2010 Defense: Get your popcorn (and antacids) ready
Not that we didn't know already that this team is going to be giving us ulcers fun and exciting to watch, but Mr. Spath at TheWolverine.com has a nice article worth reading. I'm bracing myself for a lot of close, high-scoring games this year as I know we all are.
A snippet:
Michigan's coaching staff has been raving about safety Cameron Gordon since the spring, but during Saturday's scrimmage the redshirt freshman was one of the biggest culprits of a day-long epidemic: tackling woes.
13 days and counting, people! GO BLUE!
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:02 PM ^
Of course Gordon couldn't tackle. This was a scrimmage, which means he was going against OUR offense.
*Takes off blue shaded glasses*
Weird, you think it'd be brighter without blue shaded glasses on.
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:04 PM ^
read the article and Cam seemed pretty confident all is correctable. Gerg seemed the same way.
It sounded like a case of butterflies, hopefully that will go away with more practice and is not going to be an issue come sept 4 and beyond.
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:06 PM ^
Midling Big Ten defense and we can compete and beat anyone on our schedule if the offense has improved as expected and stays healthy. Here's to middle-of-the-road.
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:15 PM ^
Hate to hijack your thread...
...but this was also mentioned in the article:
According to Rodriguez, Mealer, who was paralyzed in a 2007 car crash Dec. 24 that killed his father and his brother's girlfriend (redshirt sophomore O-Lineman Elliott), will walk ahead of the Wolverines as they walk arm-in-arm behind him. He will touch the M Go Blue banner and will then drift off to the side as the Maize and Blue storm the field, like always.
Posters had wondered on previous threads how this was going to play out. Well, he pretty much spells it out to a "T" here.
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:21 PM ^
That is absolutely incredible, and brings a fat smile to my face (as does that picture).
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:53 PM ^
And there won't be too many dry eyes in the Big House, or watching on TV.
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:33 PM ^
Martin, Mouton and a couple others... don't know about Roh and some others but I thought a major point was the staff held them out since they knew what they can do but are getting others ready....
1 other thing I have thought for a while.
With Martin they run the 3 man front but if he isn't in the game they have to go to 2 dt's with bigwill and likely sagesse, cause the the other 2 just cannot hold the poa with double teams and sometimes even a chip from the other og or fb as well.... Much harder for big will at his size till he gets his pad level down consistently.
August 22nd, 2010 at 7:42 PM ^
This is what happened. I didn't see much of Martin. Did not see Mouton much at all. It seemed like the defense had 2 units mixed of the 1's and 2's.
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:54 PM ^
Cam Gordon's not going to go and impale a fellow teammate 13 days before the start of the season...on September 4th however...
August 22nd, 2010 at 7:54 PM ^
I think the key is the d-line. If they can consistantly get pressure and force the action I think Michigan can show the Big Ten what is up.
August 22nd, 2010 at 8:13 PM ^
and 16-yr old Lagavulin. We're going to see a lot of 42-39 games. Hang on to your nuts, it's going to be a wild ride this year.
August 23rd, 2010 at 8:55 AM ^
You had to use that score?
August 22nd, 2010 at 8:52 PM ^
was going for the kill shot instead of wrapping up. I'm sure he'll learn to be more opportunistic when it comes to laying big hits.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:03 PM ^
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:22 PM ^
have coach Robinson back to provide some continuity, but we still lack depth, there is a dearth of experience, so yes, I imagine there will be some frustrating moments, especially early on. Strap yourselves in; with our offense, it's going to be a wild ride...
August 22nd, 2010 at 10:36 PM ^
And have seen it is this: Cam Gordon seemed to emerge as the #1 safety coming out of spring ball.
He is a sophomore. Played mostly offense IIRC up til now. Wanted to be a receiver IIRC in college.
All the sudden, he was touted as either the best or one of the best hitters in spring ball.
Seemed like that was a warning signal about the defense.
The trouble with hoping you win shootouts is that well, our offense hasn't proven to be that much to write home about. So, we are hoping for a quantum leap offensively so we can all the sudden outscore people something like 41-35 on a regular basis?
If I was a betting man, I'd start thinking about the under on 7 wins.