Post-Spring Game Thoughts (Offense)
QB
I now see why there is talk of a QB competition (notice I said competition, NOT controversy). Basically from what I see, Gardner is the same QB and Morris has improved some. So it's not that Devin has gotten worse or Shane has gotten SO much better. But if you thought Devin was a 7 of 10 last year and Morris was a 5 of 10. Devin is still a 7 and Morris is now a 6 or 6.5.
This is disheartening to me because it's not like Devin has a TON of experience or it's not like he's maxed out his potential. He's basically Taylor Martinez, the same QB for 3 years in a row...only Martinez was NEVER going to get any better with that arm. Gardner has a real shot to be something special.
Morris has improved like you'd expect any freshman to improve...so the fact that Gardner hasn't seemed to improve at least the same "amount" is a bad sign. Speight looks solid for a kid supposed to be in high school.
RB
Both Green and Smith look better...like Morris both seem to have improved as much as you'd expect a freshman to improve. Nothing drastic, but typical from year 1 to year 2. Green got his speed and burst back, it was noticable in the spring practice videos and it was noticable today. I'd be interested to see if either can pass block.
Hayes looks better, but he's got a little too much Mike Shaw "bounce" in him. He's got a gear that neither Green nor Smith have. Could be a nice change of pace back...could be an obvious screen RB candidate. Hopefully Drake Johnson can get back in the mix because 1. he looked really good before his injury and 2. Douglas doesn't look like a B1G player at this point in his career.
WR
Funchess looks the same, just more comfortable at WR. That said, he still drops WAY too many catchable balls. Those are drive killers. Chesson made a really nice catch. I still think Darboh is going to push him. Canteen is as good as advertised, that slot WR spot is his. Norfleet and Bo Dever seem to be your backups there. It looks like we WILL have a slot WR on the field most all the time. It'll be interesting to see if Darboh pushes Chesson to that spot or if one will start (as the #2) and the other will be first off the bench.
My biggest concern at WR is if we have someone who can stretch the field and "take the top off the defense." Hopefully Chesson is that guy (he burnt J. Clark one time on a corner route). We need separation because we don't have a QB accurate enough to use our size and leaping ability at WR to an advantage. For example, our big guys get a step on the DB and the ball needs to be high and we drill the CB in the back or completely overthrow the target. We can't use the height because we can't pinpoint our passes...it makes the extra inches in height and vertical useless. So we need some separation.
FB/TE/H-Back
Without Butt the data is incomplete. Heitzman is a load...seeing him running pass routes was weird...and funny. Williams seems the same. Not enough reps to make a comment on the FB and H-back guys.
OL
I now see why Mason Cole is the starter...he has solid hands and GREAT feet. He's not strong enough to start, he got bull rushed 2-3 times REALLY bad, but each time he kept his body between the defender and the QB. I suppose that's half the battle. Where David Dawson was getting blown by, Cole was always in position...he just wasn't big or strong enough to handle Clark a couple of times and got knocked back. The kid has a future though. I wouldn't want to run behind him because he's not clearing anyone out of the way...but again, he stays between his guy and the ball. At this point, that's more than just about anyone else.
Stock down on Kyle Kalis. He's just a body out there. He's got all the tools, but he never locks on to anyone...too often he's just swating at guys or grazing guys when he pulls. Whatever happened to the big physical guy that puts people on their ass? F-ing hit someone man! He just be like Lewan in that he locks onto someone and drives them down the DL and starts wiping other guys out in his wake. Lewan use to collapse his man all the way into the NG over the C. Kalis should be able to make a hole with his size and strength.
Stock also down on Dawson. Not sure where the hype about him playing LT came from. He was blown by HORRIBLY at least twice. He really had trouble with our interior OL when he played LG. Seemed confused at times. Still young, but defintiely not ready to play right now.
Bosch and Miller looked exactly the same. Braden looked okay in spots and then Clark flat out OWNED him in other spots. I'm going to miss Schofield's consistency.
It's going to be another long year on the OL. From what I saw, certain guys looked better...but all it takes is ONE guy to mess up. That's what kept happening to us. We'd get 4 guys doing what they were supposed to do and ONE guy would mess up and the whole play would go wrong. And it was almost never the same guy. Hopefully this is just a cohesiveness issue with the new guys just now starting to play together - but after what we saw last year...I'm not holding my breath.
OVERALL
Certain players looked better, the WRs looks very solid, but the fact that Devin has not progressed even a little bit and the OL doesn't look any better gives me no comfort in this offense. I really expected Gardner to take a step forward this year and I was just hoping the OL could at least be decent. I'll keep hope alive, but I'm skeptical after watching today and hearing comments over the spring. A shotgun quick and medium passing game with gashing runs may be our best bet.
***PLEASE AND FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR THOUGHTS ON SPRING PRACTICE AND THE SPRING SCRIMMAGE***
meh... I'll believe it (good, bad, or mediocre) when I see it in August/September
You're drawing a lot of conclusions from a spring practice. That said, the OL looks like a disaster yet again.
I'm making observations and some predictions.
I'm usually the voice of reason after the spring practices and spring game...but some things are pretty obvious.
I mean Gardner's first pass was very similar to the panic passes he threw last year.
I watched with my own eyes Mason Cole get driven back into the QB, but manage to stay on his feet and between the QB and the DE (Frank Clark).
I noticed Green's burst that he didn't have last year.
I noticed Heitzman rumbling down field on a pass play not even looking to catch the ball, just for someone to hit...and he ran into a LB and a S. I laughed.
I didn't notice anything from the FB or H-Back position...and I mentioned that.
It was observations and thoughts. No one is saying "this is how it is going to be because this is what I saw."
I wonder how much of that first pass was caused by the spring game. Gardner had all kinds of room to run, but threw it into a mass of people instead. I'm sure the coaches don't want him running , so I'm hoping the play was to throw it no matter what.
At least, I hope so. That pass was terrible.
And a couple other times he could/would've pulled it.
But even some of his clean throws were completely off. Twice he had Funchess on a slant and the first time Funch went low to catch the ball and Devin overshot him and the second time Funchess stayed up and shielded the CB and Devin threw it at his feet.
That's a timing route so I'm not AS concerned.
But the INT was bad. And there were 4-5 other throws in there that were very 2013.
Every time I watched him spin away to the wrong side nothing good happened.
2 years ago worked out just fine. In fact I feel like there were multiple times he did it and the only one I remember turning out poorly was ND. I think it just scares the crap out of all of us.
It turned into about -3235 yards during last year's MSU game. Not that anything was going to salvage the offense that day, but I have to imagine he could have lost fewer yards.
but now every DC knows it's Devin's go-to move.
I would expect that many are telling their rushers "You know he's gonna run here--he does it every time--so just head in the reverse direction and get there before Devin does when he starts that spin." I would bet that opposing defenses are practicing against it.
Here is the reason. He was in a boot until the spring practices began. Doug has had no time to work with him. He has not had anytime to work with another QB guru. In the mean time, he has had to learn a new system. I expect DG to be better than last year, as he has improved each year. Let's not forget how he performed the first two years when Denard was the QB. It was not good.
OL will be better, if DG plays better. If defenses have to count for DG passing and running the ball, the pressure on OL will be less. I believe will see Doug's impact on offense in the fall. Spring was too early to see any impact.
Only one person makes this point.
I upvoted.
When will Nuss have time to work with DG? Wasn't yesterday their last Spring practice? When can they practice with coaches again?
practicing. However, DG could work with another QB instructor.
when they have a month of practices in the summer.......
he played pretty well in his last real game - ohio with a broken foot. sure hes gonna make some mistakes and errant tosses here and there...hes played behind putrid OLs thus far in his career and that never allows for much positive growth and tougher to build confidence. hes still a very hard worker and i think nuss will help him grasp the mental aspects better before the opener...even if its just identifying, counting #s and checking to plus plays or out of garbage, from a smaller base set of plays. and gardner is still the best athlete on the field pretty much whenever he steps onto the field. hes ums best option now and willl be their best option to win games this fall, especially with a questionable OL and poor TE / HB / FB blocking (most of those kids are young or walkons but they need to improve as much as OL by fall or more bc theyre still very very poor blockers, all of them). gardner just returned from surgery and a boot and hoke, who reveals nothing, said he was not yet 100% yet still repping every day....gardner will never be tom brady but he will be fine and help his team put up points if his teammates put in some work too. he should be least of peoples concerns given LOS issues...after the season borges / hoke put him through with that weak contingent of blockers, he deserves benefit of the doubt considering he still put up points to win most games
That first pass is what's concerning about Devin. Its the same thing we've always seen from him, and that's concerning for a fifth year senior. He shouldn't be making those throws anymore.
I didn't see all that much, but I do have two obeservations. 1. Kerridge seems like mostly the same guy, some good and some bad. 2. Houma looks bigger and more aggressive. On one play he knocked the stuffing out of Gedeon right in the middle of a hole, and then drove him backwards onto his ass. I was impressed by that one little sequence.
EVERYBODY PANIC
That's such an overused message board meme whenever someone makes an observation that isn't all roses.
It's clealy limited data...I'm not drawing any conclusions, but based on what I've seen, read, heard...those are my observations.
Do you have any for the good of the cause?
It's me understanding why there is talk of a competition.
A conclusion would be "Morris is the better quarterback" or "our offensive line sucks again."
THAT is a conclusion. I didn't say either of those.
I also see why there is hype around Mason Cole. I didn't say that would make him the starter or make a prediction like he's the next Jake Long.
I know that it is April as well. You can be a dick about it if you want, on MGoBlog, the bigger dick often is viewed as correct. This is not one of those cases. We ALL should wait until the fall to make conclusions, hell, we should probably wait until the non-conference is over.
That doesn't mean you can't state your observations for what you see thus far. That doesn't mean what you see now can't potentially provide indicators on what you'll see in the future.
It's not like EVERY guy on the team is a true freshman or 1st/2nd year player. Some guys, we've seen them play like the way they're playing for 3 years...we have data to say "okay, this is the player we have and it's likely not going to change." You can sit around and think that everyone is going to vastly change or improve, but often that's not the case. Often guys like Josh Furman just aren't very good...you can wait and wait and wait. Taylor Lewan is never going to stop committing dumb penalties...I had 3 years of proof, but you're always "waiting until the fall" or "waiting until next year." They are what they are sometimes. Call a spade, a spade. And it doesn't always have to be negative, but those of course are the easiest examples.
So no. That was NOT a conclusion. Not even close.
Coach Mr. Yost needs to make some friends that aren't on the interwebz.
Blogger Darker Blue needs to stop talking in the overused 2011 cat meme/childspeak "blog language."
You should've inserted the fist pumping baby or the Willy Wonka smirk...then I would've known you were joking.
this years HTTV should be dark and ominous. I am steeling my innards for another gut wrenching season, while hoping that won't come to pass.
Thanks for contributing to this thread, which was created to discuss thoughts on the offense after watching the spring game.
Thanks for contributing to this thread, which was created to discuss thoughts on the offense after watching the spring game.
Thanks for contributing to this thread, which was created to discuss thoughts on the offense after watching the spring game.
If this was 5th year senior Taylor Martinez with that funky delivery...I'd just be like "okay, this is our QB...let's live with it for one more year and put the best players we can around him. He's not going to change."
Martinez wasn't getting any better. Period.
Gardner has shown a 1st round NFL Draft talent at QB. And he's also shown a guy that should be moved to WR.
It's so frustrating because the potenital is there. And as much as I want to see him be that 1st round NFL guy, I'll just settle for a talented kid who doesn't make mistakes, learns and gets better, and makes plays. I'll settle for Dennis Dixon. A guy who was damn good in college, got better throughout his career, but ended up being a 5th round pick and a career backup in the NFL.
He looked like literally the exact same QB today. He made some nice throws and he made some of the worst throws you've seen since the Sheridan years. He didn't look to comfortable and he couldn't really pinpoint the ball like he needed to.
Again, we have big guys that don't get a ton of seperation. You can't throw low when they need it high or vice versa.
I just hope his decision making and accuracy improve this summer/fall. If this was all just chemistry, I'd be more more positive because that'll come over the summer. But this was his decision making and accuracy...it didn't matter if it was a freshman or Jeremy Gallon. No one was catching some of those balls he threw.
You missed UTL2? Or the OSU game last year?
Gardner has played EXTREMELY well in spots. But again, I don't think anyone is asking for him to be that for a full season or even a full game.
As I just said below...I just want him to limit mistakes, take care of the ball, and score when he can. We don't have to be explosive on offense. If we win like OSU used to under the coach with the sweatervest...whatever, that's fine by me.
But give the D some rest and some green behind them to work with.
...a game in which he was under fire every single down from ND's D-line. DG threw some very accurate balls in that game. When the guy has time, he is pretty damn accurate:
From Brian's UFR of that game:
I think this is the best QB performance I've ever charted even including the worst play in the history of football. The Mathlete's numbers are a quick sanity check, and they agree.
His variability from game to game is quite amazing - he is anywhere from Vince Young (ND, OSU, Indiana) to Vince Gill (Northwestern) depending on what week you catch him!
I'm not worried about Devin at ALL. Give him a decent amount of time and he'll tear any defense apart, yeah he'll make a few mistakes here and there but name one QB that doesn't. I don't need him to be 2011 Aaron Rodgers to field a good offense this year, if he can throw for almost 3000 yard behind last years OL, I can't wait to see what he does with some protection, that's if we can give him any looking at this OL.
for any QBs. Give them time on the field, they'll tear any defense apart. Great QBs will excel regardless if there's pressure or not.
Worrying about the QB play is like worrying about water damage when putting out a house fire.
I don't know what "a ton stronger" means exactly, but if you're expecting radical increases in strength in unsupervised offseason workouts in the weight room, good luck.
The off-season strength and conditioning is overseen by Wellman, because it is a player safety concern.
Thanks for the correction. I'll neg myself.
But even with Wellman, I still think that improvements in strength over a single summer will be incremental, not radical.
The strength coach is limited with the amount of time they can spend with athletes. During out of season periods (after the bowl game) they only get 8 hours per week with 2 reaquired off days. Once the academic year ends in May there is no "mandatory" training sessions until fall camp begins. I put mandatory in parenthesis becasue they are somewhat expected to train over the summer and can be supervised by the coaching staff and are often expected or even given workouts to be run by team captains or upperclassman, but not technically required.
In my experience you don't see night and day differences with training, lifting, speed, agility, etc. stuff over the offseason. It's the combination of the training with the participation in the actual sport that really brings it together. But, it is certainly not a linear response to improved ability based on each offseason. There is a high degree of mental work and understanding that is repsonsible for player improvements not to mention the maturity and confidence pieces. This is why players are often stagnant at the same level for an extended period, then that light goes off and they have an "ahh ha" moment where it clicks and you see a big jump. This (and all) games are so highly mental/emotional that these things are very hard to judge. It happens at different times for different atheltes.
Defense will have to carry this team. If Lindsay does not transfer we start 3 upperclassmen - that's unheard of. That assumes Kugler does not beat out Glasgow or Glasgow doesn't get moved to guard, etc. But 3 out of 11? Nobody does that.
The main hope is the offense makes progress through the year which was the hope last year - and we didn't see it. I have high hopes for the defense actually - think it should be top 3 in the Big 10, good mix of young guys popping (Wormley, Henry, Lewis, Gedeon, Stribling) combined with experience coming back... but at this point the MSU 2013 D or UM 97 D seems to be in order to keep this team relevent. 2015 should be much brighter for the offense but this year's is just scary due to youth.
Devin is on his third OC. Because a lot of the playbook is new, devaluing the experience factor, the QB's are going to be closer in any spring "competition" than they would have otherwise.
Devin is going to have a great senior year. We'll see if that is enough to propel Michigan to a great year, or even a very good one. I am guessing "very good," something like 10-3.