Mike Williams? MIA?
With all of the posts worrying about the youth and lack of depth in the secondary, one name hasbeen curiously absent form the discussions: Mike Williams.
Of course I realize he had an absolutely awful year last year, and I was probably more down on him than anyone else. But I can't help still having some hope for him, if only because he is just about the only experienced, upper classman, four star recruit we have in our secondary. Is this kid's career already done after just one poor year, or do others think he could be a pleasant surprise this year? (And by pleasant surprise, I think performing at the average level of a Div I safety would count).
Does anyone have any news on how he looked in practices or the spring game, or any other inside tips about where he may play, if at all, this year? Rampant speculation on him is also -- as always -- welcome too.
If so, he's buried on the depth chart at the moment.
It looked like that was where he was at in the spring game. After a quick skim, it didn't look like he did a whole lot.
I was really excited about him as a player after the 2008 season. He played really well on special teams, seemed like a solid tackler. He just couldn't cover anyone last year. That would be great if he was a surprise guy this year. Anything to solidify that secondary.
I'm hoping he becomes the next S. Brown, lost for a bit, but once they found the right position for him he turned into one of our better players on D.
I thought this might have been a reference to every 3rd down in 2009.
Man, was he brutal last year. I thought Stevie Brown set a record for most missed tackles, bad angles...etc. But Williams may have doubled those #'s last year.
When I saw the title of the post, I thought you meant Mike Williams from USC that the Lions wasted a pick on. That's how much I forgot about this Mike Williams. I think he would have to really step up his game to play. If he is only as good as some of the youngsters, he probably won't play since it will be more important to get them some game experience.
"... he is just about the only experienced, upper classman, four star recruit we have in our secondary..."
No slam intended to the OP, but the infatuation with stars has made RichRod's life more difficult. HIM HAVE FULL CUPBOARD RIVALS SAY SO! To hear Rivals fans tell it, there's a 0.99 correlation between the number of stars and the number of Pro Bowls.
Being a four star upperclassman does, in fact, give him an advantage. We've already discussed numerous times that star rankings tend to be indicative, and being an upperclassman is presumably also an advantage from a physical+experience standpoint.
I agree with the upperclassman part.
As for the stars, @#$% 'em in this case. We have contradictory performance data.
Don't get me wrong -- I'd still take a 3.76 average class over a 3.13. But, I don't want to hear about them after the first few practices and games (that is, after it's clear that the player has been given a chance to prove himself). I'm not completely sure that Williams has been treated fairly, but he doesn't look great at the moment.
Except we don't have contradictory data though. A 5 star is more likely to be a good player than a 4 star, a 4 star than 3 star, etc. Statistically, a guy with more stars is more likely be successful, simple as that. This is no shot against Rod's recruiting, as there's plenty of 3 star guys in our latest classes that I'm excited about.
This is also not to say I think Williams should be given a starting spot or more of a chance than a 3 star, he hasn't looked good. The best players will play, and whether that's Mike Williams or a freshman, I really don't care.
In case it wasn't clear, I was referring specifically to Williams with the stars.
Ah, got ya. Ignore my post then.
Funny how the last two years have convinced the most ardent supporters of Rich Rodriguez that stars don't mean shit anymore. Tailoring your arguments to fit the failings of Rodriguez and his staff (as if THEY wouldn't want 30 five-star recruits) is no way to go 'bout life, son.
The whole mindset of Michigan Fandom has been warped by this sick obsession with defending Rodriguez as if he were a hall of fame legend about to be sent to the gas chamber.
Dude makes $3 Mill per year, and has turned Michigan football to shit. You guys that have all the sudden turned every conventional wisdom topsy-turvy to justify what has happened, in the hopes that "Our helmets have wings" and "The future is so bright we need sunglasses" will be right back full circle the minute Rodriguez is either canned, and Harbaugh comes in and recruits his dick off, OR (yes, I do believe he can do it) he starts winning and GULP WHAAAAT? Michigan starts landing a bevy of four and five star recruits.
Yet you believe he can start winning. I wonder how likely that a coach who's so incompetent that he's turned a historically-successful program "to shit" will all of a sudden start winning.
Do you ever read any of Brian's blogs on here or do you just stalk the diaries hoping to rip apart anyone and everyone you can?
Don't feed the trolls.
What does reading Brian's blogs have to do with anything? And yes, I do.
And NO, I do not think they are gospel.
My disagreements with the current sentiments of much of Michigan Fandom encompass as much a "scorched Earth" policy as those who ardently support Rodriguez do with dissenting opinions. This has become as polarizing a debate as any I have ever seen.
So many are willing to go down with the HMS Rodriguez--and it is about to lose its main mast--and so many want to snuff out those who question Rodriguez. I just don't get it. But those of us who choose to speak out, and question, criticize, and even gather around the gallows know that the very thing that makes America great: freedom of speech and civil discourse--are at stake here!
Our fight is larger than Rodriguez! It is the willingness to speak UP AND OUT and make our disse nting voices heard! Even though we will be neg-banged because we do NOT believe our "helmets got wings" right now!
The very future of this great land is at stake, diesel. America BEGS for us to remain steadfast in demanding that dissenting opinion, even here on MgBlog with its feature of Populist Points, be heard, loudly and clearly!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord he is stamping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored...
the infatuation with stars has made RichRod's life more difficult
Seriously? Do you cry for him when you go to bed at night?
Is it really the "infatuation with stars" that has made RR's life for difficult or is it the fact that he produced (yes, he did...not an excuse...he did) the worst 2 years in modern (or even not so modern) Michigan football history??? Stop making excuses for him. I'm sure he'd be embarrassed to listen to such boot licking.
Side note...stars do matter...as noted below, there is a proven correlation (not .99, but we'd all rather have a 5-star than a 2-star) between stars and success. It's been discussed. Unreal that you turned a post about Williams into an out-of-left-field defense of RR's 8-16.
Blue Heron didn't whine, he simply made a correct observation that the criticism of RR's recruits when they have only three stars is unhelpful. Do you recall the meltdown on this board when we were fortunate to get a commitment from Shawn Conway?
Side note: I would rather have a 2 * Patrick Omameh than a 5* Kelly Baraka.
Baraka has locked down one of the starting spots on the D-1A All-Marijuana Team, that's for sure.
August 1st, 2010 at 12:37 AM ^
Chad Henne was a 5 star so....
It's "our helmets got wings"
WVU pounded #3 Oklahoma 42-28 in the Fiesta Bowl after the '07 season.
It's reasonable to assume that the 2003 (for red shirts), 2004, 2005, and 2006 recruiting classes made up the meaningful bulk of the squads for that game.
According to Scout, for those four classes:
OK had 11 five stars, 33 four stars, and 43 three stars, out of a total of 96 recruits. That means 9 OK recruits were two stars or less.
WVU had 1 five star, 5 four stars, and 23 three stars, out of a total of 97 recruits. That means 68 WVU recruits were two stars or less.
I'd always rather have 4- and 5-star players, but as the above shows, it's no guarantee of victory. Player development and coaching are also critical.
The most consistent criticism of Lloyd Carr post-1997 was that he recruited "top-5 classes every year" but rarely got top-5 performances out of his teams. The fact that it wasn't true that he had "top-5 classes every year" didn't prevent many fans from concluding that LC and staff didn't do a good job of developing the talent that he had on hand.
Perhaps the most noteworthy attribute of RR at the time of his hire was considered to be his ability to take relatively-lowly ranked recruits and turn them into teams competitive with the elite of the college football world. The bowl victories over OK and Georgia were always given as examples of this ability.
It's a fact that RR has been able to bring in much more highly ranked recruits over the last three seasons than he ever had at WVU. As to whether he has "turned the program to shit," this season will be telling.
Funny how these bowl game anomalies are held up as examples of how Rodriguez's system and eye for talent work, and also held up as examples of how recruiting for stars is bunk.
Are these the same Georgia and Oklahoma teams that are constantly held up as underachieving, overrated posers? Yes. I mean, Georgia is in the SEC, which sucks arse and is only good because ESPN loves them (and HATES MICHIGAN! RAWR). Oklahoma was in the shitty Big 12 with no competition save Texas, amiright? HOWEVER, when we need to discuss recruiting, all the sudden they are super powers that Rodriguez's lil two star speedy midgets blasted.
I don't know, but I'd be willing to bet the national champs and the runners up over the last decade or so have the highest rated recruiting classes.
As for Mike Williams? How do we know he was overrated, or a "miss"--his coaching since he came to college has sucked, and he's not had any continuity (like a lot of Michigan defenders)--and Rodriguez blew by either hiring Shafer OR firing him. At any rate, Williams does not represent any sort of "data" about stars or the recruiting services--he's been fucked by choosing Michigan at a time when Michigan had its head up its ass.
I didn't hear the characteristic musical note of a hammer striking rock, but maybe I missed it.
I wish I could say there was one area of M. Williams game last year that I had a problem with, but that everything else was OK. That would give me hope he could turn it around.
Yet that simply wasn't the case. He was bad in coverage, was bad at tackling and took awfully bad angles in coming up to support the run (I think of him over-running the Purdue RB on that 19-yard TD run last season). If he only needed to improve his deep coverage skills, I'd have some hope. But being moved into that hybrid-role with his (I feel) demonstrated lack of ability to tackle and take proper angles means, I think, that he will be more of a J. Stewart type backup safety.
We're bringing in a pretty awesome spur who goes by the name of Josh Furman. That means, even if Williams can beat out Thomas Gordon/Kevin Leach (he played spur during the Spring Game), he's gonna have to fight out Furman as he develops too. If he works hard I think he has the physical tools to do so, we'll see.
What amazed me was how awful he was when Illinois was running the zone-read play. Come on Mike - don't you see that play numerous times each week in practice but yet against Illinois it looks as if you're seeing it for the first time.
Williams has moved to Spur. He was behind Floyd Simmons and Thomas Gordon by the end of spring.
Williams was playing out of position for much of last year. Yes, he ideally would have been better. Ron English recruited him to play slot corner, not deep safety. Unfortunately, that position disappeared when English was let go.
He's only a redshirt junior, and he does have some talent. He made 56 tackles last year, including 16 in one game. If you ask me, he's looked remarkably similar to the pre-2009 version of Steve Brown. And we all know how that position change worked out for Brown...
Let's give Williams another year to get his stuff together. He's only a redshirt junior.
I have mgopoints envy!
would you say that the Spur position in this year's D would be the position that most closely resembles the slot corner position from English's D?
August 1st, 2010 at 12:07 AM ^
Yes, I would.