More player interviews (CB starter plot twist!)

The new NIL rules means that I can sponsor a “UM QBs Shall Not Golf in the Offseason” charity golf tournament, right? All proceeds go to Cade, JJ, Alan, Dan, etc? Right? RIGHT?

Thanks for this OP!

Frankly, given that every scheme change usually comes with just sunshine and rainbows from the players, it’s almost refreshing to see VG be plain spoken.  Makes it seem more sincere!

Nice write up. Thank you. 

Gray is going to play, even if he's not the starter.

And he's older so in a camp battle, he's going to get the nod for an interview. 

I'm sure at the beginning of camp they would've thrown Filiana out there over Keegan...maybe not so much anymore.

But unlike LG. Both Turner and Gray are going to get snaps.

I envision an OR scenario with them for most of the year.

At this point, I'm most interested to see Moten and Paige. It sounds like Moten is at a point where he can basically be a starter and Dax can play the Nickel/3rd CB spot. If true, that's great!

If not, you lose the OR scenario with Turner and Gray because Gray absolutely CANNOT play NB. So now he's out on an island with little competition and Turner has to play inside...and who knows if he can cover guys going two directions like Dax can (who is just a notch below Jourdan Lewis when it comes to NB, IMO).

Has off-season golf become the new weight gain? All off-season golf is good because it promotes team bonding and relaxation, unless we learn later this particular off-season golf was bad.

Michigan QB's playing golf is perfectly symbolic of where our program has been the past 2 decades. Retired and focused on enjoying our sunset years.  

The elite 5-6 programs are 24-7 football factories 365 days a year. There's plenty to bitch about with Harbaugh and coaching, but if we are not going to be an NFL minor league prep factory - paying top dollar for top talent and running professional practices year round - the results simply won't be elite - it's just an unrealistic expectation.

Expecting to beat Wisconsin and PSU 60% of the time is fair and that's probably our ceiling given the current culture of the program / AD.

I'm not super concerned who's starting week 1.  JH likes to reward guys for a good spring/fall camp by making them starters, even if they are not as good as guys behind them.  I think Mason started at DT at one point.  I think Jess Speight did the same.  Same with Vastardis.  Generally all things being equal, older, more experienced guys are likely to start over more talented, younger guys week 1 more so than week 6 for example.  But, this will work itself out over the semester.

Every time i hear about Cade golfing i cringe.  Brings back memories of Patterson golfing more than practicing football.  Uggggh.  

Good stuff, except the part about the QB playing golf, that bit brought back bad memories.

Edit:  oh, heck, a few minutes too late with that crack.

Aw, shit, now you got me into a player interview YT loop!

Everyone needs to simmer down about kids playing golf in their spare time.  Most are on campus all summer....better getting together to play a sport than doing other dumb stuff.

Gray said he played zero coverage in high school(man coverage with no safety help) but was lost when he got here. Isn’t that what Don Brown asked him to play? Sometimes it is less about X’s and O’s and more about Jimmy’s & Joe’s. Last season we just didn’t have the talent on the outside that we were used too in previous years.

THE FOOTBALL PLAYERS ARE PLAYING VIDEO GAMES

2-4 HERE WE COME AGAIN UGH!

I think All's comment will be important. I've often wondered if the offense had problems because they didn't see much zone in practice. Hopefully, practicing against a mix of man and zone, or at least a well-run zone, will help both the QBs and WRs this year.

I always assumed Gray would play a good deal as the 3rd corner, especially if they wound up playing around with Nickel a bunch, so this isn't a total surprise.  I do think people's memory of Gray froze from that MSU game and while he's definitely limited he did get better as the year progressed.  Like, he had 2 PBUs vs Wisconsin and another against IU and I thought he was solid tackling against Rutgers.  He definitely shouldn't be your #1 corner but if he's a Brandon Watson-type you're probably in good shape against anyone other than OSU.

I do get a sense that the defense really struggled last year with a lot of turnover and limited practice time in the offseason to get everyone on track.  That alone gives me hope this year will be better because they had a normal offseason.

The difference is Shea just improved his own golf game, while Cade makes the golfers around him better.

Like a true leader.

GoonieGooGoo

After watching all of the 5 minute interviews the following are apparent:

These are quality men.

The positivity comes through.

Can't say it's surprising that Gray played Cover 0 all the time in high school. Would be a waste of resources to give help to a D1 athlete playing corner against pretty much any high school team in Michigan. 

Hinton having been out/limited with covid is the big takeaway for me. Makes the lack of buzz around his development seem much less bust-y, especially without a full camp last year. If he is back to 100% (obviously, concern #1), in-season improvement seems a lot more probable than it did before this came out.

And he's rooming with Cade and they play golf together!

I’m so sick of hearing about players taking time to golf. I don’t follow Ohio St. anything but I really doubt any of their players have mentioned golf. If that’s the case then something has changed in the last 15 years and you kids get off my lawn. 

I played a Big Ten varsity sport and while many of my teammates were experienced golfers, I never, ever, heard them discuss it as something they did during their time in college and I certainly never saw any of them go play. Summers were spent lifting, running, stretching, and engaging in endless drills/competition.

Even guys who went back home to FL or TX for the summer came back with more muscle and faster sprints. They all talked endlessly to us about their regimens and how they improved. If anyone was playing golf it didn’t get brought up in our locker room, let alone to the media. 

Down time was video games, girlfriends, and drinking games; two of those didn’t begin before sundown. 

Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers were literally just on TV golfing with pros. Both have single digit handicaps. Somehow "Being an elite football player" and "golfing as a pretty serious hobby" are quite compatible. I highly doubt the first time they picked up clubs was post college.