Slow week spring practice tidbits
I'm sure y'all are doing your best to get through this week with no football practice, struggling basketball, and awesome softball that is not televised, just as I am. Bill Greene from Scout dropped some more insider bits today, just thought I'd paraphrase them here to give the board it's fix before the team gets back to work next week.
1. Practices are much longer and faster (this has been made known previously). Hitting in practice is much more intense/often.
2. Coaches have been disappointed in QB play. Malzone has been good, but is young/has technical things to learn. Speight has been better than Morris, but neither can seperate from the frosh.
3. Isaac missed Friday with his dislocated finger so Green and Smith took nearly all the reps and got hit a lot. Coaches were good with this, want guys learning to be tough when exhausted.
4. Wide Receivers have been steady. Brian Cole looks good and so does Drake Harris.
5. Offensive Line has been the strength of the team. Logan Tuley-Tillman stands out, as well as Dawson and Kalis. Everyone looks improved, everyone is shifting around on the line trying different positions. "Deep and talented" said Greene.
Don't shoot the messenger, just giving some info for those not on the scout boards. Looks like the safest bet on Sep. 3 QB is Rudock/Malzone over The Field (although there's a lot of time). Great OL and solid receivers should be music to all fans' ears. Hopefully Isaac can comeback right away and continue the competition at the position (he'd be my bet for the workhorse this year).
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Pretty damning of the Hoke regime if they have all that time with guys as talented as Gardner and Morris and the best they could do was what the showed last year.
Also, not relevant to the QBs, but it's pretty amazing to hear that there's a lot more hitting than in manball's "I want to hear football" practices.
the fact that some anonymous assholes are trashing a player
is most certainly opening my eyes.
I'm really encouraged by all the positive Drake news. Will be HUGE if he packs on some weight and pans out sooner than later. Cole potentially being ready to see the field would also be awesome, though hopefully this coaching regime redshirts as much as we hope.
Then again, all this WR hope rests on those QBs...
If You're Reading This I'm Still Scared About His Durability at That Weight.
That you could be a Legend if you Know Yourself. There's No Tellin. Now & Forever.
I was always worried about Tree's weight but he ended up being just fine with his production. Blocking will be the area of concern.
Offensive Line has been the strength of the team
Huh, what? Did I just wake up from drinking and going to bed?
if you go back and read some the UFR's early in the year Brian noted the oline was creating holes but the running backs (Green/Smith) weren't hitting them. I think they definitely got better as the year went along but I also think Johnson was finding the holes that earlier in the year the others were missing.
Yep, this is hopefully the one lasting legacy on the Nussmeier era.
Can the Qbs be worse than last year?
*shudders*
I am betting and hoping that Jim Harbaugh's "disappointed" is a tad bit higher than Brady Hoke's "satisfied".
Marcus Ray keeps saying the first thing Harbaugh will do immediately is stop losing the games that Michigan isn't supposed to lose. Rutgers, Maryland, Minnesota were the examples from last year, Penn State 2013 from the year before. Then being competitive in the big games.
I'd really like the assume the former, but get greedy and want to pick off the rivals at home. The atmosphere should be unreal for both of those games.
I know Marcus is a former fan favorite and all but this guy is saying what most others have said about Harbaugh for a long time. He has access to the team and can talk about practices but he isn't someone I'd entrust with predictions whatsoever.
Based upon high school recruiting rankings there's only one team in the conference that has comparable/better rankings and that's OSU. If you go back and look over the last 4-5 years at the number of 4 and 5 star recruits that each team in the Big Ten has gotten, 1st and 2nd are OSU and UM and the 3rd place school isn't even in the picture.
As we've seen lately, what you do with the recruits once you get them on campus is just as important as getting the recruits. Hoke and his staff were pretty darn good at getting the recruits to AA, but they were pretty darn poor when it came to doing much with them once they were in AA.
Don't tell the freep that practices are longer
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I hope this happens and the picks are announced in the spirit of competition. That would provide some great insight into position battles.
Can someone clarify that status of Ruddock? I didn't think he was officially headed to Michigan, and now we get posters putting him in the lead for the starting job. One of us has missed something. If it's me I'd love to know.
Scout guys seem to believe he will be coming, others say he isn't. It sounds like the interest is more on Rudock's end than Michigan's end. If Rudock is coming here, it means the cupboard is nearly bare at QB (excluding Malzone).
Not surprised by the QB report either although I was also very optimistic. It's early yet....keep our fingers crossed. I guess we'll see what happens when O'Korn and Gentry get into the mix.
O'Korn has to sit out this year, hopefully he inspires more competition though.
Ok...I thought so but wasn't sure---I must be confusing him with someone else. I thought he was the grad transfer. Don't we have a grad transfer coming in or was that just a rumor that never panned out? I'm starting to lose track.
I was wondering the same thing Blue-Chip. I was unaware that Rudock was on already on the roster.
disappointing to hear that the QBs are under-performing, expected though. But it is nice to actually hear some true words, lets call a spade a spade.
I hate all the fluff that most coaches usually speak
Dips his shoulder, lacks some touch, forces things into tight windows, lacks follow through. His mechanics will keep him from seeing the field under JH. I hate it but, it appears to be true.
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EDIT: I'm wrong.
I'm hoping for Kalis to break out this year. I think it's possible that Dawson or LTT could displace someone on the O line, maybe Braden. I think Glasgow and Cole are close to locks, probably Miller too. Kalis I think steps up, so I'm looking for a 3-4 man battle for the 5th spot. I think the O line is going to be pretty damn good this year. Drevno is going to have a huge impact.
Having realistic competition is key.
Magnuson has sort of been lost in the mix too - the prior admin kept moving him around so I'd be interested to hear where he ends up. Hell 12 months ago at this time he was the "tackle for the next 3 years"...now suddenly it is LTT. Neither of which played almost at all last year.
Also will be interesting to see where Cole ends up - if he becomes a guard or stays at tackle.
But with Dawson and LTT sounding like legit options it at least creates 8 men vying for 5 spots. And that doesnt include Kugler. Which is interesting because again he was the "most college ready HS guy" blah blah. Seems like the bitching about Jack Miller has quieted down this winter at least. (I see you Magnum...)
I dont get the practices are longer comment. Why would Hoke not use every available moment to practice that is allowed by rules? A serious question - not a swipe at Hoke.
Maybe it's a few number of practices that are longer?
The latter makes the most sense to me, especially hearing about having the RBs get hit and run tired. I'd imagine they weren't just lining them up against a couple DL and commanding "Smash!" Then again, I know almost nothing about how practices are run lol.
And as much of a Hoke critic as I am, I also can't imagine Hoke looked at the clock and said, "Well, we got 20 more minutes, but that's alright. Let's all have ice cream."
...but less time watching film.
Where as Hoke could've spent more time in the video room and less time on the field.
It doesn't really make sense for this team to be watching any film, so the fact that practices are longer isn't shocking. I'm sure Hoke's practices were longer when he first started too. Why would he be watching a ton of film of a Rich Rod Michigan team?
Non-issue in my book.
"Offensive Line has been the strength of the team."
Best news I have heard about the team so far (after Harbaugh of course).
Is it just me or is Shane Morris starting to sound like Ricardo Miller 2.0? He was a recruit we got early and got excited about, then he himself became a recruiter, only to have a disappointing (so far) career at UM.....Michael Ferns comes to mind too.....
I hate recruiting coverage nowadays. I miss when you had no idea until spring before the season who was signing, and hardly knew what anyone was rated. Hell, Braylon was a low 3 star and I bet most normal fans had no idea he came out that under the radar. I miss the days of letting play on the field on Saturdays determine how good a recruit you were, not some rating system that starts evaluating you and publicising your image and highlights at age 12. I don't like getting excited about recruits only for them to live no where near expectations. Remember when some were saying "Shane may start from day 1". We are now doing the same with Malzone.
Some guys just dont work out. I would not equate Shane to Malzone.
Shane was a 5 star who fell to a 4. He was a 5 as a JR as a prodigy who could throw 80 yards blah blah. At that time in his career Malzone was a 3 star who just produced. Then going into SR year, Shane went to a ton of camps and his accuracy was shown to be an issue, but everyone keps reverting back to the "Brett Favre" arm / gunslinger stuff. Then he missed most of his SR year with illness. Meanwhile Malzone at the same time was leading his team to a lot of wins and throwing accurately without wowing with "arm / gunslinger stuff". And he worked himself up to a 4 - probably partially because when a guy commits to UM he gets a bump as well.
But their profiles could not be different - Shane sounded like a high ceiling low floor guy with athleticism and ability to make all the throws in terms of arm strength. But reading defenses, and accuracy were his issues. If those never get fixed he simply cannot be a QB for a prime time program. Thus far they dont seem to be fixed. Maybe someday they will - or maybe never.
Malzone seems more like a low ceiling/high floor type. He won't crush you but he probably wont put up displays of athletic marvel either. But guys like that can succeed and succeed big at the college level if they figure it all out - see Boise State's QB who now sits on the Lions roster.
If Shane was from Maryland rather than Michigan I don't think the yearning for Shane to be "it" would be so high. Nor would it be if Hoke had recruited a damn 2012 QB. If we had an established 2012 he would have taken over for Devin during Devin's struggles last year, and Shane would have redshirted as a FR and been a RS FR last year. And maybe been a total bust but one we could afford. And hell Hoke may still have a job. Can't do anything about it now.
"I hate recruiting coverage nowadays." You don't actually have to follow out ya know? I don't read the recruiting roundups unless I'm bored and killing time and literally have nothing else to do, and even then I scan them. OK, we offered some kid in California who I'll almost surely never know about or see play. Cool. I don't read about recruits until I see their "Hello" post.
Glad to hear on the O-line. With any OL coach this was the year they would have improved, having a bunch of upperclassmen + Cole + young guys ready to push from behind. Add all that plus Drevno and I expected this to a year we can stop being EMO about it. But now I will be EMO about the QBs - Rudock, come to Michigan.
Seems to be all good news except for the QB situation. If we can just find someone serviceable there, then we're probably in decent shape for the season. Anything above serviceable is a plus.
It is rare to hear a lot of bad news out of spring camps. I think 2 years ago DiNardo said UM looked the most physical of any team not named OSU. That didnt work out too well.