markh100

September 14th, 2010 at 12:50 AM ^

How many scholorships does a team have to offer? 

I'm curious, because kicking seems to be one of Michigan's biggest weaknesses right now.  Gibbons is one for four, with a completely awful looking attempt against Notre Dame.  He hits those two field goals, and Michigan wins by two scores. 

I would seriously consider going hard after the top rated kicking prospect in the country.

Hagerup has been almost as scary.  His average of 38.3 yards per punt doesn't look bad on paper, but two of those were line drive that rolled forever and managed to go for 51 yards and 53 yards.  The majority of his punts were shanks that travelled 21 yards and went out of bounds.  I'd almost consider taking my chances and running another play than getting 21 yards out of a punt.

Michigan is set at quarter back for the next few years.  In my amatuer opinion, recruiting should focused on the team's needs: a top tier field goal kicker, a punter, a top tier running back and as many top tier safeties and corners as they can find.  I would certainly be supportive of using a scholorship if it was for one of the top five kicking and/or prospects in the country - Zolton was one of my favourite players on the team.  If they could find a Zolton that could kick field goals as well, this team would be set.  (I don't really know how often you run into hybrid punter/field goal kickers, but they seem like fairly similar skills to me)

Needs

September 14th, 2010 at 8:52 AM ^

Freshmen. They are freshmen. Be patient.

It's legit to be a bit concerned about Gibbons because the word on him has been the same since he arrived (strong leg, but inaccurate) but it's just ridiculous to be advocating a scholarship on a punter when we have a true freshman scholarship punter who was highly rated and has basically punted in one game.

Tully Mars

September 13th, 2010 at 11:40 PM ^

In all seriousness, holding off on giving out any scholarships to kickers doesn't seem like a good idea to me.  Kickers play such and important role in wins and losses.  I think people like Zolton or Rivas earned more of their scholarship than other kids on the teams (if we are basing it only on on-field performance).  I'm not sure that you can get good kickers like Zolton et al. unless you are willing to offer scholarships.

Robbie Moore

September 13th, 2010 at 9:37 PM ^

That college teams can not find great placekickers at open tryouts.  At Michigan there are loads of students from all over the world who have kicked a ball a long distance accurately since they were in middle school.  I've got to believe there is one, just one, student in Ann Arbor who can reliably kick from 45 yards.

CCBlue

September 13th, 2010 at 9:43 PM ^

Gibbons will likely be fine.  Most acclaimed kicking recruits start slow and don't emerge until their second or third year.  Garrett Rivas kind of sucked until later on in his career.