How worried should we be about Cam Gordon?

Why are you asking this question? As Brian said in the preview re: ND passing on us:

...your hopes are probably an inch off the floor and that's where they should be.

Yes the secondary, and especially the safeties, are terrifying- where have you been the last nine months or so?! That should be obvious, but this isn't the time to focus on that.

There. Congratulations.

No can I go back to feeling awesome about UM beating Notre Dame in the final seconds for the second straight year?  Thank you.

Debbie Downer.

I don't know how much of that fell on Cameron, but Floyd was stopped.  What doesn't cause a loss makes us stronger.  I  didn't see much that couldn't be fixed.  Rudolph out ran Gordon, but that was as good a lesson as I can imagine going into the B10 schedule.  I think Cameron will be a good safety long term.

Nice win.  I could get used to this.

TD's he was partially responsible for, "teachable moments".

With our youth and inexperience back there it simply had to happen sometime and it will probably happen again.

Fwiw, I thought Rogers and Floyd were great, and both Gordan's brought the lumber a couple times.

I'll wait for the UFR/more knowledgable posters break the game down but I'm not too worried about the half a handful of big plays that Cam gave up:

• UConn Bobble Catch - It was his first game.  I bet he KO's the receiver if that happens during his 6th game as opposed to his first.
• Giving up the sideline against ND - It looked like the center safety (T. Gordon maybe?) didn't react quickly enough to Mike Floyd's seam route which left him open in the middle of the field.  Cam had a choice, play the guy on the outside and run the risk of leaving MICHAEL FLOYD! open in the middle of the field or; step up and take Floyd which leaves the guy on the outside open.  While "his guy" made a big play, from what I saw the other safety failed to pick up Floyd and Cam chose to slide to Floyd, ya know, the guy that torched us last year.
• #7's (Jones?) TD - Looked like Cam took a bad angle (our safeties taking bad angles? Who would have thought?) and maybe tried to grab an int instead or playing the man.  Maybe a more experience and some film review can help correct the issue. 
• Rudolph's 95 yarder - Look like he had good positioning until he decided to backpedal instead of running with him.  I'd chalk that up to inexperience and as someone else said, trying to make that "nail in the coffin" int.  

That's all I can recall from the game and I pretty much know next to nothing about football schematics so feel free to correct me (or read the UFR later in the week).  I feel that some more game experience and a film sit down the GERG can correct most of those.

But the thing is, asking "should we be worried about [insert secondary issue here]" is a little like being on the deck of the Titanic 20 minutes after hitting the iceberg and asking "should we be worried about the ice floating around out there?"

We hit the Cissoko-Warren-Witty-Dorsey-Turner-Woolfook-Emilien iceberg already.   I actually think GERG has done a pretty good job rearranging deck chairs.  Cam is an athlete and a competitor and he'll make a jump next year like Denard's jump this year.  Every play that gets made in the secondary this year is a major bonus, kinda like Threet's 57-yard run vs. Wisconsin in '08, so I'm going to watch Kovacs' and Floyd's picks about a dozen times each on the DVR and howl to the moon a little at the unexpected gifts.

And save this one for two years from now when we're appraising the performance of a deep, experienced secondary with players who were recruited to play where they're playing-- but you don't judge safety play by saying "[X Deep Safety] played well except for the n balls that went over his head for touchdowns."   That's like the old question, "So, Mrs. Lincoln, other than that, how was your evening at the theater?"

For 2010, the unfortunate reality is he is still a player learning the position and there will be growing pains for him and probably some more angst for fans.  But that should not be a surprise to any fans except the most naive.   He has started 2 games in his career at deep safety.  Hopefully, he will put in his own time studying film and more film to learn from the snafus.    And by all accounts, this is a kid that will do that.   So yes worry for 2010 - but the whole defense should cause you some worry. 

But rejoice if you start to see improvement for the season and think about the next couple of years...

Go Blue! 

i agree with some of you that say its only his second game ever on defense, give him some time to learn and on a side-note i don't know why we didn't send more then 3 guys to the quarterback, when we did it seemed like we got pressure and forced incompletes.  our front 3 did a great job on their front 5 just send in another player or 2 and we should have gotten more sacks

I think both touchdowns were mental errors, and not instinctual errors. So maybe they're easier to correct, especially since this was his second game.

On the other hand, maybe he has trouble judging the football.

who would have thought the CBs were the strength of the defense.  i thought they played outstanding.  very very disappointed in the DL pressure; almost non-existent, especially in the 2H.

bottom line is that weve had a small sample size to make final judgments on him. but if he continues to miss judge the long ball, and loses track of the recievers on deep routes, adjustmentsmight be made. as of now, ray vinopal is his backup. i wouldnt be suprised to see him get some PT in the next few weeks, if only to get him some experience.

I'm not all that worried about Cam.  Obviously he made a couple of mistakes, which will be fixed through film study, practice, and more experience.  These next couple weeks against UMass and BG will give him an opportunity to get a better grasp on things.  Keep your head up Cam, we love your hard hits.  HAIL HAIL

Perhaps my biggest concern with Gordon is the fact that Kyle Rudolph ran away from him.  I would hope that a FS could catch up to a 265 lb. tight end, but that's apparently not the case here.  Gordon might be better off at Bandit/Spur if we ever get the personnel/depth to move him.

I knew magnus would be all over this thread, this kind of thread is his specialty.

When Michigan sat back and rushed only 3 primary DL, a 5-star QB sat back and picked us apart (see: 97-yd completion to Rudolph.)  I am hoping that this was in some way the GERG hiding his blitz packages until MSU-Iowa-PSU.  After all, to my virgin eyes, our LBs are much better pass rushers than they are in pass coverage.

I'm thinking that Cam's not used to playing in 6" high grass and misjudged how much it would slow him down. That's what I keep telling myself...