Stop panicking about OL. Hoke Clarifies
Yesterday, there was a tweet quoting Hoke that the starting OL will have Cole as LT and that Kalis was out. Today, there is further clarification by Baumgardner and it appears that Hoke is trying to have 8 people ready to step in. This makes sense as there will be injuries. Also, he wants to give several people a shot at the starting positions and create competition.
And, per Hoke, the starting unit during the morning half of a two-a-day practice could completely change by nighttime.Michigan wants to have a solid front five determined somewhere toward the middle of fall camp, but in the meantime, the shuffling is apparently going to continue."Balancing that can be tricky, but it can also be massaged pretty well," Hoke added. "I think Darrell's done a nice job with it, and Nuss. And who we put in with that first group? Maybe that changes daily."I'm sure it will change from a morning practice to an afternoon until we really feel 'this is it' with these guys. The competition has been really good for us there."
August 9th, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^
"Today, the starters are....."
And tomorrow, they'll be _____________.
Has there ever been a reaction like yesterday's paranoid fury?
August 9th, 2014 at 10:44 AM ^
I think most people knew this was the case, that the line up wasn't final. The fact that we still seem so far from establishing starters is what is worrying me and I'm sure others. With the magnitude of the switches (only one out of five where we thought they would be, per Hoke, plus guys switching positions to boot) coupled with the disaster of last year, it's easy to get the impression that things are once again not going well. Hoke, said he wanted to establish starters by week two, so I guess I'll reserve judgement until then.
August 9th, 2014 at 11:08 AM ^
It's because of the last 2 years and all the flip flopping of players, and general pathetic-ness. If we had come off a year like OSU's OL last year and lost a ton of players like they did, and we saw this story yesterday about a bunch of young guys being tried out at different places no one would bat an eye. The OL and their coach has earned a critical eye. Until they look legit on the field they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.
All that said, Nick B from mlive obviously was trying to drive clicks. How else are you judged as an online writer?
lacking a lot of experience, I would assume many would be at close to the same level and the coaches would want to take a look at a lot of possibilities to see who is developing the most. I would hope this means they are all developing and there is competition as opposed to all of them sitting around getting fat.
You also have a offensive coordinator who is new and put in a new offense in the spring and then the players had to work on it by themselves until the fall practices. I would expect the coaches would look at all options early in camp as opposed to assuming nothing has changed.
August 9th, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^
August 9th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
August 9th, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^
August 9th, 2014 at 11:38 AM ^
Twitter is the devil's work. That is all.
August 9th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^
August 9th, 2014 at 12:38 PM ^
While I agree with competition and the like in our situation, the fact we have so many (all?) positions open is a sign of how far we have to go. Many schools, including Michigan not so long ago, could name you most of their starting O-line in March.
Yeah it was obvious from the beginning that Sparty Baumgardner jumped the gun and totally misinterpreted the information. He's a STAEE grad who got rejected from Michigan and has had an agenda against the program ever since. He really wasn't interested in fact-checking that absurd report since being wrong just meant causing some panic among a few Michigan fans. Why M-Live would choose to make him their Michigan football writer is anyone's guess.
Seauxxx...the conclusion we can draw is that Hoke has a top 8 of Cole, Magnuson, Miller, Glasgow, Dawson, Braden, highly probably Kalis, and one of Bosch/Bars to round things out.
Is that so far off from what we were expecting?
I just listened to the presser at Mgoblue. I see no reason to turn my pessimism around. Hoke did say that Mags was at LG for "a little bit" today.
But the general theme of the conference was an effort to be more open, I thought. He named his top receivers (no surprises, although Freddy was listed last: Funch, Amara, Jehu, Fleet, and Freddy, in that order, I think - I'm not going back to listen but unless I'm missing someone, I think that was the order). He talked earlier about impact freshmen and mentioned Freddy and Mason Cole and Mone.
My takeaways:
1) If anything, that OL lineup was slightly more significant than just the usual "first day, random lineup" idea which, in itself, is enough to cause me pessimism. I'm not claiming that OL lineup is what it's going to be vs App State or ND, not by any means. I'm just saying that the flux and position changes there seem to me to be real, and that's not a good sign at all.
2) The lack of Peppers being mentioned, along with Jarrod Wilson saying that Peppers was 'working hard,' makes me think that he might not be that much of an impact guy this year. Hope I'm wrong; little evidence to go on; etc.
3) Mason Cole is getting a lot of praise. Maybe just a motivational tactic. Maybe not.
you want so you can panic. You are ignoring the very words you type such as "a little bit". He has also said he plans on bringing Peppers alone slowing and doesn't want him destroyed by high expectations. I would expect him to try to minimize the expected contribution expected by Peppers. He is a freshman and he has a lot to learn.
Obviously you want to panic so have fun.
Ah, ok, I couldn't hear the question. Glad we have a transcript up now. EDIT: I just took a look at the transcript, and I don't see the questioner mention that he's only talking about guys who were there at spring practice. Maybe Brady's just interpreting it that way?
I agree, Hoke seems to really like Cole. We'll see. There always seems to be someone who gets unwarranted pre-season hype and then gets no playing time, so who knows?
I've been a Hoke supporter since The Process. I still think there's a good chance he'll turn things around this season. But this OL position flux bothers me.
@BlueCube, If you have a positive interpretation of this, let me know. I'm not ignoring "a little bit" in regards to Magnuson. I'm saying that even "a little bit" is enough to annoy me and certainly not enough to allay my pessimism.