Sweet Denard run from today's practice
Don't think I can embed it, sorry.
http://ow.ly/1rEB0
But as always with practice highlights, there's the caveat - is it a great play by the offense, or a bad one by the defense?
It looked like some pretty terrible tackling..
Pretty sure they're trying not to hurt him... Hawthorne? (#7) doesn't extend his arms and whiffs. Others have a shot but it looks like they're just trying to stop forward progress rather than bring him down.
I agree, but I wonder how much of that is the tacklers not going all out to avoid hurting him.
yeah that was probably more the Defenses fault, but still nice to see Denard scores tds
non-tackle, no-flag flag football play EVER
That was the most horrendous tackling I've ever seen. At least the players were in position, I guess...
or, the defence is being a bit careful not to hurt the qb. rr has referred to this in a recent interview iirc.
or, great running
or, horrendous tackling
I'm going to go ahead and vote God Awful tackling, WOW!
March 27th, 2010 at 10:33 PM ^
I'm going to go ahead and vote, on the combination Super Denard & Taking it easy on the QB's so they have the chance to get hurt.
No one wrapped up.
Although I doubt anyone was really trying to nail Denard, Hawthorne looked pretty indecisive there.
Edit: After watching a second time, it looked like they were going out of their way not to tackle him. This was likely just an opportunity to get Denard some reps against an actual defensive set without having a chance of getting injured.
Good lord, that is THE worst tackling I've ever seen.
Hawthorne anf Jones (I think?) looked pretty bad on that play, lets hope that was one play and not at all indicative of their overall tackling ability.
Wow, here's to hoping they were turtling intentionally.
From experience, when you've got a clear shot at a QB during practice, your priority tends to be "don't hurt the QB" rather than "make the tackle."
On the plus side, I couldn't see from the camera angle, but it looked like he was running the zone read, which would be really nice.
March 27th, 2010 at 10:28 PM ^
I like turtles.
My guess is that tackling looked so bad because they weren't trying to tackle.
Denard ran the zone read!
How do you know? Seriously - not trying to be a jerk - really interested in how to identify what was going on.
It's a designed quarterback run where he reads the defensive end. If you look closely, he puts the ball in the HB's belly and pulls it out to run the opposite way. On this play, the basis of RR's offense, either the HB or the QB can run depending on how everything plays out. With the camera angle, I have a tough time telling if he made the right read.
Thanks - that makes sense. I guess the difference is that last year he wasn't doing any reading - just running.
That play was a variation of the zone read. I call it Q with the QB faking the read to the RB, and following the pulling tackle to that side. Its a called play whereas the normal read would have the RB following the puller.
to not follow through with the hit -- especially against QBs. Sweet run, but one that the D will stop in the Spring Game, when they're tackling.
a bit of excessive celebration for my taste given that the guys were clearly not trying to take him down too hard / hurt him, which is why he scored...
But... prior to him breaking through that pile, looked like a really nice play!
let them have fun with teammates.....
All business every moment of every day, waking or sleeping.
On a more serious note, those who are anti-antics might want to re-watch the OLETDOIT! UnderArmour footage; there's likely to be some serious celebrating this year, and probably for things like overthrows as well as PBU and INTs.
Are you implying Boubacar was ahead of his time? Cissoko's celebrating rankled a few fans round these parts.
That's because he routinely celebrated giving up a five yard completion.
There were many recruits in attendance. Personally, I'm happy they were having a good time out there.
Denard Robinson can control tacklers with his thoughts.
that was just ugly defensively.
I wish I had not seen that...
that's definitely the second string defense. Patterson, Leach, Fitzgerald, James Rogers, etc. were all in the picture. And that was the worst camera angle for watching a football play ever.
A very ordinary run through some atrocious tackling. Here's to agreeing with the hope of this thread, that the lack of tackling was due to a hesitancy to hit the QB.
Hawthorne definitely looked awful in this play, but it's tough to judge because even though the quarterback is live, you know the coaches tell the players they're not allowed to pop them. So I'm sure they are pulling up and just trying to arm tackle.
but still Denard = wild gazelle.
It's easy for the defense to look "awful" or "ugly" when they are intentionally not trying to knock Denards lights out or cause any sort of unnecessary injury to another player. Especially the QB.
You can see Hawthorne could have easily stopped Denard but intentionally avoided the hit and take down. James Rogers also could have hit with full force but instead gives a little push as to make sure not to hurt Denard with a big hit.
It has been reported elsewhere that Devin is the only one allowed to get tackled as of now. Of course it will look awful if they are doing whatever they can not to touch the guy.
I find that hard to believe unless Denard/Tate are injured. You usually don't have different rules for different string QBs until you get to the practice string and it benifits the D. Can u link one of these "elsewhere" places thats saying this?
I would, but it is $ info. The just mentioned that Devin is the only one allowed to go the non 2 hand touch route for now. Didn't explain why. I can see it at the beginning of spring though, I wouldn't want to take the chance and get my two QB's most likely to play hurt so early. I would hope by the end of spring they let them take the gloves off a little though. I see your point too. Just something I read on a premium site. It did look like Hawthorne went in the fetal position when Denard went by though, so it may be the case. Denard isn't the most physically imposing guy in the world to worry about getting trucked.
is it from rivals or scout?
Devin is in fact the only QB going "live" so he can get used to getting hit. Tate and Denard are off limits.
No offense if any of their family or friends read this blog, but the D should just beat the shit out of Furrha and Kennedy for now.
The fact that this practice run is making anyone excited is clearly a result of a bad basketball season and two terrible football seasons. Of course he would have been tackled in a normal situation! It's practice. They are practicing. And, really? We're talking about practice?
I wish we could talk about UofM playing in the tourney or how we handed it to little brother the last two years in football. Not being one to give a shit about NBA, NHL or MLB, I'm going to go insane waiting for RR to get his team on the field and apologize for the last two seasons by winning...decisively.
How about a certain punt return vs. the Buckeyes in 1997
A +1 for the thoughtfulness, but our current state of affairs only stings more given the glory of our past.
March 27th, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^
The fact that this practice run is making anyone excited is clearly a result of a bad basketball season and two terrible football seasons.
No, this happens every spring (no matter how the previous season went). Football withdrawl kicks in and we crave whatever shreds of info we can get.
March 27th, 2010 at 10:29 PM ^
from what i saw and heard thursday they have quite a few restrictions on how they tackle...coach gibson turned around and told our group they were not allowed to "ground tackle" at all this spring...you tell me because i have no idea what that meant, yet i kept hearing it...one of the sophomores laid the wood to one of the wide outs and got his ass chewed by gerg for doing it(and this is no shit - gerg told him "you stand there and think about what you did"...thats all he said - while the other d-coords came unglued on this kid)..anyways, denard looked great thursday...part of me(and i'm no one) thinks rr is gonna have his "pat white" pretty soon...and denard got a majority of snaps as well - no idea exactly why...
March 27th, 2010 at 11:12 PM ^
ground tackle = chop blocks maybe? I know Kelly isn't letting any ND players use chop blocks, both because of the injury risk but also because he wants them working on their technique.
March 27th, 2010 at 11:03 PM ^
I'm disappointed that the organizers of mgoblue.com, after being fed all of that day's film, called this the play of the day.
Hopefully, that's meaningless. Because if it's meaningful, then ... yeesh.
March 28th, 2010 at 12:16 AM ^
It's the first week of spring practice what do you expect
One of M all time clips. Desmond and AC too.