Presser And Practice Notes 4-6-10

Injuries:

• DE Will Heininger (right) has torn his ACL and will have surgery to repair it. His status for the fall is dependent on how his rehab progresses.
• Martavious Odoms, Junior Hemingway, and Je'Ron Stokes will practice a little today and will hopefully be full-go by the end of the week.
• Vlad Emilien, Jared Van Slyke, and Quinton Washington will hopefully return to practice next week.
• The guys who are out for spring (David Molk, Brandon Herron, Mike Martin, and Vincent Smith) are progressing on schedule.

Quarterbacks:

• Tate and Denard are splitting reps with the first team. Rich does not care if one guy wins the job, or if he has a few guys who are ready to play. He wants to have at least two QBs ready to play. The guys understand that they're competing for the starting position.
• Tate Forcier is being challenged by the coaches this spring, with football, academics, as a student-athlete at the University. He's very competitive, and likes being challenged to improve.
• Denard has a better understanding of the offense and the passing game than he did last year (unsurprising, since this is his first spring). He still has a ways to go, but he's improving. Once he gets the QB position down, he'll learn other positions to get him on the field.
• Gardner is fun to be around, and has a high energy level. He's learning quickly, but still has a lot to improve upon. The coaches can't expect too much too soon.
• The quarterbacks are practicing full-contact to work on their ball security. Normally they'd have non-contact jerseys. Once the QBs get used to taking some hits, they'll let them wear non-contact jerseys.

Running backs

• Michael Cox has had a very good spring, and Michael Shaw has had some good days and some days "where we expected more out of him." Fitzgerald Toussaint is also in the first group with them; he's gotten bigger and is getting a good grasp of the offense.
• Stephen Hopkins is a big guy, and they needed a big back to replace Minor and Grady. He has a chance to play some at big back this fall.
• Austin White has been a little banged up this spring. However, he has the talent to help the team in the future.
• Kelvin Grady and Terrence Robinson have gotten some reps at running back. Grady missed some strength work when he was practicing with the basketball team this winter, and Rodriguez would let him return to basketball this fall only if he can handle it academically, and isn't just going to sit on the end of the bench.

Safety

• There is still competition ongoing at the safety position. They don't have a comfortable 2-deep, and probably won't until fall. Vlad Emilien's injury has hurt them there.
• Cameron Gordon has had a really good spring, and that's one of the better personnel changes they've made.
• Jordan Kovacs is capable of playing any safety position.

Special Teams

• Some days there has been good kicking performance, sometimes not so good. The situation still isn't comfortable punting or placekicking.
• Will Hagerup with arrive in the fall and will compete with Seth Broekhuizen for the starting punter spot in the fall.
• There is no starting kicker yet, as the best performer is different every day. That situation won't be resolved until fall. Brendon Gibbons has a strong leg, but he's been back-and-forth.
• The snapping and coverage units look good, and they have the athletes to contribute there.

Miscellaneous

• "We'll have a better team, and I expect us to have a good team, yes." This spring practice is much, much better than two years ago, and is a little better than last year.
• Chemistry - The leadership can come from not only the 12-man senior class, but also some underclassmen who can be leaders.
• Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is the annual coaching clinic. Thursday will be a practice in just shorts, and Saturday will be a full-scale scrimmage. This is the most important scrimmage of the spring.
• There has probably been more talk about the changes to the defense than there have actually been changes. They did a lot of multiple-front stuff last year, and Greg Robinson is trying to best fit the scheme to Michigan's personnel. They're trying to find the right combination of simplicity for the player to learn and the flexibility they'd like from the defense.
• Regarding Demar Dorsey, Rodriguez said "If anything changes with any of our signees, I'll let ya'll know if anything happens with that."

After Rich was done speaking, the media got a chance to watch a couple periods of practice. My observations from that:

• Injured guys running inside Glick Fieldhouse: Mike Martin, Vincent Smith, Brandon Herron.
• Red Shirts (no contact): Quinton Washington, Zac Johnson, Vladimir Emilien.
• Green Shirts (limited contact): Devin Gardner, Austin White, Je'Ron Stokes, Junior Hemingway, Karl Tech, Martavious Odoms.
• Mark Moundros only practiced with the linebackers.
• Adam Braithwaite quote of the day: "We're gonna be the best-tackling team in America."
• Visitors to practice: former Michigan QB Rick Leach, former WVU running back Avon Cobourne, the leading rusher in West Virginia history and current Montreal Alouette.