Michigan 2009 Q: Which potential non-QB injury worries you most?
A question to ponder and hopefully bring some discussion here for the weekend.
Obviously the quarterback position is most precarious for Big Blue this fall. If Tate goes down hurt, I'm pretty sure we're going to see a mix of Denard and Sheridan and we'll be hurting.
But, a Forcier injury is too easy to declare as the injury that would make us all go "gaahh." So, the question on the table: other than QB, what injury to a starter would make you the most concerned for the team, given the team as it is now composed?
There are a couple of significant areas where an injury to certain players would be devastating, but I'm willing to assert that an injury to Zoltan Mesko would have the most adverse effect on the 2009 team.
Think back to 2008. Mesko obviously got a workout with the number of punts, especially after 3 and outs. Given the offensive ineptitude, it really is something that the defense, despite their historically bad scoring defense, didn't give up more points. And I would submit that Zoltan had a lot to do with that. He changed field position quite often and made the opposition work for their yards.
I think that Zoltan will be a field-position changer this year that will help set up the defense to be more aggressive in the opposition half. I also think he will turn the field so the offense will be starting, with defensive stops, at their 40 or midfield. Also, don't forget his ability to run the fake - against Notre Dame and Minnesota it was a great play.
Who else? Bring your opinions, let's have some debate.
GO BLUE.
A.) Michigan Football isn't "Big Blue", it's just "Maize and Blue"
B.) Other than Zoltan, I would pick someone on the D-Line, pretty thin there, and we need Will Campbell to take a year to get adjusted...so yeah, pray to whatever God that someone on the D-Line doesn't get hurt.
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Big-Blue-Michigan-Wolverines/dp/0886829798
http://jakery1.blogspot.com/2007/09/boycotting-big-blue-michigan-wolver… (and this is a bad post, but whatever)...
http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/stories/101606afh.html
http://mvictors.com/?p=65
Either or, I don't think it matters....
I'm firmly against anything that was started by Lee Corso, and included in that category is reference to Michigan as "Big Blue."
Kentucky is "Big Blue," not Michigan.
I always considered the New York Giants to be Big Blue, but yeah it's definitely not us. Go Blue! is acceptable, Big Blue is not.
ive never heard any michigan people call us big blue. just yahoos on espn and various other media outlets who dont know what they are talking about
i've seen posters on mgoblog say big blue a lot of times
Secondary - hands down. I cringe when I think of Warren or Booboo going down permanently (yes, I know Warren was hurt last year). If we lost Booboo and/or Warren next year, we will struggle immensely.
Our top Recruit is a corner/safety, so I will stick with Graham, our best player at a thin, thin position.
losing Brandon Graham would be a severe blow.
Bad juju to spend time talking about guys getting injured and how that would impact the team...however:
1) Brandon Graham: Who is his backup? Anyone?
2) Mike Martin: Will Campbell is not ready, Sagesse is a French Canadian flier and Vince Helmuth is Charlie Weis (weight, not arrogance)
3) Warren/Cissoko: RS freshman J.T Floyd? True freshman J.T. Turner?
4) Safeties: I am not even sure who the starters are going to be but we are still really thin in terms of experienced guys.
5) George Morales: Long snapping stud!
Graham's backup would be a combo of Van Bergen and/or Patterson if I'm not mistaken...? Or Steve Watson.
still, the thought of the defense without arguably our only star is not ideal
Needing to put any of the defensive backs that went up against Forcier during the scrimmage onto the field will seriously worry me.
My vote is secondary
A healthy secondary is should still be a worry. This group is thin!
I will put in a vote for Brandon Graham. If Tate is healthy all year I don't see a need for Mesko
YOU GO TO HELL, MISTER.
I was out of line, and I've calmed down now. That said, I've yet to forgive your Zoltan blasphemy.
I graduated in 2000 and went to work for a company in Kentucky where they have called the Kentucky Wildcats Big Blue since Adolph Rupp was playing 5'10" white guys at the 5. I hadn't seen Michigan ever called that until about 2002 or 2003 when, and this is an attempt to remember, some SEC homer, ESPN employee f'd it up and called Michigan by their name because he didn't care to differentiate the nicknames of 2 teams that happen to wear shades of blue. It has now become almost commonplace. Much like Detroit is D-town, The Motor City, or Motown and isn't Big D (Dallas), Michigan isn't Big Blue. We are the Maize and Blue. Rant over.
* If Brandon Graham goes down, I predict that I will move up greatly on the 2010 season ticket wait list.
If "playing 5'10" white guys at the 5" is a prereq for being Big Blue, M was close last year.
You're not lying.
doubling on Griffin in the post...I see your point.
refer to Michigan as "Big Blue," was my college roommate in 1993. I quickly corrected him. Since then, I've worn myself out correcting everyone who refers to Michigan as "Big Blue." It is probably my resultant lack of diligence that allowed the widespread use of the phrase. For that, I apologize.
Just don't let it happen again.
Running Back cause if we can't run the ball....like last year (minus a couple games: Notre Dame, 1st half Penn State, Minnesota)
then yeah we might not do as well as we are hoping.
While losing the run aspect of our offense would be a major blow I think that we have enough depth at running back to handle one and possibly even two or three season ending injuries. Minor appears to be our best RB but Carlos Brown would be an adequate replacement if Minor goes down. Even if both are out we would have a smash and dash combo with Kevin Grady and Vincent Smith. Behind them we also have Shaw and Cox who also bring talent to our run game. In other words you are right, if we can't run we lose but it won't be because of lack of running back depth
As far as RB goes I think we are fairly deep. The biggest position of concern has to be Defensive Line...the failure to sign more prospects at this position really hurt.
Ohene Opong-Owusu
The potential of having that name out of the lineup is what keeps me up at night. That and a knee injury to Ezeh.
Brandon Graham.
Dave Molk. He's got the most game experience at center, and while he's still pretty young there's nobody behind him with even that much game time. Since he's probably gotten the most snaps in with Forcier, losing Molk would make things that much more difficult for Tate or whoever else is in at QB.
i would agree with you molk would be a bad lost and just about anybody good on the line would hurt us TAte needs good protection this year and a hole in the line would not be good other than that i would say warren or graham not just because they are great players also because theyy can get our team pumped and make big plays on the defense
B Graham ainec.
The dropoff from Graham to 2nd string is bigger than at any other position. Other than Mesko, of course, but who picks a fucking punter. You gotta be joking.
Why do we want to talk about this?
any starter. any starter that gets hurt will worry me.
You two are being WAY too rational at this point in the off-season.
Oh sorry, I'm just nervous about seeing another bad year.
Nice pic by the way, it was great seeing St. Tebow and Harvin get outplayed by Chad and AA.
I was being sarcastic anyway.
As far as the pic; I stumbled across it while looking for a picture of Jamar Adams bodyslamming Tebow which (for some reason) doesn't seem to exist on the interwebs.
The thing about this year's team is it appears to have a quality one-deep on defense but nothing close to a good two-deep depth chart. So, since I believe the closer a guy is to the line of scrimmage, the greater his consistent impact on the game will be, I would say:
Graham
Martin
Mouton
Ezeh
Warren
Cissoko
Brown
Van Bergen
Safeties
would be more critical losses than any offensive starter other than Tate. I put Brown and Van Bergen a little lower because Brown has not proven to be a consistent positive anyway, and Van Bergen can probably be the most ably backed up by either Patterson or Banks imo.
Also, its not that I think Fitz will be a low grade backup at LB, its that I think either he or Ezeh will be at Spinner sometime soon.
I strongly disagree. This is just my opinion, obviously, but I don't think there's any way in hell that Fitzgerald or Ezeh moves to spinner. We don't have any inside linebackers to fill their positions. The depth at ILB is practically nil.
I think the biggest loss would be Graham. He's our best player, so that's obvious.
But losing Martin would be a big blow, and I also think losing Greg Mathews would bode extremely unwell for us. I know Hemingway is an up-and-comer and Savoy is a fifth-year guy and Odoms has experience, but Mathews is an excellent receiver who would probably rack up about 900 yards and 10 TDs if Lloyd Carr were still the coach.