Review of 2007 Recruiting: Cornerbacks

Submitted by Magnus on

No offense to 1960's music, 1970's music, or your favorite kids' show, but I here's some football content.

I looked back at the 2007 recruiting class and what cornerbacks Michigan targeted. Despite the disaster that was the cornerback position in 2010, when all of those 2007 kids should have been seniors, the Wolverines actually did pretty well when they got Donovan Warren, James Rogers, and Troy Woolfork Wilfork Wohlfohlrk Woolfolk.

http://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2015/07/review-of-2007-recruiting-co…

mgobleu

July 18th, 2015 at 4:06 PM ^

watching Donovan Warren lay out for an INT (although now I'm not sure if he actually even caught it) against Illinois his freshman year and I thought for sure it was the second coming of CW.

LSAClassOf2000

July 18th, 2015 at 4:27 PM ^

I always wondered if perhaps Warren was a little uneasy about some of the instability in the coaching staff on the defensive side of the ball and perhaps that drove the decision to depart early, at least in some small part. I could be wrong there, but it seemed a shame to see such a great college player have to deal with three defensive coordinators from 2007-09, but then I believe the Draft Advisory Board supposedly told him he would go inside the first three rounds, but then of course that ankle injury (and he played dinged up a fair bit at Michigan too) caused him to struggle in position drills hence the "meh" combine numbers. You wonder what could have been with Warren sometimes, or at least I do. 

Magnus

July 18th, 2015 at 6:00 PM ^

It's possible. I mean, Michigan was not doing great things back then. I just never thought he was ready for college football, and he was never that explosive, shutdown corner. If you're going to leave early as a corner, then I think you have to be an outstanding athlete rather than just a solid one. Maybe injuries took a toll, but Warren's 4.68 (or whatever it was) seemed to be pretty accurate for him.

PurpleStuff

July 19th, 2015 at 12:54 AM ^

Kids want to go pro.  Warren was told he'd be a third round pick by the NFL advisory board (after being an all-conference player).  Then he ran on a bum ankle and his stock plummeted. 

It sucks for him that he didn't get drafted and get to cash a paycheck, but he got a shot with 4 teams over 3 years and never stuck.  His NFL career (or lack of one) is just the way it is, but it would have been nice for him to stick around and get drafted and it would certainly have helped Michigan out.

Woodstock Wolverine

July 18th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^

In defense of music and kids shows which was fun, that was a good read. Cool to see how certain recruits were ranked out of high school and how they panned out. It's amazing how many don't "make it" and how difficult it is to get drafted. Shows the importance of an education. even most 4 stars probably won't make it so you better "play school!"

turd ferguson

July 18th, 2015 at 4:59 PM ^

In other words, no offense to mid-July threads with 154, 80, and 235 responses, respecitvely, but here's a much more relevant thread -- a look at a generally uninteresting position group class from eight years and three coaches ago (that happens to redirect to your site).  This content is fine - in fact, I enjoy this kind of thing - but why do you need to be so condescending and snarky with your posts here?

Qmatic

July 18th, 2015 at 7:02 PM ^

I always liked James Rogers. He never complained about switching positions and did everything he could for the program during a really rough time. He was a pretty good player senior year, and definitely one of the forgotten players of the RR years




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Magnus

July 18th, 2015 at 8:35 PM ^

I agree. I think he got a bad rap for being on a bad defense. With quality coaching throughout his career, I think he could have been a pretty good player, either as a receiver, a corner, or a kick returner. He's the type of kid that I wish could get a second shot with a full career of Lloyd Carr or Jim Harbaugh at the helm.

Qmatic

July 18th, 2015 at 8:53 PM ^

It's players like him, and Kovacs to name a couple, who were the difference in making us a really good to a great team. I think we'll see players like that now under JH. We need some of the high talent players of course, but solid program guys are what put teams over the top




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HimJarbaugh

July 18th, 2015 at 7:10 PM ^

This reminded me of the fact that that Stevie Brown is the longest-tenured NFL DB from UM since Leon Hall and second is Morgan Trent. Considering that Jordan Kovacs is also heading into his third season as a pro and Demens, Graham, and Martin are still on NFL rosters, there was a decent amount of talent on what amounted to some of the worst defenses in Michigan history.

Magnus

July 19th, 2015 at 11:47 AM ^

While it's not an impressive list, I think the parts of those Rodriguez defenses were better than the whole. In his three years, he had Graham, Trent, Brown, Martin, Warren, Jamison, Van Bergen, Taylor, Kovacs, Mouton, Roh, and Cam Gordon. A better defense should have been fielded based on the guys we had.

Magnus

July 18th, 2015 at 8:39 PM ^

The Gerg years are incidental. I do this more because I'm interested in what happened to the guys that Michigan "missed." I'll probably do it again in a few years to see what happened to guys like Laquon Treadwell, Da'Shawn Hand, Jordan Diamond, Alex Kozan, etc. It's interesting to compare and contrast how the Michigan commits did vs. the guys who ended up elsewhere.

cbuswolverine

July 19th, 2015 at 8:15 AM ^

Brandon Lee Graham (born April 3, 1988)[1] is an American football linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Eagles in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft with the thirteenth selection in the draft and the first from the Big Ten Conference. He played college football at Michigan.

Graham was the 2009 Big Ten Conference co-MVP as recognized by the Chicago Tribune Silver Football award. He was the 2009 FBS tackles (TFLs) for a loss (per game) champion after finishing second in 2008 by .01 TFL per game. He was the 2008 & 2009 Big Ten Conference TFL (total) champion.

After completing his career as defensive end for the 2009 Michigan Wolverines football team, he had a total of 29.5 career sacks and 56 career TFLs for the Michigan Wolverines football team. In 2008, he led the Big Ten Conference in TFLs (20 in 11 games). In 2009, he posted 26 TFLs and 10.5 sacks in 12 games. As a member of the 2008 Michigan Wolverines football team he earned Second-team 2008 Big TenAll-conference recognition from both the coaches and the media.[2] He was a finalist for the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football Hendricks Award. He was a First-team 2009 All-Big Ten selection by the coaches and media.[3] He was named to several First-team and Second-team 2009 All-America lists by various publications. Graham was also named MVP of the 2010 Senior Bowl.

Graham was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles 13th overall after trading up in the 2010 NFL Draft.

 

Magnus

July 18th, 2015 at 8:41 PM ^

Well, five years ago in 2010, these guys wouldn't have finished their college careers and we wouldn't have the NFL Draft/NFL careers as reference points. So that's why.

Also, the people who care might be the people who don't care about your favorite kids' show.

I apologize for interrupting your MGoBlog programming with Michigan football stuff. Let the pop culture parade continue.

grumbler

July 18th, 2015 at 8:22 PM ^

I enjoyed that, Magnus.  It's about football, and it is interesting to see how the passage of time provides perspective on a topic that most of us stopped thinking about after, say, Warren left.

I also enjoy reading the posts of the thin-skinned and the needlessly bitchy.  Start more threads.