Potential Football Position Switches

Submitted by RakeFight on

Harbaugh is using bowl practice to explore if under-utilized players might help the team in other positions.  Among the experiments... 

B. Cole from WR to S

Gentry from QB to TE

R. Jones from DL to ILB

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/12/michigan_freshman_bri…

It will be interesting to see how this angle on player development pans out.

 

Gentleman Squirrels

December 28th, 2015 at 9:37 PM ^

Wasn't Cole recruited by State as a secondary player mostly and he came to Michigan because we offered him as a primarily offensive player? I hate giving them any credit, but their defensive talent identification is pretty good. 

On a different note, what does our wide receiver depth look like beyond Chesson and Darboh? It seems like we're stockpiling receivers in this class, which doesn't bode well for the other receivers on the roster already.

Maul

December 28th, 2015 at 10:07 PM ^

Cole was recruited as an ATH by MSU.  He could play whatever position he wanted.  At the time, the Coles had a concern about WRs' careers being shorten by wear and tear, hits to knees, etc. whereas DBs have fewer of those issues.  MSU also had recent success in developing DBs.  However, M convinced him to commit and play WR.

Harbaugh is known to try players at various positions, moreso than the previous coaching staff.  Cole is a great athlete, I would have enjoyed seeing him on offense because he is dynamic with the ball.

Blau

December 28th, 2015 at 9:46 PM ^

Blake is gone after the bowl game and Kenny Allen after next year.

IMO the Blake O'Neill experiment went swimmingly and hopefully Baxter/Harbaugh continue to look for transfer aussie-rules kids in the future.

I still think Q. Nordin from Rockford finds a way to end up in the class.  

Gentleman Squirrels

December 28th, 2015 at 9:45 PM ^

Allen is a redshirt senior next year. This is O'Neill's last year. Beyond him, there's Andrew David and Ryan Tice.

Random tidbit - I met Tice's grandfather in a Wendys last month. Real nice guy and he seemed to be excited that I had heard of his grandson (I remembered his walk-on hello post on this site). He also said that he used to coach Harbaugh when he was in middle school which was pretty neat.

Bleedmaizeblue

December 28th, 2015 at 9:46 PM ^

My question is who will be our punter next season? Allen will be our kicker. But well technically have no punter on scholarship without a position change. At the pregame warm ups before the OSU game I saw Andrew David punting, wondering if that's the plan next year since we aren't recruiting any Punters and we are trying to sign Nordin as the Kicker after Allen is gone after next yr