Spring Roster Overanalysis
They're having the usual press conference and 30 minutes of drills and whatnot today, on the first day of spring practice, but there are a couple bits that have already come down. One is an updated spring roster that's missing Nick Sheridan—who is becoming a GA—and kicker Bryan Wright. Wright would have been a redshirt senior next year; apparently he's taking his degree and heading out. Wright did kickoffs last year, FWIW.
Position changes:
- As expected, Cam Gordon is listed at S. So are Brandin Hawthorne and Teric Jones.
- Mike Jones is listed at linebacker.
- Ryan Van Bergen is listed as a defensive end, providing yet further confirmation that he is the Graham apparent. Steve Watson, who was a quick end last year, is probably headed for strongside DE this year—he's listed at 257 and a DE.
Not a ton we didn't know about there. Roh and Herron are listed as linebackers, but they were listed as linebackers last year.
Significant weight changes:
| Player | 2009 | Spring | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarterbacks | |||
| Tate Forcier | 188 | 194 | +6 |
| Receivers | |||
| Je'Ron Stokes | 181 | 187 | +6 |
| Jeremy Gallon | 165 | 171 | +6 |
| Roy Roundtree | 170 | 169 | -1 |
| Junior Hemingway | 220 | 227 | +7 |
| Darryl Stonum | 196 | 193 | -3 |
| Tight Ends | |||
| Martell Webb | 245 | 257 | +12 |
| Brandon Moore | 243 | 260 | +17 |
| Offensive Line | |||
| David Molk | 275 | 270 | -5 |
| Ricky Barnum | 275 | 282 | +7 |
| Elliot Mealer | 299 | 310 | +11 |
| Rocko Khoury | 283 | 291 | +8 |
| Patrick Omameh | 276 | 293 | +17 |
| Mark Huyge | 288 | 305 | +17 |
| Michael Schofield | 268 | 281 | +13 |
| Taylor Lewan | 268 | 283 | +15 |
| Quinton Washington | 325 | 307 | -18 |
| Defensive Line | |||
| Will Heininger | 261 | 271 | +10 |
| Ryan Van Bergen | 271 | 280 | +9 |
| Will Campbell | 318 | 324 | +6 |
| Craig Roh | 238 | 249 | +11 |
| Anthony Lalota | 256 | 263 | +7 |
| Greg Banks | 266 | 274 | +8 |
| Renaldo Sagesse | 279 | 285 | +6 |
| Adam Patterson | 263 | 272 | +9 |
| Linebackers | |||
| Kenny Demens | 236 | 244 | +8 |
| JB Fitzgerald | 230 | 239 | +9 |
| Obi Ezeh | 243 | 240 | -3 |
| Kevin Leach | 206 | 200 | -6 |
| Isaiah Bell | 220 | 237 | +17(!) |
| Mike Jones | 203 | 207 | +4 |
| Secondary | |||
| Jordan Kovacs | 194 | 200 | +6 |
| Justin Turner | 187 | 197 | +10 |
All weight changes, positive or negative, will be portrayed as positive by fluff articles. The names that jump off this list to me are…
- Tate Forcier: slightly less likely to get broken in two.
- Hemingway, Moore, and Webb are now strapping fellows indeed. I can't imagine Hemingway is going to be much of a deep threat at 227; if he is he's going to explode. You can tack freshman Stephen Hopkins in here, too: he's listed at 236. That's a battering ram of a tailback.
- Losing Brandon Graham sucks hard but replacing his 263 pounds with Will Campbell's 324 and tacking on 21 pounds (Mike Martin gained a single pound) elsewhere on the line yields a starting defensive line twenty pounds heavier on average than last year's. The backups all put on six to ten pounds as well, and will presumably get bigger by August.
- The line should be about the same size. Ortmann (284) and Moosman (293) exit and are likely to be replaced by Omameh (293) and Barnum (282). Schilling is about the same size. Molk is actually lighter, though I assume that's an effect of his injury-wracked year and rehab more than a goal. The only presumptive starter who will be a lot bigger is potential RT Mark Huyge, up 17. The new kids will continue to put on weight and Molk should regain what he lost, so overall it will be a little bigger but not by much.
- Schofield and Lewan probably need another year.
- I can't imagine that Michigan actually wanted Leach to get smaller.
- It's good that Michigan is putting weight on Will Campbell now instead of taking it off, right?
This concludes your vastly too detailed review of the spring roster. Carry on.
i thought all freshman gained 15. oh, that's just us couch potatoes, and its not fat? ok nevermind
"it's a freakin' commercial?"
I've noticed multiple players at each position. Is Michigan planning on having "backup" players this year? RR and his crazy ideas...
commercials.
"We can rebuild them bigger, faster and stronger we have the technology".
We all said that RR would break the kids down in the first few years and then build them back up with muscle. I think that that is what we are seeing.
17 lbs in 4 month? Bah, my wife can do double that without working out!
I met an old UM football player once who played in the 1940s. He used to win bets with people by insisting that now of the players on his team (including the lineman) weighed more that 200 back in those days. He even kept an old program in his car to use as proof. Amazing how much larger the athletes are these days...even our smallest players now would have been as big as lineman back in the old days.
March 16th, 2010 at 11:21 PM ^
"Left tackle Tate Forcier"
It has a certain ring to it...
Denard gained 3 FWIW, but from the pictures from his track running, I would've thought that he had gained more.
That's the thing about last year's freshmen, who weren't really exposed to college conditioning until later. I would imagine that their weight gains won't seem as significant since they have to burn fat as well as build the muscle. They may be putting on 10 lbs of muscle, but burning 5 of fat.
Did Molk really play last year at 275? I wonder if his relatively small size possibly contributed to him getting hurt.
A guy at my church on Sunday said our '250 pound lineman will never work in the Big Ten". I'll have to show him we are actually pretty big now. That will shut him up.
that the meek shall inherit the earth. That will give him something to think about for at least a week.
I hope Tate can gain a few more before fall.
I do love all the added weight on the defensive line. That should help with life after Brandon Graham.
...i know it makes no sense, but i'm tired of hearing people bitch about our 190-pound qb. they won't say a word about a 200-pounder. 'course, they'll just bitch about something else, but whatever
QB Devin Gardner will be wearing the lucky No. 7 jersey.
Sweet.
It's good that Michigan is putting weight on Will Campbell now instead of taking it off, right?If Campbell winds up looking like this....
....then yes, it's a good thing.So you want him to look like Mike Martin?
March 17th, 2010 at 10:34 AM ^
I want everyone on the D-Line to look like Mike Martin and play like Brandon Graham. Barwis can make that happen; Barwis is going to make that happen, right?
I don't think anybody mentioned this, but the weight gain has come about in less than four months after the end of the last season. I doubt continued weight gain will be linear, but a bunch of these players will weigh several pounds more than shown in the data before practice begins next August.
I think we need Brian's Height and Weight changes from last season, just to ensure our blogging overlord is keeping in tip top blogging shape. Obviously Tim, Paul, and myself are exempt as non-members of mgoblog last spring season.
I guess I wouldn't be as quick as Brian to dismiss Lewan's playing chances in 2010. 283 is still a little small, but omg, he grew an inch taller to 6'-8"! So, his metabolism is raging and he's still put on 17 lbs in the last 7 months. He must be eating 5,000 calories a day.
The season doesn't start for another 5 months. Maybe, finally, he's stopped growing UP and in could add another 17 before September -- it's not like he couldn't carry a little fat on that frame. Eventually, he could cruise up to 325 and still be as lean as Jake Long who played his senior season at a slimmed-down 313.
The upside of this kid is amazing.
Still, he'd have to beat out a fifth-year senior (Dorrestein) and a redshirt junior (Huyge), along with a few other players. It's not outside the realm of possibility, but it's unlikely.
Hope all of these weights aren't just program weights like so many coaches do just to get people all excited. Haha but either way I'm def excited has to get you pumped up for the season because we def got owned in the trenches in a lot of the games and it doesn't look like that will be the case this year. GO BLUE!!!!!
The heights and weights on the roster last year seemed pretty accurate. For example, I can't imagine that Roy Roundtree is any lighter than 170/169. Also, they listed Lalota at about 235-240 lbs. when we all thought he was 260 coming out of high school.
I doubt Ricky Barnum is going to replace anyone, by the way. I've heard that Omameh is likely to stay at guard, but regardless, Huyge and Omameh are most likely to be the guys to replace Ortmann and Moosman.
The line will probably consist of some combination of Dorrestein, Schilling, Molk, Omameh, and Huyge.
Barnum is strictly playing center, correct?
He wasn't mentioned as playing center at all, actually. The four centers are Molk, Khoury, Pace, and Mealer.
Barnum's mostly playing guard and might get a little bit of a look at tackle, too.
When I read this, I felt like I was playing EA NCAA Football after the season was over and seeing how all my player improved from last year. I was half expecting a 60-100 score next to each player too.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:40 AM ^
If it were ALL muscle..but its pretty much impossible to gain only muscle...there doing great if 75% of that weight is muscle..they will probably continue to build until June and then begin to lean out..we will have a good picture as to what they've done in August but its nice to see who is potentially working hard at it..
gets me more excited for the season to start. It has been a long time since UM fans had to go forward having faith that their team would succeed, in the past it was a given. Every UM team won and made it to bowl games.
For the first time since I starting following this team I have had to rely on hope. When RR was first hired I had tons of it. I thought he was going to come in and do o.k. right away (I know that was an insane thought now) with a record of about 7-5 with a bowl game.
After that first season my expectations changed significantly. I adjusted my year two outlook to what I thought year one was going to be....7-5 with a bowl game. We all know how that turned out.
Now, on the brink of another season my hope is renewed and I am, once again, looking at a record of 7-5 or better (my heart tells me better, but who knows) and a bowl win.
I guess my point is I have never been more excited about being a UM fan. There is definitely a lot of uncertainty, but with that uncertainty comes a lot of excitment. My biggest hope is simply that RR gets whatever the magic number is for wins or revenue in order to keep his job, because in the longterm I think he will build one hell of a program if given the chance.
GO BLUE and can't wait for the season to start!!!
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