Kiper, Ezeh, 4th best Jr.

The worst part about the end of the college football season is that we have to listen to Mel Kiper

Ezeh has probably been one of the most disappointing players throughout his career at Michigan. He played freshman year and he did ok, but I feel the scheme did alot to hide his weaknesses. The last two weaknesses have really shown his inability to diagnose a play. Sad part is, he shouldn't really be that disappointing because he was not highly touted and didn't play much LB in high school (if at all, someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong). Early playing time did alot to raise our expectations of him.

GERG has some serious explaning to do.

Really Mel? He obviously hasn't watched Ezeh play this year. Ezeh had the potential to be really good. I think Hopson is the problem.

Is he talking about our Ezeh, the guy who is as soft as putty? There must be another Ezeh in the draft.

First Carson "Holding Penalty" Butler is considered a good blocker and now our worst starter on D (possible the team) is on his broad. Has he ever watched a football game?

was just giving the UM depth chart.

Is it possible that Ezeh had better talent surrounding him when he was a freshman than he has had over the past couple of years? We may have another Ernie Sims-type situation on our hands here where Sims' weaknesses were exposed once Shaun Rogers left the Lions for greener, er Browner pastures.

or maybe he's got Obi confused with somebody else.

Hm. How much would it cost us to bribe a few scouts to call Ezeh a late-first-round or early-second-round pick?

Mel has to be writing from an alternate Universe where we finished 10-2 and Ezeh helped lead the way with a dominating defense. If anyone figures out how to join him in that alternate reality let me know, I'll be the first one through the wormhole.

I guess there must be only 3 other Junior ILBs in all of college football then.

Everyone here is obviously upset about Kiper's ranking of Ezeh. And yes, it is high concerning he lost his starting job this year. However, how come no one is mentioning him ranking BG at #20 overall? At a minimum, he has been paying attention to Michigan football this year, as BG wasn't a 1st (or even a 2nd) round talent coming into this season (most "experts" had him pegged as a third rounder because of his smallish size). Perhaps he watched one of the games in the beginning of the season and forgot to check in when Ezeh was benched. Or he just reads a ton of articles and only watches a few games a week. I don't know. Either way, get off Kiper's nuts. You would probably kill for his job, so don't act like he is beneath you.

On most of the games that I watched on tv the announcers were always singing Obi's praises. Our favorite former OSU QB was extremely complimentary of Ezeh and said behind Graham he ws the best player on our D. Jessie Palmer and Matt Millen said similar things. I think what most of these guys do is simply look at the stats and see that he is a three year starter and gets a lot of tackles, but have never actually seen him play. I hope for the best with Obi and all UM players. Perhaps finally having a second year with a DC will allow him to finally make significant strides in his game.

I think your understanding of playing middle linebacker is a little bit lacking. A middle linebacker in this type of defense doesn't have to be extremely fast to "shut down sweeps." He has to plug a gap or scrape across the top, depending on the defense that's called. But there are force players on the outside (the cornerback or the SAM, sometimes a safety) who are supposed to funnel the running back away from the sideline and give the MIKE a chance to scrape across and make the tackle. Ezeh doesn't need blinding speed to do that - he needs recognition skills and shedding skills to do that. As far as being quick enough to cover a running back, middle linebackers aren't often asked to cover tailbacks one-on-one in open space. In two-back sets, the MIKE is more likely to cover the fullback or the tight end. Strongside/weakside linebackers are more likely to have a tailback in man coverage. The play against PSU where Ezeh was locked up against Royster was either a defensive playcalling/coaching failure or a blown coverage by a DB/LB not named Ezeh. Sure, he got beat by Royster, but that's what's SUPPOSED to happen when a skill player gets a linebacker lined up like a corner. If we got Carlos Brown or Brandon Minor or Vincent Smith lined up one-on-one as a WR against Nameless Big Ten Middle Linebacker, we would be furious if Brown/Minor/Smith didn't torch NB10ML on a pass route.