TheWolverine.com takes a look at WR situation
TheWolverine.com (Rivals) offers up a free article to read concerning our WR situation. One of the more telling parts is offered here:
Under Brady Hoke, San Diego State started in a three-wide formation just four times in 2010, utilizing multiple tight ends four times and a traditional fullback four times. Only two wide receivers, meanwhile, caught more than 30 balls - Vincent Brown had a team-high 69 catches and DeMarco Sampson had 67 grabs.
The article seems to spell doom for our slot ninjas, but offers hope that Hoke and Borges will realize the talent we have and adapt. However, they hint that anything beyond a 3 WR set is not likely.
The rest is just kind of fluff and the only real new infomation (at least to me) was the quote I've already provided.
This may also be why we cooled on many of the WRs in this class. Plus, as it turns out we've got more interest from some defensive players that originally we were unaware of as the MGoBlogosphere
Aricle here: http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1181354
January 27th, 2011 at 12:24 AM ^
Our WR's are some of our best athletes, if they are smart they will realize these guys need the balls in their hands more than our RB's at this stage.
January 27th, 2011 at 12:35 AM ^
I mean that's 33% of games they started out in 3-wide. Considering we don't have a traditional fullback, and we have way better talent at WR than TE, my guess is you'll see something like...
Denard/Shaw/Koger/Stonum/Hemingway/Roundtree
With a slim possibility of
Denard/Shaw/Hopkins/Koger/Stonum/Hemingway
Can't see how Hoke/Borges give Martell Webb or John McColgan the start over Roy Roundtree, Junior Hemingway, or Darryl Stonum.
January 27th, 2011 at 12:48 AM ^
Webb is gone.
January 27th, 2011 at 3:22 AM ^
You can just insert Brandon Moore in place of Webb.
January 27th, 2011 at 8:52 AM ^
He's probably a more athletic receiving threat, anyway
January 27th, 2011 at 10:56 AM ^
Honestly, I was never too impressed with Roundtree. Good route-runner, decent athleticism, but I feel like Odoms has better hands, MUCH better speed, and is more elusive. If healthy, I'm hoping to see Odoms at WR.
I know Roundtree has been our most productive guy, but I feel like he was a huge beneficiary of Denard's running ability.
January 27th, 2011 at 11:30 AM ^
For some reason I thought Shaw was out of eligibility. Glad to see he has another year left.
January 27th, 2011 at 12:44 AM ^
people forget that coaches don't let talent sit the bench, Rich Rod didn't and Hoke won't. These types of statements are usually big overstatements, 2008 was merely a case of not having talent as much as not having the right guys. 2011 we have plenty of talent and my guess is that it will be used fairly well.
January 27th, 2011 at 12:59 AM ^
"people forget that coaches don't let talent sit the bench, Rich Rod didn't"
Except for Kenny Demens (Obi Ezeh started for first half of 2010), Tate Forcier (Devin Gardner played vs. WMU because of the spat between TF and the coaches), and all the running backs not named Vincent Smith (3rd and 2? Srsly?). Not to mention the Craig Roh as linebacker debacle and forcing Mike Martin to constantly fight through double teams because of the 3-man front. RR was not a good manager of the talent on his roster.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:27 AM ^
I think you mean Connecticut for Tate, not Western. But your point is still valid, Rodriguez did have a habit of making mystifying choices when it came to people playing.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:57 AM ^
Or what about playing McGuffie ahead of Brandon Minor for much of 2008?
January 27th, 2011 at 6:16 AM ^
Like the rest of us, he just wanted to see this at least once:
January 27th, 2011 at 9:36 AM ^
I love Sam. He had a pretty good season at Rice this last year.
January 27th, 2011 at 2:06 PM ^
So did Demi Moore.
January 27th, 2011 at 11:22 AM ^
Minor was injured much of 2008. He played when he got healthy. They tried putting him in before that and he fumbled something like once every five carries.
January 27th, 2011 at 3:26 AM ^
It might have been the lack of depth, but his redshirting practices always puzzled me.
It is a real bummer to know that we might have burned DG's redshirt just so that they could prove a point to Tate. I really hope DG gets that medical redshirt.
January 27th, 2011 at 6:19 AM ^
We did only have three QBs on the roster last year. Given the missing-time-in-games history of both Tate and Denard, it's fortunate that the medical redshirt is even a possibility for Gardner.
January 27th, 2011 at 6:40 AM ^
In SDSU's bowl game against Navy they started the game with 5 wideouts in. Maybe not the first play but during the first drive.
January 27th, 2011 at 8:35 AM ^
works for a guy like RR who runs a very specific offense and isn't very flexible (although he is successful). We have to assume Hoke is flexible, since he wants Denard and will use slot WR's more because our talent pool > SDSU.
January 27th, 2011 at 8:54 AM ^
the starting formation. I would be interested to see the numbers on the whole game and season.
January 27th, 2011 at 9:00 AM ^
Borges has been doing this for awhile now, and as he said in his interview, he believe he will put the best schemes in for this team.
January 27th, 2011 at 12:20 PM ^
the idea of getting slot receivers in space and let them do their thing never seemed to materialize. I struggle remembering more than two plays from our receivers where they seemed to add any significant YAC due to any ninja-y skills (Stonum screen play and Hemingway double juke). They got in space, esp this year (thank you Denard) but they never broke anything on there own. Any attempts to get them the ball with plays such as reverses usually ended up in lost yardage. The bubble screen was never as effective as it should have been because the slots lack of ability to add any real YAC.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^
Well Borges has certainly worked with plenty of 3 WR sets being a WCO guy. Maybe not at SDSU, but its not like he's incapable of incorporating an extra WR or 2.
Bottom line, Roundtree,Stonum,Hemingway and Odoms need to be on the field, a lot. 3 of them should be on the field most plays. Next year when the last 3 plus Grady graduate, we can go a little less WR heavy.
I still like the theory that Cam is going back to WR. He'd probably start next to Roundtree next year. Perfect fit in the WCO and his ceiling is only so high on defense. We have WLBs to replace him, especially with us going LB heavy in this class. I'm not sold on guys like Jackson,Stokes and co. taking over as starters. We'll see I guess, but I think Cam makes a lot of sense. I stole this idea from an Mgoblog diary, so I'm not trying to pass it off as my own, but I definitely agree. LB has been overrecruited, WR underrecruited and Cam is more RR LB than Hoke LB
January 27th, 2011 at 3:42 PM ^
Well Hoke and staff just got a commitment from Antonio Poole and he is practically identical to Cameron Gordon in terms of size. So RR LB and Hoke LB might not be such a big deal.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:43 PM ^
The ideas of Grady to DB and GAllon to RB in the above article make some sense too. Grady won't see the field much and he's a senior. If he can play some CB, we might be able to use the depth, in the least to RS an extra freshman. Gallon is a guy you have to use. He's a playmaker. Let him return punts and do some Percy Harvin type stuff. Hope that T.Robinson and/or Dileo transfers, Vincent Smith too. Stokes might want to think about it even given that he is a junior and won't start til next year at earliest
January 27th, 2011 at 2:07 PM ^
but I can't think of a single instance where Gallon showed that he was a playmaker. All I can remember is fumbles on special teams. Maybe he showed it in practice for RR to keep showing faith in him but certainly not on game days. Or maybe RR was too focused on offense to worry about special teams (and defense).
January 27th, 2011 at 4:54 PM ^
FRESHMAN
January 27th, 2011 at 2:05 PM ^
Who cares about what they "started" in. You know what that means? What they ran their first play.
And are our slot guys really ninjas?