SLB depth chart

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Here's an interesting tidbit from player availability. A piece of the coveted, mystery depth chart is out.

Peppers said the SLB depth chart now that Furbush is out with an injury is

  1. Jabrill Peppers
  2. Josh Uche
  3. Brandon Watson
  4. Devin Gil

This comes from Matt Pargoff of MaizeBlueNews on twitter.

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turtleboy

September 6th, 2016 at 7:13 PM ^

Watson, another defensive back turned SAM. Brown really values speed and athleticism at the position over size. In his system, it really seems to pay off.

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Tater

September 6th, 2016 at 9:39 PM ^

You need size and speed.  Rich Rod knew how to coach but the divisive elements in the "Michigan" community sabotaged his recruiting, so he didn't have as much size as you need.  Hoke recruited extremely well but couldn't really coach or develop anyone very well so it didn't matter.

With Harbaugh, we have someone who recruits well, has the entire Miichigan community behind him and develops players better than anyone in the game.  Be happy.  Look forward, not backward.

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MichiganTeacher

September 6th, 2016 at 11:17 PM ^

I mean, it was pretty obvious that he didn't understand major programs (at the least) when he said about his first season here, "I thought this was Michigan... you just roll them out, you'll win your share."

(People say that quote was taken out of context. I've never seen this purported context; I also think Wojo would have provided it in the article where he ran with that quote.)

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EGD

September 7th, 2016 at 1:01 AM ^

I think Rich Rod kind of limited his own ceiling at Michigan because once he got here RR was still recruiting the same kind of middle-of-the-road athletes he built his West Virginia teams on. Sure he signed Denard and Devin Gardner and a few other big recruits, but for the most part he was only recruiting a few select regions (Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, and Florida, basically) and wasn't going after the really big fish. If you only sign WVU-level players, your ceiling is probably going to be at about WVU's level. Compare that with Urban or Harbaugh, both of whom got to OSU and Michigan and immediately began scouring the country for top talent.

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1VaBlue1

September 6th, 2016 at 11:03 PM ^

Rich Rod doesn't coach.  He teaches plays, he doesn't teach how to play.  He relies on the athletic ability of his players to out-perform the opponent.  But only on offense, he doesn't care about defense one bit.  He does have some really nice plays, and teaches them well.  But that's not coaching, per se...

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stephenrjking

September 7th, 2016 at 12:00 AM ^

Two things about this: 1. When we hired RR the zone read spread was ascendant. Oregon was storming the world with this philosophy. I was excited about it. But Oregon ultimately demonstrated that you can win a lot with that philosophy but that physical trench play (Auburn with Nick Fairley, LSU, OSU) could thwart it. And their defenses were never world beaters. The modern spread run operated by guys like Urban uses size and strength up front. 2. RR's recruiting may have netted some relatively quick guys at line and LB spots but other than Denard none of his recruits really had top end speed. They were smaller and only kinda fast. Jeremy Gallon was a slot ninja type, but while he was shifty he wasn't very fast and instead relied on route running and jump ball skills to excel. Other schools had players that were not only bigger but also at least as fast. Michigan has way more speed now than it ever did with RR everywhere on the field except for QB.

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IndyBlue90

September 6th, 2016 at 11:10 PM ^

Well my main assumption is that against teams where they don't need the SAM to thump pulling guards they would prefer a hybrid player. Watson was the guy who took Pepper's spot as a back up on Saturday, and I don't think Uche saw snaps until late. Also, I just happen to like what I saw from Watson and think he's more ready to contribute even though Uche is a unique talent.



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UMForLife

September 6th, 2016 at 7:31 PM ^

SLB seems very athletic. Like it. Need to mitigate the spread team. I am trying to remember how we dismantled Florida with Tim Tebow at QB. It seems like we had speed and our corners were good enough to the limited passing ability of Tebow.

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ak47

September 6th, 2016 at 7:57 PM ^

I'm a little nervous for the non peppers snaps against some power run teams. Seems unlikely furbush will be back for Wisconsin msu or Iowa at this point so we might have some little guys getting whacked.

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Elmer

September 6th, 2016 at 8:16 PM ^

AT 5'11 and over 200 lb, Watson would be a stout corner.  Glad to see him move positions to somewhere where he can hopefully see the field during his UM career.

Not sure if he ever had the quickness to be an effective corbner.  

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