FB Media Guide released: Bolden (MVP), Wormley, Wilson win spring awards
The 2014 Michigan Football Media Guide is out.
After months and months without word, I decided to email the athletic department recently on why the spring awards weren't announced. They got back with me and said that they were awarded unannounced but would be included in the media guide.
Kind of strange since there usually is a press release every year.
Anyways,
Jarrod Wilson took home the Frederick Matthaei Award
The Frederick Matthaei Award is given to the junior-to-be gridder who has displayed leadership, drive and achievement on the athletic field and in the classroom. The award was established by Frederick C. Matthaei in 1968.
Chris Wormley took home the John F. Maulbetsch Award...
The John F. Maulbetsch Award is given to the freshman football candidate after spring practice on the basis of desire, character, capacity for leadership and future success both on and off the gridiron. It was established by Frederick C. Matthaei in 1954 in honor of the late John F. Maulbetsch, an All-American halfback in 1914.
And Junior (wow, how is he already a Junior?) Joe Bolden took home the oldest award in program history, the Meyer Morton Award. The Morton predates the team MVP award by a year, first being presented in 1925 to Ray Baer.
The Meyer Morton Award, established by the 'M' Club of Chicago in 1925, is given to the football player who shows the greatest development and most promise as a result of the annual spring practice. Morton, a 1912 Michigan graduate, was a lawyer in Chicago from 1915-48 and served as a Big Ten football official for 23 years. In fact, Morton was the referee in the famous 0-0 tie between Notre Dame and Army played at Yankee Stadium in 1946. A member of the Chicago 'M' Club, Morton traveled to Ann Arbor to present the award for many years, and the award was named in his honor after his death in 1948.
(I'm not being sarcastic.)
...a no no.
Contacting the athletics department about spring award?
Well done.
WD4AD
WWWDD?
but I'm still curious, WDWDDWiWFB#19?
I know you didn't write this, but Chris Wormley is for sure a redshirt sophomore. And it can't mean "dude who just hasn't played yet" because he also got decent playing time last year. What gives?
Seems kind of odd to give freshman award to a rising junior in school, but maybe they were still considering Wormley a freshman since he was still a frosh eligibility wise last school year. It does seem like a stretch, if it is truely a freshman award.
He's still a freshman in the spring. It's not the next season at that point.
Good one, Brian.
Gardner vs. Morris or Morgan vs. Bolden?
Considering only one of them is a position battle, I'm going with the latter.
I'm only interested in hearing how many lemons people are willing to wager on things.
I'm still on the Gedeon bandwagon over both of them, but that's just me.
He certainly makes me less nervous against the run than Bolden. Not sure I can endorse him over Morgan at this point though.
I think Gedeon will be a beast. Probably not until next year, though. But I think his ceiling is highest of the three. I thought he was pretty impressive for a true freshman last year, and he has better size than the other guys.
for the simple reason that i think, you think, hell everyone knows Bolden and Desmond are going to see a ton of p.t., and it'll be that way early in the game just as often as it will be during crunch time. I was going to add after game had been decided, but damn, we're getting so deep at lber, I can see someone else getting some pt for experience.
On the other hand, the qb position is one you don't want to mess with and you actually want to decide sooner rather than later for a number of reasons. Reps and timing are the primary reasons, but you want the team to become aware of their offensive leader as soon as possible. Arguments can be made for any position on the offense as to MVP, but ultimately it's the culmination of qb's decisions and ball protection that will decide on who the top gun is if all else is equal. That, of course, becomes somewhat irrelevant if you have a qb whose primary job is handing the ball off to a 2,000 yard rusher like Barry Sanders.
And yes, I did see what Mattison had to say about Bolden. Makes me kind of proud as to the coaching along the lakeshore. It's normally the winner of the O.K.'s second division that plays Brother Rice for the Championship and the top division that plays D.C.C. for the winner of the top division. Other than Fairfield taking over for Tony at Muskegon, who took the GRCC job, then Ferris St. job, most coaching has went up a notch in that particuar league. Because these two have been so close in terms of talent, speed, ability to read keys, etc., think the primary reason for Desmond's PT over the years has been the outstanding coaching he rec'd in h.s. And as an aside, it probably won't be long before we see a before and after of Bolden. Think he's put on about 15 lbs in all the right places.
I still have no idea why cager = basketball
When basketball was first invented, it had a lot more contact than it does with today's rules, so players needed to wear protective gear. Of course, this was over 100 years ago, and just like using a peach basket for the hoop, it was common to wear a bird cage, typically that of a parakeet or cockatoo, over one's head as a make-shift helmet/facemask. They were referred to as "cagers" and despite the changes in wardrobe over the years, the name has stuck ever since.
I literally, in all my years of posting on basketball and sports message boards, ever heard someone outside of MGoblog refer to bball players as "cagers". It may be because the demographic is more urban on those forums, but the nickname "cagers" aint hot in these streets
Thanks for the laugh!
You are correct as to all the changes that have taken place over the years since Dr. Naismsith first invented the game at the Y, and yes, there was a lot of contact in the earliest matches. Photos from those days will resemble the upper body being covered by pads very similar to what football players wore during that era, but there was no head gear and certainly not a "bird cage," although I should upvote you by about ten just for no one calling you on it.
The term "cagers," and you are right, it has stuck, but is normally used by writers trying to impress readers with their historical knowledge of the game. Just like any game that is new that requires a decent amount of area basketball, in its infancy was played in areas referred to today as multi-purpose rooms used also for meetings, dances, voting, and ironically, youth bb at its earliest level. Because of this and the fact it was played indoors, the fans had to be protected from not only stray ball that would find their way into the audience but stray players as well. So wire protection in the form of whatever wire was at hand was quickly assembled and installed. It was both easy to erect and take down; therefore, that's why it was used.
Of course, once gymnasiums were built with basketball being of primary importance, the need for wire was no longer needed although there still remains to date a lot of players ending up in the stands in their pursuit of a loose ball in arenas where the seating is situated very close to the court. But never have players wore bird cages on their head. Do you not think this would not present somewhat of a vision problem for the players attempting to toss a big old ball into a peach basket?
But again, nice attempt. Take a bow.
whooooosh
I can't remember which video it was but I disticntly remember Mattison gushing about what a leap he felt Bolden had made as a leader on the field after spring football. He was talking about how important communication was on the defense as a whole and singled out Bolden for that specifically as well as being bigger. We need a OMG shirtless post for him apparently. The team is becoming deep! If he surpasses Morgan, I will be gushing!
Morgan is pretty damn good.
It's LB...they're both going to play a ton of snaps.
Ryan is probably the only guy that won't get almost equal snaps with the other guy at his position.
For some chuckles, look at page 92 of the media guide - most yards gained (passing/rushing) in a game:
1) Devin Gardner
2) Denard Robinson
3) DR
4) DG
5) through 10) DR
11) DG
there has been some spectacular individual football that they'll be talking about for decades.
I agree, and it isn't even just on the page mentioned, but as one might suspect, Robinson and Gardner show up numerous times in the 20 or so pages of records. It actually serves as an excellent reminder that, while it seems like the team is wandering through the woods sometimes, it continues to produce some great leaders and prolific contributors.
What would be nice is to get one of these top-10 (or -11) performances against MSU this year.
If some of those stats were on defense, fewest points allowed for example, there would be a lot more wins.
there's a famous quote from Bo that you should probably get familar with.
Devin holds the career record for a QB rating at the moment.
Also, the orignal record for career rushing yards by a QB was 2,176 set by Rick Leach.
Denard smashed that record with 4,495 which is also an NCAA record.
Here is the current top-10 for single game yards of total offense-
Place |
Player |
Stat |
Date |
Opponent |
Result |
1. |
Devin Gardner |
584 |
10/19/2013 |
vs Indiana |
W 63-47 |
2. |
Denard Robinson |
502 |
9/11/2010 |
at Notre Dame |
W 28-24 |
3. |
Denard Robinson |
494 |
10/2/2010 |
at Indiana |
W 42-35 |
4. |
Denard Robinson |
454 |
10/8/2011 |
at Northwestern |
W 42-24 |
5. |
Denard Robinson |
446 |
9/10/2011 |
vs Notre Dame |
W 35-31 |
6. |
Denard Robinson |
426 |
9/8/2012 |
vs Air Force |
W 31-25 |
7. |
Denard Robinson |
397 |
9/15/2012 |
vs Massachusetts |
W 63-13 |
8. |
Denard Robinson |
383 |
9/4/2010 |
vs Connecticut |
W 30-10 |
9. |
Denard Robinson |
381 |
10/30/2010 |
at Penn State |
L 31-41 |
10. |
Devin Gardner |
376 |
9/7/2013 |
vs #14 Notre Dame |
W 41-30 |
Your list is missing the #4 performance by Gardner (461 yds) against OSU last year. In any case, all of those numbers are just outstanding performances.
Thanks!
Pardon the dust, I've just been posting the tables straight from the MS Word document for my Michigan SuperGuide. Apparently I missed a couple of things in the statistical record book for that game for some reason.
Christ, how can we take anything you provide us going forward without a grain of salt!
MS Word for the superbook? Why not LaTeX?
I was about to go to sleep, but now that I know there are mistakes in the Michigan SuperGuide how can I?
Rest easy, the statistical record book was split off from the SuperGuide into its own separate book due to its constant growth and has yet to be printed.
Football is by far the biggest sport I'm dealing with and it is ultimately going to be FIVE different books.
SuperGuide, Statistical Record Book, Jersey Numbers, Recruiting History and All-Time Letterwinners. Not just the Varsity 'M' winners which covers every Football player to ever receive the Varsity letter here from 1879-today, but all THIRTEEN other numerals that were once awarded.
I am very, very thankful for Bentley Library and their amazing ocean of available information just via the internet. There's no other school in the country that's better with having their in-depth Football history online.
What should keep you up at night is that I eventually have to get to making the Michigan Baseball SuperGuide. Oh yes. The oldest sport at Michigan with the worst documentation in terms of details that drive researchers like me batshit crazy.
Get this: you can search as hard as you want on the internet, but you will not find information on where Michigan played Indiana in their 1942 series. You can't figure out where Michigan played their games in 1953, their first national championship year. You have no chance in hell at finding out where Michigan played EMU in 1962.
You can scan every Michiganensian for the info. I've done it! And I've come up with incomplete results. It's one of the biggest nightmare scenarios EVER due to my projects being very detailed.
I'm going to Bentley Historical Library to research the old athletic files myself eventually. I have a place to stay in A2 with friends thankfully, because it's going to take days to find this information and piece it together.
/end rambling
You have no chance in hell at finding out where Michigan played EMU in 1962.
You can "easily" find that information from local newspapers. I'm sure the AAPL has The Ann Arbor News going back further than 1962. You just need the date of the game and then find the next day's paper. A lot of newspapers have been scanned now too. I know if you Google my dad's name there are like 10 pages of Albion College baseball game recaps from the early 60s.
Internet searches, not so much. A2 is maybe an hour drive from me, but I definitely plan on going for that beast of a project.
Google archive is what I've built my Spring Game history with since the athletic department doesn't give two shits and a holler about anything to do with that event.
I typed in the term, went to the "news" tab and set the custom range. It's quite impressive what I have built just off of Google archive searches.
But several months ago I tried doing this and I kept getting no results with the site saying "does not match any news results".
When in the world do you have the time to do homework, play video games, chase girls, drink Wild Turkey from your parents' liquor cabinet, and sleep until 11am, keep current on all M sports, and create two historical guides that are better than what the university puts out?
Wait till you have a wife and kids to complete these projects. This is the best advice you will get all year.
DG racked-up 461 yards of total offense against Ohio last year, good for #4 on that list and knocking his ND performance off the top ten.
That list is just ridiculous. DG has #1 and #4 and the rest is all Denard. With all the great QB's and players to come through over the years, this is very impressive, spread system or not.
Watch your filthy mouth! Children read this blog.
The NCAA added an asterisk along with creating a brand new record for most rushing yards by a QB. #TypicalNCAA
There are so many *fans who discount how instrumental these two have been in our lowest moments. It's like they are shamed for being good on bad teams.
I believe he could start over Morgan at WLB. This is one of the reasons I did not like the pick of Morgan by Brian in Draftageddon.
In solidarity with the Brian, I too will eat a lemon if that happens. Probably not on camera.
This defense needs Morgan. Bolden looks like he could use another year reprising his 6th man role for each linebacker spot, which is still a good chunk of playing time.