Sick of losing

Are the the 2 I think can make the biggest impact for us this year and play to a high level. Martin is a beast and I think going into his 3rd year we need him to become a force in the middle. Turner has the talent to be all world so that is why I threw him as the 2nd guy to step up.

Pahokee Lives on...

I think these kids can be the glue that our team is looking for. I love the way they play

Michael Jordan accomplished the same thing in basketball, but hoops is a very different game.

Football, as you noted. is a game of motivation. All else being equal, motivation carries you a long way. But, if the talent and experience level is lacking, it is very difficult, even with leadership, inspiration, what have you, to win consistently.

As far as the individual players go, the QB often leads. Tate certainly showed moxie playing hard while injured. Not sure about the D either, now that Graham has graduated.

We need time to develop the talent and let the young players get the necessary experience. That should start happening next year and be in full force in 2011. Then, I suspect, leadership will show itself in abundance.

Uh, I'm pretty sure all 100 or so returning players are sick of losing.

But if you're asking who are going to be the leaders, take your cues from this season.

Look at how Ryan Van Bergen reacted to the blown assignment on the 80-yard TD run against Indiana. He shut down the Hoosiers late in that game with a huge sack which directly led to Michigan's game-winning TD.

Also, remember his sack which led to Graham's defensive TD against Wisconsin.

Troy Woolfolk, by being THE senior, will be the leader of the secondary in charge of aligning those 10 or so new faces. He will be crucial to Turner, Christian, Emilien and Robinson's development.

On offense - Tate has already taken on that role through his post-OSU comments. Molk's return will also be very significant.

Get out of the dumps. There are WAY too many reasons to be optimistic about 2010 Michigan football.

You will be happy.

but i am not sure my answer is going to be what you had in mind.

david molk is the only player whose presence made me feel like there was a substantial difference versus the times when he was not playing. if he can come back healthy, it would be great to see the young rbs and qbs riding on the back of this big bulldozer.

let us hope he comes back very healthy and very ornery.

I could see Tate or Vincent Smith really stepping up on offense up over the next couple years. Roundtree should be great too, but I don't know if I could see him being completely dominant. Gardner could be that guy in a couple years once his QB skills are more polished. On defense,the only person who I think has proven that they could be capable of dominating is mike Martin, but hopefully some of these recruits will pan out.

As an undersized true freshman he looked good. Another year and some more bulk (Phelps diet minus maryjane) and he's the anchor of the D.

When Coach Rod first got his show going, there was no leadership between his first bunch of new guys-who probably didn't want to speak up-and the old guys who were not sure how they were going to fit in. This year the team will be pretty much glued in terms of chemistry and direction; the '97 team had Charles to voice his displeasure, but at the same time everybody was on that team was on the same page and knew what to do. This year will be the first team that is on the same page and knows what to do, at the very least better than the '08 and '09 squads; hopefully we won't need someone to step up and voice displeasure to get results.