General Observations from sUTL thread

Submitted by Texagander on
Some observations of mine from the scrimmage and some room for everyone else to add theirs.

DTs rotated a lot. DL looks to be a real strength. Finally.

Peppers with a lot of PT. At NB and CB. Was lost a couple times but has amazing recovery skills.

OL got better later on. Still not good.

Mone schooled some twos. Including Bosch

Mo Ways might not get a redshirt

Funchess fade looks like it is finally in the playbook

Poggi lots if PT and good hustle.

I'll post more when I get home.

evenyoubrutus

August 16th, 2014 at 10:58 PM ^

I sat right in front of the d line while they were doing their warmup drills. My untrained observation is that size and strength are their primary attributes more so than quickness and speed.

Also Henry Poggi looks like a badass viking.

Wolverine Devotee

August 16th, 2014 at 10:59 PM ^

Peppers will start at CB by the game at sparty. 

Hurst could get PT this year. 

Mo Ways did great. Redshirt or?

Jack Miller and Mason Cole both got beat twice a piece leading to pretty ugly results in the play. Eiiiweah. 

I'm kind of scared Funchess is gonna go pro after this season. 

Will Shallman start at U-back?

We could see a Lewis and Clark secondary tandem this season. 

The2nd_JEH

August 16th, 2014 at 10:59 PM ^

Frank Clark was a monster. He's so quick off the line.



Countess ran with the 2s for the most part, interesting.



Moe Ways made at least 4 great catches, he looks legit.



Mone may have the biggest thighs I've ever seen.

stephenrjking

August 17th, 2014 at 1:00 AM ^

Unlike the worrying uncertainty at OL, I have some confidence that Countess running with the 2s isn't so much an issue of him underperforming as it is an issue of real talent emerging at the position. I'm kind of excited about our secondary this year, even apart from whatever Peppers is becoming.

alum96

August 17th, 2014 at 3:32 AM ^

Same.

Lewis has been getting hype in spring and now. Peppers - well I thought they'd merge him in slowly but without early entree status he showed enough at nickel that they are willing to already have him absorb corner.  Compare that to Dymonte who is struggling to get any 1 position down - and it says good things about Peppers.

I did not think both Taylor and Countess would get displaced as that is 4 years of starting thrown out the door but if Lewis and Peppers are better, so be it.  It speaks to depth here.  A great luxury to throw in 2 year starters as your subs.

LordGrantham

August 16th, 2014 at 11:05 PM ^

This team will/would be so good with a decent O line.  Also, is there any chance of getting some video from this event?

Texagander

August 16th, 2014 at 11:04 PM ^

Green getting a lot of time with ones

Smith looks like your short yardage back

Morris looked better than bowl game

Gardner didn't play nearly as much as Morris

Khalid Hill ran a lot of routes that I think you'll see Butt run when he gets back.


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A2GoBlue

August 16th, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^

I was one of the students on the sideline for the game, and we had a ton of fun. I managed to get high-fives and talk with Hoke, Nuss (I even touched his playsheet!), Devin, Jabrill, Clark, JMFR, Green, Smith, and more. I should preface my observations by saying that I did sort of tune the practice out after about halfway through.

The first team o-line, from memory, was Cole-Magnusson-Miller-Glasgow-Braden. They didn't look great, but they didn't look awful either. They were pretty unnoticeable.

Mo Ways has some great hands; I wouldn't be surprised to see him get some PT later in the year.

Jabrill Peppers is a man-child.

SysMark

August 16th, 2014 at 11:18 PM ^

I'll say this.  The fact that Nuss is attempting to develop an effective screen game means he's at least willing to deal with reality.  Sometimes you have to give in and deal with your weaknesses rather than continuing to shove your preferred gameplan down everyone's throats.

NOLA Wolverine

August 16th, 2014 at 11:25 PM ^

Borges was a pretty fantastic coach at developing the screen play. He might have taken over for one of the most-determined-to-run-the-screen coaches of all time.The achilles heel of that plan is that it doesn't work so well when the opponent gets to sit on it because you don't threaten with anything else. 

SysMark

August 16th, 2014 at 11:42 PM ^

It does matter where you're lining up.  Different type screen passes have different purposes and attempt to take advantage of different offensive shortcomings and defensive tendencies.

The point is, are you stubbornly adhering to your philosophy or adapting to the situation at hand?

NOLA Wolverine

August 16th, 2014 at 11:51 PM ^

Sorry, I just don't buy the signifigance of allignment that has become so popular on boards over the last 3 years. I haven't seen anything convinving that the difference between winning and losing has ever been whether your 6th man on the line is 10 yards from your nearest tackle or 1 yard. 

I'm not so concerned as to whether Nussmeier can change philosophies from what he's run before, I'm more worried about whether this offense can beat defenses that we'll face throughout the year. And I don't think a mental resolve on Nussmeier's part to go to the screen play is an idicator of that at this point. 

SysMark

August 17th, 2014 at 12:03 AM ^

That's a fair enough response and I respect that.  Personally I've watched this for much longer than I'd prefer to admit but but do believe there can be a a difference.

Here's my final 2 cents. Even the worst of seasons (last year's PSU overtime exhibit 1) can come down to just a very few mis-timed or mis-called plays.

At that time Michigan was ranked #18.  It's a very fine line and the specifics matter