"He's a hard worker, and he watched me and Tim (Hardaway Jr.) and Nik (Stauksas) put work in to become (first-round picks), and I'm just happy he's getting better," Burke said. "It's great for the program, too. It shows what type of program the University of Michigan is and the direction it continues to go in."
cumong man
"please don't get tackled from behind this t--dawwww"
so we've got that going for us
help i've been transported back in time to Jim Tressel's hiring help
oh my god the blinking goes up
See! It could be worse.
noon Wednesday if you're interested
M alum was Mr. Irrelevant of last year's MLS draft.
standard stuff
well, yeah
vague
here's one vote for "John Beilein's head in a Futurama jar"
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I keed, I keed
hard to get on board with norflett moving to defense when he seem to have huge potential on offense.
5'7" cornerbacks going against the 6'2 to 6' 6' wrs that osu, nd, nebraska trot out on saturdays sounds like a recipe for failure.
Borges could not tell that gardner is awesome and bellomy is awful after 18 or so months of practice, games, etc. what do they see with norfleet?
Why? Bouboucar Cissoko was only five foot ei... oh.
Are you serious?????? Wow. Just wow.
Are we going to have depth issues at CB next year, or is this a case of having the best athletes on the field?
How does Norfleet see the field at corner? Ramon Taylor had a pretty solid year. Countess should be back and Avery seems like a solid nickel guy who's got plenty of experience. Behind them you've got Richardson and Howell - 2 guys that are about the same build as Norfleet.
Is Countess injury maybe more severe than we know?
You mean Hollowell.
No way -- Norfleet is way more stacked/jacked/whatever than those guys. He's a couple of inches shorter than Richardson and probably easily outweighs him. The numbers aren't as extreme with Hollowell.
Norfleet is like 5'6'' 165...that's my height plus 25 pounds
ferrreal?
Dennis Norfleet to DB... for how long?
Is this bowl-season move? Because if it is, I think it could be pretty reasonable.
It's nice to talk about Blake Countess, but he's hurt and can't play. We've gotten surprisingly solid play from Raymon Taylor, and he might now be healthier now than he was in the last three games of the season. That's nice. Avery; nice at nickel. Floyd; yep, glad to have him start against the Gamecocks. Delonte Hollowell; yes. And Terry Richardson has played; his redshirt is burned, so he's ready to go for the bowl game even as a freshman.
That's five guys, to play what is essentially three positions. You could add Jarrod Wilson as the backup nickel for Avery, but still a bit of backup isn't so strange.
One other thing is that Norfleet is making himself into a minor terror on special teams like kick coverages (epecially when he's getting away with facemasking). Maybe the thought is that if he is worked in daily with the d-backs as a unit, it will enhance his skills on special teams more than if he spends most of his time working out as a running back.
Because THIS is what I said from the beginning that I thought was happening. I think it's a bowl move.
Honestly, I think Norfleet will play both ways - just a hunch. I don't ever think he's going to be a starter, but I think he's going to find time and roles. I still think he'll be used on offense in a wildcat, jet wr, speed RB role. I think they're going to work him on defense because we need bodies! And I think he'll continue to be a beast on special teams (both sides).
Also, what many of you have to realize is that seniors don't practice much during bowl season - it's really time to get the young guys some reps with the "First Team." It's time to try things out. It's time to have 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3...so if Norfleet is just standing on the sidelines on offense, why not throw him out at CB at 2nd or 3rd team and see how he does? He's not going to regress as a player on offense.
FWIW, I think he's an offensive player...I wouldn't be shocked if I'm wrong, but I'm not totally giving up on the idea of him playing both. If he plays a similar role on offense, gets reserve time on defense, plays on all kick/punt/return units. He's earned his keep. With his skill, he could excel in all of those roles as well.
Sidenote, he plays like a defensive player. He loves to hit, he's in your face, doesn't shy from contact. He's truly a WLB in a slot WRs body.
Generally I'm not all up-in-arms about short cornerbacks, but this is a little...
Your avatar fits perfectly with your comment.
Well at least this makes more sense than safety.
WAT
And to think he didn't even go to Cass Tech.
I don't get this at all. I'm not super-high on Norfleet as a runner or anything, but CB was (I thought) a place where we had depth and ability. This is like Justin Fargas all over again.
Lets not talk crazy. Fargas was considered one of if not the top RB coming out of high school and then was mishandled here. Norfleet while I love home will never be an every down back like Fargas could have been.
Not sure that Fargas is a good example. He WAS being used as an everydown back until he suffered a very nasty injury. When he came back they moved him. That might have been based on a number of factors including chance of re-injury (unless I missed the story behind the story). Just because he transferred and (after substantial time to rehab and get back to his form) became a RB again doesn't mean he was mishandled at the time.
I like Fargas, one of the few players I've actually had a chance to talk to (he visited Meijer when I worked there).
Obviously his injury was devastating, and even though he went on to have a productive college and pro career I don't know if he ever got all the way back from it.
The problem is that when he came back, he was behind Askew and Perry on the depth chart. He wasn't getting playing time. He switched to safety and spent the rest of the season literally waiting on the sidelines for Michigan to call timeout.
Then, with remarkable enthusiasm, he would charge on the field in full uniform, run up to the ref, call timeout, and run back.
It was, in my view, a demonstration of his desire to be on the field no matter how he got there.
A chance to play near home at then-talent-poor USC (this was before Pete Carroll was monopolizing the 5-star talent) was apparent, and he took it. I don't blame him a bit. And, frankly, besides 2001 (when Askew and Perry split carries and Michigan's offense couldn't move across the street) I don't think it was a bad blow for Michigan. There was, in fact, a lot of talent at that position, and Perry proved that in '03 when he won the Doak Walker.
I guess they were serious about maball in the future. Seems anyone under 6'2 might be destined for defense.
Heck, maybe he has great instincts and good tackling ability. I'd take a guy in the mold of Antoine Winfield.
When did we move away from the MANBALL meme? How did I miss that? And what exactly is Maball? Don't know about the rest of you, but my mom can't play football at all...
your mom is a BALLER for sure, otherwise your post wouldn't even exist!
true...
Hopefully this is just a better fit for Dennis and not a manball edict. If it's the latter, then Borges would have switched Barry Sanders to a safety if he coached at Oklahoma State. Must be the former.
Norfleet has embraced move to CB according to Hoke, and that "he loves to play the game."
A 5'7" corner? I don't know....
A 5"7 corner = skeptical
A 5"7 nickel...sure, why not. Quickness is the most necessary skill in that role IMO. Let's trust the coaches.
The whole Bellomy debacle...
I don't get it. Why not slot receiver or running back? It seems like a waste. We have pretty good depth at corner, and our starters are both really young (Blake and Raymon).
Mind bottling.
...mind bottling?
His mind has been bottled up
It bottles the mind. One could call it "jarring"
Yeah, mind-bottling. You know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle?
/Blades of Glory
The coaches know best but at first blush I HATE this move. Norfleet doesn't have corner size. I actually had hopes for him as a RB. Given the uncertainty at the RB position I thought he was a good sleeper candidate. Given our need for TD makers on offense I wonder if this is a case of the coaches misevaluating Norfleet's speed and/or elusiveness...
Question: If we are unable to land Treadwell and Green in this class who the heck is gonna be scoring for us next year? I guess it's going to be the Devin Gardner show...
The last six years may have been the strangest six years in Michigan football history.
I dunno, those years where field goals counted as much as touchdowns were pretty wierd.
Devin Gardner to running back.
There, I made myself feel better on a Friday night.
There, now I feel even better than you.
Hate it. Couldn't we add him to the offense to make it more dynamic.
Too bad. Would've loved to see that speed out of the backfield. Still remember that end around we ran with him and he got 12 yards just like that. Seems to dynamic of a runner to put on defense
Honestly, he doesn't seem that fast to me. For all the talk of him being "just about to break one" he barely crossed the 50 all season on returns and just never showed the afterburners you expect in a huge game breaker.
