Offseason ESPN Fluff: Michigan All Century Squad, and Ranking B1G "Triplets"
ESPN has been releasing the usual pieces you'd see this time of year. The first fluff piece is our "All Century Team", which can includ any player that suited up for Michigan between 2000 and the present.
Link? Link
Of interest:
We're look at a time period of 2000-2007 with Lloyd Carr, 08-10 with Rich Rod, 11-14 with Hoke, and 15-Present with Harbaugh. Unsurpisingly, most of the players selected were from the Lloyd Carr years.
26 players total. 12 Offense, 11 Defense, 3 Special teams.
Of the 26, 18 of them had their best years under Lloyd, 2 under Rich Rod, 2 under Hoke, and 1 under Harbaugh. 3 players were evenly split between two coaching tenures; Taylor Lewan with Rich Rod and Hoke, Denard with Rich Rod and Hoke, and Brandon Graham with Carr and Rich Rod.
I gave Jourdan Lewis to Harbaugh not only because of how great he was last season, but how great he can be this year as well.
I wanted to split it up just to show something we already knew, which was how great we were up to 2007, and how bleak it's been since.
The second fluff piece is ESPN ranking the B1G "Triplets", which is defined as the top 3 offesnive skilled position players. It can be any combo of QB, RB, WR/TE. For Michigan, they chose Chesson, Butt, and Smith. Link? Link
Our trio came in at #4. I may have switched Smith with Darboh. I think we'll see a platoon at RB, given how many options we have to work with. The opposite is true for WR, which means Darboh, Chesson, and Butt will all see the bulk of the passing game. MSU's trio came in at #7. The top 3 will be OSU, PSU, and Nebraska. My guess would be #1 OSU b/c of Barrett, #2 PSU b/c of Barkley, and #3 Nebraska b/c of Armstrong.
I think we're OK at #4, because nobody knows who the starting QB will be.
If there was one decade and a half long stretch of football in my lifetime I woudln't want to review, that'd be it.
They picked LaMarr Woodley as a defensive lineman, and doubled down on their mistake by calling him a Pro Bowl lineman. Their own web site states (correctly) he is in fact a linebacker.
Some people have a sports column for no reason.
He was a DE in college so seems like a simple mistake to make. 3-4 OLB is basically a DE anyways, Woodley wasnt dropping into coverage that often
Whatever the labeled position, while at Michigan, I would argue that Woodley played much more lineman than linebacker.
"Guns don't kill people. Lamar Woodley kills people." Still one of the great T-shirts of all time.
I like Gallon and he put up impressive numbers but no way in hell should he be on that list before Super Mario!
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Disagree. Gallon was one of the only reasons our offense had a pulse in '13
Mario was special! Always seemed to come up big in the key moments. The way he used to shake DB's with the double-move was unreal. Put him on the '13 team and there is no doubt in my mind he would easily be the best player on our offense.
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Agree, Manningham and Gallon were superior route runners compared to Braylon. While Braylon made some absolutely huge plays, he's not the guy I want catching the ball on 4th and long to win the game.
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Manningham and Gallon over Braylon.
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Braylon had the rare ability to take over games from the WR position. For all of his issues, I still say he was the best WR Michigan has had since 2000 and possibly ever.
That OL...yeah, I think that'd be decent. Long-Hutchinson-Molk-Baas-Lewan.
The fact that the the best two safeties of the last 15 years are Shazor and Marlin Jackon's post-safety conversation days (a big step back from his CB play, IMO) is so, so sad.
(also somewhere Brian is shaking a fist about Jordan Kovacs not making that spot).
Kovacs should have been the safety instead of Shazor.
Nah...Shazor was a consensus all-American and a Thorpe award finalist. Kovacs was good and a bright spot on some underwhelming teams but Shazor deserved the spot
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but he played like a 5* and easily earned his All American honors. Kovacs was a feel good story and he turned into a damn fine foootball player. However, he was not in the same class as Earnest. In fact, I can't think of too many that were.
Ahhhhhhh that hit against Purdue!
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Are we the only team in cfb to have two native Africans start at wide receiver?
Zoltan Mesko is also on the All-Century name list as well.
I really don't get this idoltry for him within our fanbase. Yeah, I know he was alright in his production and panned out well for us and I get applauding of him for coining the term "Little Brother", but what were his team contributions to the program compared to say, Anthony Thomas, Tyrone Wheatley, or even Chris Perry? 0-4 vs Ohio State (all others were at least 2-2), 1 Big Ten co-championship (all others had at least 2) and little mileage in the NFL (granted neither did the others, but they all still got more time in the league). Respect his talent and heart but he was a good RB, not a great RB
Well, the major advantage for him in this list is that he played after the year 2000... so it's really a Perry Hart battle
Mike Hart set the rushing record at M, blocked well, was a good receiver out of the backfield, and hardly ever fumbled. You can't blame him for the team's lack of championships during his career. Was Walter Cross better than Hart because Cross was 3-1 vs. OSU? Chris Howard was the main RB on the 1997 national championship team--does that make him the best in recent M history?
I would put Denard at QB over Henne, and insert Steve Breaston as my all-purpose player.
Oh, whoops--didn't see that the article continued after the photo. Missed that they had Breaston as KR. But I still want Denard at QB--so maybe Peppers as the all-purpose?
Have him on offense in some capacity, but I want Henne as QB, way more accurate in the air.