OT(?): quick impact at the QB position
Without numerous mentions of UMich (past, present, and future ... no kidding) this would probably be too "OT" for the board:
http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1420545
Opinions expressed in the article (such as the one about Gardner) are not necessarily those of the OP.
October 12th, 2012 at 8:12 AM ^
What will help Shane, I think, is that I anticipate the offense changing dramatically into a more west coast offense. Ahabe will be a lank slate, while both Gardner and Bellomy might have developed habits from the previous, obsolete playbook(s).
October 12th, 2012 at 8:22 AM ^
I don't think the job will be won or lost based on Gardner or Bellomy's "habits" from the former playbook. The bottom line is that Morris has more potential as a quarterback than either of those guys.
October 12th, 2012 at 11:09 AM ^
I hope the mono doesn't cause him to miss the entire season. That could really set him back in his development.
October 12th, 2012 at 12:21 PM ^
Frankly, I don't see that being a huge issue. I don't think he was going to get a whole lot better in the last several weeks of the season than he was previously. He got a lot of tutoring over the summer. It's not exactly the same, but I think he'll be fine.
October 12th, 2012 at 4:12 PM ^
My question (admittedly not knowing much about mono), is how does affect his off-season development and preparation (physically, mentally, just the # of reps he can take, etc.)?
October 13th, 2012 at 10:13 AM ^
The only reason he will not play the remainder of his High School football season, will be due to his spleen. Mono leaves your spleen somewhat fragile. Thus, athletes are recommended not to participate in physical contact sports for an additional two to three months. Shane will be fine by 2013.
October 12th, 2012 at 8:19 AM ^
Yeah, I really don't get the sense that Hoke is the kind of coach who bases his decisions about who to play on pressure from fans:
"Morris has to improve on his accuracy and decision-making without question," Farrell said. "But honestly, this kid is like Tim Tebow to the Michigan fanbase, and I am not sure I have ever seen a more popular prospect. The pressure to get him on the field may force the hand of Brady Hoke, and really, is Michigan going to put Gardner back in there?"
>
October 12th, 2012 at 8:27 AM ^
Florida State remains Michigan Fans' leader
October 12th, 2012 at 8:27 AM ^
"But honestly, this kid is like Tim Tebow to the Michigan fanbase, and I am not sure I have ever seen a more popular prospect. The pressure to get him on the field may force the hand of Brady Hoke, and really, is Michigan going to put Gardner back in there?"
Another reason why I hate RivaksMike. It is going to be an open competition at QB next year with DG, Russ and Morris. I certainly hope we have a better option than a true freshman at QB, but if he wins the job then that is that. Also, I certainly hope no Michigan HC will ever have his hand forced by the fanbase on who to play. That would be cray. This is Michigan. That shit doesn't happen here. As Lloyd would say "Why would you ask a dumb question like that?"
October 12th, 2012 at 8:40 AM ^
Weren't you around for Drew Henson? He was uber-talented, but it was clear that Brady was the better QB at the time. Lloyd bowed to fan pressure in my opinion until it became obvious that Brady gave us the better chance to win.
October 12th, 2012 at 8:56 AM ^
In Lloyd's own words in the Brady 6 documentary, he played Henson because if he didn't he was worried, and probably justifiably, that he would just leave the team and go play baseball. PT was a way to keep him in the hook at UM. But eventually winning games forced Carr to go to Brady permenantly.
October 12th, 2012 at 9:45 AM ^
but why on Earth would anyone think Lloyd made personnel decisions based on fan pressure? I suppose he also canned Mike DeBord because the fanbase hated him.
October 12th, 2012 at 10:06 AM ^
When did Lloyd can Mike DeBord? Last I saw DeBord was on Lloyd's staff for his entire tenure aside from the few years he was cratering Central Michigan's football program.
October 12th, 2012 at 10:33 AM ^
I may be mistaken, but i'm pretty sure that was his point.
October 12th, 2012 at 11:41 AM ^
October 12th, 2012 at 8:34 AM ^
I guess I need to come clean here guys. It's me. I've been putting a LOT of pressure on Brady to start Shane next year because of my Tebow-like expectations for Morris and I sense Hoke is about to give in (a-la Borgess v Heiko in the Bubbble Screen Wars) and announce him as the starter.
October 12th, 2012 at 8:40 AM ^
Obviously we know best what should be done. People on this board often raise concerns about what Hoke, Borges and Mattison do, and Hoke is always very responsive. And if Coach Hoke should make an exception with regard to the starting QB, I, for one, will be ready to march on Schembechler Hall and make sure that our man is starting. This may change when Hoke has earned our trust, but for now, I am on alert.
It's clear, Farrell has spent significant time with Hoke. It's like he's in his brain or something.
/s for the irony impaired
October 12th, 2012 at 10:08 AM ^
I mean look how long this forum has been lobbying for Bubble Screens, and lo, we now have Bubble Screens. To hell with the coaches, the FANS are the program!!!
/s
October 12th, 2012 at 8:46 AM ^
I have a strong feeling that Morris can run Tebow's "Jump Pass" way better than Tebow can.
October 12th, 2012 at 8:58 AM ^
PERIOD.
Hoke was around when we started a 5-year senior former walk-on in Brian Griese over a guy named Tom Brady and a returning starter in Scott Driesbach...we won a national championship that year.
Hoke won't give 2 shits about what the fans have to say. If Morris is the best player, he'll play, if it's Gardner or Bellomy, it'll be them.
The only way this comes into play is if it's a dead heat - an absolute tie. In that situation Hoke's history says he goes with the upperclassmen leader. However, if you're changing your offense and you have a younger player...maybe you reconsider. Also if the dead heat involved Devin Gardner, I'd give the nod to Bellomy or Morris...why? Because Gardner is the #1 WR we'll have returning and he'll help Bellomy/Morris at WR vs. having him at QB and no Gardner to throw to.
I highly doubt we end up in that "tie" scenario...Hoke seems pretty good at finding seperation. And when in doubt, he always goes with the older players...look at just this year. Brandon Moore, Elliott Mealer, JiBreel Black, Desmond Morgan and Kenny Demens...
At the end of the day, it's about who leads us to victory. Also, I don't see the offense changing THAT much. Sure it'll be less zone-read, option, etc. But I don't think we'll be under center going 3TE all the time either. I think our offense will be very Patriots like, very "multiple."
October 12th, 2012 at 9:02 AM ^
QB next year is just one of many issues that will face the offense going into next season. We'll have to replace the entire interior OL, possible 4 OL if Lewan leaves early, young receiving corps, possibly new RBs, and finally the full transistion to Borges' offense. Gonna be a very interesting (read worrisome) transition.
October 12th, 2012 at 10:12 AM ^
We'll have all our receivers back except Roundtree, who hasn't done much this year, anyway. I somewhat doubt that Lewan leaves early if he continues playing the way he has this season. He's taken a step backward. And the interior offensive line isn't that great, anyway. I'm not sure that we'll be better next year, but I don't think we'll take a huge step down, either.
October 12th, 2012 at 11:09 AM ^
Hoke doesn't care what the fanbase thinks about his depth chart. He knows the fans will be happy if we're winning, and upset if we're losing.
It's not unheard of for a freshman QB to start at Michigan (Henne, most recently) and I'm sure Brady and Al will give Shane every opportunity. That said, I think Bellomy ends-up being our starter on opening day next year, with Gardner as his competition. I think Shane opens the season #3 on the depth chart, and possibly redshirts.
That said, he is an amazing talent, and has the physical tools to be effective right away. The bottom line is that whoever starts for us next year will have won the job--there is no way Hoke factors the fanbase into that choice.
Sometimes RivalsMike is an idiot. Bringing up Shane's completion percentage is not totally invalid, but it ignores the tape that shows lots of dropped balls and plenty of crisp passes. If Shane had decent WRs and better pass pro, he could easily have a 65% completion or more, and it's clear to anyone that's watched him this season that his supporting cast is his biggest problem.
As for the O-Line, I did a diary on why next year's O-Line isn't looking like a huge upgrade over this year's, and that's cause for concern. My hope and belief is that they'll be clicking by the time the B1G season starts, but I'm not sure it will happen before then. Fortunately, the schedule is pretty darn soft next year, with only ND (at home) a real challenge before the B1G season, and Ohio and Nebraska at home. The only road threat is MSU.
As for Lewan...I believe he will get a 1st or 2nd NFL grade, and I think any notion that he's taken a step backward is pretty silly. He hasn't allowed a sack in three years and is playing as well now as he ever has. It appears Michigan is becoming a "left-handed" team with the run, which means he'll be featured even more. The only thing that would keep Lewan at Michigan would be his love for Michigan; he'll be an early draft choice if he leaves.
October 12th, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^
I've seen him miss blocks this year that I don't think he did previously. He's also been called for several penalties this year, which wasn't a problem last year. I can think of about 4 penalties he's been flagged for this season.
October 12th, 2012 at 2:32 PM ^
October 13th, 2012 at 10:53 AM ^
October 12th, 2012 at 10:23 AM ^
"The No. 17 overall player in the Rivals100 has also completed barely 50 percent of his passes, leading Farrell to question his potential for immediate impact." - from the article, regarding Shane Morris
Assuming that the stats on MaxPreps are correct, Shane Morris to date, over the last three seasons at De La Salle, is 258-500 for pass completions for 3,287 yards, 34 TDs and 16 INTs. Granted, illness cut this season short for him, but although this comes to a completion percentage of 51.6%, it amounts to 6.6 yards per attempt and 12.7 yards per completion. If my calculations are correct, the NCAA QB rating using those multi-year stats would be about 122.9. That still doesn't seem like a bad baseline for a QB that isn't here yet.
It will be interesting to see how the Bellomy-Gardner-Morris quandary works out in practices next year, that's for sure, but like others, I trust this staff to put the best players out there, not the most popular. They have much more data than we do, after all.
October 12th, 2012 at 10:43 AM ^
Mike Farrell, you're an idiot.
October 12th, 2012 at 10:44 AM ^
Morris isn't going to miss almost his entire senior year and then walk in here and take the job.
October 12th, 2012 at 11:31 AM ^
October 12th, 2012 at 12:09 PM ^
One key fact to note in the Rivals article is the mention of Wolverine walk-on Alex Swieca as competing for QB time with Gardner and Bellomy (and Morris). The guy's story is fantastic- orthodox Jew from NYC, trained in the Israeli military, won MVP in Israeli football league sponsored by Bob Craft, owner of the NE Patriots. Swieca is as likely to get some PT during the Spring Game as Morris, given Shane's bout with mono.
My 2013 QB depth chart prediction: Bellomy is 1, Gardner is 2 (while no. 1 at WR), Swieca is 3. Shane will likely redshirt to permit him to fully recover from the mono. One mystery: whether Michigan picks up another 4-star QB in the 2013 class as "insurance" for the future. While Hackenberg would be the likely choice if he starts rethinking his verbal commitment to Penn State, Brogan Roback, a 4-star verbal commit to EMU from Toledo is also a possibility.
October 12th, 2012 at 6:48 PM ^
October 12th, 2012 at 12:36 PM ^
I wouldn't count Morris out as being THE high-impact freshman QB next year. Scott is doing a very good job at Arizona, and is the incumbent, where Morris will be competing with people who haven't been starting quarterbacks.
It's a lot harder to knock off an incumbent starter than an incumbent reserve.
October 12th, 2012 at 1:24 PM ^
Matt Scott is a senior.
October 12th, 2012 at 2:03 PM ^
October 13th, 2012 at 1:13 AM ^
Better to keep quiet and let everyone assume your ignorance than to open your mouth and confirm it, Mike Farrell.