Derrick Alexander to be Wayne State WR coach
Had been at Morgan State with Tyrone Wheatley.
https://twitter.com/coachda82/status/1534147790603005954?s=21&t=ekT-i3z5v3t16shfMR35GQ
If he's even half as good a coach as he was as a Michigan receiver, Wayne State just made a great hire.
We've had a bevy of great receiver tandems, but very few were better than the pair of Derrick Alexander and Desmond Howard.
Derrick could do everything that Desmond did. The lethal returns, the diving catches. A total weapon on offense and special teams. That 1991 offense was already insanely talented. Imagine if Derrick hadn’t injured his knee in the first game of the season.
I’m happy to get an update on him. Felt like he really disappeared there for a while.
I think he's one of the most underrated Michigan players in the modern era.
Agree. He was legit
Derrick doesn't injure his knee, I don't think Desmond wins the Heisman. He was that impactful on offense.
I also think they give FSU and Washington a 4 quarter game with him in the lineup. He had so much speed (high school track star) that defenses couldn't ignore him.
Michigan had two problems that game:
Grbac gifting interceptions to Buckley and the defense not being able to stop FSU.
Alexander might have helped with first, but not the second.
Good for him.
Wayne State's opener this year is with Slippery Rock --- as it was last year too.
They also play GVSU twice this year, and only 10 games overall. Not ideal. GVSU, in order to get to 11 games this year, is playing "Lincoln (CA) University" --- their school is literally one building in Oakland, they started football in 2021 and they have never played a home game (nor have one scheduled in the future). They went 1-9 last year including 92-0, 72-6, and 75-0 losses to various run-of-the-mill D2 teams.
GLIAC has good teams but it is down to 7 football teams and hurting in the D2 realignment game - it's hard for them to find enough OOC games.
There's your D2/GLIAC realignment update for the few people interested in such. :-)
Interested and Gv alum. Have considered trying to get into it as D1 has gone to shit.
I still think the big D2 schools in state, Wayne St, GVSU, Ferris, SVSU and the 3 directional Michigan schools should all go D-1AA. I mean, that's 7 right there and I imagine it wouldn't be hard to find a couple more schools that I've forgotten in Michigan, or Ohio/Indiana schools.
I could see EMU doing this even though Creighton seems to have given them a pulse but I doubt Western or Central would even consider such a move.
There have been some rumors about GVSU and the OVC (Ohio Valley Conference) having mutual interest.
It's admittedly not a great fit --- the OVC's "center-of-gravity" is in Tennessee and that's quite a ways from SW Michigan. Tennessee Tech, SE Missouri State, UT-Martin and the like: that's going to get less interest than playing SVSU, Ferris, Wayne and the rest of the GLIAC.
The MVFC is GVSU's ideal FCS conference --- schools like Youngstown State, Indiana State, Illinois State, the Dakotas, Northern Iowa. But they're at 12 and have no history of ever taking a direct D-2 football move-up.
If I were GVSU, I would still take the OVC if offered. Establish themselves at the FCS/D-1 level, and then the MVFC football/Horizon Olympic sports hybrid becomes a real option in 5-10 years.
i think you mean
DA to be WS WR coach
Had been at MS with TW
I see what you did there
I love watching the Derrick Alexander Tribute, shoutout to WH. A great receiver and may be the best punt returner in Michigan history.
All the rest are just stats when it comes to punt returns :)
Oh, what could've been, Gary Moeller.
...and considering for what?
Getting blitzed one bad night?
He's a saint by modern day standards.
Alexander had 4 touchdowns on 42 punt returns in his career—that's the best ratio by far of any punt returner in Michigan history for guys with more than 10 returns.
It was before my time as a PSU fan (I was rooting for U-M in this game, I was still in secondary school) - but I know one of those 4 Alexander punt return TDs was in the 1993 PSU/U-M game. Penn State's first year in the B1G.
PSU led 10-0 and U-M honestly wasn't looking good at all before Alexander returned it right before the half.
The end-of-3rd quarter goal-line stand gets 1000x more attention but the Alexander return was the TRUE pivot point of that game - U-M won 21-13.
Sat next to Derrick in a couple history discussion sessions. Don’t remember the class but both Derrick and I were equally bored with playing school in the early 90s.