Good read QB LB WR and Nuss

Submitted by Double-D on
Several good topics here from M-live I think DG wins the QB job and should have a good season under Nuss's tutelage. Which will include please don't ever step out of bounds outside the tackles under pressure for an 8 yard loss to take us to 3rd and 18. At WR I think we start Funch, Canteen, and Darboh. And watch out for Drake Harris if he gets healthy 6'3" and legit 4.4 with great hands and route running is slightly rare. Let's hope he gets healthy and adds weight. Canteen and Darboh remind me of Manningham and Avant. This group is deep At LB I can't wait to watch Ryan in the middle. With Morgan and Ross backed up by Bolden, Gedeon and McCray is now 6'4" 250.? Can McCray run? We have not even talked about the freshmen here. I think Gedeon will push to start and might end up the best of the bunch. Looking forward to Nuss and how runs the show......he is the Anti-Borges. I might start tailgating today for App St!! Go Blue and happy 4th! http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/07/ask_nick_talking_qbs_…

c2mcclel

July 4th, 2014 at 10:01 AM ^

Hopefully Morris gets a lot of snaps early on in the season against App St. and Miami...not sure who would enters as the primary backup, but I hope it's Morris.

alum96

July 4th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^

You need to prepare 2 QBs to play.  Period.  What if the team is 5-2 and Devin goes out for the year and Shane has not had a single snap.  The yelling at Hoke for "not being prepared" would be intense.

Shane needs to play and the 2 games that on paper that should be the 2 blowouts this year are Miami OH and App State.  I hope he is in by the beginning of the 4th in each. 

You have a plethora of QBs coming down the pike now with Speight, Malzone, 2016 recruit, etc.  They are spaced out fine - let Morris put in these 3 years and hopefully go off to the NFL.  We need a functional QB battle now and 2 players who can lead the team - we've been stuck with 1 most every year since pre Henne.

Wolfman

July 6th, 2014 at 2:25 AM ^

and it never panned out except for CMU. Last season's ooc schedule, except for ND, a team we handled better than many lesser ones, seemed tailor made for what you are referring to, getting some seasoning behind the youngsters.  You are totally correct and was one of the main reasons, Bama, despite sending an entire OL to the NFL didn't skip a beat. They had developed players who were listed no. 2 but through experience they were combpletely ready to take over when it became their turn. That used to be the case at UM. RR and BH both went through the exact same things. Unlike Carr, who inherited the kingdom, they were both assigned the task of building one. One player had no players on defense and the other woefully thin on offense. No coach can build a program until he builds depth. Mattison will have a much improved defense simply because he rotated continuously last season and everyone he plays this year, unless they are deserving incoming freshmen - I see two - will have a measure of experience and some of the backups, even from last year's young team will have a lot of experience.

It's entirely due to the fact we haven't been able to field experienced players that it is taking us so long to return to our usual level of play.  After LC, they should have hired a coach, possibly even Brady  who preferred a similar style. The blame for those "missed" seasons were certainly not the fault of the new coach. He had built his reputation as being among the innovators of a completely new style. Of course he was not going to recruit the same type of player. But back on point. Last season was a disaster as to developing experience because so many were going through what amounted to on the job training, thereby allowing lesser programs to stay with us, not because of talent but simply because it's difficult for a 19 year old with one year of college weight training to push around a 22 or 23 year old who had 4 more years, not only of weight training but playing high level football.  It was easy to see our skill players were superior to theirs, but the old axiom "games are won in the trenches" only became a cliche in football due to its truth.  I do think, in some odd way, that year of getting pushed around just might turn out to be good for our players. It's something none of them had ever experienced so they were faced with two options, either admit defeat or work your ass off to ensure it doesn't happen again. These kids didn't get recruited here because they were easily scared or lacked a strong work ethic; quite the opposite actually.  They will still struggle against a couple of the conference's top teams but their performance will bear no semblance to that of last season.  We will find out early simply by measuring last year's ooc schedule against this one. We don't have to dig into stats, expert projections or any damn thing except what is occuring in front of our very eyes. Always the easiest way to measure improvement.

UMgradMSUdad

July 4th, 2014 at 10:53 AM ^

I was there too. I'm not saying I think Bellomy has the chops to start and lead Michigan to 10 or 12 wins, but I think he just might have the capability to be a serviceable backup for a series every once in awhile. I think it is premature to completely write him off.  There were so many things working against a young player brought into that situation and it just snowballed. They announced the crowd as the second largest in stadium history. It was a cold, windy night game, and the only thing keeping Michigan in the game offensively up to that point was the athleticism of Denard Robinson. There was no run game without him. It was almost a perfect setup for failure of a young and inexperienced QB.

nowicki2005

July 4th, 2014 at 2:13 PM ^

im a better quarterback than bellomy and my only time playing quarterback was my freshman year during a practice. took one snap, threw a pick six against our varsity and that was the end of my quaterback days, but at least my pass would have reached my reeicer abd not rolled to him...

1927

July 4th, 2014 at 1:25 PM ^

the fact that you are railing against a player is absolutely disgusting. I can understand some criticism (I have done the same with regards to jack miller, and a few others on the o-line), but the fact that you are so quickly to judge after only one game is unconscionable. you're not a true fan. 

ThadMattasagoblin

July 4th, 2014 at 1:55 PM ^

No ones railing against Bellomy. The coaches see both qbs in practice every day and they're the ones to make the decision anyway. Shane and Bellomy have only really had one game both with extensive experience and Shane did a lot better.

1927

July 4th, 2014 at 1:28 PM ^

so under that premise, let's completely write off kalis, glasgow, clark, pipkins, clark, morris, green, and smith. they didn't perform as they were expected to last year, so according to you, they are all garbage and shouldn't play another game in a winged helmet

In reply to by 1927

Monocle Smile

July 4th, 2014 at 2:32 PM ^

Kalis was a slight disappointment (only due to the hype train), but the rest of your list is laughable.

Morris wasn't expected (by any sane person) to blow up Alderaan.

Glasgow was a WALK-ON and thus had zero expectations.

Clark was playing very well at the end of the year.

Pipkins was playing at a high level until the injury.

Green and Smith did fairly well considering the offensive line.

Meanwhile, nothing against the kid personally, but Bellomy's performance could only be described as a nuclear meltdown. There's not even a hint of similarity.

It's like you don't know anything about anything. Your misery is draining your brain.

Leroy Hoard

July 4th, 2014 at 7:38 PM ^

Demetrius only looked good because (a) michigan was loaded with future NFL players, including yours truly, and (b) his competition was Michael Taylor, who was really a wishbone QB. Demetrius was...mediocre.

51% completion percentage and basically as many INTs as TDs.

Richard75

July 5th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^

Two very different players (besides the left/right thing), but both brought something to those fine late-80s teams.

Brown had a big arm. Low completion %, but if you look back, his yards/catch was crazy high.

Taylor didn't have much of an arm but was a high-percentage guy. Good runner too. Just had trouble staying healthy.

befuggled

July 5th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^

His decision making improved dramatically from the '87 to '88 seasons. In 1987 he was a turnover machine with 16 interceptions with a completion percentage of 47.6%. In 1988, he didn't throw one interception and his completion percentage went up to 57.1%.

To be fair, he was the backup in 1988 so he only threw half as many passes, However, he was the starter after Taylor was hurt against Ohio State and USC.

I would have liked to have seen how he would have done in 1989 as a starter had he not been kicked off the team. Even if Taylor had done the job Brown would have played extensively after Taylor's injury against Notre Dame that year.

JayMo4

July 4th, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^

What happens if Gardner gets hurt?  Do you think Bellomy is going to be the better option taking over the starting job?  Do you want Morris to start next season after taking a year off, or are you projecting Bellomy to come back for one more season as the starter?

 

I don't want to write off Bellomy either, but I'd be happy if he was competent enough to allow Speight to redshirt.  I have a really hard time believing he's ever going to be a better option than Morris.

1927

July 4th, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^

that he's a better option, but I would bet that it's close enough that it doesn't really matter who the back up is. Are we gonna win a certain game because we put Morris in over Bellomy? I don't think so. So what's the harm in letting Morris redshirt and using Bellomy? 

uncleFred

July 5th, 2014 at 8:07 PM ^

Let's not let real world facts interfere with religious comparisons. 

Yeh Bellomy performed poorly, but I can't think of a worse situation to be thrust into. 

I like Morse. I like him a lot. I think that he has all the talents to, with a lot of hard work, win the QB slot in 2015. 

That said, I think that Bellomy is a probably a better QB than many of the QBs playing college ball today. Trashing him only demeans those who trash him. 

 

I Like Burgers

July 4th, 2014 at 5:17 PM ^

I'm wondering what games you're actually watching.  The difference between Morris and Bellomy is night and day.  Plus, there's a lot more incentive to get Morris ready to take the starting job for his junior and senior year.  Bellomy is already a junior, and if he's starting as a senior some crazy, crazy things have happened.

MJ14

July 4th, 2014 at 11:11 AM ^

I'm not saying whether or not it's fair to write him off, but in most videos they have released Bellomy is the 4th QB in. Now that could be because he's still working back from injury, but Speight has been taking snaps before Bellomy. 

Double-D

July 4th, 2014 at 3:12 PM ^

What happened to him at Nebraska was rough and likely not close to what his true ability is. Remember he beat out DG for #2 QB which may have been partly about needing a WR. I don't think the coaches had him prepared well. He certainly was not prepared for what happened. But I remember Brian Griese not looking much better in a similar situation his Sophomore year and he developed pretty nicely. All that said he is not passing a healthy Morris in our lifetime. And you need two QBs ready to play.

Wolfman

July 4th, 2014 at 4:52 PM ^

Gardner's move to wide receiver was so we could simply get him on the field. As was stated at that time, "the minute Gardner steps on the field at wr he immediately becomes Michigan's best." While I think they off there, especially considering the careers of Roundtree and more particularly Gallon.  IMO, that was one of the biggest mistakes during the current era.  Of course we wanted our best 11 on the field and Devin offered just too much to be riding the pine.  However, he should definitely have been taking snaps, possibly even with the threes, just so we would have been ready in case the inconceivable happened, and we all know that it did. With just a decent qb out there that day, we might have won, but instead it is added to "games that got away," a subject-matter that has become too large for my comfort in recent years.  But as I said, coaches continue learning as well as players and BH has never been known as an "immediate impact" coach. But through the years, at both schools, he continued to improve until he took both teams to the top.  He is better than anyone we've had since Moeller as to getting talent here and unless you are the incarnate of Bear Bryant you had better be surrounded with 4 and 5 * personnel. 

It's my hope that he has learned enough in the past two seasons - Season one was virtually a gift extended by one Denard Robinson - to become a BIG level coach when it matters, on Saturdays.  As to the qbs, I think we're set for quite awhile. We'll RS Speight this season and although he wasn't awarded a fourth star, he was targeted by this staff as the man they felt was fully qualified to run this team some day. You must remember we can offer virtually any kid in America w/o offers from among the nation's best and be relatively assured he'll give the nod in our direction. When they target someone who isn't on everyone else's radar it is the equivalent of getting a 4 star inasmuch as getting the player you actually want, after watching virtually 100s go through the interview process via their h.s. careers, camps, etc., having the man you want is a very comfortable situation.

Double-D

July 4th, 2014 at 10:56 AM ^

This one will be interesting to watch. It depends on his hamstring. He needs to and will add weight and strength but he is not weak by any means. If he gets past the line check very few if any CBs will keep up with him on the fly and he is gone. This the type of threat you need against MSUs press coverage.

MgoRayO3313

July 4th, 2014 at 10:57 AM ^

Collegiate DBs will, for the most part, be able to keep up with him. He is not 'that' fast. He had a real knack for catching the deep ball in HS but unless you have world class speed a lot of that ability gets negated to a certain extent at the college level by technique and talent. Because of the injury that has seemingly persisted in some capacity for around a year, he would probably benefit from a redshirt.



Is he fast, sure he is. But I don't see him being a vertical threat his freshman year with that nagging injury and that frame. If the spring game showed me something it was that he is skinny and needs to put on some muscle.

JayMo4

July 4th, 2014 at 10:58 AM ^

Harris has a knack for grabbing those jump balls as well.  So yeah, it could be interesting.  He probably can do a couple things a lot of our other guys can't.  But is he going to be strong enough and polished enough as a true freshman to beat out Chesson and Darboh (not to mention the three guys that were freshmen last year?)  I don't think you burn his RS just to play him in garbage time.

I do think that if he plays that first week that it's probably a sign we can expect some big things out of him.

Double-D

July 4th, 2014 at 3:20 PM ^

I agree if he plays there it should be a good sign. Although I was surprised at how little time Darboh played and when they burned his shirt. His overall game on the outside is very exciting. I am hoping for sooner rather than later.

alum96

July 4th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^

To beat press coverage you need a guy strong enough not to be disrupted at the line.  Harris looks very thin right now and with that added height he won't have a strong core esp with all those hamstrings.  He is skinny to start with - he could use 20 lbs easy.  Guy is rusty as heck, hasnt played a competitive football game in 1.5 years?  I'd rather he RS unless he just lights camp on fire in the summer/fall. 

People are forgetting about Darboh (not the OP) and Mr Bowling Ball from last year - that is 4 WRs along with Funch and Canteen... and you hope 1 of the guys (Da'mario?) from the 2013 class contributes as well this year, we have 3 options from that class.  There are also multiple options at slot, although who knows how realistic they are but we dont need to burn a redshirt on a 6th WR.

Magnum P.I.

July 4th, 2014 at 2:03 PM ^

Ah. Chesson is an enigma to me. Blocked like a champ. Caught most every ball thrown his way, including some tough ones, but didn't get targeted much. I got the sense that Devin locked onto Gallon and Funchess and didn't give many other WRs a chance. (I think going through progressions is a big weakness of Devin's, contributing to some INTs.) I think Chesson deserves another shot at starting based on what he showed.