Cass Tech vs Farmington Hills Harrison update

Submitted by althegreat23 on

Halftime score: Harrison 29 Cass Tech 0

TomVH Tom VanHaaren
 
RT @ChantelJennings red zone Harrison is 4-5, Cass Tech hasn't gotten there. 1st downs: Harrison 15,CT 5. Halftime: Harrison 29, Cass Tech 0 
 
TomVH Tom VanHaaren
 
RT @mikerothstein: Mario Ojemudia 3 tkl, 2 TFL, 2 QB hurries, FR. Funchess 1 rec, 13 yds. INT. Coleman 4 rec, 42 yds; 1 car, 13 yds.
 
Mario Ojemudia has been all over the field according to Tom, who as we know is the most reliable source in the world.

 

 

Mr Mackey

August 27th, 2011 at 10:01 PM ^

Do you guys think Coleman will be offered? He's a great athlete and impressed people in the 7on7s this summer, but we're pretty stacked in the 5'9 WR area. He seems a little bit like Dennis Norfleet this year

Ace

August 27th, 2011 at 11:42 PM ^

I was tweeting all game, and got a lot of good video from the press box -- although, unfortunately, I missed Funchess's TD catch because I was... tweeting. Dammit. Still, lots of good highlights, mostly from the FHH guys.

A few impressions, and I'll have a lot more on Monday after I cut highlights and go over the film:

  • Burbridge was the best player out there. Physical, athletic, good hands (though he did fumble on a reverse and had to dive on it for a ~10 yard loss) -- he was a nightmare to guard. Not looking forward to Michigan playing against him if he sticks with his MSU commitment.
  • Ojemudia also had a great game. He was constantly getting pressure, and never took a play off (which might've resulted in him cramping up later in the game -- he had to leave the field, but by that point the game was essentially over). I really like his motor and his ability to beat both single- and double-teams off the edge.
  • Funchess didn't get too many opportunities on offense, but when he did he displayed nice hands, and from what I could tell he was running good routes and doing a good job getting open -- FHH just didn't need to throw that often, and when they did it was usually to Burbridge. His TD catch was really nice -- found a seam up the middle and plucked the ball out of the air, then showed solid speed in taking it the distance.
  • Both RJS and Richardson were really quiet tonight. Because I was filming, it was tough to see what was wrong up front for Cass, but they were getting gashed up the middle on runs by FHH for a large part of the game, and it didn't seem like RJS was around the ball that much. Will have to look at the tape and see why that was the case. Richardson did have one really nice pass breakup against Burbridge in the end zone, and a few solid kickoff returns, but otherwise he didn't have a great game, either.
  • One Cass player who really stood out was '13 CB/ATH Jourdan Lewis, who had a great diving interception on the goal line and was their best player on both sides of the ball (playing corner and wideout, though he was picked on a little by Burbridge, but it's tough to blame him there). He's got really nice size at 5'11", 170, and I'm guessing he'll pick up a lot of offers in the near future (right now, he's got a verbal offer from Toledo, and interest from Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, and Tennessee, according to Rivals). I'd expect Michigan to extend a scholarship offer sooner or later.

rtsannes62992

August 28th, 2011 at 4:35 AM ^

RJS actually played pretty decently compared to the rest of his team. The issue was that I remember on quite a few tosses he would be the first one there to blow it up and then he would have no team support. I did like that he was talking a lot showing pretty good leadership for his squad.

NOLA Blue

August 27th, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^

I had read prior to the game that Ojemudia was expected to play both RT on O, and DT.  Obviously good to hear he is tearing it up on D (I'm assuming)... have there been any comments regarding his contributions to the O?

Mostly just looking for reaffirmation of his sick athleticism... over, and over, and over again. :)

Ace

August 27th, 2011 at 11:49 PM ^

This play was nuts -- kid's name is Ja-Ru (or Jayru -- conflicting spellings depending on where you look) Campbell, he's a freshman who wasn't even listed on the roster in the program, he's absolutely huge for his age (looks about 6'3" and built), and he came in and led Cass to their best offensive drive all game before garbage time. He absolutely blasted someone, then absorbed a big hit from Funchess (playing linebacker), and left three guys in his wake. The Cass side of the field went nuts, even though they were down by more than 30 at the time. It was pretty awesome. He also threw a TD pass later, though I was heading down from the press box at the time and missed it.

TexanGOBLUE

August 27th, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^

Ojemudia has the best death stare, too bad this game is an old fashion whooping. I really thought cass tech was gonna give em a game. Someone please post the Ojemudia rivals pic lol its worth it!

Bodogblog

August 27th, 2011 at 10:50 PM ^

in the "square off" thread below, Bob Gross from AnnArbor.com hosted a live chat. Over now, but open it up and you can read through it.

43-7. Sounds like Ojemudia and Funchess were dominant, RJS made some good hits, Richardson didn't do as well (other than some nice kick-off returns), and Burbridge also played like a big time prospect.

Gross seems quite the funny feller as well

Lac55

August 27th, 2011 at 10:52 PM ^

I viewed the live blog of the game on annarbor.com and T Rich was called disappointing on a # of occasions by some bloggers at the game. Besides a couple good returns he was irrelevant and they also said A. Burbridge was the better of the two.

bluuadams

August 28th, 2011 at 12:46 AM ^

Here's all you need to know about the game:

1st of all:

Ojemudia and Funchess are going to be playing in the NFL someday.  Ojemudia is special.  He's ready to play right now.  He's going to push for playing time right away next season.  He doesn't need to add much weight either.  Looks big.  Very fast.  Great pass-rush moves.  Relentless.  Very aggressive.  Very athletic all-around.  And in good condition, played the whole game at DT and RT.  Really overpowered bigger cass-tech D1 prospects all night.  Really, really excited about him.  Best player in the game, far and away.

Funchess has a perfect, perfect TE frame.  And he's super athletic too.  Plays a good FS on defense.  Very athletic.  Good hands too.  Seemed to be aggressive enough.  Will be a pass-first player of course.  Needs to put on a lot of weight before he's ready to block Big10 DE's and LB's.  But he's got a very bright future.  Perfect frame to add weight.  I saw Chicago Bears/Michigan State Tight End Kellen Davis a few times in high school...and Funchess is a much better player IMO.

Burbridge - looks like he'll at least be a solid college reciever, I don't know about the league though...doesn't really do anything SPECTACULAR.  Good hands.  Big.  Runs good routes.  Aggressive.  Lacks big time speed...big time catching ability...big time play-making ability in general.  Was being covered by T. Richardson most of the night, however, and his QB didn't have the greatest of arms.

T. Richardson - very good athlete.  very good coverage guy.  but you can't overemphasize how small he is.  more like 5-7 than 5-9.  and couldn't weigh much more than 150lbs.  tooth-pick legs all the way down.  hard to imagine him being healthy much in the b10.  also kind of a moron....had a really bad, really stupid, really obvious scum-baggy late hit penalty.  not super excited about him.....actually kind of hoping he decommits and we get yuri wright instead.

R. Jenkins-Stone.  Hate to say it, but he was actually one of the problems on cass-tech's defense.  Not very aggressive.  Makes horrible reads.  Bad instincts.  Just a horribly, horribly coached player.  Maybe he's got some tools, but I certainly didn't see them, and am not too excited about his future. 

General - Cass Tech is maybe the worst coached team I've ever seen.  Didn't look like they'd even practiced special teams prior to the game.  Horrible conditioning all around.  No attention to detail.  No discipline.  A lot of blaming and yelling going on in the huddles.  Lot of confusion.  Lot of hot-dogging and cheap-shotting.  Stupid offensive play-calls.  Not a lot of coaching going on at halftime.  No stretching or drills before the game or at half-time.  Very unorganized.  Everyone just looked tired, lost, lazy, soft and didn't seem to care at all.  One play by a supposed recruit 6-7 right tackle might've been the single worst effort i've ever seen in any kind of organized sport.

Farmington is the complete polar opposite.  One of the best high school teams I've ever seen in Michigan (only thing that hurts them is a below average passer at QB).  They had a sophomore running back that I'm sure we'll be talking about in a couple of years as well.

bluuadams

August 28th, 2011 at 10:51 AM ^

good point on the single game.  but with that being said, i saw what i saw...

RJS - He looks like a 30 year old Ray Lewis right now.  He's big.  He's strong.  He's fast.  He tests well (that's why he's ranked so highly).  But he's a bad football player right now.  Plain and simple.  He's going to need a TON of coaching before he ever plays for Brady Hoke.  So don't expect him to come out there as a true frosh, a red-shirt frosh, or even a red-shirt soph.  It's going to take some time if it ever ends up happening.  He makes bad reads...bad coaching.  He has bad instincts...eh, kind of bad coaching.  He lacks aggressiveness...serious problem, imho.

Burbridge - He did make some nice catches, but like I said, none of them were spectacular.  Most were wide open catches across the middle (though he did impressively hang on to one of those after getting nailed).  Cass Tech's LB's didn't really drop into coverage well, or at all, and their safties just sort of scrambled and dissapeared on most of the passing plays.  The one college-translatable play I saw out of him was a fade against T. Robinson in the second half...in which T. Robinson had perfect coverage, and A. Burbridge unsuccessfully tried to catch the ball with his inner forearms...for some odd reason. 

...I did say that he was at least going to be a good college reciever though, didn't I?  I just said that I didn't know about his NFL potential.  Size is there for sure.  But he lacks big time NFL speed and play-making ability imho.  He could work himself into the league...but I also saw a bad character play out of him:  yelling "scoreboard" to the farmington hills cheerleaders and taunting them from the playing field, right before a snap.

Wolfman

August 28th, 2011 at 1:04 AM ^

Good job, and you absolutely nailed it in terms of coaching they receive, nothwithstanding the fact coach is former UM player. Must be a natural teacher to be an effective coach. Does not matter what type of player you were.

Josh Helmoldt of Rivals took me to task for pointing out the obvious about Will Campbell when I made post about his H.S. tape. Said the kid was getting by on pure strength and size at h.s. level, and his first move on every snap was to stand up immediately and wherever he went to school, coaches would spend a long, long time breaking him of this terrible habit.

Knowing I'm from Muskegon, his response was "Of course you're right because he's not from the west side of the state." This was one of only many moronic responses to posts by their not-too-bright board monitors and coffee boy Anison.

You put together a very informative piece here, and the coaching in the DPSL is, without a doubt, why it took so damn many years before a team was able to actually win a state title, despite the fact no league in Michigan, with the possible exception of the Catholic League in the Greater Detroit area, has more athletic talent.  Good job.

Wolfman

August 28th, 2011 at 1:04 AM ^

Good job, and you absolutely nailed it in terms of coaching they receive, nothwithstanding the fact coach is former UM player. Must be a natural teacher to be an effective coach. Does not matter what type of player you were.

Josh Helmoldt of Rivals took me to task for pointing out the obvious about Will Campbell when I made post about his H.S. tape. Said the kid was getting by on pure strength and size at h.s. level, and his first move on every snap was to stand up immediately and wherever he went to school, coaches would spend a long, long time breaking him of this terrible habit.

Knowing I'm from Muskegon, his response was "Of course you're right because he's not from the west side of the state." This was one of only many moronic responses to posts by their not-too-bright board monitors and coffee boy Anison.

You put together a very informative piece here, and the coaching in the DPSL is, without a doubt, why it took so damn many years before a team was able to actually win a state title, despite the fact no league in Michigan, with the possible exception of the Catholic League in the Greater Detroit area, has more athletic talent.  Good job.

death by wolverine

August 28th, 2011 at 6:37 AM ^

Hate to say it, and I know it's the first game against the best team in the state but are RJS and TR just two more over-rated Cass-tech players? I obviously hope not but it sounds like it. Maybe one day Cass- Tech can get a good coach.

FreddieMercuryHayes

August 28th, 2011 at 7:29 AM ^

Many people have pointed out that Cass Tech does does little with some of the great talent they have, but I think it's folly to call Richardson and RJS over-rated after one game.  I think you touched on a great point in the first point.  Harrison is probably the best team in the state.  In fact, they are ranked in the top 25 nationally for high school football.  They have a lot of good players everywhere, and will make a lot of teams look silly.  I'll take some of those measurables with the current D staff, who I think can get the technique part down for them.

JJB2

August 28th, 2011 at 8:12 AM ^

Let's see how the rest of year goes.  It sounds like the coaching is a problem at Cass Tech.  If these kids have athletic ability and talent but weak coaching, this may put them in a likely red-shirt situation so they can get a good year of "real" coaching by Mattison, etc.

 

BlueinTC

August 28th, 2011 at 8:14 AM ^

Let's see how the rest of year goes.  It sounds like the coaching is a problem at Cass Tech.  If these kids have athletic ability and talent but weak coaching, this may put them in a likely red-shirt situation so they can get a good year of "real" coaching by Mattison, etc.