pennsylvania soldier who witnessed Custer's second charge of the day, this time with the 1st Michigan.

    As the two columns approached each other the pace of each increased, when suddenly a crash, like the falling of timber, betokened the crisis. So sudden and violent was the collision that many of the horses were turned end over end and crushed their riders beneath them.

    This was after Custer led the 7th in an attack that resulted in sabres and point blank firing along the fence line of Rummel's farm.

    The Michigan 24th and the Iron Brigade were as crazy as Custer.  On the first morning at Gettysburg they stood between ten and twenty yards apart from the North Carolina Brigade across an unfinished railroad bed within opposing stands of trees.  They gave and took fire for the better part of three hours.  The 26th North Carolina lost some 627 of 839 men killed or wounded that morning, the highest percentage loss of any regiment in any battle of the Civil War.  At the end of three days, the Iron Brigade had lost some 60% of it's men, killed or wounded.

    I've been to Gettysburg 3 times and have noticed the same phenomenon each time.  When people stand at "The Angle", that point on Cemetery Ridge where Pickett momentarily broke the Union line, everybody whispers.  That place is powerful.