Devin Gardner in Japan, Spring 2017: Rise over Frontiers
Devin Gardner led the Nojima Rise to a 38-20 victory over defending Japan X-League champion Fujitsu Fronteirs in 'Pearl Bowl' spring season football on Sunday.
Gardner scored four TDs on the ground, rushing 13 times for 164 yards. Devin also completed 15 of 23 passes for 207 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT.
[more to come]
Is Jeremy Gallon still one of his recievers? Would love to watch that duo again.
Gallon was picked up last Fall by the Arena Football League team in DC, and he was suspended by the league on Feb 10 for some reason:
Arena Football league suspensions are like a reserve list. So, either Gallon doesn't want to play with them or he is staying in Japan or getting in shape or whatever. It means DC gets to keep his rights but he isn't using a roster spot while he figures out his plan.
Interesting, thanks! I certainly was not trying to paint the young man in a bad light, I appreciate the clarification.
love that guy, but virtually every single throw in that tape has him throwing off of his back foot regardless of how much time and space he had to throw the ball. he is obviously getting no coaching over there, just having fun. good for him, good for gallon in any case.
or he still has PTSD after being obliterated at michigan - not surprising if hes not stepping into his throws
http://www.sagamihara-rise.com/game/schedule.html
Do they only play a 4-game schedule? I can't read Japanese.
I live in Korea, so I'm tempted to head over for a weekend to see a game.
DeShawn Sims was playing in Korea like 5 years ago, but he went to the D-League like 2 weeks before I was gonna go see on of his games.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en…
That might help you read it.
Two qualifier games, semifinal, then final. Could be as little as two games. For that particular bowl, anyway. I'd be surprised if that was the whole season but I don't see any other scheduling details.
There appears to be a fall league as well, which is where his name started to pop up last year.
It's a short Spring Season. There is a tournament, and a championship game.
But the Fall Season is what really counts most.
Fujitsu's #1 QB Colby Cameron (who is from La Tech), and a few other starters for the Fronteirs sat out this game. This game meant a lot more to Nojima than to Fujitsu. Still, it was an impressive performance and a good wine for the Rise.
Devin and the Rise will meet IBM Big Blue June 4th in a playoff game.
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I always thought the offense here at UM would have been interesting with Gardner at WR, Denard at RB and Forcier at QB.
I still believe all three of those guys would've done well with RR as HC. With Hoke...not so much. They were square pegs for round holes in Hoke's offense.
Everyone was a square peg in a round hole. Hoke and Brandon believed offense peaked in 1997 and you could just run basic power over and over with some play-action and out-execute everyone. If not for Denard, Gardner and the other RR guys, Hoke would've been under .500 every single year at UM with that archaic mindset and horrible offensive recruiting.
I don't think Forcier would have ever developed into a good QB. He didn't have a great arm, and was too careless and skittish in the pocket. He was a ton of fun to watch, and did a good job taking an offense with some significant holes up to "average" territory, but I would take a properly-developed-and-coached Devin Gardner over Forcier any day.
Would've been kinda crappy of RR considering the only reason he came to UM over Florida was that he was promised he'd be at QB whereas Urban wanted him at RB (if i'm remembering right).