September 17th, 2021 at 7:48 AM ^
Also saw Cheeseman with the hold on a few kicks. Good stuff
September 17th, 2021 at 8:32 AM ^
He's amazing to be able to snap it to himself to also hold for the kicker.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:49 AM ^
Learned it from Dileo
September 17th, 2021 at 12:41 PM ^
What's the Dileo?
September 17th, 2021 at 3:55 PM ^
When he be the holder yes he do his duty yo
September 17th, 2021 at 7:51 AM ^
Wasn't he a grad transfer and was injured nearly his whole time at Michigan? It's great he's in the nfl, but I wouldn't say we botched his career.
September 17th, 2021 at 7:58 AM ^
“botched his UM playing career”
Assuming UM means Michigan and not Minnesota.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:06 AM ^
He played at Minnesota so I don't see how they could've botched it. He transferred from Michigan so that's what I assume OP is talking about.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:10 AM ^
Botched his Michigan playing career by telling him to medically retire. Our doctors said he couldn’t play anymore. OP is assuming he would have stayed at Michigan if that hadn’t happened. I don’t know any indication that the transfer was imminent without it. The erroneous medical retirement ended his Michigan career.
Clearly OP is not saying UM botched St Juste’s career. Just his UM career.
September 17th, 2021 at 9:59 AM ^
And I cannot say they botched it.
Didn’t he come in with knee problems and then have two years of hamstring issues and more? It’s so stupid to say that’s a fireable offense.
Fields transferred from Georgia because the head coach chose Fromm over him. Williams left OSU for Bama and is playing. Players leave for a new opportunity.
Coaches make a lot of decisions. With injuries—was Harbaugh supposed to hope a young man who couldn’t stay on the practice field was going to contribute after two years? They offered him a medical scholarship so they could then get a new player who would not have his injury history.
BSJ just happened to be motivated to keep playing and try his luck elsewhere, in another program that needed players badly. If anything, their giving up on his ability to stay healthy may have motivated him to a new level of taking care of himself and pushing through injuries.
Failure is a good lesson.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:06 AM ^
Yeah a guy that comes in with leg issues and then battles leg injuries for the entire time he was here, hard to say the doctors botched it by saying he might want to consider retiring.
September 17th, 2021 at 11:49 AM ^
was Harbaugh supposed to hope a young man who couldn’t stay on the practice field was going to contribute after two years?
Well, with the benefit of hindsight, yes. But I accept that you are objecting to the OP’s tone and specifically the harshness of the word “botched.”
September 17th, 2021 at 11:16 AM ^
Yes.
He graduated from Michigan with a Bachelor's Degree in sports management in just two years and transferred as a graduate student to the University of Minnesota in 2019.
September 17th, 2021 at 7:51 AM ^
Yep. The big missing piece for Michigan over the past few years has been Benjamin St-Juste, the cornerback with *checks notes* 0 career interceptions.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:39 AM ^
I would say missing St Juste was a huge deal, especially the way he has played since leaving Michigan. You can’t tell me our CB’s over this timeframe were more successful. We had a huge hole at CB.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:17 AM ^
Why wasn’t he on the field here? Because he was always injured.
Lamenting on old girlfriends because you now realize they had more potential is a way to fail at all relationships going forward. There’s a reason you two didn’t work out—get over it, move on.
Transferring is a factor in development for plenty of guys. It didn’t work out here, but at least none of our guys who have left became a Joe Burrow or Justin Fields elsewhere.
Michigan is tied for 6th for players in NFL right now. Only OSU is ahead of us in Big Ten.
There’s a lot of talent on the team now and it would be great if people stopped obsessing over single roster moves of the past, for past years. New coaches, more and more higher rated recruits recruits at the position now.
Harbaugh changed his defensive staff because he saw the flaws. He’s fixed issues that people want to go back and complain about.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^
Harbaugh puts guys in the NFL with regularity. Wasn't Michigan right up there with LSU and Ohio State in the past couple years?
Michigan got three guys (3!!!) drafted last year who DIDN'T EVEN PLAY.
Somehow, some way, Jim Harbaugh and his staff are at fault for global warming and the JFK assassination.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:43 AM ^
And yet somehow, a guy with zero career interceptions, was drafted into the NFL and made a roster. Evidently, judging a talent by how many interceptions they have isn't how the NFL evaluates a player.
September 17th, 2021 at 9:44 AM ^
He wasn't even that good at Minnesota. He was drafted solely off his measurables
September 17th, 2021 at 11:42 AM ^
The NFL absolutely evaluates players by their ability to see the field and not constantly be injured, something St. Juste couldn't do at Michigan but was able to do at Minnesota. Maybe he just had an extremely bad run of luck at Michigan and his knees got better once he wound up at Minnesota.
September 17th, 2021 at 9:15 AM ^
I usually agree with you, Magnus, but I certainly think missing a CB who is talented enough to play in the NFL was a pretty big deal.
September 17th, 2021 at 9:48 AM ^
Well, he wasn't going to play over Ambry Thomas and Lavert Hill in 2019, and I don't think the presence of St-Juste in 2020 changes the trajectory of Michigan's team in 2020.
The last time we saw St-Juste, he was being left in the dust by Michigan's third-string running back.
So I guess I'll just have to agree to disagree.
September 17th, 2021 at 9:54 AM ^
At the very least, we would have beaten MSU with him instead of Gray at CB.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:09 AM ^
That's a strong statement.
Vincent Gray, 2020: 25 tackles, 3 pass breakups, 0 interceptions
Benjamin St-Juste, 2020: 14 tackles, 3 pass breakups, 0 interceptions
Not sure that's the guy making a difference between a win and a loss.
September 17th, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
I think he meant Gray had a historically bad day against MSU, and if we have anyone back there who doesn't have a historically bad day, we win. Hypotheticals like that are so silly though; too many variables and possibilities.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:09 AM ^
Magnus, we beat MSU last year if we had BSJ. That said, I can't argue with what the M doctors thought at the time.
Imagine being punished for giving a shit about a kid's health.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:19 AM ^
Obviously, the doctors recommendation was borderline incompetent. To tell a player they shouldn’t play football because of medical Issues and then goes on to be All B10 at Minny and then drafted into the NFL…where you have to be cleared medically…it really is inexcusable.
Furthermore, if we have ONE capable DB last year against MSU we win.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:31 AM ^
Pretty sure BSJ is better than Gray. Call me crazy but Gray won't sniff the NFL and I'm going out on a limb and guessing if BSJ is playing last year at Michigan, he plays better than Gray in the msu game.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
Obviously, the doctors recommendation was borderline incompetent.
This is, of course, an absurd statement to make. The doctors made a recommendation based on medical records.
Further, any doctor respecting his or her Hippocratic oath couldn't care less about whether BSJ plays football. The issue is BSJ's health.
There is a difference between a medical recommendation and "being cleared medically." And let's not forget, it's in a NFL doctor's interest to clear as many players as possible. The NFL gets more players on the field, and the NFL doctor gets more business from the NFL.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
Right. The implication that a doctor should be fired for failing to predict the future is idiotic in itself.
Lots of people get a second opinion regarding surgery, cancer treatment, etc. If one doctor recommends surgery and another recommends rehab, does the rehab guy get fired if surgery is successful? Does the surgery guy deserve to get fired if rehab works?
People on the internet are quick to fire people in real life.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:58 AM ^
Working in the medical field for over 20 years, what I find so funny, is people think doctors can’t be wrong.
I’m not saying that the doctor / doctors should get fired, but I am saying that their recommendation / conclusion was clearly wrong. Not saying they were malicious…but absolutely 100% they were wrong. Period. You can still fulfill your Hippocratic Oath and be wrong.
Recommending that a player end his football career, play All B10 level, get drafted by the NFL, make a roster all are objective evidence the doctors were wrong in their analysis.
September 17th, 2021 at 11:17 AM ^
Notice this tool said "working in the medical field" instead of "working as a doctor." Enlightening.
Of course doctors can be wrong. So fucking what? Meteorologists are wrong regularly. They're still doing their jobs to the best of their ability, just like the doctors who made the recommendation re: St Juste, and screaming like a fucking five year old about it is pointless.
September 17th, 2021 at 11:21 AM ^
Ahhh…yes…another great misconception. Only a doctor can declare something medically wrong. Because we all know that doctors should be trusted. I mean there has never been a Michigan doctor or MSU doctor involved in any impropriety right?
How about you Please tell what is inaccurate about my post?
September 17th, 2021 at 4:17 PM ^
Just because it turned out differently doesn't mean the doctor was wrong. It could very well have been the right decision given the information the doctor had at the time.
This is a common mistake when people make ex-poste evaluations of some else's decisions.
September 17th, 2021 at 11:21 AM ^
Based off of the 2 people I’ve met that played for pj at western, he doesn’t really care about the health or wellbeing of his players. So it wouldn’t surprise me that he’d allow a kid of questionable health on the field.
September 17th, 2021 at 11:39 AM ^
You can’t make that call in a vacuum and you certainly can’t claim it was ‘obvious’. You have absolutely no idea what the UM doctors saw/thought/knew at the time; all you know is what happened after.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:30 AM ^
You know he would’ve played well? Lmao.
The world of fantasy football has gotten into so many people’s heads.
Do you really think that if, say, BSJ was playing that the game would’ve been called the same by MSU?
Can you guarantee that BSK would’ve not gotten PI if the same plays were called?
Magnus is right. These simplistic equations of subbing one player for another and assuming it will automatically be a difference is wrong.
BSJ was not a difference maker on his own team—which is not to say he isn’t talented. It is a team game. It is also a game in which coaches decide playcalling based on personnel and based off of in-game factors. MSU could easily have found other ways to win a game. Clearly, last year, plenty of teams did.
To put last year’s record all on Vince Gray is pathetic. Even insinuating that’s pathetic. It is a team game.
September 17th, 2021 at 7:51 AM ^
I would have to believe (hope?) that it was the consensus of multiple doctors and not a single individual.
September 17th, 2021 at 9:53 AM ^
Exactly, it is so easy to shit on medical professionals these days, as if you haven't noticed we now have millions of epidemiologists without an MD degree, but while I hope they are wrong they could also be right. Let it go people.
September 17th, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
There have been multiple guys that got medically retired here that tried to play and got seriously injured elsewhere. BSJ bucking the odds should be treated as a feel good story, not as an excuse to question the competence of the team doctors.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:00 AM ^
Somebody woke up with an axe to grind this morning...
Good for Ben, I hope he has a very successful career in the NFL and makes lots of money.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:14 AM ^
We just had it out for him! That’s what it was.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:18 AM ^
Glad he is doing well. Honestly I'm not sure what to make of it other than...odd situation that I don't really get but wish him prosperity and health.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:19 AM ^
OP is definitely a fire-and-brimstone kind of guy:
"... person who completely botched his UM playing career is out of a job."
OP is surely familiar with all the details of the case, right? OP can surely explain why BSJ's career was "botched."
Or, maybe the OP is just emotional.
Skemegog Point is a very nice spot, by the way. Highly recommended.
September 17th, 2021 at 11:17 AM ^
Those of us with jobs would be grateful if people on the internet with extremely limited knowledge of our work or performance in said jobs wouldn't hope/wish us out of said jobs.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:21 AM ^
not very tactful, however the OP is correct in that whomever made that call that BSJ should medically retire from football was wrong.
If BSJ had followed that advice, he wouldn't be playing the NFL.
Happy that the kid is doing well and playing in the pros
September 17th, 2021 at 11:37 AM ^
I'm happy he's able to keep playing but this post-hoc analysis of the reasoning behind saying someone can't play isn't all that helpful. There are lots of guys who sustain debilitating injuries that cancel out their careers in college that we never hear or remember and we don't go out of our way to highlight how the medical professionals should have saved them earlier.
Like, the example that pops in my head around UM is Ondre Pipkins, who suffered a pretty scary neck injury as a freshman and then had lingering issues for a couple of years (including a torn ACL) before being told he should medically retire at UM. He left and played a year at Texas Tech before taking a crack at the NFL. He then bounced around various practice squads in the NFL but never seemed to stick. The fact he stayed healthy enough to continue playing is good but doesn't mean that at the time doctors could have predicted that he'd be able to do so based on his current medical state.
The other example that jumps out is Matt Falcon, who was injured a couple of times in HS and was offered a medical scholarship to UM because they didn't feel he was able to stay healthy. He decommitted and went to WMU, where he played a small amount before having to medically retire again. He too didn't follow the advice of UM's medical staff and was able to play for a little bit but then got hurt again, perhaps worse than before, and is now definitely unable to play. Now, did the WMU medical staff who cleared him wrong for ignoring the evidence because Falcon was a highly-regarded recruit and figured he was worth the gamble? Or was it just someone being wrong? We don't know.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:29 AM ^
Benjamin St. Juste was injured during his entire career at Michigan. Move on.
September 17th, 2021 at 8:31 AM ^
He's a Gopher, who cares?