Projected Position moves- CB to S, S to LB
With our DB recruiting class getting better each day, it is well known that some of our DB's (current and future) will be changing positions. I see Cam, Marvin, and Hawthorne possibly moving to WLB, as they have the bodies to do so. Who would fit what positions the best?
Edit: Just saw BostonWolverine's diary on this. But would still like discussion if possible.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:30 PM ^
He's probably already there but Furman.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:40 PM ^
my question is what will happen to kovacs? he's a tackling machine with a nose for the ball. not great in coverage but he was almost a sure thing. let me say this again ALMOST. he's small for a linebacker and kind of slow for a saftey if we go to a cover 2. I wonder how many of our players actually remember what a cover 2 is. Last year i think we were playing prevent the majority of the time under the man we shall not speak of.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:46 PM ^
Good question. It'll be interesting to see where he ends up. I bet he stays at safety but wherever he ends up his playing time may decline, especially if the rumblings about Marvin outplaying him in practice are true.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:29 PM ^
I think Kovac's will stay at a FS spot. He doesn't have the closing speed needed for a SS, ans doesn't have the size for an OLB or even and MLB. That is just my opinion, and not being a coach, of any sort, I stress just my opinion.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:48 PM ^
Muahaha (evil villain laugh.)
/s
January 24th, 2011 at 6:22 PM ^
Wait, you think Kovacs doesn't have the speed for strong safety so he should play free safety? Does not compute.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:53 PM ^
I love me some Kovacs, but I see his PT significantly declining. He is one of the most experienced DB's and that will get him time early in the new defense, but he is limited by his physical attributes. A little too small and slow. Has got him this far, but as our young talent with a higher ceiling develops, they will surpass him.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:11 PM ^
I agree with you to a certain degree.... But the same thing was said about him last year (won't be the starter), and he ended up being one of the only consistent members of the defense this year. As a fan it is impossible not to like the kid, his story is what make college football so fun to watch... But for the sake of the team and the program it would be a good sign of things to come if he isn't starting in the opener....
January 24th, 2011 at 5:43 PM ^
His playing time will surely go down. On a positive note, imagine him making huge plays on special teams.
January 24th, 2011 at 8:18 PM ^
I can only hope that his PT goes down. Not that I want it to, he is one of my favorite wolverines, but if his PT is declining that means that we have more talent playing on the field, which ultimately the most important thing. I do hope that he still significantly contributes in some way.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:31 PM ^
WR to FB, FB to LG, LG to PF, PF to Defenseman, Kevin Bacon was a Defenseman in high school!
January 24th, 2011 at 4:42 PM ^
Any fewer degrees and he just may turn into Kevin Bacon...
January 24th, 2011 at 4:35 PM ^
I think Michigan may have a decent amount of guys who don't have a position in the new defense, or at least not one that they fit very well. I wonder if Kovacs, both Gordons, and Hawthorne aren't too slow to play strong safety and too small to play WLB. I also wonder if Furman, who I was excited about, will be able to bulk up enough to play WLB...My hope is that Marvin Robinson can start at strong safety this year. I'd love to see Isaiah Bell show up at LB, b/c he looked really promising coming out of high school.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:34 PM ^
January 24th, 2011 at 4:44 PM ^
15 minutes from fremont? I'm also 15-20 minutes from fremont. where are you hiding in this state of ignorant tosu fans.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:08 PM ^
January 24th, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^
Wow nice to see the Big Blue healthy and alive in the Suckeye State. I happen to be from Maumee, but moved to Michigan 6 years ago.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:34 PM ^
Out of all of the guys you mentioned, I like the Cam Gordon move the most. He is a fantastic athlete, starting at WR, then FS, with a 6'3 215 frame. I think he is a better fit at WLB. It definitely will be interesting to see what they do with him during spring ball.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^
Marvin Robinson is a safety..no doubt in my mind. MRob is fast and can cover the pass and run . Hawthorne is a LB by necessity. He really isn't a safety because he can't cover well, and he can't play every down yet. Cam idk...prolly an OLB but I'm not sure. He looked better up close to the line for sure. I'll say Marvin will end his career as a starting all-conference FS..Cam will always be a situational OLB/ blitzer who still plays a lot and gets some NFL looks. Hawthorne will be a career backup who will be a special teams demon, but play sparingly for almost all of his career on defense, and we will see those things become evident in 2011.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:38 PM ^
also will be a stud LB! He will be a starter and end up like a more speedy Jonas Mouton (according to Fred Jackson)!
January 24th, 2011 at 5:19 PM ^
Don't LB's often cover TE's and running backs going out for passes? If Hawthorne can't cover well, that could be a liability at LB too.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^
Its really tough to say bc there is a whole new defensive system that will be put into place along with a whole new coaching staff. Plus with a deep DB recruiting class, who knows who might redshirt. It is fun to discuss and speculate who will play where, I just think it is difficult to assess that with a new coaching staff/scheme. I will leave that up to you guys.
edit: I def feel that Marvin Robinson is a safety too. We will see. Mattison has his work cut out for him, not in a bad way. There are a lot of talented guys on the roster, I just feel some were out of position. I have 100% confidence that Mattison and company will figure that out and I see a much much improved Defense next yr. Ya it cant any worse but you guys know what I mean.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:37 PM ^
gordon to wr when gardner the qb.
heitzman a lb.
as you were
January 24th, 2011 at 4:47 PM ^
Wait what?
January 24th, 2011 at 4:54 PM ^
most of you maybe too young to remember the old style of play.
heitzman will be a LINEBACKER.... not a TE or DE
and this one is a guess, but i can see gordon going back to WR (and note the lack of wr recruiting by hoke and the plethora of db recruiting by hoke, too)
January 24th, 2011 at 4:43 PM ^
It's going to be really fun when we recruit Linebackers who play Linebacker in college.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:10 PM ^
Just chill. A great number of players don't play the same position in college as high school for a number of reasons, such as relative size and speed.
Also: Ian Gold.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:45 PM ^
I have no idea what some of you guys are talking about. When you talk size 6'3 215 is great size for FS or SS, none of these players are to big to play the safety postion. We ran a funky defense that put alot of players out of postion. Look at Stevie Brown he played a hybrid satety/lb postion we said he was too slow for safety and now he's playing safety in Oakland and has looked really good.
Look at this years top safety prospects.
Free safety
| OVR | Pos. Rank | Player | Pos. | School | Ht. | Wt. | Proj. Rd. | Stock | 40 Time |
| 43 | 1 | Quinton Carter | FS | Oklahoma | 6-1 | 200 | 2 |
 |
4.57 |
| 62 | 2 | Rahim Moore | FS | UCLA | 6-1 | 196 | 2-3 |
|
4.50 |
| 82 | 3 | Jaiquawn Jarrett | FS | Temple | 6-0 | 202 | 3 |
|
4.57 |
| 103 | 4 | Jerrard Tarrant | FS | Georgia Tech | 6-0 | 205 | 3-4 |
|
4.53 |
| 119 | 5 | Robert Sands | FS | West Virginia | 6-4 | 221 | 4 |
|
4.57 |
| 137 | 6 | Deunta Williams | FS | North Carolina | 6-1 | 215 | 4-5 |
 |
4.53 |
| 138 | 7 | Chris Conte | FS | California | 6-3 | 212 | 4-5 |
|
4.54 |
| 156 | 8 | Jermale Hines | FS | Ohio State | 6-1 | 215 | 5 |
|
4.59 |
| 176 | 9 | Will Hill | FS | Florida | 6-1 | 207 | 5-6 |
|
4.52 |
Strong Safety
| OVR | Pos. Rank | Player | Pos. | School | Ht. | Wt. | Proj. Rd. | Stock | 40 Time |
| 54 | 1 | DeAndre McDaniel | SS | Clemson | 6-0 | 215 | 2 |
|
4.54 |
| 61 | 2 | Ahmad Black | SS | Florida | 5-10 | 190 | 2-3 |
|
4.51 |
| 94 | 3 | Tyler Sash | SS | Iowa | 6-1 | 210 | 3 |
|
4.59 |
| 129 | 4 | Jeron Johnson | SS | Boise State | 5-10 | 211 | 4 |
|
4.53 |
| 149 | 5 | Joe Lefeged | SS | Rutgers | 6-0 | 205 | 4-5 |
|
4.58 |
| 167 | 6 | Eugene Clifford | SS | Tennessee State | 6-1 | 198 | 5 |
|
4.56 |
| 189 | 7 | Shiloh Keo | SS | Idaho | 6-0 | 224 | 5-6 |
|
4.62 |
| 208 | 8 | Nate Williams | SS | Washington | 6-0 | 208 | 6 |
|
4.59 |
January 24th, 2011 at 4:49 PM ^
Why is Deunta Willams' stock a Swiss flag?
January 24th, 2011 at 4:52 PM ^
I think it means he's injured.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:51 PM ^
Is this sarcasm? There is only one player on that list that is 6-3 and at least 215 lbs. Every player except for 2 is 6-1 or below.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^
No its not a joke I was more talking about weight then height and this is just this years NFL prospects Ray Ray Armstrong is one of the nations best SS and hes 6'4 225
January 24th, 2011 at 5:04 PM ^
I agree completely. So what if a guy weighs 210 or so at safety. That's not a reason to switch him to LB by itself. I'm not a big fan at all of switching defensive backs to linebacker. Michigan has been doing this for years now with less than mediocre results. The main reason has been bad recruiting at linebacker. We constantly sign linebacker guys who stink, transfer, or wash out. So, we're forced into moving a guy out of his natural position over to LB. Most of the time this results in a mediocre linebacker if we're lucky. I don't think Burgess, Mouton, or Brown were very good linebackers at all. Yeah, they made a few good plays, but they were never consistently good. My vote is we recruit good, natural linebacker prospects, keep them, and develop them into All Big 10 caliber players. I think Jones, Morgan, and Willingham (if he commits) would be a great potential group of LB's for MIchigan.
January 24th, 2011 at 7:08 PM ^
Let's recruit some linebackers who are...wait for it...linebackers!
January 24th, 2011 at 7:08 PM ^
Let's recruit some linebackers who are...wait for it...linebackers!
January 24th, 2011 at 7:11 PM ^
It's not the size of a guy like Cam Gordon that makes people think he should play closer to the line of scrimmage, but his lack of top-end speed. He has the frame to put on 10-15 more pounds and be good OLB.
Plus, I don't remember Stevie Brown's problem being lack of speed, but lack of coverage instincts.
January 24th, 2011 at 7:32 PM ^
FYI Stevie Browns problem was never speed (note Al Davis drafted him), it was the fact he had the worst ball skills known to mankind! Stevie was an athletic freak, who would continually make you cover your eyes
January 24th, 2011 at 4:51 PM ^
I appreciate how he plays football, but he is all heart and very little talent - if he ends up in the two deep wouldn't that be a good thing?
January 24th, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^
...many (including Chris Speilman) hold Kovacs to. The kid has done nothing but go out there and make plays. And on the occassions that he has gotten hurt its been primarily due to having to be the only guy in the secondary who can make a tackle. I think both Kovacs and Vinopal (Vinopal against certain teams) should be taken out in certain situatons (Kovacs in passing, Vinopal in short yardage running situations) but should be heavily in the rotation.
January 24th, 2011 at 7:34 PM ^
Kovacs to the bench is a great thing IMO..he is not a starter, yes he can be situational but no way he should see the majority of the snaps going forward im sorry.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:56 PM ^
we could have some great special teams depth with all these athletes. Unfortunately, I suspect not all of these guys will stick around and be buried on the depth chart.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:01 PM ^
CB: T.Woolfolk, C.Avery, T.Talbott, B.Countess, R.Taylor, D.Hollowell, G.Brown
FS: C. Johnson, J.Floyd, R.Vinopal, C.Christian, T.Carter
SS: M.Robinson, J. Kovacs, T.Gordon, B.Hawthorne
OLB: C.Gordon, J.Furman
January 24th, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
My guess is that those incoming freshman are going to get RS's (finally we can do this!), and classifying them right now is kind of useless. Also Floyd will probably be a starting CB.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^
disagree about Floyd. Avery looked better last year.
This staff may want to run more man-to-man and Floyd doesn't seem to have the skills.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:56 PM ^
You're right that Floyd may not be starting next year. Avery did look decent for a true frosh who wasn't even there for spring ball. However, considering the F'ed up schemes and the terrible coaching on D, I'm still gonna go with the RS junior over the true soph. At least at first. I would not be surprised if Avery took over later in the season if he continues with the development he showed.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:07 PM ^
I really don't want to see Floyd at safety. He's godawful at tackling even by last year's standards.
If by the grace of God we end up with two very solid corners outside of Woolfolk, it would be nice to see him at free safety instead.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:38 PM ^
No one knows who the FS will be. But Floyd and Christian don't look they have the skills to be cornerbacks, so I think one or both will be shifted to Safety or used in passing (nickel/dime) zone coverages.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:39 PM ^
at any position
January 24th, 2011 at 5:26 PM ^
Although I don't know what purpose there would be moving JT Floyd to Free Safety? He's skinny as hell and has demonstrated no tackling skills to boast of. Not that he's a real blue chipper at CB, but I have no reason to believe he'd be better suited for safety.